Not a quitter
by Suzi Morales, J.D.
In his prior career as a school administrator, Carlos A. García (J.D. ’05) oversaw truancy matters for a school district.
García noticed a pattern in the cases.
“Of the children who were referred to truancy courts, 100% of the 500 referrals each year were low socioeconomic level and were not your band students or football players,” he said.
The disproportion that García saw sparked an interest in defending people. That led him to the St. Mary’s University School of Law and a career as a board-certified criminal defense attorney and founder of the Law Office of Carlos A. García, PLLC, with offices in Mission and McAllen.
“Being an older student, I’d been around some professors, but these law school professors were everything that I had hoped for. They just had so much energy about their subject areas.”
— Carlos A. García (J.D. ’05)
Ensuring students receive their education is something García believes in, not just because of his previous experience as an administrator.
The Rio Grande Valley native said people are often surprised to learn he is a high school dropout.
“I had a lot of failures early on in my adulthood, and my mother told me, ‘You know, you’re not a quitter, and you’re doing a lot of quitting,’” García said. “I needed that little wake-up call to really get me to reflect on being a man and being a responsible adult.”
After those early struggles, García completed a GED and earned an undergraduate degree in English and a master’s in Education. When he enrolled at St. Mary’s Law, he was married with two children in elementary school.
In law school, García was inspired by the excitement his professors had for their subjects.
“Being an older student, I’d been around some professors, but these law school professors were everything that I had hoped for,” he said. “They just had so much energy about their subject areas.”
Gerald Reamey, J.D., Professor Emeritus of Law, remembered García coming to law school with a maturity gained through real life and work experience as a teacher.
“Carlos embodies a generous, caring and empathetic desire to serve others,” Reamey said. “As a lawyer, Carlos was intellectually excited by criminal law, but I think it was the chance to represent the most vulnerable and, often, the least sympathetic among us that appealed most to his compassionate instincts.”
García thrived in law school. He took the bar exam early while completing his final semester. After graduation, the family packed up their belongings and moved back to the Rio Grande Valley.
“That Monday, I was at the local county courthouse, asking to take court-appointed cases for people accused who didn’t have money to hire a lawyer,” García said. “I got my business cards, started handing them out, and started representing and defending people in an aggressive way. I started to quickly get results.”
Since then, he has represented defendants in high-stakes federal and state cases throughout the Southwest.
Today, his elder son is an associate in García’s firm. Just as his mother once told him, García now tells his son and other mentees not to give up. In addition, his younger son, Deven Javier García, will earn his Bachelor of Arts in Criminal Justice in December 2025 from St. Mary’s. He plans on attending law school.
“Don’t be afraid,” Carlos García said. “It’s natural for all of us to be nervous about things, but you have to overcome that fear. There are a lot of brilliant lawyers out there who are afraid to get into the ring, to get into battle. Getting over that fear allows you to live up to your potential.”
