Jennifer Diaz With Diaz Trade Law

Intro: [00:00:02] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for Association Leadership Radio. Now, here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:16] Lee Kanter here another episode of Association Leadership Radio. And this is going to be a good one. Today on the show, we have Jennifer Diaz and she is with Diaz Trade Law. Welcome, Jennifer.

Jennifer Diaz: [00:00:28] Welcome. Thank you so much for having me.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:30] Well, before we get too far into things, I’m really excited to learn about Diaz trade law. Can you tell us a little bit about your practice?

Jennifer Diaz: [00:00:37] I would love to. That’s definitely where I spend all of my day. Well, besides, with my two year old, I am a board certified customs and international trade lawyer. I’ve been in this realm for a little over 16 years, so I spent ten years with a larger firm, and about seven years ago I started Diaz Trade Law. So we are a boutique customs and trade firm, which really meant nothing to me 17 years ago when I was in law school. So I had a whole lot of internships to figure out what I wanted to do with my life. And when I was in my last internship, I realized I loved this area because it’s so incredibly diverse. There are 48 federal government agencies that regulate imports and exports. Can you believe that? I mean, it’s an incredible amount of agencies to keep up with. So we help companies on one of two bases. Either they want to import or export and they want to do it the right way. So we call that pre compliance. And as you can imagine, how many people want to do the right thing, the right way in advance of doing it and actually think of paying a lawyer in advance, right. So a small percentage versus, oh, no, I’m in trouble. So we have the flip side, which I call us being the 911 operators for trade. Oh, no, my bank account assets are frozen because I exported without a license. Oh no. Customs seized my goods because I didn’t do my pre compliance homework. Oh no I’m in trouble in some way, shape or form with US Customs, Food and Drug Administration or some federal government agency. So we are consistently putting out fires.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:07] Now, can we go back a little bit to when you were in law school? And obviously this wasn’t in your radar, this wasn’t when you were younger. You’re like, one day I dream to be this guru of trade law. Very true. When you’re when you’re an aspiring lawyer, how do you kind of sort out where you fit in the world and what is resonating with you? You mentioned going through a lot of internships. Well, so that was in a variety I assume a variety of specialties.

Jennifer Diaz: [00:02:38] Area you can imagine landlord, tenant, entertainment, criminal, you name it. I tried it because I had to know what I hated. I mean, to me, one of the most important things any law student can do is intern and learn what you hate and what you can’t do because you need to know what what type of job. Especially that’s not for you. Those are the monster things you need to know. And then if you get very, very lucky and like me on my 12th try you get to figure out something that you’re really, really incredibly interested in. I loved that every day was a different day. Every day was crazy exciting. It was new. Every day I learned something new. 17, almost years later. Every day I still learn something new every day.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:24] Now there’s a saying that I try to teach my kid. It’s when you’re making a choice, especially a big choice like that, it should be a hell yea or a no. Like it’s something that you should be very excited about. And if you’re wavering a little bit, that’s probably a clue. Either your gut feeling or some sixth sense that maybe this isn’t the thing. You should really be investing time and energy into how what kind of what happened for a trade law that said, you know what, let me just keep following what like all of a sudden it was this big dramatic epiphany moment or you were like, Hey, all of my skills are aligned here. I’m excited about going in every day. Like, what part was that kind of trigger? That said, this is where I want to spend, you know, now the bulk of your career.

Jennifer Diaz: [00:04:12] And I love the question and I love your advice to your kiddo that, you know, that feeling you have in the pit of your stomach where you’re like, oh, I really just don’t want to be here. I don’t want to do this. You know, that feeling that you get when you’re in the wrong place at the wrong time? I never had that. I was never I don’t want to be here. It was never I don’t want to wake up in the morning. I don’t want to go to work. I don’t want to have to get dressed to be there. I don’t want to physically go to that office. I don’t want to deal with those people. I don’t want to deal with that type of work. I never had any of those those negative emotions. And on the flip side, it was that, heck yeah, it was that every day I’m learning something new, every day I’m intrigued. Every day there is something exciting that I want to learn more about. Every day I want to read more to understand more, to delve deeper into this particular area. I had excitement for this particular practice area that I never in a million years would have had for real estate, criminal landlord, tenant entertainment and all those other areas that I tried. I sat and. Courtrooms. It wasn’t for me. I didn’t want to litigate, so I needed to find an administrative practice area that was on the commercial side where I didn’t have to physically go into a courtroom and I could still be excited about that practice. So the bottom line is there is always some area that will excite you regardless of what it is. And anyone who tells a law student that you have to be in a courtroom to be a great lawyer is 100% incorrect. There are 100% wonderful areas of law that you can practice in where you can absolutely advocate on paper, verbally, via email or so on, where you don’t need to be in a courtroom as well. And I loved that aspect.

Lee Kantor: [00:05:55] And make the impact that you desire because that’s really at the heart of it, right? You’re impacting people’s businesses, their lives, their families lives. Sometimes their communities lives 100%.

Jennifer Diaz: [00:06:06] I mean, at the end of the day. We impact people’s businesses for sure. I mean, this isn’t a year. Well, not every day, but some clients, unfortunately, we wind up seeing where there are some criminal implications as well. And there’s a lot of cross sections dependent upon how they come to us and what their particular issues are, what types of mistakes they’ve made before we get the 911 call right before we get the emergency aspect. But quite often their business is on the line and there are costly mistakes that maybe they have made that determine whether or not their business gets to stay in or whether or not they they are no longer in business after these types of decisions that we have to make together. So there are huge decisions that we make on a daily basis with our clients in terms of what’s going to happen with their money and their businesses, their livelihoods.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:56] And like you mentioned, if there’s that many government entities touching an industry or a business, there’s a lot of room for miscommunication, misunderstanding, and a lot of I didn’t know what I didn’t know until it’s too late kind of thing.

Jennifer Diaz: [00:07:09] Oh, my God. Especially for the small guys. So the big guys, the Fortune 100, the biggest guys, they have wonderful compliance teams. They have huge, huge groups that are invested in compliance. So not only are not only that, but when laws change, they’re at the forefront. They’re the ones commenting. They’re the ones sitting with the government agencies, helping to write, helping to understand, helping to draft, helping to interpret those new laws. The small guys, do you think they even realize that there’s a freaking law and or that the law is changed and or that they need to stay up on it? I mean, Resources is one of the number one things I talk about for the SMEs, those small and medium sized enterprises, especially where I’m based in Florida, that’s the lifeblood of our businesses, our SMEs. So we represent a lot of them and I think they’re very strong and need to come to the table as well. So we try to get them to advocate as well to get their voices heard because I, I truly don’t think they’re heard enough because customs implements new laws like the new forced labor act that just came into pass. And I guarantee you small businesses have no clue what the implication is. And when they buy apparel, they don’t think about whether or not the cotton thread from that apparel is from a particular region of China.

Jennifer Diaz: [00:08:25] And whether or not they’re going to be able to import that particular apparel, they don’t think that they’re going to have their goods rejected at the border as a result of a new law that passed because they don’t even know about the law and they’re not keeping up with that information. And granted, if you’re the government agency, you’d say I but I put it on my website and I put it in the Federal Register. Notice I gave you warning. Why aren’t you keeping up? And that’s and that’s the that’s the hard part for the small business. So keeping up and keeping on top of resources and and keeping in the loop with what’s going on and finding a law firm that’s in this space like us, to keep our clients informed. I wish more more of our SMEs would do that. But it’s it’s a toughie. It’s a toughie. And there’s not a lot of love or compassion for the I didn’t know the the ignorance is no defense of the law is is a huge thing when it comes to any of these federal government agencies. There’s there’s not a lot of love for that type of defense.

Lee Kantor: [00:09:23] Right. And the ramifications are real. I mean, the ramifications could be life or death when it comes to that. Businesses, you know, continuing on 100%.

Jennifer Diaz: [00:09:33] Some of the ramifications dependent upon what type of issue. For example, for the forced labor issue that I was talking about, repeat offenders, it could be criminal. You could go to jail for that. And there’s some export offenses that are criminal. If you export to Iran, for example, without a license consistently, you can go to jail. I mean, it’s some of these things are biggies and sometimes it’s not necessarily a criminal implication, but the civil implications could put you out of business, could bankrupt you. Sometimes we see clients that have to go through bankruptcy proceedings because of mistakes they’ve made where they didn’t realize that their importations, for example, were subject to a crazy high anti-dumping or countervailing duty that they didn’t even consider because they didn’t even know it existed for their good. And they didn’t do the proper amount of due diligence or research and in customs mind, that’s your job as an importer. In my perfect world, in order to import, you would have to review an importers manual that customs has. That I think is great that I wish more people read and you’d have to take a test to actually truly understand the obligations and the ethical responsibilities you have as an importer and the potential enforcement that customs has, because the power is substantial. And we see so many companies consistently that say, but I didn’t know, but I didn’t know and it’s just not good enough.

Lee Kantor: [00:10:57] Yeah. As a small to midsize business owner who have, you know, kind of these bigger dreams and part of your bigger dreams is, hey, the world is my oyster. There are so many. Opportunities out here in the world. Let me think bigger. Let me, you know, kind of throw my hat over the fence and try to export or to import or to grow that way. It seems like it’s easy to make mistakes because it just seems like it’s just a logical evolution of your business when actually actually you’re getting into a whole new business and you need trusted advisor advisers around you to navigate the waters here because it isn’t, you know, doing business from Florida to Georgia is not the same to doing Florida to Georgia, you know, in the Eastern Europe, you know, like it’s a it’s a different world. It’s not that.

Jennifer Diaz: [00:11:48] Simple. I actually did a a program for the country, Georgia, a month or so ago, and we were teaching Georgian, the country, Georgia, they’re their producers how to export to the United States. So it’s funny that you mention them, but you’re so correct. We see so many clients that come to us that say, I was so excited about a sale, I just didn’t budget or think about compliance. And it’s it’s unfortunate. And that’s why I say we represent clients in two realms, the pre compliance or the 911 and obviously 911 gets a lot more ring tone than than the pre compliance style. And it’s unfortunate that that’s the case. But think about any business when you’re starting out, what are you excited about? Right. You’re excited about your sale. You’re excited about your marketing. Are you excited about reading rules, regulations? No. And I say, fine, I don’t need you to be excited about it, but I need you to pick up the phone so that I get excited about it for you.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:42] Yeah, well, thank you so much for the work you do in this area. I’m sure your clients really appreciate it. And this show is Association Leadership Radio, so I don’t want to forget about that. Sure. And part of I think the way you serve your clients and I’m sure the way that your clients can benefit is your activity in associations. And that’s that’s an area, I guess, that small to midsize businesses can, by being part of certain associations, really benefit from the wisdom of the larger players if they are kind of lean into that. Can you talk a little bit about maybe some of the associations or an association that.

Jennifer Diaz: [00:13:18] Works with your industry? I have and I will say back to the advice that we were we were talking about at the beginning of careers and to give to the youngins potentially that are starting out is at the beginning of my career. I said yes to every opportunity there was. So quite often I was on the board of ten associations at one given time at the beginning of my career. Now I’m actively involved in nine organizations, so granted, not much has changed and I’ll talk about my top five right now. One is the District Export Council in South Florida. I’m a board member. This is a great organization that’s under the Department of Commerce that has terrific education and conferences. So any business in the United States that wants to export their goods outside of the United States, I would check out the District Export Council and Trade under the Department of Commerce and terrific resources. Another is the Florida Customs Brokers and Forwarders Association. When it comes to customs brokers and freight forwarders, it’s the first line of defense. If you want to import, you need a customs broker that basically is the travel agent for the cargo that fills out the right paperwork. That entry process with US Customs and Border Protection, if you want to export, need a travel agent for the cargo to get those goods, let’s say from Florida to the country, Georgia, same thing.

Jennifer Diaz: [00:14:44] So the Florida customs broker is an association right now. I’m the education chair, so I help put together the programing for the association to keep everyone in the loop on top changes. So, for example, brokers regulations are changing in terms of the liability and responsibilities that customs is putting on customs brokers. So some of the programing applies specifically to brokers, but a lot of it is great for importers and exporters in addition to brokers and forwarders. What’s also nice about this association is it’s part of a national association called the National Association of Brokers and Forwarders of America. It’s NCBA, a terrific association that also has continuing education credits as well, and also great conferences too, to keep up education wise, an organization that truly has the the keys to my heart is the Organization of Women in International Trade that I’ve been heavily involved in since I started out in 2006. I’ve been on the board of directors in some way, shape or form the Organization of Women in International Trade. The thought process is if you are a woman that wants to be a leader and or be involved in international trade in some way, shape or form, and if you are a man that supports the advancement of women in international trade and business and.

Jennifer Diaz: [00:16:08] The Organization of Women in International Trade provides educational opportunities, networking opportunities. And in my day, we did conferences pre-COVID, which was a beautiful opportunity to get all of our 20 plus chapters in the world together. When I was president, we had Zimbabwe was one of our newer chapters and Nigeria was one of our newer chapters, which was really exciting. So we were expanding in Africa. We have chapters in Europe and all over the United States and such. So we were able to be in Kenya, for example, for one of our conferences, and then Tampa, Florida the next year. So truly an international organization that has wonderful education opportunities as well as networking opportunities. So when I started, I needed to find a like minded group of individuals that were also in my international trade space, and I needed to develop a network of individuals that I could call when I needed their assistance as well. I needed great brokers and forwarders, I needed great bankers. I need great marketing professionals. I needed great anything you could possibly think of in my Rolodex. So Oet as well as FCB for organizations that really did help me provide that Rolodex as resources for my clients that I’m truly thankful for. And the last two that I will mention are Beacon Counsel, which is a wonderful private public partnership for Miami-Dade.

Jennifer Diaz: [00:17:32] We have a trade and logistics committee where we work on the ground in the local area where I’m from, to talk about trade, logistics, not only educational opportunities and business opportunities, but we’re also trying to get students and educational institutions together with the business communities, to talk about that gap that we’re seeing in the workforce. That’s that’s a biggie where we have a lot of openings in our workforce, and we need students to have not only the training, but also the desire and the ability to stay in our counties and in our state to to fulfill those particular jobs. So we’re trying to bridge that workforce issue as well as the Florida Bar is my last association that I’m actively involved in, and I just got a really nice award from them because they am the chair of the certification committee. So kind of like doctors tell you have board certification for doctors, for lawyers in the state of Florida. We have board certification in the area of international law. And I’m the chair of that particular board certification committee for the Florida Bar. So I’ve been promoting the board certification area of law for Florida, as well as updating and adapting our exam so that it’s more relevant and updated to a book from the Florida bar that I helped write three chapters of, so that they’re actually tools and resources for our students to take.

Jennifer Diaz: [00:18:52] Because imagine previously when I took the exam ten years ago, the study guides said, Go to your local library, which was laughable, right? Go to a law library that was literally on the damn study guide. I almost died. So, like, really go to the law library. That’s really how you’re telling me to study for this. So I updated the study guide, updated the exam specifications, updated the exam, updated the website. So now there’s a usable study guide, usable resources, usable specifications. So any lawyer in the state of Florida that has more than five years of international legal related experience and good, please go to the Florida Bar’s website on international law certification and check out our standards and apply by August 31st and take our exam. And I promise, it’s way, way, way better than it’s been in the past, and it’s only getting better. And our committee is really great and dedicated to this. We want this board certification standard to truly stand out and be something only 52 lawyers in the state of Florida are board certified in international law. So I’m proud to be one of them.

Lee Kantor: [00:19:54] Well, thank you for all that you do. And I and you touched on this a little bit, and I think we’ve talked about this a little earlier, but part of this show’s mission is to inspire young people and to kind of, you know, learn from the mistakes of people, not maybe not mistakes, but just their the journeys of the people before them. And I think that leaning into an association, getting involved in, you know, you don’t have to get involved in ten like you or nine, but just to get involved in associations in your field is kind of a fast pass if you do this right. It’s not an ATM machine where you just put a card in and money comes out, but it can be over time in the course of a career. When you look back and you realize how many of the most important relationships and connections happened, you’ll kind of find a thread that a lot of times it is your association that is involved in that.

Jennifer Diaz: [00:20:49] So I think very specific advice in this regard and and very pointed because I could not agree with you more. My favorite people in the world are people that I’ve been involved in, in organizations that say what they mean and do what they say. And I take that incredibly seriously. And people love me on organizations because when I say I’m going to do something, my word is my bond. So what I would love to see more of is people that not only are are a member of an association, but they are active members of the association. I guarantee you any organization that you could ever belong in has committees. They have needs for members to be actively involved. It doesn’t matter what role you take, but if you take an active role and you do what you say and say what you’re going to do, and you actually fulfill that commitment in the time frame and manner with a wonderful result, people remember that for life. People will always remember that you said you were going to do X and you fulfilled, you delivered and it was a great product. Then people know they can rely on you and they can count on you because referrals are given based upon people liking you and trusting you and respecting you. You don’t garnish that trust and respect. If you say you’re going to do something on behalf of an association and you don’t care enough to do it and you don’t care enough to show up. So being a member isn’t good enough in and of itself. Being a member, showing up, wanting to get involved, getting involved, saying that you’re going to do something and then following through and doing it to the best of your abilities. That’s how people remember you and think of you and really want to think of you more and more.

Lee Kantor: [00:22:38] Yeah, to me, this is when people complain like I don’t have any connections or I don’t have any, you know, I’m not the person that knows the person. This is the cheat code. This is the way that you become that person. You get involved in your association and you don’t just pay your dues and never show up. You get involved, you take leadership positions. There’s always a leadership position available. They’re always hungry, hungry for people that are enthusiastic and get that can get the job done and demonstrate your skill not by lines on a resume, but by actually showing up to meetings and being involved and following through and helping move the ball. That’s the stuff that gets remembered. That’s where you’re going to get your next job. It’s not a place we’re going to get business tomorrow just by joining you. Lean in, you do the work and it will pay off over time.

Jennifer Diaz: [00:23:27] I will tell you both a weight and FCV I have been actively involved in since 2006 for over 16 years. And I will tell you from day one, when I became a member of both associations, the first day that I got in, I said, How can I get involved? How can I help you? And when I said just those words for it, for South Florida chapter, I was put on the board. I did not even know what international trade was in 2006, which I can admit now. And I was on the board of directors on an esteemed organization already. And that’s only because when I showed up, I said, I want to help you. And the organization desperately needed assistance. And I had a board of directors seat.

Lee Kantor: [00:24:13] Yeah, well, I mean, that’s I can’t emphasize this enough to young people. This isn’t just another thing you’ve got to do. And I know you’re busy and you’ve got a million things to do. These are investments in your career, and they are going to pay off if you really kind of come with pure heart that you want to be of service and help.

Jennifer Diaz: [00:24:32] Agreed. But I very much will emphasize again. You cannot specifically go into something saying, what am I going to get out of it? You write with a pure heart or you are going to get nothing out of it. If you give expecting to receive ten fold, you are never going to receive it. It’s not. It’s unfortunately not the way the world works. You have to be able to give in these organizations with a pure and full heart and people around you will take notice that you are the one giving ultimately. Right may not always feel that way, but that is I do believe in karma in that regard.

Lee Kantor: [00:25:09] Right. And being of service. And you’re here for kind of a greater good and you’re you’re trying to do your part as a good corporate citizen in your whatever industry or niche that you’re working in.

Jennifer Diaz: [00:25:20] Agreed.

Lee Kantor: [00:25:21] Well, Jennifer, it’s been a delight talking to you. If somebody wants to learn more about your practice, get on your calendar or maybe pick your brain about which associations are appropriate. One. What is the website?

Jennifer Diaz: [00:25:35] Sure. Two different ways. I’m on LinkedIn and love to connect on LinkedIn so you can find DIA’s trade on LinkedIn and my profile is definitely there. Jennifer Diaz on LinkedIn you’ll find me under the trade law under our employees and DIA’s trade. Ludtke On our home page, we have a top ten tips when importing, which I love cheat sheets. I love free resources. Who doesn’t love a free resource? Right. Yeah. So this is my free importing and exporting resource and it has amazing hyperlinks and extra resources, especially for small SMEs. So each of those two pages has at least 20 hyperlinks with terrific resources. And it’s something we we give away because we really do want our importers and exporters to to understand the road map and the rules of the road when it comes to importing and exporting. So on Diaz trade law, you’ll see Top Ten tips when importing and exporting, and I urge you to check that out. If you’re in the importing and exporting space and I urge you to connect on LinkedIn, if you have any questions in relation to associations or want to get involved in it. If CBF speaking council or or any other association, I’m happy to be a resource.

Lee Kantor: [00:26:48] Well, thank you again for sharing your story. You’re doing important work and we appreciate you.

Jennifer Diaz: [00:26:53] Thank you. That’s nice to hear.

Lee Kantor: [00:26:56] All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you all next time on Association Leadership Radio.