I am a proud Latin American who was born and raised in Miami, Florida. I am of Cuban heritage on one side of my family and Venezuelan and Italian on the other side. I am a huge Miami sports fan. Go Fins! Go Heat! I attended the University of South Florida and graduated Summa Cum Laude with a Bachelor's Degree in Criminology and a minor in History. I then attended Florida International University College of Law where I graduated Cum Laude with a Juris Doctor degree. While at FIU Law, I joined the Trial Team. As a student advocate, I won a State mock trial championship. Since graduating, I have coached the FIU Law Trial Team for at least one competition every year, resulting in multiple State and Regional championships. Immediately after passing the Bar exam, I started as an Assistant Public Defender with the Miami Dade Public Defender's Office. I worked thousands of criminal cases, ranging from DUIs to violent crimes to sexual crimes. After 3 years as an Assistant Public Defender, I worked 2 years as an Associate at a large Florida criminal defense firm, where I continued to work very serious cases, including alleged Murders and DUI Manslaughters. I now run my own practice, Duran Defense LLC. I am 11-3 in trial. Most attorneys will not admit to you how many trials they have lost because they are afraid. I am not afraid. As Wayne Gretzky famously and wisely said, "You miss 100% of the shots you don't take." I have won 78.5% of my trials, many of which seemed like lost causes to my clients when they first retained me. And that number does not account for the dozens of cases I have had dismissed right before trial because the prosecutor or opposing counsel knew of my reputation.