For SAC graduates Joe and Carmen Gamez, justice, service and compassion are a way of life

Even before Joe Gamez graduated as salutatorian from Lanier High School in San Antonio, he knew he wanted to be a lawyer.

He grew up on the city’s West Side in the days of segregation in San Antonio, where he experienced first-hand how people of ethnic minorities from modest backgrounds were often treated unfairly by the legal system.

“I knew I wanted to be a lawyer so I could help people,” he said.

Despite his ambition and academic talent, he was encouraged to become an auto mechanic or a welder by his principal due to the expense of college, especially with seven younger siblings at home.

“You talk about being poor,” Gamez said. “The thing about it was we had such a loving mother, you didn’t know you were poor.”

He was president of his sophomore and junior classes, and in his senior year he was elected as student council president. When he saw that students were being punished for speaking Spanish at school, he spoke out.

“I guess wanting to be a lawyer, I wanted to do the right thing and speak up for the ones that couldn’t speak up for themselves,” he said. “I told the principal, why are we suspending our students and punishing them for practicing a foreign language they’re studying at school?”

The principal called him insolent and gave him a choice: resign or be removed.

“At moment, I decided to take a stand for what was right and resign,” Gamez said. “The important thing was I stood up for this injustice.”

After high school, Gamez enrolled at San Antonio College. He remained focused on his goal of becoming a lawyer, inspired in part by his hero, Henry B. Gonzalez, a San Antonio lawyer who went on to serve in the U.S. Congress for 38 years.

Gamez followed the same educational path as Gonzalez, graduating from SAC, then the University of Texas Austin, then St. Mary’s University School of Law in San Antonio, where his classmate was Gonzalez’s son, Charlie. The two would joke about barely having enough gas money to get to their law school classes.

After graduating, Gamez began his career working in a Hispanic-owned San Antonio law firm.

One day he was covering phones while the receptionist ran to the bank. Her friend Carmen walked in to meet her for lunch, and the two chatted while she waited.

Although that meeting eventually led to a marriage that has lasted for 50 years so far, their first date was inauspicious. Joe borrowed his brother’s old Ford Falcon to pick Carmen up. She was impressed when he opened the door for her, but had reservations as they drove off.

“He told me ‘There’s only one thing about the car – you see that mat your feet are on? There’s a hole under there. Be careful, especially when I turn corners,’” Carmen said.

When he turned a corner, Carmen could see the yellow stripe in the road below her feet.

“I thought, oh my gosh, this is dangerous. Are you sure you’re a lawyer?” she said.

Carmen, a fellow SAC alum, was studying to become a teacher. She continued her education after the two married. Two years into his career as a lawyer, Joe took a job in the county attorney’s office in Brooks County and the couple lived in Falfurrias, where Carmen continued her education at Texas A&I University in Kingsville (now Texas A&M).

After five years, they returned to San Antonio. Carmen enrolled at UTSA, where she earned a degree in elementary education with an endorsement in bilingualism. Joe opened his own law practice, and Carmen would help while she also pursued her education.

Joe recalled one night when they were expecting their first daughter. As they both worked late at the office, Carmen went into labor while she typed a term paper for school. On the way to the hospital, Carmen made Joe promise to turn her paper in to her professor the next day.

Carmen began her teaching career in San Antonio’s Edgewood ISD, serving some of the city’s most impoverished neighborhoods.

One day a kindergarten student came to school late in freezing temperatures with no socks or coat. She told the student to tell her mother she needed to wear warmer clothes. The next day the student came back, still without warm clothes but with a message for Carmen.

“My mama says if you want me to wear socks and sweaters you need to buy them for us, we got no money,” the girl said.

“So I went to Kmart and bought a bunch of clothes,” Carmen said. Despite warnings from administrators, she continued to provide necessities to her students, including Christmas gifts.

“When you work in an environment like that you can’t help but know what these children need, and I just couldn’t look the other way,” she said.

Joe’s desire to help people led him to run for the Texas Legislature. He ran for state representative and won on his second try, serving a term in the house. One of the bills he’s most proud of shields women from domestic violence with protective orders.

He continued to work hard in his general practice law firm, helping clients with bankruptcies, probate, federal court, family law, traffic court and more. He was known in legal circles for his relentless pace.

“I hired four young lawyers, each year a different one, and they all quit, telling me ‘Mr. Gamez, it’s too much work,’” he said.

He kept extra shirts in his briefcase to change between frequent walks to the federal court building. If he got called to the courthouse on the weekend, when he was trying to spend time with his young children, he would bring them along in a stroller.

After nine years of teaching and helping at Joe’s office after school, Carmen joined him in the law firm and became certified as a paralegal.

Joe’s practice was rooted in compassion, and often took on low-paying or pro bono cases.

“I didn’t want to turn down people that needed representation,” he said. “Even now people tell me ‘My grandfather saw you when he was a young man and not only did you treat him with respect and dignity, he knew you did everything to help him.’”

His tenacity paid off during the COVID-19 pandemic. When many other firms closed their offices, Gamez set up a tent outside to meet with clients. If he needed a judge’s signature, rather than face delays, he would go to the courthouse, knock on the closed door, and slide the document under the door.

“During COVID is when our firm grew from one lawyer to 4,” Gamez said.

Later in his career, he decided to specialize in personal injury cases. Today his face is on billboards throughout San Antonio, with the tagline “Gamez Law Fights.” The firm remains a family business. Their son Joseph oversees marketing for the firm, and their youngest daughter Natalie, who also works at the firm as a spokesperson, will graduate from St. Mary’s with her law degree this spring. Natalie was selected as one of two recipients of the school’s Presidential Award for academics and student involvement. Their oldest daughter Melissa lives in Dallas.

Both Joe and Carmen still go into the office most days.

“We will continue to be there until the good Lord calls us,” Carmen said.

Outside of work, they both enjoy their six grandchildren and are active in philanthropy. Carmen is involved with the Girl Scouts of Southwest Texas and other groups serving children and seniors. She will also be honored this spring with the St. Mary’s Hispanic Law Alumni Association Award, a recognition for legal professionals who demonstrate exemplary service, mentorship and commitment to the Hispanic community.

“My wife is like a lightning bug – always on the go,” Joe said. “There’s a lot going on.”

Through the years, Joe has gone back to Lanier High School to encourage students to pursue their dreams.

“I tell young people, if you want it bad enough, you’ll sacrifice, work hard,” Joe said. “I knew that I would do it. It’s just a question of how, how long and what it would take.”

They’ve received letters over the years from high school students who took Joe’s advice to heart.

“We heard from one boy who became a lawyer and said ‘I never dreamed I could do it, but your husband inspired me,’” Carmen said.

Joe will continue to inspire future lawyers at St. Mary’s School of Law: as of last fall, his name is on the courtroom at his alma mater, St. Mary’s University School of Law.

The Gamez Law Firm honored him with a $1 million gift to the school, which went toward upgrades to the courtroom (now named the Joe A. Gamez Courtroom) and the building that houses it, as well as scholarships for law students.

Seeing his name on the courtroom was something he never thought possible, he said, but it reminds him why he decided to practice law so many years earlier: to help people.

“I am proud to support the law school that taught me not only how to practice law, but how to serve others with compassion and purpose,” he said.

–SAC–

Photos:
Joe Gamez as a SAC student.
Joe and Carmen Gamez with Congressman Henry B. Gonzales
Joe and Carmen Gamez in the Joe A. Gamez Courtroom at the St. Mary’s University School of Law. Photo courtesy of St. Mary’s University and Robin Jerstad