“I consider legal practice as part of the service industry just like food, retail, construction, and other fields. This means that a crucial lawyering skill is being able to connect with people to best meet their needs and demands. Fortunately, I have worked in fast food, restaurants, retail stores, and masonry construction to help me develop the “service” skills necessary for lawyering. While I developed service skills working these jobs, my interest for the law began long before I was able to work. My legal ambitions are the culmination of life-long experiences in various aspects of the law. My interest in the law started when I was a child. As the only bilingual family member (at the time), I translated every possible thing from English to Spanish for my family. Those experiences exposed me to the law in various ways. For example, I learned aspects of business law and the basics of contract law when interpreting bank or insurance documents for my parents. I was first exposed to the state regulatory regime when I had to interpret for my parents at the DMV and later when I helped a family member register his own LLC. Then I learned the complexities of the immigration system when I translated immigration documents for an extended family member. That immigration experience proved helpful when I became eligible for a work permit myself as I navigated the system on my own. In college, I continued to engage with immigration law by volunteering with the local legal aid clinic to assist refugees apply for naturalization or residency. I was also exposed to the interplay between law and politics as a research assistant for a professor studying U.S. drug law and policy. Researching nationwide drug approaches exposed me to prominent legal themes like federalism, preemption, and probable cause before I understood the importance of those principles in legal practice. I took advantage of courses covering specialized areas of the law like American Indian law, obscenity law, and international law to broaden my knowledge in any and all legal area available. Working as a File Clerk in an employment law firm in college solidified my intent to pursue a legal career. There, I was once again the only bilingual person. This meant I was the contact point for all Spanish-speaking clients, which required me to have a deep understanding of their case and a trusting relationship with the attorneys as I had to interpret the law to Spanish for clients and translate the client’s Spanish response to English for the attorney. As the firm was small, I also did paralegal tasks – getting just a taste for what being a lawyer was like. The logical next step was for me to take years’ worth of legal exposure and apply it to a legal education.”