She chased the American Dream – and found a new career
Becoming a sports attorney was not a childhood dream. Chasing the “American Dream” was my full-time job as a child, but one thing led to another, and I was fortunate enough to become a sports attorney at a prestigious NYC law firm.
From the moment my sisters and I arrived in the U.S., we were in constant need of legal services. So, from a very young age I understood the value of a legal education. I moved to New York from Venezuela when I was twelve years old. When we arrived, my mom sought a school that would help us with our student visas. My mom did not speak English, and, at the time, I was able to count the words I spoke in broken English on one hand. Eventually, we found the right school and a distant uncle who lived in New Jersey helped us with the paperwork. I engaged with the process and learned a lot.
Five years later, my parents and the rest of my siblings immigrated to the U.S. through my father’s sponsorship. With the help of another distant uncle, I took care of the legal documentation.
As I started college, the thought of becoming a lawyer stayed with me. With my parents’ help, my younger sister and I opened a learning center before we graduated from college. Our goal was to help our community and the many children whose parents, like ours, did not speak English. We believed that excelling academically was the best way to get ahead. Just as important, we hoped to teach children to be well-rounded and to expose them to extracurricular activities. At the learning center, we often needed help reviewing contracts. A lawyer would have been helpful, but our small business could not afford it. So, I did the work to the best of my abilities.
As the business stabilized, I felt the need to be further challenged. My sister was finishing her master’s in education from an Ivy League university, and I too yearned to go back to school. After all, as the older sibling, I did not want to be left behind!
Three years in law school flew by. I worked full time at the learning center, was a legal writing assistant, joined a clinic, published an article, and earned a fellowship. I wanted to do it all, and I did it all. I worked as a summer associate at Herrick and realized that being an attorney was my passion. After graduating law school, I left the family business in good hands and joined Herrick full-time where I gravitated towards the most fun and challenging corporate matters, and to me, that was sports law.
