The stories of resilience and inspiration in people are undoubtedly of the attention of portals such as LA Weekly, where an article describing the trajectory of our senior attorney, Ms. Jany Martinez Ward, was recently published.
How can we understand the dramas of an entire community if we have not experienced many of them firsthand?
That’s what all the media seem to be asking themselves, as they have found in the story of The Ward and in the experience of Ms. Jany Martinez, the symbol of the search for freedom and the example that in immigrant communities, there are always people who are fighters for life, who after experiencing the pain and uncertainty of uprooting and starting from scratch, have found their purpose in the community to become a light for hundreds of people who feel lost in a country that is not theirs.
It is truly inspiring how Jany Martinez-Ward became a prominent voice for the Hispanic community. She was born in Cuba, so she was familiar with the severe obstacles and difficulties that many Hispanic immigrants encounter in the US.
Her mother was detained when she crossed the border, so when she and her family applied for asylum more than 20 years ago, they faced difficulties. After being put in foster care, Jany and her brother went through a terrible separation that changed her forever.
She became determined to ensure that no one in her community felt as hopeless as she had because of this deeply ingrained experience. Jany had some difficulties on her journey. To adequately represent her community, she had to get past language obstacles. She remembers that because of her poor English, an English teacher once told her she could never practice law.
Driven by her enthusiasm to stand up for her neighborhood and disprove her teacher, Jany obtained a full scholarship to the University of Florida. Before attending Nova Southeastern University's Shepard Broad Law Center to pursue a legal degree, she received dual bachelor's degrees in psychology and Spanish literature.
The voices that sabotage the dreams of our community could never stop the desire to serve others that inspired the Ward Law project from the beginning.
With a laptop, a large debt, and more and more uncertainty, Ms. Martinez embarked on this journey of being a law firm that has recovered $500 million dollars for its clients, along with her husband, Greg Ward, in a small office. It was going to be different from what they are now.
Over time, the firm began to reach many more people. And little by little, the lives of hundreds of immigrants have been positively impacted by the work of The Ward Law professionals. Language was no longer a barrier to accessing your rights. That is something Ms. Martinez Ward saw during her journey to the United States, how sometimes the language barrier was an excuse to deny rights to hundreds of people seeking a new life.
It is no coincidence that several media outlets consider the story of The Ward Law to inspire resilience in our community, in addition to transmitting the message that even when circumstances seem to take us to the extreme, the voice of intuition can always guide us to find our purpose.
In the case of The Ward Law, the purpose of constantly serving others has been achieved every day since its founding. And that is to be admired by all the media publishing their story.
Jany Martinez Ward
Partner
Jany Martínez-Ward is a Founding and Managing Partner of The Ward Law Group, PL, a Florida law firm representing victims of car accidents. She focuses her practice on providing legal representation to Hispanic clients that have become injured in a car accident as a result of the negligence of others. In 2018, The National Trial Lawyers Association recognized Jany as one of the top attorneys in the state and among the top 40 under 40 attorneys.
Author's Bio