We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Camyla Hernandez-Meneses a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Camyla thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

My mission started in 1999 when my parents made the difficult decision to immigrate to the United States with no family, no money, and 2-year-old me in their arms. My parents left Venezuela with 3 Ph.D.’s between the two of them. A lawyer and a dentist with his own practice but arrived here to clean gyms, hotels, and houses and to sell flowers, wrap gifts, and every job imaginable that they could as immigrants. I watched my parents come home exhausted day in and day out while they saved up to help our little family. Our path to citizenship was accompanied by many failures in the form of stolen money, attorneys that took advantage of our lack of status and the language barrier, and employment opportunities closed in my parent’s faces because of their status. Through all the adversity my parents faced, they pushed forward until eventually earning citizenship status here in the United States. Once I was older and realized how truly difficult and incredible my parent’s perseverance was I realized I needed to do something to give back to them. Learning that my parents had fully established careers and lives before choosing to put it all on the line and come here to start from zero was something that I couldn’t imagine doing myself. I knew the love and dedication my parents had towards their careers from listening to them speak about their times in their professions. I knew that although my parents never forced me to go to college or to do certain things in life I knew I had to do it all because of what they did for me. My mission became making sure that my parent’s sacrifices were worth it. I wanted to pick up where my mom left off in her career as an attorney and use this career as an opportunity to help people who are where we once were. I knew I wanted to be an attorney at a young age from going to work with my mom once she began working as a paralegal. I was not sure what area of law to even practice until I learned more about our own process and the difficulties we faced that others also face and even worse. Now my mission has become using my platform as an attorney to make sure similarly situated immigrants can end up in a position like I did to become someone in the United States. I want to help ensure the immigration process is a smooth one and gives people the opportunity they deserve.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Hi! My name is Camyla Hernandez-Meneses. I am a graduate of Florida A&M College of Law, right here in Orlando, Florida. I recently passed the Florida Bar Exam and I am now working with Quintero-Fortich Law focusing on Immigration Law. I immigrated from Venezuela with my Venezuelan mom and Dominican dad in 1999. When we arrived in Florida it was just us three with no family, no connections, and no familiarity with the English language. Through these difficult times, I learned the resilience and strength immigrants display by watching my own parents leave behind their families, careers, and established lives in search of a better future for me. Both of my parents had Doctorates in their respective fields, however, came here and began working every job possible to ensure a source of income for our family. These jobs varied from cleaning gyms and hotels, selling flowers and coffee, wrapping gifts during Christmas time, and many more. I watched my parents scrape every dollar together to ensure I had everything I needed and to begin paying Immigration attorneys so that we could begin the transition to becoming citizens of the United States. From this, I learned how important it is to have a good attorney by your side through such a confusing and scary process. My path to becoming an attorney began with my mom’s journey as an attorney in Venezuela. Understanding that she left this career behind for my future I chose to pick up where she left off now in the United States. I was fueled by inspiration from my hard-working immigrant parents and my passion to help others similarly situated from having negative attorney experiences that may impact their abilities to stay here and create a better future for themselves. I came here as an immigrant and can now proudly say thanks to my parent’s hard work and support from so many of my family members still in Venezuela and the Dominican Republic, I am an attorney in the United States. I am now in a position to help ease the immigration process for people in my community.

I believe what sets me apart from others is that I lived and experienced the immigration process firsthand and have used it as my motivation and drive every day. The immigration experience coupled with having the majority of my family still living in Venezuela and the Dominican Republic keeps me grounded and close to the immigration process myself as it is an ongoing concern in my community and family as well. I watched my parents go through the difficulties of saving up enough money to hire an immigration attorney and apply that in my everyday practice by making sure the prices we set are always keeping in mind how hard a client will have to work in order to hire us. I further watched my parents experience emotional and financial disappointment at the hands of people posing as attorneys or attorneys who prioritized money over their clients. Since then I have wanted to create a safe space in the immigration community where clients can come to me and know that they will be taken care of and not taken advantage of.

I am most proud of being able to share this accomplishment with my entire family. Becoming an attorney was something I set out to do so many years ago and there were many obstacles along the way. However, my biggest motivation whenever my dreams seemed difficult and out of reach was remembering that my parents came here at 25 years of age with nothing and made an entire life for me out of that. Although my parents have never asked anything from me I wanted to make sure I made their sacrifices worth it. Being able to hear my parents and grandparents excitedly tell anyone who will listen that their daughter/granddaughter is an attorney in the United States has made this long and rigorous process worth it. I am even more proud that the area of law I get to practice is one that directly affects my community every day and allows me the opportunity to help from the inside.

Have you ever had to pivot?

A moment in life I really had to pivot was the transition from being a student-athlete to following my dreams of becoming an attorney. I had the opportunity to wrestle in College after wrestling in high school. At the collegiate level being an athlete usually becomes your entire life. You eat, sleep, and breathe your sport and nothing else. I was completely surrounded by people who were also in the same sport and were as indulged or more into being 100% dedicated to their athletic career. I had spent all my life saying I wanted to be an attorney but realized in college the line between athlete and my future began to blur. It’s easy to begin to focus only on your sport and not even realize before you’re in too deep. Before you know it your grades are slipping, you’re missing classes, homework assignments are passing by, and you lose priorities. In my junior year, I realized my hopes of being an attorney seemed to be slipping as I had not even started looking for a law school. I had not even thought about taking the LSAT or began studying. I had put becoming an attorney on the back burner unintentionally. Thankfully something awakened in me that made me realize it was time to pivot. It was essential that I pivot away from being a full-time athlete and begin thinking about my career. Being a wrestler will always be a part of my identity but it was not something that would pay the bills or have longevity in my life. Being an attorney was my dream, my mission, and my “why” in life. Once I realized it was time to pivot I immediately found my drive again. I began studying for the LSAT, I started researching schools, and I made my list of what I needed to get done in order to get to where I dreamed of being. Had I not realized at that moment I was losing sight of my dream I would likely not have made it to where I am today. Making this extremely difficult choice to pivot away from something that had become a large part of my identity helped me find another part of me I had let slip away.

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?

The most effective strategy has been word of mouth for sure. One of the greatest blessings for me has been the amount of support my family has given me throughout not only the journey to become an attorney but now after as well. My mom and dad are truly my number one supporters and this has led me to realize how much word of mouth helps my career. I am consistently receiving calls and texts from potential clients letting me know a very proud parent handed them my contact information. Its always a little funny and embarrassing but I am so grateful for the amount of support I receive from my family in making sure they put my name out there and let clients know that I love what I do and will make sure we take care of them. Word of mouth has also been very effective from existing clients as we make sure that they receive the best experience with us and in doing so they continue to recommend us to other clients.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://qflegal.com
• Instagram: Camylalaw
• Linkedin: Camyla Hernández-Meneses
• Other: TikTok: Camylalaw