Christina J. Thomas Mazaheri - Orlando, FL

Overview

I am a native South Carolinian, the oldest of three daughters, and the product of a working class, eat-your-okra-first-and-mashed-potatoes-second style family.

In highschool I was one of a handful of International Baccalaureate degree candidates, who, due to limited resources, had to choose between learning Spanish or French. I chose French because I wanted to communicate with the French Canadians who came to visit the beach each spring. Seven years later, a trusted college advisor signed me up for my first solo trip abroad to a Spanish-speaking country.

By the time I graduated college, I had completed six weeks of Spanish-immersion in Costa Rica, a semester in Washington, D.C. as a Congressional Fellow with Representative John Spratt, and two semesters as a civilian Research Assistant to a U.S. Army Recruiting Command Psychologist who studied the relationship between active duty in Iraq, posttraumatic stress disorder, and combat soldier reintegration. I also conducted an independent study on Physical Fitness Reform in South Carolina's Public Schools and defended an Honors Thesis on applying mechanical engineering's version of Dynamic Systems Theory to Healthcare Reform. In 2004, I graduated from the University of South Carolina's Honors College, magna cum laude, with a Baccalaureus Artium et Scientiae degree in Interdisciplinary Studies, including Biology, Political Science, French and Spanish.

After college, I landed a year-long gig teaching French at my hometown middle school and began making plans for travel. In the fall of 2005, I literally hopscotched over Hurricane Katrina on my way to Honduras and spent the next three months sharpening my Spanish skills, conducting schematic research for an HIV/AIDS education pilot program, and watching my home country flounder from a distance. In my spare time, I went fishing with the locals and explored the native Mayan Ruins of Copan. In January of 2006, after only one month at home, I flew to Malawi for a six-week volunteer experience with World Camp for Kids, Inc. In Africa, we reached out to more than 1,000 schoolchildren, teachers and community members in an effort to bring a scientific understanding of the HIV/AIDS epidemic to the region and encourage young people to stand strong against the rape culture that permeated their villages.

The next fall, I went back to school. I made the Dean's List five of my six semesters at the Charleston School of Law, became Managing Editor of the Charleston Law Review, and had the honor of being one of only four of my classmates to give an appellate-level argument before two federal court judges and the Mayor of Charleston in the final round of our school's IL Moot Court Board Competition.

In the summer of 2007, I went back for more World Camp, doubling as a Program Coordinator in Honduras and a student researcher for a paper entitled Transnational Civil Procedure: Practicing Law in Honduras. A year later, my travel bug itched again, and I moved to Miami, Florida, where I interned for a high-profile immigration law firm in which eighty percent of the workplace conversations occurred in Spanish.

The next fall, I volunteered with South Carolina Legal Services in Charleston, S.C., where I helped prepare federal cases against violators of federal laws regulating migrant farm workers and workplace discrimination. I also participated in legal services outreach programs within the neighboring Hispanic communities and received my school's "Giving Back" Award for community service. I graduated from the Charleston School of Law in 2009, cum laude, and secured a contract as a statewide Migrant/Limited English Proficiency paralegal with South Carolina Legal Services, where I stayed until I was sworn into the Florida Bar in December 2009.

Interestingly, the jobs missing from my resume are the ones that made my entire resume possible. For the last twelve years I have been forced, for economic reasons, to wear many different hats. Besides being an attorney, I was once a waitress, a hostess, a street vendor, a summer camp counselor, a customer service associate, a tutor, a bookkeeper, a theme park character, a pancake slinger, a bartender, a seamstress, a biscuit maker, a night watch"woman, " a campground reservationist, a Spanish radio public service announcer, and a daycare worker. All of these jobs I held in addition to my internships, sometimes juggling two paying jobs and one non-paying job to make ends meet while completing my studies.

When I'm not working, my passions are cooking, fishing, playing the piano, and teaching my ninety-five pound Treeing Walker Coonhound to sit still when he sees a duck. I love my family and science-fiction movies, and I look forward to learning at least three more languages, having my own garden, and one day, becoming a mother.

I joined The Amlong Firm in February 2010 as an Associate where I primarily practice employment discrimination litigation. It is a true honor to be part of a team of professionals dedicated to protecting workplace fairness. I am pleased to offer my services in both English and Spanish and am determined to bring a little South Carolina "charm" to both the Florida courtroom and to my relationships with clients, who, just like me, are working hard for their American Dreams.