Her Story
About Alicia
I'm a second-generation attorney from a family of lawyers. I initially wanted to go to culinary school, but we had two options - become a doctor or a lawyer. I was that child who had to argue everything, debate everything, and negotiate everything, even my timeouts and punishments, so becoming a lawyer was natural. My brother became a plastic surgeon, so we broke norms because they expected the woman to become the doctor. I very much identify with my father, so I took the lawyer route. I started as a legal assistant at the state attorney's office in Miami and worked my way up through undergrad as a paralegal. I tutored legal classes, became a senior paralegal, went to law school, and became a CLI (certified legal intern) working under attorney supervision. After working for everyone else and setting up their law firms, working for the government and military full-time, I decided it was time to start my own law firm. Now I wear two hats - running my private practice and serving part-time as a military attorney. My typical day includes immigration court in the morning, USCIS interviews, consultations with new clients, managing my paralegals and marketing team, handling military duties and helping soldiers with legal issues, and tutoring at-risk law students for the bar in the evenings.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Alicia
01What do you attribute your success to?
I would say the support that I've gotten from a lot of individuals, from my mentors. I attribute my success to people like Colin, to people like Judge Laurent. They opened doors for me that have allowed me to reach my full potential. They have taken time from their day to mold me into the attorney that I am today, to make sure that I succeed in everything that I'm doing, to mentor me. They pick up the phone every time that I need to speak to someone to guide me. I attribute the vast majority of my success to those two individuals.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
Network. Just network. A lot of people think that the legal profession is just get good grades, be a good attorney, be a good writer. But that's only 50% of it. If you don't know the right people, you won't get far, because all of us can write, all of us can read, most of us are good litigators. But if you don't know the right person to open the right door for you, you won't make it far. Networking is 50% of this profession. You need to put yourself out there, you need to put your name out there. You need to show face, you need to show up to the events. You need to make yourself known. If not, no one will recognize you. It is easier for me, if I am hiring somebody, it's like, oh, I know this person, I've broke bread with this person before at a networking event, or I saw them at the bar event. You know, I know who they are, I've had a conversation with them over a complete stranger that you only see on paper. Network, network, network. That is the best career advice that I've gotten.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
I would say all of them are important, but also inspiring other women to take this path, to show them that it's not impossible, because we have a lot of barriers to overcome to get to this place. This is a male-dominated field, and definitely not a minority-dominated field either. So, there are a lot of obstacles that we have to face and overcome in order to be here and to be successful in this field. Showing other women that it is possible, showing other minority women that we can do this, I think it's important to inspire and to motivate.
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