Today we’d like to introduce you to Camyla Hernandez-Meneses.
Hi Camyla, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
My name is Camyla Hernandez-Meneses. I graduated from Florida A&M College of Law in Orlando, Florida. I recently passed the Florida Bar Exam and 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 English. Through these difficult times, I learned the resilience and strength immigrants display by watching my 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, they 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, 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 we could start 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 for helping 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 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.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The path to becoming an attorney has not been a smooth road. There were many days when I believed I would not see the result I had hoped to achieve. During the Trump election era, I went to a small college in the midwest for undergrad, where I was one of a handful of Afro-Latinas on campus. I struggled to find my identity while dealing with constant xenophobia and racism. I was also a student-athlete who struggled to find a balance between chasing my dream to become an attorney and focusing on my sport.
Further struggles came during law school when I was only on campus for one semester before the pandemic hit, and we went online. Law school is challenging but learning to navigate it online was an entirely different challenge. Learning other legal areas while being at home also worried about my family’s health and whether or not we could go out during the pandemic was something I never expected to experience. Even after we were cleared to go back in person, things were different, and transitioning from online student to back on campus was challenging. Many of the struggles that made me feel as though my dreams were unattainable came from having awful testing anxiety. I was not a high performer on the LSAT and struggled with law school exams. During my 3L year, I failed the MPRE the first time and believed that was indicative of how I would perform on the bar and in life. All these challenges made me believe I would never be good enough to graduate and eventually pass the bar exam. Looking back, I realize all of these struggles were preparing and humbling me for the biggest challenge at the end. Through all the adversity, I was able to pass The Florida Bar exam on the first try and get straight to work in my dream field.
Thanks – so, what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I am currently an immigration attorney with Quintero-Fortich Legal. We currently specialize in immigration only. This includes asylum, employment visas, deportation cases, and more. I believe what sets me apart from others is that I lived and experienced the immigration process firsthand and have used it daily as my motivation and drive. 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 struggle to save up enough money to hire an immigration attorney. I apply that in my everyday practice by ensuring our prices always consider how hard a client will have to work 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 they will be taken care of and not taken advantage of.
I am most proud of sharing 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. Hearing 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 directly affects my community every day and allows me the opportunity to help from the inside.
Contact Info:
- Website: Qflegal.com
- Instagram: Camylalaw
- Facebook: Camyla Hernandez-Meneses
