Miriam Soler Ramos

Miriam Soler Ramos is a real estate attorney in Holland & Knight's Miami office. Ms. Ramos focuses her practice on land use and zoning, administrative law, procurement, state and local government ethics compliance and defense, and internal investigations. She has practiced for more than 20 years in government, including nine in local government ethics and eight in municipal government. Ms. Ramos is Board Certified by The Florida Bar in City, County and Local Government Law.

Ms. Ramos provides advice and legal services to developers, property owners, bidders and proposers, elected and appointed officials, and lobbyists so that they can accomplish their business and governmental goals efficiently and effectively. She is intimately familiar with the processes required in seeking a variety of government approvals such as the designation/non-designation of a historic property, the seeking of variances, zoning and land use changes, representation in code enforcement and construction regulation matters and hearings, and state and local government ethics compliance and defense. She also has in-depth knowledge of the competitive bidding process to obtain government contracts and how to navigate through bid protests that may arise. In addition, she is well-versed in conducting internal investigations.

Prior to joining Holland & Knight, Ms. Ramos served as city attorney for the City of Coral Gables, Florida, serving as the chief legal officer and general counsel for the city, as well as counsel to the city commission, quasi-judicial boards, city officials and city departments, providing legal opinions and interpretations on behalf of the city and supervising the city attorney's office and outside counsel. 

Previously, Ms. Ramos served as the deputy city attorney and city prosecutor, where she worked closely with the city clerk and the city attorney. Additionally, she advised the city commission and city departments on agenda items and upcoming projects. As the city prosecutor, she prosecuted cases before the Code Enforcement Board, oversaw the city's police legal advisors and supervised the Justice Advocate Program. She also served as counsel to the Historic Preservation Board and the Forfeiture Asset Fund Committee, as well as oversaw outside counsel along with the city attorney and issued legal opinions interpreting the city code.

During her time with the City of Coral Gables, Ms. Ramos served on the City Attorney Committee of the Miami-Dade County League of Cities and participated in scores of panels discussing various local government topics. In addition, she provided ethics training to elected and appointed officials throughout the county.

Before joining the city, Ms. Ramos served as deputy general counsel and deputy advocate for the Miami-Dade County Commission on Ethics and Public Trust (COE). During her tenure at the COE, she participated in numerous panel discussions, provided training and appeared on radio and television programs discussing ethics in government. Notably, she was invited by the U.S. Department of State to speak on corruption-fighting initiatives. Ms. Ramos led the drafting and issuing of many ethics inquiries and opinions. She also led prosecutions for violations of the Miami-Dade County ethics code and other ordinances under its jurisdiction.

Ms. Ramos began her career as an assistant state attorney in Miami-Dade County. During her time as a prosecutor, she served in the career criminal unit as well as the domestic crimes unit. Her time at the state attorney's office allowed her to gain invaluable trial experience while representing the citizens of Florida.

While in law school, Ms. Ramos was a founding member of the Citizens' Health Rights Education Project at the Center for Ethics and Public Service.