Enrique Latoison is the founder of Latoison Law in Media, PA. He represents various legal entities, including individuals, their families, and businesses.
His firm practices in criminal defense, landlord tenant issues, deed transfers, and license restoration, according to its website.
Latoison graduated from Strath Haven in 1992, Delaware County Community College and University of Pennsylvania in 2001, and Temple Law in 2004.
“I was born and raised in Chester. I was very poor, and we were bussed to Strath Haven,” Latoison said. “And so, by the time I was graduating high school at age 18, I was just looking to get a job. I wasn’t planning on going to college, I wasn’t planning on doing anything.”
At the time, Chester had many high school dropouts. Therefore, he aimed to get through high school and find a job.
“I was only concentrating on, as soon as I get out of school, I can just work full time, and I can use that money,” he said.
Latoison had a hearing impairment and made it through high school without taking the SATs.
“I graduated from Strath Haven,” Latoison said. “I didn’t take the SATs, and I wasn’t going to college… I wear hearing aids. I was in the Intermediate Unit Program with straight A’s in high school.”
The Intermediate Unit Program allows students with hearing impairments in Delaware County to be bused to Strath Haven and Swarthmore K-8.
After a couple of years of working in a restaurant, Latoison knew that he did not enjoy his experience.
“I started realizing what my future was actually going to be if I didn’t get my education,” Latoison said. “That’s when it kind of really started to hit me like we just have a dead-end job like working at a restaurant forever. Maybe I’m making manager one day, but whatever.”
He then decided to attend Delaware County Community College. Then, he went to the University of Pennsylvania and, finally, to Temple Law School.
But why choose a law school? Why did he want to be a lawyer?
“When I was in third grade, a kid that I did graduate with from Strath Haven… I got invited to a sleepover at his house in Swarthmore. When I went to his house, I was like, ‘Wow, like this big, beautiful stone house.’ I asked him what his dad was, and he said his dad was an attorney,” Latoison said.
He decided that he would start his own firm so he could have more flexibility.
“I worked for another attorney for a year before moving to a public defender’s office. I worked there for two and a half years,” he said. “Then, I opened my own practice because I had learned a lot in those three years, four years, and I felt very confident that I’d be able to do it and then I wanted to always work for myself.”
“I did get to see those positive things or see friends from school whose parents were successful or, just being around kids whose idea was that they were going to college,” he said. “They were going to do these things, and it opened my eyes to a lot of things, I think, definitely contributed to my success today.”
He still gets to see those people today. About five months ago, he had a 30-year reunion with many of his former classmates.
“A lot of people from our class are still real cool and stuff. It was really, really nice. It was like it’s cool seeing everybody, and it was there were a lot of people there, well over a hundred. It just looked like we were all still back in high school.”
Latoison stresses that high school does not determine your life. You can drop out or only complete high school, without attending college, and still be successful.
“Whatever you do in high school doesn’t have to determine what you do later,” he said. “I graduated, didn’t go to college [right away], didn’t take SATs, didn’t apply to college, and I’m one of the most successful people out of my class,” he said.
Latoison does not recommend failing or dropping out—however, he notes that your future may depend less on your success in high school than many believe. He believes that high school is just another step in a long life, just like elementary and middle school.
“The reality is that you have to treat it [high school] just like elementary,” he said. “You went to elementary school; you were scared about going to middle school. You go to middle school; you’re scared about going to high school. You’re going to high school, and it’s just another stage in a very long life.”
“You want to do well in school anytime regardless, and you want to do well in anything you deal with, not just school,” he said. “You want to try your best and do the best you can.”
