Though I’ve been practicing law for 17 years, I didn’t always want to be a lawyer. Growing up in South Florida, I played a lot of baseball and watched a lot of spring training. So, naturally, I wanted to be a baseball player.

As I later learned, there are a lot of good Little League players who don’t all end up going pro.

Thankfully, I had a fallback plan: school. I attended Suncoast High School and completed the International Baccalaureate (IB) Program. My hard work in high school paid off, as I received a full National Merit Scholarship to attend the University of Florida. After graduating and taking a year off to work at a pizza store as a delivery driver and occasional manager, I attended the Levin College of Law at the University of Florida, where I graduated with honors.

Law school was when I first learned there was such a thing as “employment law,” and I spent the summer after my second year of law school as a summer associate at a respected labor and employment law firm in Tampa. From there, I was hooked on employment law, and I have never looked back.

As a child of immigrant parents who came to this country in search of the American Dream, I understand the value of hard work, and the idea that with enough dedication and grit, nearly anything is possible. I also understand that not everyone starts on equal footing, and not everyone receives a fair shot. When employees are punished for blowing the whistle, or denied their rights to equal opportunities, to their hard-earned pay, or to a workplace free from harassment, they need someone in their corner willing to fight for them. I am grateful that I can help our clients through some very difficult times.

When I’m not working, I enjoy spending time with my family, listening to and talking about music, watching Arnold Schwarzenegger movies and trying to perfect my Arnold impersonation, playing the bass guitar, I’ve had since high school, and playing rec league softball with people who don’t take it, or themselves, too seriously.