Sergio Garcia - Undocumented But Admitted to the Bar

Louis Goodman / Sergio Garcia – Transcript

[00:00:00] Louis Goodman: Welcome to Love by Lawyer, where we talk with attorneys about their lives and careers. I'm Louis Goodman. Today we welcome Sergio Garcia to the program. Born in Mexico and brought into the United States without documentation, Sergio spent nearly 20 years in the bureaucratic labyrinth. In the meantime, he graduated from high school, earned degrees, went to law school, earned his JD, and passed the California bar exam on his first try.

But he had to battle his way to the California Supreme Court before being admitted in a case that drew nationwide attention. Sergio Garcia, welcome to Love Thy Lawyer. 

00:51 Sergio Garcia:

Thank you so much for the invitation, Mr. Goodman, I'm happy to be here with you. 

00:56 Louis Goodman: Where are you speaking to us from right now?

[00:00:57] Sergio Garcia: Currently, I'm in Chico, California.

[00:01:02] Louis Goodman: Is that where your office is located? 

[00:01:04] Sergio Garcia: Yeah, our main office is located in Chico, California. We've been here basically ever since becoming the first undocumented attorney in the nation. And recently we opened a second office in the Los Angeles area, but I'm currently up here in Northern California in Chico.

[00:01:20] Louis Goodman: Can you tell us what type of practice that you have? 

[00:01:24] Sergio Garcia: Well, I do personal injury and a lot of people say, well, do you go into that because that's the lucrative area to go into? And I always tell people I actually was chosen. And the reason why I say that is because right after finishing this big old battle with the U.S. Department of Justice and being allowed to become a licensed attorney in California, that was absolutely the only experience I had under my belt. So that's what I figure I would just open that kind of firm because they will not allow me to work for anybody else. Given the fact that I was undocumented at the time.

02:01 Louis Goodman: How long have you been practicing? I just turned 10 years old as an attorney back in February. So a little over 10 years now. 

[00:02:08] Louis Goodman: Now, I said in the introduction that you're originally from Mexico, you do have kind of this very interesting story about where you were born, where you were brought up. I'm wondering if you could tell us a little bit about that before you even got to high school.

[00:02:25] Sergio Garcia: Oh, sure. Sure. I was born in a tiny, tiny town in the poor state of Michoacán, Mexico. The town's called Villa Jimenez, very poor family, very modest means as a matter of fact. When I was roughly 17 months old, I got ill, I ended up with typhoid fever and my parents didn't have the money, funds to, you know, give me any kind of medication or whatever.

But by the time they were able to get a doctor to see me, they said, well, you might want to start collecting flowers because this kid's not going to make it through the night. And that was, you know, back when I was 17 months old. Luckily, I, I survived and, here I am many, many, many years later. 

[00:03:09] Louis Goodman: So you were born in Mexico, but you were raised in the United States?

[00:03:15] Sergio Garcia: So, like I said, at the roughly at that age, 17 months old, my father, they decided to, you know, migrate to the US risking life and limb. So he brought us over when I was approximately two years. I spent a little bit of time here. And he ended up sending me back home, you know, bringing me back up here. I was kind of back and forth, ultimately coming back in 1994 when I was 17 years old, and that, that was the last time I ever, you know, did the back and forth.

And came back to the U.S. and located over here in Durham, California, which is even a smaller town than Chico. Yeah, so I've been here ever since. Graduated high school with a 3.9 GPA, despite the fact that I didn't really speak the language, and did community college, and so on, but yeah, it was some tough, tough times for sure.

04:07 Louis Goodman: Where did you go to high school? 

04:09 Sergio Garcia: I went to Durham high school, which was very interesting. It's Durham, it's a rural community. There were 401 kids in the school. Only one kid was Latino. The other 400 were white Caucasian. So it was a little bit of a shocker, right? Coming into a school where I didn't speak the language and I really did not look anything like my peers, my classmates.

[00:04:34] Louis Goodman: When you graduated from high school, where did you go to college? 

[00:04:35] Sergio Garcia: So, as I mentioned, I graduated with a 3.9 GPA and I got invitations to join Stanford with a full scholarship, Berkeley, UC Davis and Chico state. Uh, interestingly enough, everybody at my high school was excited about UC Davis inviting me. I really thought they'd be more impressed about Stanford or Berkeley, but they were excited about UC Davis.

Unfortunately, every time I contacted these colleges, I would tell them, look, I'd love to come to your institution. Unfortunately, I'm undocumented. Is that still kosher? And they would say, yeah, yeah, you can still come out, but no scholarship for you because you're undocumented. So you'll have to pay out of pocket.

And at that time I was, you know, collecting aluminum cans out of garbage containers to make a buck. So obviously it was impossible for me to pay out of pocket for those fancy institutions. 

05:29 Louis Goodman: So where did you go? 

05:31 Sergio Garcia: I ended up, last minute ended up going to Butte community college. Which is right here in Chico.

I told my mom that I was simply going to do what, uh, an undocumented Mexican kid at age 18 does, which is go work out in the fields, save money to eventually go to college. But she said, that would be a shame. Son, you love school. You have always excelled at it. So why don't you go out at least to the local community college and we'll do the best we can to try to support you.

And so, yeah, two weeks before college started, I went signed up, but. Like I said, I didn't speak the language. I was really, I was voted the most shy in my high school, really insecure, really fearful of the world. So I went to Butte community college and I spent four years there, despite the fact that it was a two year institution, you know, I just didn't know any better.

So ultimately I went to the administration and I said, Hey, I see kids coming and going, and I'm still here, what gives? And they're like, well, let's take a look, Mr. Garcia, they, you know, plug in some information into the keyboard. Oh. You have like three degrees. What are you still doing here? And I'm like, nobody told me I could leave.

That's how naive I was. 

[00:06:42] Louis Goodman: So presumably you did leave Butte at some point, and then where did you go? 

[00:06:48] Sergio Garcia: I went to Chico state, and I just took a few classes there because there was $390 per unit, something that when you're, you know, picking up aluminum cans, it's kind of hard to pay for. So I just took a few units, whatever I could afford, ultimately got my paralegal certificate out of Chico state, but I was never able to graduate due to my financial situation.

[00:07:12] Louis Goodman: Now you eventually went to law school. Can you Tell us what the path was from Butte, some classes at Chico State, doing some paralegal work, and then actually going to law school?

[00:07:27] Sergio Garcia: Yeah, at the time I was volunteering for CLIC, the Community Legal Information Center, and I had a wonderful attorney named Dane Cameron, who said, son, what do you call somebody who passes the bar?

And I said, an attorney, I guess. And he said, yeah, no one cares where you go, you just have to be able to pass the bar. And there's a wonderful night school here in Chico, where you can go, you have your paralegal certificate, and you're helping us here. I'll give you a letter of recommendation, give it a shot.

And went out there, talked to them about my situation. At that time, I had been waiting 14 years for my green card. I was up front, uh, with them about that because I, I wanted to make sure that that wasn't going to be a problem in the future. And they said, well, look, we're a four year institution.

Obviously by 18 years later, you'll have your green card. But even if you don't, it won't matter because Save Bart does not ask, uh, uh, people's immigration status. And they said, so you'll be fine either way. So welcome aboard. I started in 2005, graduated in 2009. I started in 2009. You know, prepare for the bar.

Fortunately enough, I passed it on my first attempt, only 11 of the 44 students who started that class graduated of those 11, seven of us passed the bar on our first attempt, a greater percentage than Harbor graduates that particular year. So I was very proud of myself for being able to pass the bar, despite going to a night school that wasn't even ABA accredited at the time.

[00:08:56] Louis Goodman: So you passed the bar and then what are there any issues about getting admitted as an attorney? 

[00:09:06] Sergio Garcia: Well, everything was going fine up until the point where I received a document from the state bar saying, are you a US citizen, legal permanent resident, or what's your status? And I was like, well, wait a second.

They told me nobody would ever ask me this, but unfortunately the state bar had switched gears like six months prior to my graduation. And I decided to start asking. So I'm pretty much was in tears when I saw that question. I was so afraid of that piece of paper. I didn't know how to handle it. I walked away from it until the next day when I said, aha, I have the perfect answer.

That's honest, correct, and can fit in this tiny box that they're giving me to explain my status. I wrote pending, and I figured that I would do it right. And sure enough, I get a call from the state bar. They're saying, for your letters of recommendation or your, you know, you pass the bar, you have an excellent moral character.

Everything looks good. You're going to be an asset to a profession. And then they saw the word pending on that form and they're like, Oh, well, let us call you right back that open Pandora's box, which lasted almost five years of fighting to become the first undocumented attorney in the nation and the history of our great nation.

[00:10:20] Louis Goodman: Can you tell us a little bit about the legal process that you went through in order to actually get admitted to practice in the state of California? 

[00:10:30] Sergio Garcia: Sure. You know, we initially were talking to the state bar for a while. Ultimately, the state bar did not know what to do with my case. So they sent it over to the California Supreme Court for guidance.

And they, you know, they said it was a case of first oppression. So they didn't know. What to do with it necessarily. So we had to write our briefs and kind of put forth our position as to why I should be allowed to practice law. This was despite the, my lack of status at the time, I, you know, I would have been waiting, I believe about 18, 19 years for my green card and it had been approved since 1994, but it was still pending.

So part of our position was that, you know, we had paid for classes. We have paid for all the dues to the state bar, we had complied with everything else. And now for them to say, you cannot have it, that didn't seem quite just. And so ultimately we had our day in court, um, back in 2013. And, um, uh, it's actually on YouTube, and Ray Garcia's admission, 72, very, very hard minutes for me because the court was certainly against me, and there was absolutely no, no way that I was going to be allowed to practice law, based on our court date. Luckily, I was able to listen to one of the judges say, Hey, how come nobody has bothered to approach the legislature about this? I would imagine there would be plenty of support for something like this.

And that's exactly what I did. As soon as the court hearing was over. I started to contact every single person I knew in the legislature, and basically a miracle happened where within seven days they passed a law that said that California, despite the federal statute, California would allow undocumented people to be licensed here in California.

12:30 Louis Goodman: And is that how you were able to get your license? 

12:35 Sergio Garcia: Yes, once the California legislature passed a law that basically circumvented or complied with the federal statute that said, no, you cannot have a license unless the state passes a specific law saying they will allow the licensing. Then you're okay. And at that point, the U.S. Department of Justice kind of bowed out and said, okay, you can have your license, but you still cannot work for absolutely anybody. So that's why going to my initial point. I ended up doing a car accidents, personal injury, because that's the only thing I knew what to do at that time. And, you know, the Department of Justice was very, very aggressive and very, they made a point to saying you cannot work for anybody, but they never said you cannot open your own law firm, which is what I did.

You know, I ended up with a 30 in my bank account, my cell phone, my laptop. And somebody gave me an old printer. So I opened the law offices of Sergio C. Garcia here in Chico. 

13:36 Louis Goodman: What's your immigration status now? 

13:39 Sergio Garcia: I'm a U. S. citizen. I've been a U. S. citizen since 2019. Interestingly enough, I got my green card a little bit a year after I became a licensed attorney.

So I feel it was very wasteful on the government side, you know, wasting taxpayer money to fight my licensing and ultimately getting my green card a year after I defeated the Department of Justice anyway. 

[00:14:01] Louis Goodman: When did you first start thinking about being a lawyer and what is it that prompted you to do so?

[00:14:09] Sergio Garcia: Well, that was actually a dream of mine ever since I was like 10 years old. I always say, you know being innocent and be naive. It's such a blessing because every time I would tell people, Hey, I want to be a lawyer. They would just laugh and I didn't understand why they were laughing. Of course, as an adult, I know they were laughing because they were thinking.

Hey, poor people with you with torn shoes and an empty stomach don't become lawyers. So, you know, that's the reason why they were laughing. As a matter of fact, I had a, high school classmate many years later approach me and say, Hey, I owe you an apology. And I said, why is that? He said, well, do you remember when you started high school in Durham at Mr. Stevens, which was our teacher asked, what do you want to do when you grow up? And you responded and your very broken English said, I'm going to be a lawyer. And I started laughing and she said, I just started laughing. I was like, listen to this guy. I can't even speak the language, but he's going to be a lawyer.

And so I just thought it was ridiculous that you thought you couldn't, it would actually become an attorney. And, you know, fast forward, I became an attorney and she's like, I feel like I owe you an apology. Now I didn't realize that that was really your dream. And that was something you had your mind mindset.

[00:15:21] Louis Goodman: You're obviously a very talented individual, very bright guy. You could do pretty much anything that you want. What is it that you really like about practicing law that's kept you as an attorney? 

[00:15:34] Sergio Garcia: You know, I love just sticking up for the little guy. And I think personal injury, despite the fact that I didn't pick it, allows me to do that. I mean, I love don't get me wrong. Like any other attorney. I love winning the multi million dollar cases, but I really, really enjoy taking on the tough small cases where the insurance has taken a position that's completely adverse to to the rights of the people. I have had cases where the insurance will offer 1,500 to the person and say, well, we're being very nice, so we're offering this money, just sign here, it'll be okay.

And, but that's what we're giving you, do whatever you want to do. And then I get involved and I end up settling these cases for 50,000 or more. And it makes me feel good to be able to say, hey, they're trying to take advantage of you. And just because you don't have the benefit or the blessing of the proper schooling or the proper knowledge in this field, you shouldn't be taking advantage of, so I think I really love those, those David versus Goliath fights. And I think that's what, you know, wakes me up every morning and brings me to the office. 

[00:16:44] Louis Goodman: If a young person were just graduating from college thinking about a career, would you recommend the law? 

[00:16:49] Sergio Garcia: If you have a passion for it, if you don't, if you're thinking, Oh, I want to be a lawyer because it looks fun and it looks lucrative, don't do it. I'm telling you, don't do it. This career really, really requires you to have a passion for it. You know, my office never focused on money that when I have a client come in the door. I never think about how much money am I going to make from this person, I just think, how can I possibly help this person to get back on track, you know, get their life back on track, especially because after a car accident, you know, people's lives are all over the place, they no longer have a vehicle, they have injuries, they have medical bills piling up.

And so I think, how can I get these people kind of back to the place they were before this happened? And so that vision of mine and that mentality has allowed me to be extremely successful because when you put the interests of your clients first, first, and that's what's in your heart, I mean, the blessings just come all by themselves.

I have had so many experiences where it's, you know, incredible. You do something nice, you do something that comes straight from your heart and you get compensated right away. 

[00:18:00] Louis Goodman: How has actually practicing law either met or differed from your expectations about it? 

[00:18:05] Sergio Garcia: You know, I, I think what's different is that I didn't think I was going to spend so much time on the phone.

Being an attorney requires you to spend way too much time on the phone. I really thought, you know, that it had to do more with what you see on TV, right? You making your motions, arguing your case in front of the judge and jury all the time. And frankly, that's a very small percentage of what we do here.

Most of it is, you know, pre litigation, and most, probably 98 percent of cases get resolved prior to going to court. Some get resolved on the steps to the courthouse, but it's a very small percentage of cases that actually, you know, go into litigation. So that part has been different. I thought I would spend more time of my life inside the courtroom than I have so far.

[00:18:53] Louis Goodman: What about the business of practicing law? For those of us who are in private practice, if we're not working for the government or a big corporation or a big law firm, we're responsible for the business. of our practices. I'm wondering if you could talk a little bit about how the business of practicing law has gone for you.

[00:19:16] Sergio Garcia: I have been extremely blessed. I mean, I started with nothing. Literally. I have 30 in my bank account when I started myself on my laptop in an old printer. And then, uh, you know, I just, for a while I was working out of my house and a little, uh, spare room. I had been a rented on office for 250 a month.

Ultimately, I upgraded to an office paying 750 a month and I have stayed extremely busy at the beginning that you probably experienced, you know, taking anything and everything that came along the way. And really since I have all the, had all the time in the world at that, at that point, being able to help the smaller cases, people with the tinier cases, nobody else wanted to help them.

And I think taking those cases. Has really blessed my business. Uh, so for me, business has been, um, good just because I follow this bitch and I've helped as many people as you can, because you never know who's going to bring you the next referral.

[00:20:15] Louis Goodman: Two part question. What do you think's the best advice you've ever received?

And what advice would you give to a young attorney just starting out? You can answer both or either one of those questions. 

[00:20:30] Sergio Garcia: Sure. Well, especially when it comes to my career, I think probably one of the best piece of advice I love and keep close to my heart all the time is the piece of advice given to me by former chief counsel to a state bar Star Babcock.

After finally getting my license, we actually became friends and, you know, He said, look, Sergio, when I was a young man, I practiced personal injury and I had a client who, you know, they offer him a hundred thousand dollars and I was so upset and so outraged by that, that I said, don't take it, allow me to file suit and we're going to take a bunch of money from these people because this is ridiculous that they're offering you that amount.

And he said, fast forward two and a half years or so. I said, I get a verdict of a million dollars. And he said, what do you think that client told me? And I said, well, I don't know what he told you, but I would probably think he probably said, thank you, because you got 10 times as much. And he said, I wish, he, the client told him, Mr.

Babcock, had I known all the expletive I would have to go through to get to this point, I would have never allowed you to convince me to file suit. And so that piece of advice was given to me by him was listen to your clients. Listen to your clients and just, you know, make sure that you're doing what they want and what's in their best interest, because, you know, sometimes your ego can get in the way, like in his situation, I said, I was a young attorney. I was like, no, nobody's gonna offer me such a small sum and get away with it. So, but in reality, it wasn't my case to be upset about. It wasn't. My decision to make and ultimately I wish I had just listened to my client from the get go because he was very unhappy having to put his life on hold for a couple of years and undergo everything that happens, you know before getting to a verdict. So yeah, I would definitely share that piece of advice and pass it on listen to your clients communicate with them, but make sure you're listening to their feedback.

[00:22:36] Louis Goodman: Do you think the legal system is fair? 

[00:22:37] Sergio Garcia: I believed it was when I was a kid and wanted to be an attorney. I wish I could say it's, it's fair. It's unfortunately, you know, we're human, right? We all have biases and I don't think it's, I think we do the best we can. I think judges do the very best they can, but I think there's always going to be biases towards certain groups, biases, you know, towards certain type of cases or certain fact patterns, so.

I wish. I think it's a work in progress. I think fairness, like perfection, is something that we continue to strive for, and we might never reach, but we continue to strive for it. 

[00:23:15] Louis Goodman: What's your family life been like, and how has practicing law fit into your family life and your family life fit into your practice of law?

[00:23:23] Sergio Garcia: Well, family life has been, has been interesting.

After I finally got my, my license, I ended up meeting the young lady who's now my wife. Although I didn't, I didn't realize it at the time because we met like three days after I got my license and we hated each other right off the bat. And it took a, it took a while for, for us to kind of connect and realize we actually had some, quite a few things in common.

And, and so. I ultimately got married in 2015 after I got my green card. And ever since then, I, I mean, I've been happily married. We have two lovely Pomeranians. So that part has been good, but I have to say the practice of law is very much all consuming because it has kind of kept me away, you know, from parents and siblings because I'm just always busy.

And so, it's an incredible task to try to have balance in your life, and you find yourself at some point at the beginning of your life where you have a lot of time, but no money. And once you work hard and you're in a position where you have okay money, at this point I can say that I, I'm comfortable financially, but you don't have time because you're too busy working, so it's a rough, rough balance. 

[00:24:41] Louis Goodman: Do you have any recreational pursuits? Things that you enjoy doing when you're not practicing law? Perhaps some things to kind of get your mind off of the practice of law? 

[00:24:49] Sergio Garcia: Oh, certainly, you know, I'd like to just spend time, to have special and hot dates like today, spend some time in the pool with my, with my Pomeranians.

And I think one of the main hobbies my wife and I have is traveling abroad, going around the world. You know, when we met, I, I told her, look, I want to be fair to you. Given my, um, line of work, I don't have any intention of having kids. So if that's a deal breaker for you, I'm wanting to let you know upfront.

And I said, if it's not a deal breaker, please let me know what's something that's very, near and dear to your heart so we can compromise. And she said, I love traveling. I said, well, I promise that once I can, once I have that, you know, green card and ability to come and go as I please, you can pick any place in the world every year, pick one place and I'll make sure it happens.

We'll make sure we'll travel there. So far, we've been to over 30 countries who are wide now, and that's something that really, it's really, really helpful. 

25:48 Louis Goodman: Can you name a couple of the countries that you've been to that you really enjoyed? 

25:52 Sergio Garcia: Most certainly, I think Italy was one of them, Greece, the Greek islands, especially Santorini.

I fell in love with that place. Most recently, we went to Dubai. And Dubai was such an experience. I have to tell you, you know, imagine this, imagine this 10 year old with literally torn shoes, going to school with an empty stomach and these crazy dreams. Right. And fast forward, let's say 35 years. And that same kid is now being received at the Burj Al Arab, which is that fancy hotel out in the water.

And, you know, you're being treated, given the red carpet treatment. And. We actually were able to use the helicopter from the Burj Al Arab, which is very, they're very strict about that. And so that was such an incredible experience. I was crying as our pilot, you know, showed up and, you know, they have all this protocol before you can do that.

And I was thinking, wow, life has been such an adventure. And yeah, it's been, it's been a blessing to be able to get to know these other countries, other cultures, and learn from them and realize that, gosh, the world's a big place.  

[00:27:06] Louis Goodman: What mistakes do you think lawyers make? 

[00:27:08] Sergio Garcia: Well, as I mentioned earlier, I think one of the mistakes lawyers make is thinking that being a lawyer just automatically means having a lot of money.

I tell you from personal experience, that was not the case, especially not my first year. I made fun of myself on social media because back in the day, I was working for a grocery store and my very first formal year of working when I was like 17 years old, I made a little over 5,000 dollars. and fast forward 20 years, my very first year of practicing, I made 4,800 dollars.

So I said, yeah, I only had to wait 20 years. To go from a, you know, courtesy clerk to a lawyer to make less money now, you know, as an attorney, and it's, it's crazy. I still have my social security letter where it shows, you know, how much I made 20 years prior, and then I made a few hundred bucks less as an attorney, my very first year. Luckily that didn't remain the same.

So I think it's a mistake to, like I said, to go into the practice a lot, thinking that it's just a money making proposition. I think, I think it's something that really requires you to have a passion for it. 

28:16 Louis Goodman: What sort of things keep you up at night? 

28:18 Sergio Garcia: Well, I'm a workaholic and I always stress too much. So I'm always wondering if I'm, you know, having the best strategy in my cases.

Obviously, as you probably know, statute of limitations are always something that's big. You wake up in the middle of the night thinking, wait, did something just go wrong with that statute of limitations? And luckily we have never had those issues, but yeah, those things keep you up at night. 

[00:28:43] Louis Goodman: Is there someone who you would like to meet?

Someone living or someone out of the historical past? Anybody who you would really like to meet? 

[00:28:54] Sergio Garcia: I think I would have loved to meet a Cesar Chavez. I had the pleasure of meeting his son and he was, he's a wonderful person, but I think, you know, because of a comment made by his son that touched my heart and will stay with me for the rest of my life, I think I would have liked to met his father.

He was being interviewed, his son was, on the radio station once, and, and he said something that really got to me. He said, Sergio Garcia is a continuation of my father's work, but you will no longer find him in the fields. Now you'll find him in the courtroom and to me it was like so touching and so incredible that his son would say something like that about me that it just it's like I would have loved to meet the father of this man.

[00:29:41] Louis Goodman: Let's say you came into some real money 3 or 4 billion dollars. What, if anything, would you do differently in your life? 

[00:29:49] Sergio Garcia: Well, I'm not sure that I would do anything differently, to be quite honest. I mean, like I said, we've been blessed not to, certainly not to that extent, I wish. Not to that extent, but my wife and I, ever since I became an attorney, I opened my foundation and we donate money to students who find themselves in my situation, who would not be able to continue their education, but for a little bit of assistance.

And so I don't think I would do anything different. I would focus on helping everybody because I really don't, don't think there's any other point in this life other than try to be happy. And help others along the way. So like I said, I think I would just increase the amount of health that we can provide.

Currently, you know, we donate about 20,000 a year for toys for kids during Christmas, during COVID, we donated 10,000 in shoes for our frontline workers. And we're always helping the local high schools and, students who, like I said, find themselves in hard times. Um, and yeah, you, you get to encounter all kinds of, people out in the world that really need that help.

And so, yeah, I think I would just continue doing that. You know, we live a very comfortable life, a word, family bliss, and we're cognizant of that. And so we try to help as many people as we can. 

[00:31:12] Louis Goodman: Let's say I had a magic wand that was one thing in the world that he could change the legal world or otherwise, what would that be?

[00:31:18] Sergio Garcia: Wow. Probably going back to your question, try just trying to make the legal world more fair, try to actually have justice and have the whole justice for all, uh, stated in the constitution, right? Not for it not to be only a saying, but to actually have that and to be applied equally as lady justice intended applied blindly without regard to people's background, the color of people's skin or anything like that.

I would like to see that. I'm more just society. A true justice system, because I mean, the legal legal system we have, it's basically that it seeks, seeks to make it everything right, but doesn't necessarily manage to bring justice in a lot of cases. And sometimes it's just impossible to do, but maybe try to make it as close as possible to bringing justice to everybody.

[00:32:09] Louis Goodman: Sergio, if someone wants to get in touch with you, someone who's interested in having you represent them or an attorney who would like to ask you a question or refer you to a case, what's the best way to get in touch with you? 

[00:32:26] Sergio Garcia: You know, you can always find me at my website online, even though my wife complains about it.

I think social media, it's also a really good way to find me if you're on Facebook. I'm old, so I'm on Facebook. I guess that Facebook, you'll always find me there and why don't you put that C in the middle, Sergio C. Garcia, you'll find me right away. I think that's a very good way to get in touch with me.

[00:32:49] Louis Goodman: Sergio, is there anything that you want to talk about? That we haven't discussed anything at all that you wanted to bring up? 

[00:32:58] Sergio Garcia: you know, I think just more than talk about just a wish at this point for our country, Louis, I think the wish would be for unity in this country for us to really come together independently of political backgrounds or whatever.

And try to get away from all the hostility, all the aggressiveness that I see nowadays. I would love to be able to just agree to disagree, right? Like in the past. 

[00:33:22] Louis Goodman: Sergio Garcia, thank you so much for joining me today on the Love Thy Lawyer podcast. It's been a pleasure to talk to you. 

33:31 Sergio Garcia: Likewise. Thank you so much for having me.

33:34 Louis Goodman: That's it for today's episode of Love Thy Lawyer. If you enjoyed listening, please share it with a friend and follow the podcast. If you have comments or suggestions, send me an email. Take a look at our website at lovethylawyer.com where you can find all of our episodes, transcripts, photographs, and information.

Thanks to my guests, and to Joel Katz for music, Brian Matheson for technical support, Paul Robert for social media, and Tracy Harvey. I'm Louis Goodman.

34:14 Louis Goodman: Sergio, I think I lost you here.

34:17 Sergio Garcia: Yes, I, I believe so. I always had a little interruption, but now we're okay.

34:22 Louis Goodman: We're okay. All right. Okay. All right. Here we go.