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At five years old, Brian Cuevas immigrated from Mexico to Phoenix, Arizona. Within a few years of settling in the new country, he and his family experienced a crisis that not only exposed him to law but showed him a career that he’d spend the rest of his life pursuing.
“When I was about 10, my mom ran into immigration issues and was facing deportation,” Cuevas calls. “During that crisis, we got an immigration attorney to help my mom navigate these legal issues, stop her deportation, and clear a path for her to attain citizenship. Most importantly, they helped keep our family together. Seeing how an attorney helped my family is what really opened my eyes.”
Cuevas initially considered following in that attorney’s footsteps to practice immigration law. While attending the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University, he served as a legal extern for the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona, where he worked on prisoner constitutional rights matters. He also interned for the Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project, assisting with asylum and refugee cases for minors escaping gang violence and instability in Central America.
While those experiences were fulfilling, they only lent themselves to one part of his character. He was also drawn to practice areas he hadn’t considered before law school, such as civil litigation. To gain exposure to these new practice areas, he joined Jones, Skelton & Hochuli in September 2019 after serving as a summer associate for the firm a year prior.
While the world faced a burgeoning pandemic, Cuevas was not only forced to learn the ropes at a large civil insurance defense firm but to do much of the learning on his own.
“Once we got the COVID order, everyone was working from home, and it took a bit to get used to Zoom and doing virtual interactions,” he says. “I had to be self-sufficient. I couldn’t bug someone in the office, as we all were working from home. I relied on my training and being my own assistant, in a sense. The firm threw associates in the fire, which is beneficial, because it forces you to figure yourself out quickly and efficiently.”
One thing Cuevas figured out about himself was the kind of leader he wanted to be. Just as one of his mentors would give him the space to discover lessons on his own, Cuevas would go on to emulate that leadership style later in his career. He also identified one of his greatest strengths as an attorney—client communication.
“One of the most important parts of the job that’s not emphasized enough is how to talk to a client, deliver a message, and manage expectations,” Cuevas says. “We don’t want clients to be surprised. And you have to recognize how to speak different ways to different clients, because not every client has the same cultural background and education.”
After almost three years at Jones, Skelton & Hochuli and nearly two years at Rose Law Group, Cuevas was ready for a change. He wanted a role that allowed him to spend more time with his family and to do more charitable and community work, similar to what he did in law school. That’s when he came across U-Haul.
“They were doing trucking and transportation work, which is what I actually did at Jones, Skelton & Hochuli,” he says. “But this time, instead of being the lawyer defending the client in court, I’d be the client being defended. It’s a full-circle moment.”
Cuevas currently serves as an assistant general counsel and is part of a legal team of about 20 lawyers that support the U-Haul enterprise. His group focuses on more serious and fatal matters. He manages lawsuits and claims in those categories while providing general legal services to certain regions in the US and Canada. He loves it.
“U-Haul is a great legal challenge, and it’s just fun being an in-house attorney,” Cuevas says. “I can be more proactive in my job, stopping problems before they happen, and making recommended changes to policy to avoid future issues. I also like providing advice to store workers in my assigned region, which has a direct and tangible impact on people and our customers.”
Cuevas also served on the board of directors for Los Abogados, Arizona’s Hispanic Bar Association, from 2021 to 2023, where he chaired the civil rights committee. Both as a member and director, Cuevas helped organize multiple know-your-rights presentations and citizenship fairs to help qualified individuals apply for US citizenship. This is among his proudest achievements yet. Cuevas continues to seek opportunities to give back to the community that raised him.
As a leader, Cuevas believes people do their best work when you give them space.
“Several of my paralegals have been in U-Haul’s legal department longer than I’ve been a lawyer. I’m not going to walk in and say, ‘Change this,’” he shares. “My job is to adapt to my environment and my support staff and outside counsel, not the other way around. My colleagues and I can always meet in the middle if something isn’t working, but otherwise, you put on your best job, and I’ll put on my best job.”
Young attorneys seeking success shouldn’t be afraid to ask for help, Cuevas advises.
“I was a trailblazer in my family and had to figure out how to get where I am. I didn’t have a path. I made it by relying on and talking to people I built relationships with,” Cuevas says. “Someone like me and others who do this work are more than happy to help give back. We’ve been in your position, and if we can help others like us and prevent them from going through what we went through, we’ll do that.”
U-Haul International provides legal support to its companies and dealers across the United States and Canada. Shook, Hardy & Bacon Partner Colin Kelly has been part of UHI’s national counsel outside team for a decade. Colin has closely partnered with Assistant General Counsel Brian Cuevas who has quickly learned business priorities and developed internal company relationships with the end goal of superior customer service and mitigating risks and costs. Brian and Colin have built a foundation of trust due to his success and leadership overseeing litigation and stakeholders in North America.
