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Serving Border Communities Through Law and Leadership · The Lawtino™

• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Latino Podcast where we discuss the intersection of law and our Latino communities with legal, political, and community leaders and visionaries.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: Let's get started.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_01: Hey, it's John Gomez.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome to another episode of the Latino Podcast, where we discuss the intersection of law in our Latino communities.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_01: We talk to leading lawyers, judges, community leaders, politicians, community activists about this important intersection of law in our community.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_01: Today's podcast, as always, is brought to you by your sponsor, Gomez Trial Attorneys.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_01: Gomez Trial Attorneys is a consumer rights law firm practicing personal injury, employment litigation, products liability, and mass tort.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_01: We provide the very highest level of legal representation to our clients in both the English and Spanish languages.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_01: Today we have a very special guest, one of the leading Latino consumer rights law lawyers in California, David Aregin, who really has some very unique and insightful experiences and knowledge about the things that we're going to be talking about.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_01: And so, you know, he is a leading consumer rights law lawyer.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_01: He is a real, I think, savvy marketer.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_01: You'll often see him, especially in Mexico-based Spanish language media, you know, getting out there, showing up, sharing his expertise and knowledge.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_01: He's a leader within the consumer attorneys, you know, um community, um, and um is uh just a uh a great guy with a good story that I think you'll enjoy hearing.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_01: And so uh David, thanks for being with us.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_02: Well, thank you, John, first first of all, for the invitation and for getting my last name right.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_02: You gotta roll your R's.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_02: You know how to roll your R's.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_02: Uh yeah, so again, my name's David Arigan.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_02: Uh I'm thankful for being here, and I'm happy to share my story.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_01: You know, the cool thing about David is um he's really lived a lot on both sides of our border here.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, grew up, was educated in Tijuana, came up here for college, you know, practices law down down up here.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and so when you're down there, you said I got your name right.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_01: Do they call you David or David?
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_02: Uh you know what?
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_02: It's been changing a little bit in in the last few years because a lot of family actually not call me David, but with like a D-E-I-V-ID.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, there you go.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_02: Sort of sort of like a mix.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_02: And uh yeah, some people call me David.
• 2:58
  unknown: Yes.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_01: All right.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_01: So tell us um, you know, the first kind of question I'd like to ask our guest is you know, tell us about uh your childhood, your background, how you got to be where you are today.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, no, of course.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_02: And I mean, right before the podcast, I think we were getting a little into it.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, but ultimately, uh, I grew up in Tijuana.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_02: I was born in San Diego, and uh growing up in Tijuana, I went to this great school.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_02: Uh my parents uh What's the name of that school?
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_02: It's called Instituto México, and that's a big shout-out for them because ultimately they they did forge the path of where I'm at today, uh as to how strict the school was, how good the professors were.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_02: And uh more than anything, I just want to thank my parents for you know doing the effort of sending me to this great private school, and also for you know, actually getting me some private lessons at home, which at that point I hated, and now I'm just so thankful for.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_01: And the private lessons were in the English language, right?
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_02: They were in the English language.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_02: Um again, as I was sharing just before the podcast, uh, after a full day of school, after a full day of basketball, uh on Tuesdays and Thursdays, I would have two hours of English lessons at home, adding to my you know, coursework.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_02: Uh again, at one point I would actually hide somewhere in the house just to uh avoid these classes.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_02: My mom would find me and actually drag me into the dining room to make sure that I took those lessons.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_01: Now, you told me um earlier that your dad is a dentist, your mom is a nurse.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_03: Correct, yes.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_01: And so did they, you know, we hear from some parents, hey, you know, we want you to be this, like a doctor, a lawyer.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_01: Did they have plans for you?
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_02: Uh they actually never did.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_02: Uh I always knew that I was gonna go to college in the U.S., so that was the plan.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_02: Uh my dad never pushed me as a dentist to be a dentist.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, but at one point in my first year of college, I was leaning between either law or medical school or dental school.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_02: And then at one point I realized that I did not want to study something with biology, which interestingly now, doing personal injury, I do study that, right?
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, but at that point, I did not get a push from my dad or my mom to be anything but what I wanted to be.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_01: Well, they just wanted you to do well and give you the opportunities to succeed.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_01: It sounds like um, like how good, like you were at this uh this uh school down in Tijuana, and I know a lot of your colleagues ended up here doing what you're doing, being lawyers.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, correct.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_02: So it's a bit interesting because we we get together sometimes, uh, you know, the events were like Sadio La Rosa lawyers.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_02: Uh last one that we had, we were um happy enough to actually take a photo.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_02: It was four or five of us that went to the same school, which is you know, grammar school, middle school, high school, uh ended up in the U.S.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_02: and actually going to law school here.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_02: And we are all now uh practicing attorneys.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_01: Amazing.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_01: Is it what was there like one of you that that started down that path first, and you're like, and they said, hey guys, you know, let's all do this, or how'd that happen?
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_02: Uh I think for that, uh so the the funny thing is, two of them are like the best friends of my brother, who's younger than me.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, okay.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_02: Uh one of them, she became an attorney before I did.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, but my path to law school started when I was in college.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_02: So I think I was at least from the people that I know, the first one that wanted to be a lawyer.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_02: And then I had to have a cousin uh here in uh in San Diego who uh is an attorney at Procopio.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_02: And he did follow my path after becoming an engineer first.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_02: Uh and we actually lived together at one point when I was in college.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, wow.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_01: And so you said, hey, you know, I always knew that I wanted to come up here to go to college.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_01: Where did that come from?
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_02: Uh so a lot of it I think had to do with my parents.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_02: Uh that was the plan for them, for us.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_02: It's uh I'm I'm the oldest of uh three children.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_02: Uh all of us actually went to college in the youth and the US, uh San Diego and Irvine.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_02: Uh my two brothers are engineers.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_02: I did not go that path.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_02: I did like math.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_02: I just, you know, I didn't see it for myself.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_02: Um but I think afterwards, you know, after my parents were telling me, you know, you're gonna go to the US for college, that was our always my plan.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_02: My plan was never to go to college in Mexico.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_02: And one of the other things that I have discussed with my dad, because he wanted to be a lawyer when he's young.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_02: But he wanted to be a lawyer in Mexico.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_02: When he realized that being a lawyer in Mexico is not the same as being a lawyer in the U.S.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_02: and being in the courts and actually going to trial, uh, that's when he decided to go to dental school.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_01: I got you.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_01: And so, you know, talk to us because some of our listeners may not know or recognize or appreciate.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_01: Tell us about this community that is Tijuana and San Diego, and you know how much back and forth there is, um, how close the communities are.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_01: Just and talk about you know the the need up here for Baja residents um for legal services on this side of the border.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_02: No, of course.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_02: Uh so it is a very unique culture.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_02: Uh I actually did a lot of papers on this in college uh because they call it a third culture, right?
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_02: You have the people from Tijuana, they have the people from San Diego, and then you have the people who are in between.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_02: People who commute either for high school, for college.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_02: And like myself, for example, uh, I would actually attend college, let's say Monday through Thursday.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_02: On Thursday, sometimes I would actually just drive back to Tijuana, hang out with my friends, do some other things.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_02: And then I was actually commuting on the weekends to work at either retail or restaurants while I was in college.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_02: So it is a struggle to actually cross the border.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, fortunately, I've always had sentry, which is you know a quicker pass.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_02: But still, with that, it's more of a mental challenge to actually cross the border.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_02: It's not so much the waiting time.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_02: Um, one of my focus, uh, so again, I am a personal injury lawyer, and I also focus a lot on vehicle defects and limit law.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, it's again consumer protection, right?
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, one of my niche practices is focusing on people who are this third culture, people who are border crossers, people who either commute, live in TJ, Rosarito, and Sonata.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_02: And ultimately, my goal is to educate these people about what their rights in the US are.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_02: Being from Tijuana, you grow up with all these, I call them legal myths, right?
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_02: We hear this from our grandparents, we hear this from our parents, and you realize that you grew up with that idea.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_02: Once you actually become more um accustomed to the laws in the US, and then also knowledgeable about the laws, especially after law school and practicing, you realize that you have a duty to actually communicate this information to these people that you either know or they they know other people that might be in problems, right?
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_02: Uh a lot of people they don't wanna, they they always say this.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_02: They I don't want to get in trouble by bringing a claim.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_02: And I always explain, it's not getting in trouble, it's actually fighting for your rights.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_02: The system exists for that same reason.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_02: You just gotta make your voice heard.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so that's definitely something that I'm trying to do more, especially with Instagram and you know, being on TV and the news, bringing news and and try to get rid of this uh legal myth.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_02: So that's one of my goals.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_02: We were talking about goals before the podcast again.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_02: This is one of my goals for the next uh couple of years to actually get that information out there for these people who are on both sides of the border.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_01: These legal myths.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_01: So one legal myth is look, I don't want to get in trouble by bringing a claim.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_01: Um, are there any other ones that you hear a lot?
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_02: So a lot of them have to do with uh immigration, right?
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, of course.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, despite me being a U.S.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_02: citizen, I remember when I was little and crossing the border with my parents.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_02: Um once we were in the car, they would actually shut us up and say, Hey, you're not gonna speak anything until we cross the border.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_02: And there was uh some sense of nervousness, right?
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_01: And you guys were all legit.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_02: And we were all, yeah, we were all legit, but still just crossing that border.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_02: It was a again, it is a mental challenge, despite you know, having the paperwork.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but still, and a lot of people, I mean, went through the same thing when I was younger, uh, despite having the papers.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, sure.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_01: And so, you know, um, in the year to come, you're gonna get out there and educate, you know, your community um and your neighbors and folks you know.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_01: One way you're doing it I've seen is getting on some uh Tijuana TV uh and infomercials, that kind of thing.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_01: Tell us about that.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, correct.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_02: So uh we have good partnerships in San Diego uh and some of the TV stations in Mexico.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_02: And thankfully, I've been able to, you know, get these legal news or uh just explain some legal matters in Spanish, which is very needed, especially in this area, right?
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_02: Um and the good thing about this, uh these partnerships with these TV stations is they have a broad coverage.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_02: So the TV stations actually have coverage all the way to Oceanside and maybe all the way to Rosarito.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_02: So you're targeting all these people and you're making sure that this information that you're sharing with them is getting received.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_02: And it's and and I think it's very important.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_02: Just make it making uh making lost input of that and explaining it.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_02: I'm very uh I don't have scripts, I just start talking about what I know, and I'm very casual about my conversation.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_02: No legalese.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_02: I just want to get the information out there.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_01: I love it.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_01: And so um what about you know you and you know, your your colleagues from your high school?
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_01: How about you know the next generation?
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_01: Any thought about encouraging, you know, kids like you guys to kind of follow your path?
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_01: Um tell us about anything like that.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, of course.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_02: It it doesn't have to be necessarily the legal path.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_02: Just as long as they uh, for example, myself, I started in community college.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_02: So the drop rate that I was seeing when I was in community college was was was pretty big for people from Tijuana.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_02: Uh people would come here maybe for like six months, try it out, and then ultimately they would go back to Mexico for school.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_02: Uh so if I can you know inspire the next generation of Tijuana people or Mexican city uh Mexican people coming to the US for for their studies and make sure that, let's say, if they start a community college, that I can help them actually reach the college level so they can graduate it and obtain their you know four-year or five-year undergraduate degree.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, that's that's that's something that I can you know uh that I can be proud of.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_02: Um I've been trying to do that with the people that I know, uh, letting them know how to get there.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_02: But also if I can inspire and guide people on how to get to law school, uh, I think that's gonna be even better.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_02: Uh again, law school, as you know, John, uh gives you a lot of tools.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_02: Gives you a lot of tools to understand government, gives you a lot of tools to understand politics, your civil rights.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_02: And then ultimately, you know, if you want to be a trial attorney, you're dealing with anything with civil procedure, uh, and then you know, being outspoken, being a good politic speaker.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_02: If I can help people do that from you know Tijuana, uh I'm more than happy to do that.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_01: And so when you were seeing kids, you know, come up here and then, you know, wash out or go home early, like what what are the reasons?
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_01: What what were some of the challenges you had, I guess, coming up here to go to school?
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_02: So I think one of the things is the system is very different.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, I think there's a lot of liberty.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, from what I understand, the college in Mexico, they sort of like give you the path.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_02: You already know the path.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_02: Here in the US, the college, you gotta find your own path, right?
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_02: You gotta find your own classes.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_02: You gotta register for your own classes and make sure that you're following a line of study.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, I think that was one of the challenges that people were facing.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_02: They were just spending too much time in community college and they were not able to transfer.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I think talking to a good counselor, uh, talking to some people that already went to college in the U.S., that's what I did.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_02: I started reaching out to maybe brothers of my friends who were um in college here already.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_02: I remember one particular one, his name is Namu Kuriel.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, he was the brother of my uh good friend.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_02: He was already at uh Berkeley, I believe.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_02: And ultimately he was the one that he would always get me on the phone and try to explain to me how the system worked.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_02: So one of the challenges is the system.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_02: The other is the commute.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_02: For a lot of people, it's very, very heavy.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_02: So what I would recommend is you know getting together with a couple of people, three, four, and ultimately just renting like a little, you know, dorm or like a little apartment.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_02: Uh I'm gonna get back to when I started college.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_02: I know I'm gonna deviate from the uh topic, but uh when I started college, I was living in a house with two of my brothers and four cousins.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_02: One of those cousins, he's the attorney that I was referring to at Port Copio.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_02: Uh I was already in college, two cousins were in college, and the other ones were in high school, making sure that they were, you know, getting their path right into college.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_02: Not community college, right into college.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_02: And that was one of the efforts that our parents also did for all of us.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_02: So they had us at a house, they rented the house.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_02: Uh two moms would actually uh come in every other day to you know cook for us and then attend to us.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_02: So that was a lot of dedication.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_02: Because ultimately they were still living in Mexico.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_02: So again, that is that is commitment uh that I would see for my mom, for example.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_02: And she would always be there, especially for my uh younger brother who was still in high school.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_01: That's amazing.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_01: That's uh I mean they were really committed to you know having you succeed up here.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, you know, I love the moms coming up, and that would definitely make it a lot easier and a lot more palatable.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_01: And yes, you know.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_02: Well, they still gotta check out of the kids, right?
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_02: That looked like a little frat house in Chula Vista.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_02: It's it's called Shasta Street.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_02: So shout out to Shasta Street.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_02: It's right in front of the uh of the courthouse in Chula Vista.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, okay, very good.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_02: And uh, and just a funny story on that, uh, since there were a lot of kids there, it was seven of us, right?
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_02: They would actually have cops parked outside the house because probably some of the neighbors would start calling in.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_02: It's like, hey, what's going on with this house?
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_02: There's a lot of kids.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_02: Uh but yeah, nothing wrong was going on, and we were just basically studying, going to school.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm thankful also to say that uh again from that house, uh two attorneys came out and ultimately five engineers.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so the moms did a great job.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_01: Amazing.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, um how how common is it um for you know young kind of would-be professionals in Mexico to really from an early age say, look, you know, I want to make my mark up here, that is, in the United States, you know, uh, at least in terms of education.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and then ultimately, all of it sounds like many of you, if not all of you, ended up working up here.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_01: You know, how how common is that?
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, what would you say the explanation for that is?
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_02: So, I mean, it it is common.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, let's say, just focusing on my high school, uh, the last year of high school, that's when you start seeing who's gonna end up here, who's gonna go to schools in Monterrey, schools in Mexico City, schools in Guadalajara, great universities as well.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_02: A lot of my friends went there.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, but it's probably a small percentage.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_02: Again, taking into account the fact that a lot of people started here, but they ultimately went back.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_02: Um it is common, but I want to say maybe like 10-15% of the people from my high school ended up in the US.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_02: And I think one of the reasons is, you know, it also has to do with opportunity.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I'm not saying that if you're not great in Mexico, you're not gonna do great, but of course, there's more opportunity in the US.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_02: There's more opportunity for education, there's more opportunity for grants, scholarships.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_02: So there is more support for education.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_02: Uh and just being so close to the border is it's very convenient.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_02: And the fact that your parents have actually contributed to this country since you were born, paying taxes, um, I think that's definitely something that you need to take a uh basically you just gotta take charge and you gotta you just gotta make the best of it.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_02: Uh but it is coming.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_02: It is coming.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_01: And what would you say?
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, you really have your ear to the kind of third community, these these cross-border, you know, workers and um citizens and um folks that are coming back and forth a lot.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_01: Um what do you hear or feel about you know fears, immigration-related fears, I'll say, with this new presidency?
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_01: Have you seen that yet or felt that yet?
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_02: So, and perhaps you've also received some calls on this.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, immediately after inauguration, I started getting a lot of calls, especially with the uh, you know, birthright citizenship.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_02: Uh some people were even concerned the fact that they were born in this country and that it was going to be retroactive, right?
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_02: So I had to start clearing some misconceptions.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_02: This was probably the most common questions that I would get.
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, people who are already working here, people who are already professionals here, but they were still concerned about their citizenship being taken away.
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_02: Uh and it was a good thing that they called, so at least they're not just, you know, wondering what's gonna happen.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_02: Um so I think with this, again, this is you know, we always say the land of opportunity.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_02: Uh you do things right, you get things right, uh, you have nothing to fear.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, but still, there were a lot of Of a lot of misconceptions being talked about immediately after.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_02: And I was getting a lot of calls on that.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_01: And you don't, you you're not an immigration lawyer, right?
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_02: I am not an immigration lawyer.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, but you, you know, you gotta know a little bit about this has to do a little bit uh with legal myths.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_02: And a lot of people, especially after graduating law law school and passing the bar, becoming an attorney, they were reaching out to me because they thought I was an immigration attorney.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_02: And one of the reasons were that I spoke Spanish, right?
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, and I think that's one of the reasons why I jumped on Instagram, why I jumped on Facebook.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, my community, my network knew I was a lawyer, but they didn't know that what kind of lawyer I was.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_02: So I had to start, I mean, I started getting out there and letting people know that I was a personal injury lawyer, that I was a linen law lawyer, vehicle defects, product defects.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_02: And uh thankfully now, and thanks to Instagram and social media, uh, people know what I do.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_02: So I I get the the right referrals uh so that I can help these people that are in need.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and I want to thank a lot of my clients because a lot of my clients are these uh either border crossers or this third culture that you know either lives here, lives in Mexico, uh, but still their their rights still need to be protected as consumers.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_01: And so it sounds like a lot of your clients are learning about you through social media.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_01: Um and then maybe with these news appearances as well, has that been helpful for you?
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_02: Uh it has definitely been helpful.
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_02: Uh I started, I was I was a non-Instagram user before I started posting about what I did.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_02: Uh when I started doing it, I had zero photos on my Instagram, no profile picture, right?
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_02: Uh I started this at the end of 2022 with a lot of help from my firm, Bank of Shell Law Firm, and the marketing team there.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, they started getting me more accustomed to be uploading and be active on Instagram.
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_02: And then it becomes basically a like your job to be posting.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_02: You cannot depend just on people posting for you.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_02: Uh just you know, start posting things that are relevant.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_02: Uh what I started doing is started posting about you know some of our uh settlements, some of our clients, some of our clients' histories.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_02: Uh also these news appearances um are uh have been helping a lot.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_02: Uh people still send me some photos when they see me like at a taco shop on TV, and they're good friends that are sending me these photos.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_02: Uh so the good thing is that people are seeing me out there, and it's becoming like a little snowball, right?
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_02: Because little by little I've been getting more and more and more uh calls and referral uh referral people.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_02: Uh but I think uh and one thing that you gotta be careful with is once you start getting all these clients, you want to make sure that you're giving a good service.
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_02: Because ultimately it's not about that client that you're helping, it's also about the next client that you're helping.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_02: So it's very important that the clients are happy that you're looking out for them.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_02: Um because ultimately it's not I mean, this business is not just that client, it's also getting additional clients that were happy with how you treated them and how you treated the case so that you can this additional referral.
• 25:20
  unknown: Yeah.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_01: For sure.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_01: And so, you know, I'm always curious because I spend a lot of time in what I'll call business development marketing.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_01: At the same time, I try to be a real good lawyer for my clients, try to remain very active in that space.
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_01: In terms of percentage of time, like how would you say right now your percentage committed to marketing versus percentage committed to lawyering is?
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_02: So that is a hard one.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_02: And the reason is because I at the office I handle uh my personal injury cases and I handle exclusively the limit law practice that I opened when I when I came back to to bankruptcial offer.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_02: Um so you ultimately gotta focus on your cases, but you know, social media and promoting it's a big percentage.
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_02: Uh right now, uh I probably spend maybe 20, 25 percent, 30% on marketing, on Instagram, uh, social media.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but that also takes time on weekends, right?
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_02: When you're also working uh or you're walking out the park, you're still trying to think about things that you can do.
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_02: Uh so it is a big percentage, and you know this.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_02: We're doing this podcast, right?
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I I was posting some some other items uh on my way here as well, so that takes time.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_02: And then ultimately I'll go back to the office and still grind it until like 7 8 p.m.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_02: Because I gotta do the work to do.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, the work's waiting for you.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_02: And hopefully I can still get a little, you know, gym time uh at the end of the day.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_02: And uh I want to thank my wife because she's very patient, uh, because I'm out of the house for most of the day.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_02: And uh and she was very supportive.
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_02: Uh uh, we've been married for 10 years.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna get into this story because she was very supportive during law school.
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, she was, you know, we got married years before law school, and she uh stood by me as I went through law school, long days, sometimes entering entering here in uh downtown at you know, the district attorney's office or a federal judge.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_02: Uh so I would leave home like around 6 a.m.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_02: and I would I wouldn't come back until 11:30 p.m.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_02: because I went to school.
• 27:34
  SPEAKER_02: So uh right now with the whole percentage and working on cases and Instagram, again, it's a big percentage of social media, Instagram, marketing, and then you still have you know your duties towards your clients.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_02: So the work still needs to get done.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_01: And so you said you met her, you got married before law school?
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, yeah.
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_02: So um when I I graduated college in 2011.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_02: Uh so in 2011, uh, I had a little bit of break from school uh because I didn't start law school until six years after.
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_02: Uh I was thankful to land a job after college uh at my current law firm, and I was focusing on the marketing and the business development.
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_02: That's what I started getting my knowledge on my on the legal uh legal marketing.
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_02: Uh so ultimately uh that helped a lot because it it basically paved my my way of being now.
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_02: Uh and looking back at it, it helped a lot because I was I was already joining all these organizations in San Diego, doing the networking, uh becoming very confident and talking to people that I didn't know, uh, especially in English.
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_02: Again, coming from Mexico, having all that grammar uh almost perfect was great.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_02: But I wasn't uh sufficiently fluent in English to have a real conversation, right?
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_02: So that was something that I had to hone on, that I have to practice.
• 28:57
  SPEAKER_02: And uh uh the whole Nike thing, just do it, always stuck with me because ultimately just gotta do it.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, um, and that's that's my thought every time I was I would go to a networking event.
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_02: It's like, well, you know what, just just do it.
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, just talk to people.
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_02: Uh I got very used to it and then I got very good at it, I believe.
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_02: And ultimately, uh, you know, it just just came out.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_02: Um so yeah, but you know, go get getting back to the uh to the topic, I think it's uh it's it's been very a very interesting uh uh uh I would say a very interesting trip.
• 29:33
  SPEAKER_01: So how'd you meet your wife?
• 29:35
  SPEAKER_02: So I met my wife.
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_02: Uh I was a year out of college.
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_02: I was spending some time in Walaljara.
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_02: Uh a lot of friends went to college there.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_02: They were still in college, and I actually met her out while partying.
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_01: Uh my parents always said That's how you always meet the good ones.
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, no, exactly.
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_01: So my parents Especially Wal Aljara.
• 29:56
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, yes.
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_02: So my parents always said the opposite, right?
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_02: You're never gonna meet anyone like partying.
• 30:03
  SPEAKER_02: Um and I think my in-law said that said the same thing to my wife.
• 30:07
  SPEAKER_02: Uh but thankfully uh that was a that was an effort, it was very uh a persistence payoff because initially she didn't want to go out with me because she knew uh I was not from there.
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_02: Uh but ultimately I was I was in between jobs.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_02: I was uh 23 or 24 when I met her.
• 30:26
  SPEAKER_02: So ultimately I was able to actually stay in Guadalajara for like nine months.
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_01: Oh wow.
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_02: And we dated for that time.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_02: Uh and then after maybe a year and a half, we actually got married in Guadalajara.
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, beautiful.
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so uh yeah, it's a great story.
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_01: And so then, you know, you're talking to, are you telling her, hey, you know, my plans are to become a big lawyer in the United States?
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_01: And I mean, how did that all, you know, come about?
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so back then, uh, I believe I had already mentioned that that I wanted to be a lawyer at one point.
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, but back then, I mean, I was basically living out of savings.
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_02: I started working when I was 17.
• 31:04
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, I was in 10th grade in high school in Tijuana, and I was working weekends in Las Americas at uh Aeropostol, a very popular brand back then.
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_02: Uh so I was working weekends, I started saving some money all through high school, all through college.
• 31:17
  SPEAKER_02: So ultimately I have some money.
• 31:19
  SPEAKER_02: But after nine months without working, that money started to you know go out the door.
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_02: Um so we we started having these you know real adult conversations of okay, are we gonna get married at one point?
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_02: Because that's the whole idea.
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_02: And uh ultimately we started planning for that.
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, but I did tell her that yes, I wanted to be a lawyer.
• 31:40
  SPEAKER_01: And so, you know, at some point you have discussions, I imagine, hey, um, would you be willing to move to the United States with me, right?
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so that was a that yeah, so that was a real conversation.
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_02: That conversation had happened uh many, many times.
• 31:58
  SPEAKER_02: Uh so my my wife comes from a very good family in Guadalajara, uh, very smart people family, uh business minded.
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_02: Uh so she was all set up, right?
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_02: She was very comfortable.
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, she had good friends, all of her family is there.
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_02: She does not have any, she did not have any friends here or any family.
• 32:15
  SPEAKER_02: Wow.
• 32:16
  SPEAKER_02: So ultimately she moved for me.
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_02: Uh and uh that conversation happened.
• 32:21
  SPEAKER_02: It was a difficult conversation.
• 32:23
  SPEAKER_02: I think she just you know did the jump.
• 32:25
  SPEAKER_02: Maybe after a year or two, she was, you know, maybe not as convinced as initially, but now she's very happy here.
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_02: She has uh uh tons of friends, uh very good community that she's created.
• 32:36
  SPEAKER_02: Um and yeah, we're you know, we're we're we're living a good life.
• 32:40
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, except like you're working all the time.
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_01: Uh does she work?
• 32:44
  SPEAKER_01: Uh she does not work.
• 32:46
  SPEAKER_02: She does not work.
• 32:47
  SPEAKER_01: All right.
• 32:47
  SPEAKER_02: Uh she's actually uh she takes care of our little Shitsu Donna.
• 32:52
  SPEAKER_02: And uh since the news are already out, I'm actually gonna have a uh baby boy in August.
• 32:57
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, amazing.
• 32:58
  SPEAKER_01: Congratulations.
• 32:58
  SPEAKER_02: No, thank you.
• 32:59
  SPEAKER_02: We just learned about this uh that the fact that you know we're gonna have a boy uh last Thursday.
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_01: Oh my gosh, wow.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_01: The news of doubt.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_01: So breaking news right here on the Latino podcast, August.
• 33:11
  SPEAKER_01: Um, first child, a boy.
• 33:13
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_01: Uh so that's super exciting.
• 33:15
  SPEAKER_01: Congratulations.
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, thank you.
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_02: So hopefully, you know, the next generation of Arreguin lawyers.
• 33:19
  SPEAKER_01: Definitely, man.
• 33:21
  SPEAKER_02: But maybe he'll be leaning towards the whole lawyering.
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you know, like it's funny.
• 33:26
  SPEAKER_01: I have um three older kids right now.
• 33:30
  SPEAKER_01: Um I have a 17-year-old and two 15-year-olds.
• 33:34
  SPEAKER_01: And um I've never kind of pushed or suggested law.
• 33:40
  SPEAKER_01: And um until very recently, you know, every year they'd be like, Oh, I want to be, you know, at school.
• 33:47
  SPEAKER_01: And they would never say lawyer.
• 33:49
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, one time my daughter said trial lawyer when she was like third grade, but other than that, never.
• 33:55
  SPEAKER_01: But now you stoked?
• 33:57
  SPEAKER_02: Were you stoked once you set that?
• 33:58
  SPEAKER_01: I was very excited.
• 33:59
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, because she put trial lawyer too.
• 34:01
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, that's what we are.
• 34:03
  SPEAKER_01: Um, me and my guests are trial lawyers.
• 34:05
  SPEAKER_01: So um, yeah, that was very exciting.
• 34:07
  SPEAKER_01: But ever since then, nothing.
• 34:09
  SPEAKER_01: You know, they wanted to be politicians, veterinarians, uh, broadcasters, this, that, the other.
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_01: But but I'll tell you now um that they're a little bit older.
• 34:20
  SPEAKER_01: I think the best thing we can do for our kids is just sort of live, you know, in leadership.
• 34:25
  SPEAKER_01: And they look at me and what I do and the impact that I'm able to make.
• 34:31
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know, it feels like all three of them now are leaning in that direction.
• 34:35
  SPEAKER_01: Good.
• 34:36
  SPEAKER_01: So um, so that's pretty cool.
• 34:37
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm sure, you know, your boy, as he grows up, you know, will look to the work that you're doing with a whole lot of um, you know, pride and um inspiration.
• 34:47
  SPEAKER_01: And yeah, we could uh we we'll be looking for that kid to knock it down just like pops.
• 34:53
  SPEAKER_03: Oh yeah, definitely.
• 34:54
  SPEAKER_01: But yeah, man, like um, so I'll tell you, I think you know, having children certainly made me a much better lawyer, certainly more motivated.
• 35:05
  SPEAKER_01: And um, you know, I think you know, my uh tendency was just to work and work and work and work too.
• 35:13
  SPEAKER_01: But you know, the the cool thing about kids is they balance you out a little bit.
• 35:17
  SPEAKER_03: Of course.
• 35:18
  SPEAKER_01: And you tend to get as much done in a shorter amount of time.
• 35:22
  SPEAKER_01: And um, so exciting times for you guys to come.
• 35:25
  SPEAKER_01: Congratulations again.
• 35:26
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, thank you.
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_02: And and I mean, we already have these conversations, right?
• 35:30
  SPEAKER_02: Because I still go to the gym after work.
• 35:32
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I get there, I mean I get home late, and my wife now's telling me, like, so how are you gonna do it?
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you gotta you gotta see your kid, right?
• 35:39
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so maybe waking up earlier, going to the gym in the morning or something like that.
• 35:43
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 35:43
  SPEAKER_02: Uh families, you know, it's probably the most important thing.
• 35:47
  SPEAKER_02: So you gotta make the time.
• 35:49
  SPEAKER_01: So tell us about like health and you know, self-care, like things you like to do to kind of take care of you today.
• 35:58
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, no, of course.
• 35:59
  SPEAKER_02: Uh I mean, growing up, I was a very active kid.
• 36:02
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, we had a basketball court in our backyard, and I would always have my friends over, and we were always playing basketball.
• 36:10
  SPEAKER_02: That's the only thing we did.
• 36:12
  SPEAKER_02: I didn't really play a lot of video games, um, but ultimately it was all about sports.
• 36:17
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, weekends it was dirt biking with my dad uh and my brothers, so that's the only thing I did, and mountain biking.
• 36:24
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, as I grew older and started college, I still continued that you know uh uh trait, going to the going to the gym, running, uh, mountain biking, dirt biking still.
• 36:35
  SPEAKER_02: Um I actually sold my dirt bike right before I got married because I paid my honeymoon.
• 36:41
  SPEAKER_01: Where'd you go?
• 36:42
  SPEAKER_02: Uh so I ended up going to the Riviera Maya.
• 36:45
  SPEAKER_02: So I did uh Bacalar, which is you know the lagoon of seven collars, so so relaxing.
• 36:51
  SPEAKER_02: I recommend it.
• 36:52
  SPEAKER_02: And then we did uh Horbox, which is a you know a little island right next to it.
• 36:56
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, very nice.
• 36:57
  SPEAKER_01: All right.
• 36:58
  SPEAKER_02: Um yeah, so uh, you know, I I think when my health started declining was when I started law school.
• 37:06
  SPEAKER_02: Uh I was so focused on uh I was working part-time, I was going to school, and I was so focused on my studies that I put my health uh out the door basically.
• 37:19
  SPEAKER_02: Uh I would sit for long periods of time, not take walks, and it started affecting my health.
• 37:26
  SPEAKER_02: Uh the first thing that I started noticing, you know, I started having a lot of low back problems.
• 37:31
  SPEAKER_02: I was still 28 when this happened.
• 37:33
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, and then I started having a lot of issues with like my legs, leg pain, uh, because I was working in the morning and then I was having all these uh issues.
• 37:41
  SPEAKER_02: Uh but a little afterwards, finishing law school, I realized that I just needed to, you know, get back to health, which is the most important thing, uh, along with family.
• 37:51
  SPEAKER_02: And ultimately what I started doing is, you know, started practicing sports again, started playing basketball again consistently, started going to the gym two or three times a week.
• 38:01
  SPEAKER_02: Uh I started playing a lot of tennis starting 2020.
• 38:04
  SPEAKER_02: That became a passion of mine um uh right after basketball.
• 38:09
  SPEAKER_02: And lately I've been doing a lot of rock climbing.
• 38:11
  SPEAKER_02: So I've been doing that for the last uh six months and it's it's pay now.
• 38:16
  SPEAKER_02: It's uh it's incredible.
• 38:17
  SPEAKER_02: It's uh it takes my mind out of work because ultimately it's still problem solving, but it is a lot of you know strength, coordination, and uh health-wise, it's been helping me a lot.
• 38:28
  SPEAKER_01: Don't be doing that like that movie uh free whatever, the guy climbs the the front of with no ropes or anything.
• 38:38
  SPEAKER_01: Is that a cliffhanger?
• 38:40
  SPEAKER_01: Uh no, I forget what it's called, man, but it's it's uh I'll get it for you.
• 38:44
  SPEAKER_01: But it's uh it's a movie you gotta watch.
• 38:46
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 38:47
  SPEAKER_01: Because it's very um high anxiety, high tension.
• 38:50
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and it's this guy, he's like uh he's a free climber, I think is what they call it.
• 38:56
  SPEAKER_01: And he he takes all these challenging climbs with like no equipment.
• 39:00
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 39:02
  SPEAKER_01: One time he does like the face of this crazy, I can't remember where it is, but it's a it's a very high anxiety.
• 39:10
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, obviously, you know, you're not doing that.
• 39:13
  SPEAKER_01: I'm I'm kind of joking around, but like his whole crew is like a scared he's gonna die, and it's like um pretty but like that climbing, like for that upper body strength and um and like the mental, yeah, like the planning.
• 39:27
  SPEAKER_02: It's very mental because a lot of times, and and I usually uh climb with a buddy of mine.
• 39:31
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, we always say that sometimes when we let go, it's because we were just mentally weak.
• 39:36
  SPEAKER_02: So you get tired, right?
• 39:38
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 39:39
  SPEAKER_02: And then a lot of times you just gotta push through.
• 39:41
  SPEAKER_02: So I started appreciating that sport a lot, uh, along with tennis.
• 39:45
  SPEAKER_02: So again, always being a basketball player, you you sort of delegate your stress to your other team members.
• 39:53
  SPEAKER_02: With tennis, it was a little bit different.
• 39:55
  SPEAKER_02: The first tournament that I that I entered, it was down at Capestre, Tijuana.
• 40:00
  SPEAKER_02: And it was very interesting that being in a tournament and not being able to delegate stress was very different.
• 40:06
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, because on my level of tennis, I mean, I'm not a professional, uh, it's not so much how good the other player is, but basically what you're doing on your end to make sure that the ball crosses the net.
• 40:18
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, so it's very mentally challenging.
• 40:21
  SPEAKER_02: And um, at that tournament I reached semifinals.
• 40:24
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 40:25
  SPEAKER_02: And uh I did lose the semifinals because I had my legs just gave out, but it wasn't because I mentally gave up.
• 40:31
  SPEAKER_02: Uh I think you just gotta, you know, bring yourself back, uh, get your composure and you know, keep going at it and try to do the best that you can.
• 40:40
  SPEAKER_01: Super cool.
• 40:41
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I you know, I feel like if we don't pay attention to our health, you know, certainly our families, um, you know, this thing called lock and chew you up and spit you out pretty fast.
• 40:53
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know, if we take care of ourselves, then it can be a real long and fulfilling, you know, profession.
• 41:00
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, I always look at it as a marathon rather than a sprint.
• 41:04
  SPEAKER_03: Correct, yes, definitely.
• 41:06
  SPEAKER_01: And so I know that you are in your first term or first year as being on the board of directors of the consumer attorneys of San Diego, which is our trial lawyers organization here in San Diego.
• 41:22
  SPEAKER_01: You know, kind of tell us about how you became interested in that and kind of your your hopes for your involvement in that.
• 41:30
  SPEAKER_02: No, of course.
• 41:30
  SPEAKER_02: Uh so again, when I was doing marketing and business development for my firm, uh, I was already involved with Consumer Attorneys of San Diego, which I believe is a great organization that provides a lot of opportunities, a lot of connections uh to talk to other trial trial attorneys.
• 41:45
  SPEAKER_02: Uh starting from a young age at CASD, I think I started talking to all these people who inspired me to want to be a trial lawyer.
• 41:53
  SPEAKER_02: Uh now that I grew up uh and basically became a lawyer and I can actually get back, I was fortunate to be brought on board by Sarah Havens.
• 42:03
  SPEAKER_02: Also, shout out to her.
• 42:05
  SPEAKER_02: She's a current president of CASD.
• 42:07
  SPEAKER_02: She has a lot of ideas.
• 42:09
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I was fortunate enough to be voted into the consumer attorneys as a board member, and I'm happy to contribute as much as I can uh with communications, with getting outreach for consumer attorneys of San Diego to be out in the community to actually uh uh people know about them so that they know what uh you know the good work that we uh that we do.
• 42:32
  SPEAKER_01: And so, you know, what about you know getting that message, you know, or addressing these myths you talked about, you know, through your platform with consumer attorneys of San Diego, you know, like we see in California an increasingly um Hispanic, Latino, Spanish speaking population, you know, how important is it to have you know bilingual, bicultural leaders in trial or organizations like that?
• 43:07
  SPEAKER_02: Uh I think it helps a lot.
• 43:09
  SPEAKER_02: And uh both uh Consumer Trainers of California and the Consumer Trains of San Diego, I think they're doing a great job uh uh collaborating more with you know affinity um organizations, uh especially minority organizations.
• 43:24
  SPEAKER_02: So that's definitely a goal that we have uh going on.
• 43:27
  SPEAKER_02: It's gonna be very important, it's very exciting, and uh ultimately I'm looking forward to what we can do to actually you know bring these good goals to uh uh to you know our community.
• 43:40
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, amen.
• 43:41
  SPEAKER_01: And so like I asked about an allocation of time between marketing and law.
• 43:48
  SPEAKER_01: What about and I'm just curious because um you know, I I sp I always spend time thinking about like what's the best use of my time?
• 43:58
  SPEAKER_01: Like for you.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_01: Um ideally or or if you had to say, okay, I have a hundred percent of my time you know devoted to business development, networking, marketing, um, and I say, okay, what percentage of that is going to be dedicated to basically trial lawyer stuff?
• 44:20
  SPEAKER_01: You know, we can go to these conferences, we can be on these boards, we can do these meetings and educational things.
• 44:28
  SPEAKER_01: So that's trial lawyer stuff.
• 44:30
  SPEAKER_01: And then we're gonna say um community stuff.
• 44:34
  SPEAKER_01: And by that for you, I mean, you know, Spanish language, Tijuana, like cross-border Mexican, Latino, you know, communities and organizations.
• 44:46
  SPEAKER_01: And so if you were like cutting up your time, and I know this can change as you go forward, but like right now, like what are your thoughts on kind of like a smart allocation?
• 44:57
  SPEAKER_02: So I mean, just the fact that I'm more on the newer side of being a lawyer.
• 45:02
  SPEAKER_02: And uh I mean, I can't say that I've honed my trial lawyer skills.
• 45:07
  SPEAKER_02: Uh right now I have uh two trials under my belt, uh, and one trial before I became a lawyer when I was uh with uh the district attorney's office.
• 45:18
  SPEAKER_02: Um I want to say that I want to focus a lot on you know being a trial lawyer, honing that, owning my evidence, my civil procedure while in court, while being on my feet.
• 45:29
  SPEAKER_02: Um so right now, uh I You feel like you got uh the other part is kind of more natural.
• 45:36
  SPEAKER_01: That's your life.
• 45:37
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so the other part is very natural, the whole business development, marketing.
• 45:41
  SPEAKER_02: But in that ideal world, and let's say I'm already a great trial lawyer, uh, I would probably split it like 50-50 because both both are my passion, right?
• 45:50
  SPEAKER_02: Being a lawyer and being a business development, uh developer focusing on marketing.
• 45:56
  SPEAKER_02: Uh so ideally it would be 50-50.
• 45:58
  SPEAKER_02: But I I turn to you and I ask you, what's your perfect allocation for that?
• 46:03
  SPEAKER_01: Well, you know, like we're I'm at a different stage of my career.
• 46:08
  SPEAKER_01: Um and so, you know, for me, I find more value today in community-based stuff.
• 46:16
  SPEAKER_01: You know, non, you know, I do stuff with La Rossa lawyers and some other, you know, law organizations.
• 46:23
  SPEAKER_01: I feel like um I'm very active with something called um Shades of Mass, which is a national movement to increase diversity in law and particularly um, you know, high-stakes litigation.
• 46:37
  SPEAKER_01: So I do that with Ben Crump and some you know black lawyers and Latino lawyers.
• 46:42
  SPEAKER_01: Um I feel like, you know, to me right now, um that part of law is most exciting to me and most attractive to me in terms of my spending of time and just getting out of the community.
• 46:56
  SPEAKER_01: You know, we obviously have uh, you know, I'll say a larger law firm here that that it's important that we make community impact.
• 47:05
  SPEAKER_01: And so um, but then again, I've tried, you know, close to 100 cases, you know, like I kind of have that, like you're coming the other way, you know, like I kind of have that part down to a degree.
• 47:17
  SPEAKER_01: You know, you can never stop learning, of course.
• 47:19
  SPEAKER_01: There's always great lawyers and teachers out there, but for me, like I would, I would, you know, maybe it's 7525, I'll say.
• 47:28
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 47:28
  SPEAKER_01: Is my my current allocation.
• 47:30
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, yeah, it's a good thing.
• 47:31
  SPEAKER_02: I I usually you uh doing good stuff and you know, being out of the community, you're doing a lot of marketing that's and I mean we're doing a podcast, right?
• 47:38
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, exactly right, man.
• 47:39
  SPEAKER_02: Staying up with technology and the young people.
• 47:41
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 47:42
  SPEAKER_01: And so um, you know, what advice would you have for younger Latinos?
• 47:50
  SPEAKER_01: You know, we have we do these events here, we'll have kids, first generation kids they call themselves, that are in college, want to go to law school.
• 47:58
  SPEAKER_01: You know, sometimes we'll have kids that um are from the other side of the border that want to go to law school or, you know, become professionals here.
• 48:06
  SPEAKER_01: You know, what advice would you give, you know, that group?
• 48:10
  SPEAKER_02: I think the first thing that I would tell them is to reach out to lawyers.
• 48:14
  SPEAKER_02: Uh when I was younger, I was sort of like afraid of reaching out to some people, reaching out to some lawyers.
• 48:20
  SPEAKER_02: Uh so I would just say start reaching out to people, even if you don't know them.
• 48:25
  SPEAKER_02: Uh send an emails, call their office if you can, uh, so that you can you know hopefully talk to them.
• 48:31
  SPEAKER_02: Uh I'll tell you a little a little story on that, and you're actually in that story.
• 48:35
  SPEAKER_02: Because I in college I was a valley parker.
• 48:38
  SPEAKER_02: Uh I was valley parking at uh Stephanie Towers, the university club.
• 48:42
  SPEAKER_02: And and I remember you from back then.
• 48:44
  SPEAKER_02: Uh because we would yeah, because we would actually park your car.
• 48:48
  SPEAKER_01: Good thing, good thing it was over there instead of some other places.
• 48:50
  SPEAKER_02: I parked my Yeah, so uh I and I remember that you would uh actually talk to me along with some of the other lawyers at Stephanie Towers.
• 49:00
  SPEAKER_02: Uh so just talking to people like you and just telling me a little, you know, a little advice in the you know few minutes that you were waiting for your car.
• 49:08
  SPEAKER_02: Uh I think it was very helpful to me.
• 49:10
  SPEAKER_02: So again, if people can reach out to lawyers or people who know lawyers or people who can connect them to lawyers, uh, so they can get them on the right path to get there, right?
• 49:20
  SPEAKER_02: Uh we had a lot of walkers in our office, and I always invite them to my office.
• 49:25
  SPEAKER_02: I always talk about sometimes non-uh work uh uh uh uh stuff at work, but mainly about their goals.
• 49:34
  SPEAKER_02: How can I connect and how can I get them into organizations?
• 49:37
  SPEAKER_02: Uh so just doing that with I think it's great.
• 49:39
  SPEAKER_02: What I also did in college, and what I can tell people is if your college has like a law fraternity or any law organization, join it because that'll start getting you in in the right way to becoming a lawyer.
• 49:52
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, those those organizations are super active.
• 49:56
  SPEAKER_01: Um I'm actually gonna speak at one later this month at USD, their pre-law deal, because um we had an event here and some of those kids came over.
• 50:08
  SPEAKER_01: Um so I agree.
• 50:09
  SPEAKER_01: And and one thing you just said, which, you know, um I think is good for all of us to remember, is that you know, you remember me and somehow figured out who I was, and you know, we had some brief interaction.
• 50:23
  SPEAKER_01: And so when we're out in the community, um a lot more people know who we are than we think know who we are.
• 50:30
  SPEAKER_01: And it's important, you know, obviously, to you know, try to be ambassadors of what we do and you know how we want people to think of lawyers when we're out there interacting with whoever.
• 50:42
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but I'm glad, man, I was uh hopefully I tipped okay too, and you know, how those things.
• 50:48
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that was good advice.
• 50:49
  SPEAKER_02: And then um I want to take you to another story because since you know we we know each other for for a little while now, uh I remember you invited me to one of your uh holiday parties, like 2016, 2015.
• 51:02
  SPEAKER_02: And something that stuck with me is the fact that you were at the entrance actually receiving people and you were actually pouring the wine.
• 51:10
  SPEAKER_01: Oh wow.
• 51:10
  SPEAKER_02: So to me, that was a very special touch.
• 51:13
  SPEAKER_02: And uh once I had it in like that, I think I'm on the replicate.
• 51:16
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, I love it, man.
• 51:17
  SPEAKER_02: That just stuck with me.
• 51:18
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, super cool.
• 51:19
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I wasn't washing the feet, but at least I was pouring the wine.
• 51:22
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 51:24
  SPEAKER_01: So um, like I know you're having a son, your first son in August, but you know, obviously that's gonna be the highlight of the year.
• 51:33
  SPEAKER_01: But otherwise, as you look forward to the year to come, you know, what are you most excited about uh in your life?
• 51:40
  SPEAKER_02: So uh a lot of it has to do professionally.
• 51:42
  SPEAKER_02: Maybe it just shouldn't be professionally, but I'm excited to uh increase my network.
• 51:48
  SPEAKER_02: Um just uh all the collaboration that I do with uh some other businesses and partnerships and events.
• 51:55
  SPEAKER_02: Uh I am very excited for that.
• 51:58
  SPEAKER_02: Uh I am very excited with the things that are to come with consumer attorneys and how you know uh how that's gonna be in my in my year, but the coming years.
• 52:06
  SPEAKER_02: Um but also you know, just spending more time with family and the fact that I'm gonna have to uh put that time to actually spend time with my wife, my my new kid, my little puppy, you know, my parents, uh I think that's the most exciting for me.
• 52:21
  SPEAKER_02: And then to making sure that I can you know get them on the right way.
• 52:24
  SPEAKER_01: Awesome, I love it.
• 52:25
  SPEAKER_01: And so um, you know, to conclude, you know, one question I like to ask is um, and I stole this from a podcast that I uh talked to you about earlier, but if you had the ability to kind of write in the sky some words of advice or inspiration or motivation for all eternity to come, like and and so we can look up there and and be inspired and motivated.
• 52:56
  SPEAKER_01: Um like what would you write up there for all of us to look at?
• 53:00
  SPEAKER_02: I mean it might sound like our cliche, but I know I mentioned Nike, and to me the just do it is just something that you know stuck with me.
• 53:08
  SPEAKER_02: Uh because most of the stuff that I do they really make me feel uncomfortable.
• 53:15
  SPEAKER_02: And what I keep doing is I keep doing things that make me uncomfortable until they don't.
• 53:20
  SPEAKER_02: So I just say to people, just do it, nothing's gonna happen.
• 53:24
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, as long as they're good things, uh, just do it, be uncomfortable, and just get things done.
• 53:30
  SPEAKER_02: Time will pass.
• 53:31
  SPEAKER_01: I love it, man.
• 53:32
  SPEAKER_01: I totally agree, man.
• 53:33
  SPEAKER_01: You just jump in, take a chance, uh, just do it.
• 53:36
  SPEAKER_01: I'm I'm grateful that I'm wearing appropriate uh shoes for your just do it uh message today.
• 53:42
  SPEAKER_01: I have my my Jordans on.
• 53:44
  SPEAKER_01: Um, thank you, thank you.
• 53:46
  SPEAKER_02: And growing up, I always wore Jordans because I was a basketball.
• 53:50
  SPEAKER_01: Because you were hooping.
• 53:50
  SPEAKER_01: Just like Ray here.
• 53:51
  SPEAKER_01: Ray's a hoopster, too.
• 53:53
  SPEAKER_01: We we got two hoopsters in the house.
• 53:55
  SPEAKER_01: I played basketball through high school as a point guard.
• 53:58
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and so I I understand that as well.
• 54:02
  SPEAKER_02: I should have kept those shoes.
• 54:03
  SPEAKER_01: Now they are very valuable.
• 54:05
  SPEAKER_01: I know, man.
• 54:06
  SPEAKER_01: You messed up.
• 54:07
  SPEAKER_01: But the deal is my kids, uh my my my 16-year-old is a shoe guy, and what I've learned is you don't wear the shoes.
• 54:15
  SPEAKER_01: You buy the shoes and you don't wear them, or they wear them, they never get them scuffed.
• 54:20
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know what he does to keep them all perfect.
• 54:22
  SPEAKER_01: You were wearing yours.
• 54:23
  SPEAKER_01: He wouldn't be able to do that.
• 54:23
  SPEAKER_01: I was, yeah.
• 54:25
  SPEAKER_01: Nobody wants your dirty ass shoes.
• 54:27
  SPEAKER_01: Come on, man.
• 54:29
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 54:30
  SPEAKER_01: All right.
• 54:31
  SPEAKER_01: Well, enough of that here.
• 54:32
  SPEAKER_01: I made it through the whole podcast without cussing, and then I say the A-word at the end, but um, you know, we were talking sports.
• 54:40
  SPEAKER_01: So thank you so much for being a guest.
• 54:42
  SPEAKER_01: Um, where can our um listeners or viewers, you know, find out more about you?
• 54:48
  SPEAKER_01: Tell us about your law firm, your social media accounts.
• 54:52
  SPEAKER_01: Where can we uh learn more about you?
• 54:54
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, no, of course.
• 54:55
  SPEAKER_02: And uh primarily it's gonna be on Instagram, uh, Instagram, and it's just gonna be David on Law, that's O-N Law.
• 55:02
  SPEAKER_02: Uh that's the the, I guess, the platform that I post the most.
• 55:06
  SPEAKER_02: Uh also they can find me on KZY50 TV, uh, that's open air television or online.
• 55:12
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, I'm also there on the news uh uh with segments and infomercials as well, and that's throughout the year.
• 55:19
  SPEAKER_02: Uh but also, you know, for law firm, it's Bankershield Law Firm.
• 55:22
  SPEAKER_02: When it we're in the Bankersfield neighborhood, uh right next to Balboa Park.
• 55:26
  SPEAKER_02: Uh the firm's been around for 30 years.
• 55:29
  SPEAKER_02: Uh the principal attorney is Max Villaga, he's been a great mentor to me, a great supporter of me through law school.
• 55:35
  SPEAKER_02: And we primarily focus on personal injury, uh, limit law and workforce comp.
• 55:40
  SPEAKER_02: Uh so I've I've found that these three areas actually have a lot of crossovers.
• 55:46
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, for sure.
• 55:46
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so uh so yeah, just you know, go on Instagram.
• 55:49
  SPEAKER_02: Uh you always need more followers on these social media platforms.
• 55:53
  SPEAKER_02: Uh so make sure to follow me at David, uh, at David Onlaw uh on Instagram.
• 55:58
  SPEAKER_01: David Onlaw, okay, man, we'll do it.
• 56:00
  SPEAKER_01: I'll fought Wade, I already follow you, but all the rest of you need to follow him uh right now.
• 56:05
  SPEAKER_01: He's always posting cool, good stuff.
• 56:07
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and so thank you so much for being a guest.
• 56:10
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I know that our listeners and viewers will enjoy uh your story and what you shared with us today.
• 56:17
  SPEAKER_01: Um, this concludes uh this episode of the Latino where we discuss the intersection of law and our Latino communities.
• 56:26
  SPEAKER_01: Uh please, if you like what you hear or see, please subscribe and share.
• 56:32
  SPEAKER_01: Uh until next time, uh this is uh your host, John Gomez, signing off.
• 56:39
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for listening to the Latino podcast.
• 56:41
  SPEAKER_00: We'll see you again next time, and be sure to click subscribe to get future episodes.