The Immigrant Advantage, AI Implementation, and Billing Models with Majo Castro

Welcome to Studying Law Around the World. I'm Claudio Claus. In each episode, I talk with lawyers, law students, and professors from different parts of the world to talk about legal education, careers, and what the profession looks like in real life. We talk about the hard parts, the surprises, and the decisions that shaped their paths. Whether you're planning to study abroad, thinking about working in another legal system, or just curious about how law works around the world, this podcast is for you. Today I'm host— I'm here joined by Majo Castro. She's a lawyer who has an incredible story in Texas. She's been building an incredible career that unites law, cybersecurity, technology, and very, very interesting topics that are very timely and very important. important at this time. Thank you so much for making the time to come and join the podcast, Majo. Claudio, thank you so much for the invite. I'm so excited. I've been listening to it for a while, and I'm happy to be here. That's amazing. Thank you so much once again for making the time to be here with us. And to start, I'd love for you to introduce yourself to our listeners. Tell us a little bit about your journey and even what led you to, you know, build this career in cybersecurity and technology law. That's interesting. People always ask me that. They think that I'm a hacker, that I have code background, but to the lawyers out there, you don't have to be a hacker or no-code to do what I'm doing, but I'm going to introduce myself first before I get into it. My name is Maria Jose Castro. I'm from Venezuela, but I go by Majo Castro. I'm the founding attorney of Castro Legal. We're a boutique law firm, growing law firm here in Austin, Texas, where we do business and technology law. We do cybersecurity, AI governance, data privacy, and technology contracts. As I mentioned, born and raised in Venezuela, I moved to Texas. Back in 2015, leaving my country wasn't a career move for me. It was more of a— it was a decision about whether there was a future to build personally for me being 22, recently graduated from law school. I was making $100 per month working full-time as a paralegal for an experienced attorney. At some point in my life early on, I'm like, I cannot. I'd much rather do something elsewhere. That's how I arrived to Texas with my legal education that Literally meant nothing by then. I couldn't practice. I started college, community college called Central Texas College in Killeen, Texas. Little town, military town. I had a cousin living there. They received me at their place really nicely. I did an English course, then I did a paralegal studies program. That's how everything started for me. I didn't even know what a paralegal was. In Venezuela, we don't have that. I don't know, Claudio, about Brazil, but in Venezuela, the assistant to the attorney is going to be the younger attorney. I was really impressed by knowing about the paralegal studies. And I did the 2-year associate program. That's how it all started. Then I found out about the LLM programs. And since I moved to Austin, Texas, I want to be really honest, I felt that Longhorns, UT, they were calling my name. I didn't even know that I was going to get admitted. It's a really competitive school, but I'm happy that I applied. I got in. And between all of their programs, the LLM programs, they had the cybersecurity one, which really caught my attention because I've never been a regular quote unquote lawyer. I'm okay with litigation. I'm okay with transactional, but I have like an entrepreneurial heart. And that's why I love supporting growing businesses, technology businesses, and founders that don't know even where to start. Most people come to me whenever they have compliance questions, contracts questions. And that's the interesting part of all that I've been doing so far. That's amazing. Fantastic. Thank you so much for sharing that. And as You know, a lawyer who trained in both countries, in 2 systems. What are some of the first initial challenges for you, you know, in regards to rebuilding your career in the US and also, you know, getting started to move forward? I think we just had a quick conversation before starting recording and information is one of those big challenges, but I wanted to hear a little bit more about your experience. Of course, arriving to a new country, I didn't even know how to pump gas. People make fun of me whenever I say that out loud, but in Venezuela, People pump gas for you. Just imagine arriving to a new country. You are talking in a language that you think until you realize quickly that you don't. The Southern accents, the Texas accent, all of that was quite an adaptation process for me. The bar exam. I can talk about the bar exam for days. It was really difficult and all of that. We all hear, if we are in the legal career one way or another, we know how terrible the test is, but it's You study, you pass it eventually if you're patient enough. To me, it wasn't even that the hardest thing, but it was like the years in between being patient while I was serving tables, while I was bartending, while I was going to school, while I was trying to do higher education in the United States, while not knowing the directions or the maps or where the grocery store was at, not having family around, building a reputation. I think that was the hardest part for me, the building phase and the years in between. Because whenever I'm one of those, whenever I set my mind onto something, I saw UTLM, I'm going to do what's in my power to get there. Yeah. It's having the patience to even know that I was going to be able to do what I'm doing. Because I didn't get to meet people doing it already. I just had a dream, an idea, and I kept swimming until I, I couldn't anymore. That's incredible. I'm curious here, you know, from, from that experience to now advising growing technology companies, you know, advising them on their contracts, on their privacy, cybersecurity, on their AI governance. So many interesting and timely topics, but also those can be very, very complex. And I'm curious to ask, you know, in your experience so far, are there a few problems in particular that you find that founders most often underestimate or even just encounter? Oh my God. I have a list. I'm going to start with the ones that I see the most. Data rights buried in 120-page contracts. Or on the other side, even founders that create a software that they want to resell, but they don't protect their IP accordingly. They resell or they sell access to a platform, but their right, the data rights and their ownership is not correctly protected because they just want to launch. That's the thing about technology. People move quick. And with AI, they want to even move quicker because they want to compete. So. Then as we all know here, the regulations lag behind, but then they all come around all at once. So that's the third point. I think that founders these days are kind of confused to all of the regulations that their businesses touch on. So they have a compliance information access. I don't know how to explain it better, but it's just too much at once for them. They, most founders think that it's building the tool and just go to market. But there's a lot of steps in between that if you do it right, you do it with an attorney that has the business perspective, the technology, and the data in AI, things could go way smoother whenever they do encounter an issue with a contract or data rights or even AI training models or even bias, which is a huge topic right now on AI models that most founders are touching or creating these days. I see. You know, that's quite interesting when we consider all of these these interesting points. It also, you know, makes me think of the focus of the podcast. I always want to inspire, you know, young lawyers, those that didn't have the opportunity to, you know, have a family who's already studied law and practiced in that area and that can give all the background and mentorship, but really people who are trying to come and understand what practice areas can look like, what the day-to-day of a lawyer can look like in different areas so that you can choose with a little bit more of information and background. And when talking with lawyers who are practicing in cybersecurity, who are practicing in privacy, and even in AI governance, it's been interesting to see how that's being shaped in such an evolving, interesting area. And diving in on that a little bit on AI governance, it seems like it has become a little bit of a concern for businesses. And I'm curious to see if you've seen it a little bit in your practice. as well, and if there's a few, you know, steps that you'd say that could help for a growing company to take, you know, before a client or investor or even regulators start asking questions. Yeah, I think everyone wants to implement AI one way or another. I'm a technology lawyer. I'm for technology. I wouldn't ever tell a company, do not do it. But this is the thing that I always talk about on my LinkedIn, on my Substack. Stack, on my Instagram Reels, all of it. I'm always like, okay, if you're going to implement something that's fairly new and we don't know the extent of it, because we still don't know the extent of AI agents and AI systems embedded into every single corner of our environment, I will say for founders and company owners and even lawyers to start implementing AI in ways in where you're not going to lose, for example, your law license. Because I really am, I've been chatting a lot with the California Bar Association. I was invited to chat about AI implementation in law firms. I, same with Texas. I'm really vocal about that online because I feel like it's a competitive edge for boutique law firms or growing law firms like mine to implement AI reasonably and responsibly within our environment, because it helps me compete with big law. I respond faster. I'm quicker to send proposals. My emails are replied to within 24 hours. I have a system in place in where I think I feel confident in my AI usage. Also, if something breaks, I'm confident that I'm not, my name is not going to be in the headlines. But again, we know the regulations change. If you see my name on the headlines, know that I was trying to implement new technology and things happen. That's, and that leads me to, I've always thought and feel bad about those attorneys that end up in the news with the, oh my God, the AI agent did ABC and such and such got a fine or the bar association did something. I'm like, well, they're in the forefront and there's a risk of being in the forefront of anything. Because of that, I tell regulators, founders, whoever, implement technology accordingly, responsibly, and with a lot of patience. It is easy to— there's a lot of people even, you know, they call me and they're like, I have this new AI tool, shiny thing that's going to literally think for you. And I'm like, no, I don't. I, my judgment, my legal judgment is mine. I don't sign anything that I'm not following, understanding. That I don't triple check myself, but I do give AI, for example, marketing creation. It helps me with my Substack blogs. It helps me with my blogs on my website. It helps me with proposal creation. The proposals is the perfect example because it's the first example I have in my firm, Claudio, that have, that have an ROI in. For example, in the month of May, I had about 32 initial calls, but 30-minute calls with potential clients. In the past, I would literally, after the— I will reserve a full block hour, 30 minutes to chat with the client, 30 minutes to, with the help of AI, create the proposal. But I was able to then implement through open APIs in my case, and we're using Claude and Tropic. We were able to connect all of that. Claude takes the notes from my call and it generates the proposal with my template 5 minutes after the conversation ends. That was able to give me back about 12 to 13 hours per month, which is a lot. Those 30 minutes, I'm drinking coffee, I'm with my puppy, chatting with my assistants and having fun because that's why I opened my law firm. I really truly want to have fun while I work. That's incredible. Thank you so much for sharing that as well. I think that really brings a good background and a good stage for our conversation to continue. And I love what you said right now, and I love that something that I saw you writing about, if I, if I got it correctly, is that you explained that cybersecurity as a legal professional is, you know, a legal and professional competence issue and not an IT issue. Yes. So I'm curious to hear a little bit more about that take. You know, what responsibilities do lawyers have when they're using technology since we got into that topic? I love that article. It actually landed me a bunch of Speaking gigs. I love that. I could talk about it for days. You cut me off if I extend myself, but I mentioned that cybersecurity and even AI and data privacy are now part of our competence as attorneys because whoever is not using AI today, today is still okay. Today we're recording on August 4th, 2026. I still have colleagues that they're like, no, I'm not using it. I hate it, whatever. Never using it, never touching it. Do you see all the headlines? I'm like, okay, that's the most terrible example that you can give it. I can give you a couple positive ones, like the one that we just talked about. I do think that for now they can get away with that, but in 2028 or even like 6 months from now, let's not put it that far away because the AI world and technology is moving quick. I do think that they will do a disservice to their clients because, you know, there's people like me and other law firms in town, which we're working quicker, serving better of our clients with competence, with confidentiality obligations, because We understand how data is managed through these systems. So we're not just purchasing legal tools blindly. We know how to use, we know how to use them. We can work at flat rates, for example, which is something that I do with my law firm. So whoever is not using AI to their advantage, it's doing a disservice to their client because the client is going to one, end up waiting for longer than other firms in town for their results, their analysis, their defense, their motions to get filed. And the price is going to be, it's going to be way higher. At some point, I feel like the market is going to start stabilizing itself. I think also, and I don't know if we have that as one of our questions, but I've been really adamant to say that I do think that billable hours are going to be dead in a year from now, 2 years from now. And that's why I decided that whenever I opened my law firm to start implementing flat fees. The client knows what they're getting. I know what I'm doing. If I do it in half the time, or if it takes me 3 times as much, That's my responsibility. By the way, that only has happened in 2 cases in almost 2 years of practice because we keep really close track of all of our metrics. But all of this to say that really well-implemented technology can give you the confidentiality, responsibility, and the competence that all of our clients ultimately need. That's incredible. Well, I appreciate you bringing that up. It's, it's a conversation that we, we just have to, to continue having, right? I feel like I'm in a very interesting circle in the legal profession, having these conversations in the podcast where I do talk about this quite often, but I also know that, that this is not, you know, talked about enough outside of these circles. So I love having the chance to revisit it and even broadcasting this message even more. And, you know, I'm, I'm, I want you to kind of double-click in, in the story of your career. You know, you've built Castroland Legal. from a solo practice into a growing team while using these tools, while using automation, AI. You just talked about, you know, proposals, for example, where it's a low-risk, high-ROI usage case. I love that. What else have you learned about using technology without using that human connection, or as you said, the legal judgment as well? I like to categorize my AI usage. I try to be— I'm going to give you another example on the human aspect and how important that is for my practice, my values. Who am I as a person? Whoever knows me. Whoever have interacted with me even for 5 minutes, they know that I— human interaction and connection, it's the number one thing for me. For example, first year in practice with Castro Legal was 2025, last year in full. And I decided because it was just me, lots of caffeine, water, and not enough hours in a day, I had decided to get an AI phone system that I'm not going to promote because it sucks. Not only because the system, it was in the learning phase, good for them. I wanted to support them. But because people will call and ask for all of my 4 or 5 different names mixed in one way or another, and the system wouldn't pick up that it was me, the owner of the business. And it would tell everybody calling, we don't have a Majo Castro here. We don't have a Maria Landira here. We don't have a Maria Jose Castro Landira working for this law firm. And of course I will get the recordings and one time, because it was me, imagine midnight, 1:00 AM in the morning, going through all the admin stuff. It was just me by then, back then. I'm like going through the recordings and the calls, scheduling text message responses and emails for the next morning so I could sleep in. I hear this recording of this person fighting with the AI agent for 5 minutes straight. Like, I was just, I couldn't help but laugh a little bit, honestly. Then of course I called them the next day. I'm like, hey, I am sorry. It is me. Because they were like, oh, you're tricking me. This person gave me a card. It was me. I was the person. I was at a networking event. I was the only one working for the firm back then. I called them. I was apologetic. I said, I am sorry. And I'm like, hey, by the way, you have made me— your experience has made me make the decision to remove AI completely from our AI telephone system, the automated system. I'm going to bring a human because I don't think that's the service that I want anybody calling in for the first time to our law firm having. That because as attorneys, even though that I'm a transactional and business lawyer, people call me in high-stakes scenarios, negotiations, mediation. An issue with the contract, even pending funding because I don't have an AI something in place that I have to come in and do ASAP. I truly did that swap because of that experience. It only took me 6 months to internally define that wasn't for me. That is a good example on how technology can go against the values and morals and whatever you have going on for your firm as a human and how AI can be a bad decision for business. That's amazing. And what a good example of, you know, of a known AI usage, right? Because as a user of different products and, you know, especially bigger corporations, it's quite frustrating to have to call and go through, you know, so many different portals and so many different things. So I totally understand that. I'm curious here too, you know, I understand that you also work with, you know, advocacy for immigrant businesses and business owners. You participate in public policy. I'm curious as well, how has, you know, your background and your community shaped the kind of lawyer and firm leader that you have become? Oh my goodness. I think that it has, my background and everything that I've done so far made everything that I am today as an attorney. I'm happy now that I experienced quite a little bit of the things that I have personally. I was also a small business owner up until 2025. I opened a mobile bartending business, not legal related. It was service-driven. We're catering to weddings, to Corporate events. And I did that because I thought that what I'm doing today wasn't going to be possible because I had never seen anyone like me doing it. At least I hadn't talked to them. I couldn't find them online if they existed, because they did. Now I know, but they weren't vocal online and it was hard for me to find them. I've been building my firm for the clients that I understand. And even to those that I don't understand, I'm going to give you a quick explanation. Right now with the political climate, I've had a couple of calls of potential clients that call me and they're like, no, you've built your whole firm. Because around the fact that you're Latina or around the fact that you're an immigrant. I'm like, no, I built my firm for people that respect me, appreciate my opinion, respect my legal judgment, and understand that products that have been developed for a year and a half can still be not legally— they were created with not legal things in mind. And I say this because I've had people coming to me that get really frustrated. This is something that I literally learned, like This month I learned that whenever they come to me and they talk about a product, it's like they're talking about their kids. A product is a kid. My past business was a kid. It took me that one experience that I had this month with the firm about this person saying that I built it solely for people with my background to understand that people really care about what they're building. And, and all this to say that even though that I do have my Venezuelan background and I cater to these small businesses and immigrants, and that's all that I am as a person. I also have built my business for other founders that find that them and I can make a connection, that my tone and the way that I see things and the way that I explain things is something that they need at that point in time. That's why I write through the CyberLawGal Substack in English and Spanish, because I'm trying to cater to everybody equally. Of course, immigrants and in our community, like they're deep in my heart. This weekend, we did our first sponsorship for the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce here in, in Austin. Really proud of that. But then I'm eyeing a couple other organizations that not necessarily are related to immigrants. We're just trying to be a well-rounded law firm. And even though that my background and my community has shaped everything that I'm doing for everybody. Quite impressive. I wanted to, to bring something back here as we come to the end of our conversation. So Earlier in the podcast, I did mention that a lot of my listeners are law students or early career graduates, right? So, so they're in the first few years of their practice and they're entering a very much of a changing legal market anywhere in the world. And I'm curious, you know, if, if you were to reenter the market now, what, what kind of advice would you give this next generation of lawyers who's beginning their careers today? Oh my goodness. Be patient. The time will come. If you are consistent enough, things will come, but you have to be consistent. When people are watching, when they're not watching, whenever they— my life up until last year was a grind. I literally forgot what was to do things for fun, which sounds like intense. I'm barely 33. Just to give you an example on how it's been. Now I get to read. What I saw, I am working on building the practice of my dreams, to have the life-work balance that I've been seeking for a decade at this point in the United States. For people wanting to get into cybersecurity, technology, and AI, I think that it's smart for them to pick the domain because the domain and the body of knowledge and the legal regulations are younger than they are. That's why, how, that's why I get to be a keynote speaker and I get to be invited to this podcast and I get to do a Substack and have People that are reading, because in AI governance, in cybersecurity and data privacy, there's not a lot of competition. It's a forever changing area. I open my computer every day and I do not know who's going to call to ask me what question. The good thing is that the founders, they understand that we're all in this together and that my job is to make them get to the end goal, but we're going to figure it out together as we go. There's a lot of figuring out. Which can be uncomfortable for some type of attorneys. Some style of personalities are more like, no, I want to know and I want to do ABC and that's going to be the end result. But in this area, sadly, it's not like that. That's something to take into consideration if you're thinking on technology law. Learn the technology, learn AI, learn how you can use it smart and to your advantage with always being responsible and keeping your professional ethical responsibilities in mind. Ultimately, and lastly, if you are foreign trained, You need to stop second-guessing yourself. Second, like foreign-trained attorneys, you have what it takes to be competitive in this market. A lot of people literally send me DMs on LinkedIn. They invite me for virtual coffee shops, for coffee, I'm sorry. They're like, Majo, how do you do it? You seem so confident. I'm like, well, some days I'm not confident. I still do it. I do research. I study a lot. I read, I go to conferences. I surround myself with people that are smarter than me. I have who to call if things go south. That'll be my 3 closing notes. That's incredible. Thank you so much for making the time to share this with us today in the show, and hope you have a good rest of your week. Thank you all for tuning in and listening to today's episode as well. Thank you, Claudio. See you next.