We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Candelario Saldana. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Candelario below.
Candelario, thanks so much for taking the time to share your insights and lessons with us today. We’re particularly interested in hearing about how you became such a resilient person. Where do you get your resilience from?
My mother immigrated to the United States to give my brother and me a better future. She believed in the American Dream and wanted to give us a better opportunity for success. When my mother enrolled me in school, my family pushed me to be the best I could. I always enjoyed studying, and my mom always encouraged me to continue giving it my all. One day in junior high school, we were researching careers. I remember that I kept looking at the dollar signs for each job and eventually decided that I wanted to be a lawyer for two reasons: first, I could eventually use my knowledge about the courts and laws to help my mom get away from my stepfather’s abuse and second, I could help us get out of poverty. I went home and told my mother about my career decision and project. She responded with “Hijo, sientate. Nunca dejes que nadie te diga que no puedes alcanzar tus sueños sinembargo…” (Son, sit down. Never let anyone tell you that you can’t achieve your dreams, however…) and it was at that point that my mother told me about my undocumented status. It was as though my mother was telling me I’d never achieve my dreams. I didn’t quite understand what my mom was telling me because, in my head, I was like everyone else. I didn’t know about the obstacles I’d encounter later in life. That’s when my resilience began. Despite my mother telling me not to tell anyone about our status, I asked for help. I reached out to everyone I thought could help me out. Despite my mother’s fears of the possibility of someone turning us in to immigration, I decided that I would not let my status hold me back. Although there were individuals within the school system who weren’t able to help me out because they didn’t know much about immigration issues, there were those who believed in me enough to seek help and become educated about the issue enough to help me continue with my education. My resilience made others believe in me and made them willing to help me, including changing contracts to allow me, as an undocumented immigrant, to receive a full-ride scholarship to the University of Utah. Their fears that my undocumented status would stall my dreams after graduating from the University of Utah became a reality. However, I never stopped dreaming. Instead, I put my dreams on pause and started managing restaurants. I saved up money, always dreaming of going to law school, and six years later, thanks to President Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, I took advantage of advanced parole and adjusted my status. As soon as I adjusted my status, I started studying for the LSAT and preparing for law school. I always tell younger individuals that they can put their dreams on pause so long as they never stop dreaming. It’s the moment that we stop dreaming that our dreams vanish. Everyone pauses dreams for one reason or another, whether for financial, medical, or family-related reasons or simply because we are busy individuals. However, as long as we keep our dreams alive and do everything in our power to make them a reality, they will come true.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
I’m an associate in Cadwalader’s Capital Markets group. I represent investment banks and other financial institutions in secured commercial lending transactions, CLOs, commercial mortgage-backed securitizations and other asset-backed securitizations. I’m also one of Cadwalader’s Black & Latino Association Immigration Clinic leaders. I advise and mentor volunteer attorneys who take on immigration pro bono cases at Cadwalader and help educate our colleagues on the unique challenges that LGBTQ+ individuals face. I also helped establish a collaboration with Cadwalader, Wells Fargo and Legal Aid of North Carolina to offer pro bono services to trans individuals seeking a name change or gender marker change.
In my free time, I’m the President of the Pauli Murray LGBTQ+ Bar Association (PMBA), an organization I helped found. My husband and I arrived in Charlotte in May of 2019. I devoted my time to studying for the bar exam during the first few months. After taking the bar exam in July, I wanted to connect with other LGBTQ+ lawyers and legal professionals. However, there wasn’t an organization catering to this niche group. A quick Google search revealed that I had to connect with Connie Vetter. After connecting with Connie at a volunteer fair, we met with other LGBTQ+ identified individuals at my apartment and formed the Pauli Murray LGBTQ+ Bar Association. Unfortunately, the organization didn’t grow much due to the pandemic in the first couple of years. However, last year, we were able to showcase the importance of our organization.
Established in April 2020, PMBA aims at promoting and stimulating the practice and professional expertise of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and sexual/gender diverse legal professionals and providing opportunities for legal professionals in our communities to meet and network. We have held CLE courses and networking events for our members and continue to grow even in times of adversity.
In May 2023, the North Carolina Bar Association (NCBA) canceled a networking event that included drag. The event, planned by the NCBA’s Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Committee (“SOGI”), a committee I serve on, was scheduled for June 8, 2023. The NCBA established SOGI in 2021, tasking the committee to “work to oppose discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression; to promote the expertise and advancement of LGBTQ+ legal professionals; and to serve the larger LGBTQ+ community through providing legal education, resources, and information to the legal community and the public.” Then President of the NCBA, Clayton Morgan, stated that he had canceled the event because he didn’t want NCBA or SOGI to be “perceived as trying to advance [the LGBTQ] agenda on the world.” Clayton also suggested that the SOGI committee present both sides of the debate.
PMBA believed that canceling the networking drag and trivia event was antithetical to SOGI’s mission and a direct attack on the LGBTQ+ community. Therefore, PMBA stepped up to put on the event to ensure that LGBTQ+ legal professionals and allies had a place where they felt welcomed and safe to be their true selves. On June 8, 2023, PMBA welcomed approximately 270 attendees at our Drag Trivia event (more emphasis on drag than trivia) hosted at Motorco Music Hall in Durham, North Carolina. The event was a huge success thanks to our 43 corporate/law firm/organizational sponsors and approximately 200 donations from individuals! We raised over $60,000, which allowed us to cover the event’s costs and benefit our Lavender Law Scholarship. The funds raised allowed us to send one student from each of the six law schools in North Carolina to The National LGBTQ+ Bar Association’s Annual Lavender Law Conference in Chicago, Illinois, and we also have enough funds to send students in the future!
Almost a year later, the NCBA has not issued an apology, which is a reminder of the deep homophobia entrenched within the organization. PMBA continues to call on the NCBA to issue an apology and to uplift queer voices. We will host another drag event this year in June to raise funds for our organization and to remind the legal profession that drag is part of our LGBTQ+ culture and can be a part of legal professional events.
In addition to the drag event, we co-hosted an event with Campbell Law School’s Lambda Law student group on National Coming Out Day to celebrate the diversity within the LGBTQ+ community and legal profession. The event included networking (with food and beverages), a panel on diversity and a drag performance. The event allowed us to connect with law students and provide a meaningful way for students to connect with successful legal professionals in their community. This year, we’ll host another National Coming Out Day celebration with Elon’s OUTLaw student group.
As the attacks on the LGBTQ community continue throughout the country at the state and local levels, I’m reminded about the importance of having spaces for LGBTQ+ individuals and allies to come together and feel safe and also to share ideas on how we can successfully fight back. I’m so proud of all the work we’ve been able to do at the Pauli Murray LGBTQ+ Bar Association.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
Perseverance: We often focus on attaining our goals immediately and forget that sometimes, barriers will get in the way. These barriers are usually out of our control. What is under our control is never giving up and striving to attain our goals. As I mentioned before, we need to remember that we can put our dreams on pause so long as we don’t stop dreaming. It can be challenging to continue working towards achieving our dreams and goals, especially when times get hard. However, find individuals who believe in you and will cheer you on along the way. It doesn’t necessarily always have to be family; it can be a network of people you have met along your career path.
Network: You never know who can help you in the future or whose life you’ll be able to impact. Treat everyone with respect and get to know as many people as possible. I’ve had so many people believe in me and help me throughout my career that I can’t name everyone who has positively impacted my life. Without the help of others, I would not be where I am today because there’s so much we must check off on the path toward success. We don’t always know everything, but if we have someone who knows what we don’t know, our lives and careers will get easier.
Follow-up: People often want to help, but sometimes life gets in the way, so be bold and follow up. If someone has offered to help you and you are still waiting to hear back from them, follow up. I cannot express this enough. Sometimes I have offered help, and because of everything I have going on in my personal and professional life, I forget. However, once I receive a follow-up email, I focus on what I agreed to do and knock it out. It also indicates that a person is a go-getter and isn’t afraid to ask for help. People who genuinely want to help out will not get upset if you follow up; they’ll be grateful that you have done so.
To close, maybe we can chat about your parents and what they did that was particularly impactful for you?
My mother sacrificed so much for me when she immigrated to the United States to give me a better education. She left a familiar world to come to the unknown, hoping to give my brother and me a chance at a better life and future. I knew how much my mother had given up and what her sacrifice meant; however, I didn’t fully understand it until recently when my grandfather was on his deathbed. My mother called me crying, and with deep pain in her voice, she told me about her strong desire to see her father after 34 years of not having seen him in person. The reason she had been away from her father for so long, and ultimately was unable to hug him goodbye one last time before he died, was because of the sacrifice she had made in 1989 to give me a better future. I will forever be grateful and continue to work hard to make her proud because I know how much she gave up when she decided to leave everything behind.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.cadwalader.com/professionals/candelario-saldana
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/candelario_saldana/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/candelario-saldana-esq-aba19877/
- Other: https://lgbtqbarnc.com/
Image Credits
Munoz Photography, Second Life Photography, King Sage
