Eduardo A. Maura lived a celibate life in a religious community in Peru before he ever thought about starting Miami firm Ayala Law.

Recruited as a teen after high school, Maura became a “consecrated layperson” in a far-right Catholic group south of Lima, similar in some ways to a monastery, led by priests who prescribed a strict exercise and studying regime. The lifestyle was ”intense,” as Maura tells it, centering around the idea of being half monk, half soldier.