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VEGAS INC
the interview
nov. 27-Dec. 3
Send your business-related information to news@vegasinc.com
Q&A with alex de castroverde and orlando de castroverde
No matter how big it gets, it’s a family law firm Alex and Orlando De Castroverde are managing partners of De Castroverde Law Group, which was founded by their father, Waldo. The firm started with one lawyer and one secretary — Waldo’s daughter — and has grown to more than 40 employees. Having outgrown its downtown Las Vegas office, the firm expanded to Tivoli Village in the western valley, and the brothers aim next to open an office in Reno. De Castroverde Law Group recently celebrated its 10-year anniversary. To what do you owe your success? Alex: We have been fortunate to surround ourselves with exceptional staff and attorneys who expect more out of themselves than we expect of them. We all try to come to work in the morning with the goal of being better today than we were yesterday and better tomorrow than we are today. That mindset, and an office culture where we strive to treat each other and each of our clients like family, has allowed us to grow into what we have become. De Castroverde Law Group was one of the first firms in Nevada to have Spanishspeaking lawyers. Why was this important for you? Orlando: Alex and I would work at our father’s office during the summers while we were in college. I saw Lawyers Alex De Castroverde, left, and Orlando De Castroverde recently how the clients really were comforted opened an office at Tivoli Village. (mikayla whitmore/staff) by the fact that their attorney could are injured as a result of someone experience I could’ve had as a young talk to them in their native language. else’s negligence. attorney. After finishing my clerkship These experiences at a young age rewith the judge, I went to work with inforced the importance of attorneys What sets your law firm apart my father and knew right away that communicating with clients in Spanfrom other firms in Las Vegas? this is what I want to do. ish. There is no substitute. Alex: When we started practicing Most all of our attorneys speak law, we were fortunate to be able to What is the best part about Spanish and can communicate directwork with family. My dad, brother working with your brother? ly with our clients just as our dad did. and I were all lawyers at the same ofOrlando: My brother and I are two fice working to help people. It was inyears apart in age and have always What inspired you to follow grained in us to also treat clients like been very close. We can talk freely. your father’s path? family, and we have a family environEven if we disagree with each other Alex: As kids, we saw our father ment at our law office. While we will or make each other upset, at the end work tremendously hard to achieve his aggressively fight to help each of our of the day we are brothers and we will dream of becoming an attorney. Once clients, we have never lost sight of our get over it. he became an attorney and opened his family work environment and the way Alex: I feel extremely lucky to be law office, we saw the pride and joy he we treat our clients. able to work with my brother and best had in being able to help people. For Orlando: We also pride ourselves on friend each day. Just as when we were me, there was nothing else I wanted to providing great customer service. We kids, we spend a considerable amount be when I grew up. understand that the attorney market is of time together. Instead of hanging Orlando: Although I always thought highly competitive and that our clients out and playing sports, now it’s doing I might follow in my dad’s footsteps, I have several other options to choose what we love, practicing law. wasn’t 100 percent certain, and didn’t from, so we focus on seizing the oppordecide to go to law school until my last tunity to enhance that client experiWhat is the most common type year of college. ence so we can have a client for life. of case your law firm deals After being accepted to Ole Miss with? Law School, I returned to Las Vegas Do you foresee any legal Alex: Our biggest area of practice and clerked for Judge Lee Gates for issues arising with recreational is personal injury. We help those who a little over a year. That was the best
marijuana soon to be legal in Nevada? Alex: Carlos Blumberg, an attorney at our office, was one of the first in Nevada to help a client obtain a dispensary and cultivation license. All of us are in agreement that marijuana-related DUIs will increase. Unlike alcohol that passes through your system, you can test positive for marijuana days later. With your firm specializing in immigration and your father being from Cuba, what are your thoughts about immigration in Nevada? Orlando: Immigration reform is certainly a must for Nevada. At DLG, we were able to help hundreds of teenage Nevadans get an immigration status through the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program — high school kids who have lived in Nevada basically all their lives, but who were not citizens and had no status because they were born outside of the U.S. and brought here at an early age by their parents. DACA gave these kids hope and a path to continue to be positive members of the community. Helping these kids seize this great opportunity was one of the most rewarding experiences I’ve had at DLG. What is something that people might not know about you? Alex: I have three young daughters who I would love to become attorneys someday. If they are able to follow in the footsteps of their father, grandfather and great-grandfather, I would be ecstatic. Orlando: I’m married and have six kids. My wife, Marca, is the former coach of the UNLV Rebel Girls, the two-time NCAA Hip Hop champions. I was a competitive wrestler in high school and college, a state champion in high school and a junior college AllAmerican, among other honors. I’m also proud to have scored the highest MBE score in Nevada for the 2000 Bar exam.