We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Ed Vega. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Ed below.

Hi Ed, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear about the things you feel your parents did right and how those things have impacted your career and life.

I grew up in Hoboken, New Jersey, as a first generation American. At home for the first years of my life I was raised by my grandmother while my parents worked. My grandmother probably knew only 5-10 English words, so we spoke Spanish at home. One of the things that my mother did right was teach me how to read and teach me English from a very young age. I can still remember her showing me how to read a small Thomas the Tank Engine booklet when I was three years old. Knowing how to read and knowing how to switch from English to Spanish on the fly put me ahead of my peers in my formative years. As I grew up, I used to read little Spanish cowboy novels my dad would collect. He was from the wine province in Argentina, so he was very fond of the “Old West” since it felt like a slice of home. This helped me push my Spanish skills beyond that of a “no sabo” kid.

Today, I mostly deal with Spanish speaking clients from all over the Americas. I would not be able to do this job if it weren’t for my parents’ efforts in retaining our language and culture. At the same time, I was not placed in ESL classes or left behind due to a lack of English skills at school.

Ed, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I’m and Immigration Lawyer and I mostly do family based immigration cases along with plenty of removal defense cases where people are fighting for their residency and future in the U.S. in front of an Immigration Judge. I think what sets us apart from other lawyers is that we’re very approachable and our clients get to speak to the attorneys at our firm frequently. We are very service oriented so you get the best of both worlds: years of experience, and personalized service with each case.

I got into this because of my wife, she said that one of my core strengths was that I was born in the U.S. but have native Spanish fluency, and we need lawyers with those skills. Apart from that, I’m very tech savvy so I’ve managed to find a few ingenious ways to demonstrate physical presence in the U.S. with geotags on pictures, check-ins on Google Maps and other tools many people didn’t know they had on their phones. I remember one case in particular where our client had no proof of physical presence so I asked her if she had any old photos on her phone and we were able to demonstrate that she was here in 2012 and she took photos while in Florida.

What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?

Immigration law is a tricky field with pretty unconventional sources of clients. As with any law firm, word of mouth is key, but with immigration law, we have a lot of pastors, priests, deacons, nuns, and other religious folks bringing members of their congregation who need help. We also have consultations where people bring their bosses who have never had any experience for the immigration system. Opening their eyes to the struggles of our clients is a pretty unique experience in this field.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

Throughout my entire life I’ve always had a hard time delegating tasks and have always felt the need to do everything myself. I’ve always been the: “if you need something done, you gotta do it yourself” type and that has persisted throughout school, college, law school and my professional life.

Once I began marketing my own firm, I created my social media presence and started looking for a team to hire to help me run my social media campaigns. I’m a bit of a nerd so I began learning how algorithms worked and learned how to edit videos and create covers for my posts. However, although I’m creative, I have little to no art skills, so my posts looked very basic. I’m still learning how to work with my team, feed them content, and ask for what I’m looking for. At times I want to scrap it and say “I’d rather do it myself” but I know I need to trust the process and trust those with more experience with marketing.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.immigrationlawyers.com
• Instagram: inmigracion305
• Facebook: Immigration Lawyers Lovo & Vega, PLLC
• Linkedin: EJVega22
• Twitter: EJVega22
• Tiktok: inmigracion305

Image Credits
Veronica Gutierrez – @veropictures_