How an Immigrant Became a Major Felony Defender

When a door opens, you really need to look twice.

Like, why not? Bellin Olmato-Gera is a resilient criminal defense attorney, advocate in the founder of Bellin law firm. Drawing from her journey as an immigrant in seasoned litigator, she fights for others with compassion, determination,

and a commitment to justice. I get to see the dark side of human beings. Yes. But their mistakes don't define them as people, and I am not God.

I don't feel that I'm in a position, and nobody should be in a position to go judge another human being. I don't think that they understood why I'm representing the accused person.

It's not only about the not guilty,

sometimes it is getting a dad back to his family. It spans the globe. Like a super high school, internet Elvis. Today, Apple is going to reinvent the phone. It's not over, I'll tell how we're doing.

The living your legacy podcast for those who live to leave a legacy. Hey, welcome back everyone to another episode of Living Your Legacy Podcast. I'm your host again, Jason Langen, and we're down here at the Sunny Miami Beach Studios. And we have the privilege to talk to some of the best entrepreneurs

from around the country, the disruptors, and the experts in so many different fields. And today, we have a special person with us for our Women in Power Show. Yeah, please introduce yourself.

“What's your name, where you from, and what's your business?”

I'm Berlin, I'm the founder, and the managing attorney of the Lenn Law firm, and that is in Phoenix, Arizona. All right. The way you say your name is so much more graceful than I say your name. Berlin.

Berlin. I completely hacked your name when I was doing the interview. But yeah, where are you from? There's some exotic, you know, to it. Well, I was originally born and raised in Argentina.

I moved to the US when I was 17 years old. All right. So, Argentina, and your English is like, you know, perfect. Did you speak English before you came over? I did.

It went to a bilingual school since I was three years old, and so that really helped. I've acquired a lot more vocabulary since I moved here, but yeah, I had a great foundation. Yeah, there's like no accent, and then you start speaking Spanish. I'm like, oh, okay. Just wait till I get mad.

Oh, my Latino comes out. Okay. Okay. Yeah, I mean, Argentina is definitely on the checklist of places to go. And where you grow up?

It's a big city. It's a small town. I grew up in Gordova, and that's the capital of the state of the same name we call them provinces. Okay.

And pretty large. Yeah.

“I think the time I left, maybe it was about three million people.”

So I was pretty independent by the time I was 17, you know, just move around the city, taking public transportation, healing the cab. All right. And then it sounds like I didn't know that about your city when we were giving the interview.

I don't get to ask you these questions, the personal questions that I'd like to. But it's crazy, because then you got, you came to the states at 17, like a study abroad program, right? Yeah. And you went from big city to like rural America, right?

And it's so funny because so I lived in Southeast Asia for like 17 years, right?

And one of the first jobs I had was teaching Thai students in Bangkok, right?

In the city Bangkok, who were going to do a year abroad in American high schools, right? Yeah. And one thing I'd warn them about, right? Because they all be, you know, dreaming and like, oh, Britney Spears and these big concerts.

And I'd be like, some of you are going to be, you know, in like these rural areas, right? So I, and I would teach them about that and get them ready for it, right? And then you had that scenario, right? So what was it like going from that big city? And then, you know, you had that American vision in your head.

“And then you go to this honestly like rural America?”

Yeah. I think the difference for me and back then in the '90s was that actually, I didn't really have the internet to search. And so I had very little information. I knew that it was a town surrounded by agricultural areas, farming communities.

But nothing really prepares you for the day-to-day living.

Argentina and then going to Marshall, Minnesota, I remember the first day. I said, okay, how do I get a cab or just the bus go by? And they said, no, well, you just gotta ask for a ride. And so right there, right then, my legs were cut off, right? Like I didn't have that independence.

And so then I had to relearn how to go by my day-to-day responsibilities. Like after school, I was in the swimming team and practices and then the track team where

“I was a manager and you have to rely on other people.”

And that was an adjustment for me. Yeah. Because it's funny because usually you think of America and it's the Hollywood, it's the big cities, New York, right? And then when we think of Argentina, we think of the Argentina and Cowboys, right?

And then you kind of flipped the script on that, right? You were from the big city in Argentina and it came into the rural area, right? But yeah, that's a, in that turn, into going into a university here, right? You have the opportunity to go to university, you used that. Which then turned into, I guess, getting your residency, right?

Talk about, talk about, you know, how did you go from a study abroad program to being a full-blown American? There's 31 years in between, right? I know. So I'll try to summarize that for you.

But basically, I never could have imagined in a million years that I was going to end up where

I am today. So I didn't come as an exchange student because I wanted the American dream. I had requested to go actually to Southeast Asia. I wanted to go to Bangladesh or Australia or Thailand because I wanted to be in an exotic place.

And then I ended up in Marshall where I found incredible people that they became family, even to the stay. There are, I was just with them, too. They shout out to Marshall being good hosts. That's right.

I'd like to hear it. Yes, for sure. And so it was, again, it was hard for me to visualize what my life was going to be. So I just moved one stage at a time. So at the end of the exchange program, I received a letter from the local university giving

me multiple scholarships.

So that was a surprise, and this is something that I've always done in my life never

say no to a possibility when a door opens. You really need to look twice, like, why not? So that's kind of my motto, like, why not? So I lived that door opened. If it's a good door, a lot of us go through some teenage, you know, a lot of bad doors

open, too. All right. There were some bad doors, there were a lot of those doors, I'll tell you that. There were some bad doors for sure, but, you know, if you have a good head on your shoulders

“or some guidance, you can ask people, do I do this, do I not do that?”

For me, it was very instinctual. So when I got that opportunity, well, life just flashes before your eyes, right? And so I took that next step, I told my mom, my dad, okay, first I said one year and then I'll be back in four after college. And I developed such a core network of friends and my work became my mission.

I was working with victims of first sexual assault and then victims and survivors of domestic violence. And so that was my angry era. I also heard that in your story that you had worked with Sudanese refugees, right? Similar.

Somalian. Okay, okay. I worked with Sudanese, you know, during my anthropology program in university. We have some things in common. No, we have a lot in common, right?

So yeah, I worked with the Somalian refugee population in Marshall. There was a huge community there.

“Everyone had the funny thing was, when we went to go visit them in their apartments, right?”

They got the heat on full blast and they're still wearing, they're donated down jackets. You know, completely zipped up with their hats, right? Well, I can't say much because I did too. Yeah, yeah.

I was always cold, always cold and Marshall, but I actually went to some of their homes

they invited me for dinner and then I walked out covered in henna tattoos. They did my legs, my arms, my feet, I mean, in that takes hours. So it's such an honor and dedication from them to have that.

I mean, I just had my, I celebrate every year, 31 years of being in the US.

It's a milestone every year. It's a big deal.

“I do a lot of reflection and think, okay, what have I done, where am I going, right?”

And so 31 years of not saying no to opportunities. So if there is an opportunity, if there's something that presents, why not? Why not me? Yeah, I think that's it. So those doors led you through to being a lawyer, right?

Yes. In Arizona and opening up your own law firm, right? That's right. And so yeah, tell us about, you know, what kind of law you practice, what kind of cases you take on, and why?

Well, I do criminal defense, and now everybody's cringing, right?

Because people think of criminal defense, they think of like, you know, I only watch alone order. Why am I? No. I watch suits.

I watched Lewis live, you know, Harvey Spectre, but yeah.

“Not quite the same, but so criminal defense is very specific, right?”

So as high-paced, if you ever watch the Lincoln lawyer, right, it's like, there's a lot going on in people's lives cases. So it's fast pace and the adrenaline. So if that's not for you, it's not for the faint of heart, for sure. So call and, you know, if there's a homicide, dead bodies, weapons, blood, you look at

all of that. You look at the weapons, how do we end up here? And then you unpack the cases, and not every case is like a major felony, but I have a lot of them. Yeah.

A lot of major felonies that include people who were not okay to begin with. Well, give us a spectrum. You know, like, car thefts or criminal law can be anything from maybe just stealing something in a store at the mall, right, or, I mean, like stealing car and then violent crime could be like domestic violence to murder, right?

Yeah. So the spectrum is very large, so it could be anything from like criminal speeding in Arizona

“if you go 20 miles or more over the speed limit, you could go to jail, right?”

And so it could be criminal speeding, trespassing, a little misdemeanor of things. And then things can get more complicated where you have human trafficking, drug trafficking, sex trafficking. Yeah. And so that weapons trafficking, right?

So you have straw buyers, and then, you know, you have the cartel involved, and then their gangs, and then you can escalate that all the way to the homicides, and then you have a variety of them. Some of them, oops, I ended up killing someone all the way to first-degree murder, pre-meditated. Yeah.

And then are there a lot of kind of like cartel stuff down being down in Arizona? There is a fair share. We share the international border with Mexico, but it's not like it's in the movies. So things happen in very covert ways that most people don't know that stuff is happening in their own neighborhood.

And so was it always criminal law?

Like when you were studying, and you were like criminal law, that's for me. Yes. Wow. Yes. I did want it to represent the underdog.

I wanted to be out there in the front lines, in the trenches, because of how I got there. So I tried to avoid becoming an attorney. I did everything else, right? I worked in a center where they helped immigrants and refugees who were victims of sexual crimes.

And then when I moved to Arizona, I started working with victims of domestic violence, and I worked at the shelters, community centers, and then I became a teacher, got my master. So my undergrad is in anthropology, culture, anthropology, and then got my master's in education. Meanwhile, all the things that I did to avoid being a lawyer, because both my parents were lawyers, and they had the worst divorce, all of that was training.

Little did I know that my long road was meant to be my road, because now I use all that knowledge that I have, from the previous experiences, you know, like Sam Dogmillionaire, like you just learn about all these things in life, and then you use them yourself to help others. So now when a client comes to see me, I assess, right?

Do we have danger to self-dangers to other? Do we have a mental health? A lot of undiagnosed mental health. Autism. Autism is also huge, because there's such a big spectrum.

It's not only somebody who's completely impaired. You could be in the spectrum and have difficulties with inner social relationships with other humans that lead you to commit crimes that involve computers and things like that, then I probably can't get into it right here.

“And for, I mean, you've been studying law, practicing law for about 14 years?”

Yes, that's right. Okay, in that, right, and hearing about so many different crimes, right, do you lose faith in humanity? Like, oh my God, that's just so much crime out there. Like, do you, do you picture things differently than you did before?

No, that you've had kind of a peak into the world? Not at all. Not at all. I get to see the dark side of human beings, but their mistakes don't define them as people. And I am not God.

Yeah. I don't feel that I'm in a position and nobody should be in a position to go judge another human being. That is not appropriate for this lifetime. It's not up to us what other people do.

I'm not going to lead a life of crime and that's my choice. That's what I've done.

And I've also had my moral compass that has never deviated, never changed.

“Even when I was alone without parents, no money, homeless, right?”

Yeah, I say that same thing. And so before I film every person, I give them the same feel. And, you know, it's about basically the human journey, right? And I say, I don't judge anyone that comes sits here. You could have started off with the perfect childhood, right?

And then life happens, that crazy roller coaster of life, and then entrepreneurship happens, and that's another crazy roller coaster. Or you could have, you know, been down in the dirt and, you know, but I've heard and rose to the top, right? And I've heard everything in between, and you can't judge people, right?

Also, in your case, criminal law, like a lot of people that grow up in single family homes or abuse when they were young or no parent, like, you know, in the foster care system, and they're just trying to deal with the tools that they're given, right? And they don't know, right? So, yeah, you can't judge anyone, you don't know their situation.

That's so true. And it's easy in the culture that we live in today. For people to judge opinionate and cancel others. So, you know, we're all really quick to jump to judgment of another person. Because it's easy.

We sit behind a keyboard, and we do it. We do it in malicious ways sometimes without understanding. And also, I think people misunderstand what being charged with the crime is. This is not one of those 30-minute shows that at the beginning of the show, there is a crime committed, and 10 minutes in, they find the blood spatter and boom.

They solve the crime or very close, and they're in court towards the end of the show with the back door swing open, right, with the star witness. That is so not true. That it's, you have to tell the other side opposing counsel who your witnesses are. You have to disclose the evidence, but they're not going to make a show with that kind

of process. Are you more of a litigation lawyer or like a settlement lawyer, right? Do you like to get out there in front of the court with the jury and prove the cases or it's like, okay, we got a plea deal over here.

“I think we can take it, like what kind of lawyer are you?”

It's not up to me. Yeah. A client calls the shots. So, the client is in the driver's seat, right? And so, I tell the client, these are your options, and you can take the plea or go to trial.

These are the only two options, sometimes you will look for a third option. There is none. Right? So, you take a plea or you go to trial. That's it.

So, I always advise the clients.

When other lawyers know that you're kind of like a litigation battle lawyer, right? That likes to get down to the trenches and fight. Yes. Does that help you with the plea deal a little bit? Because it's just like, oh, this girl is willing to fight and she's good at it.

I think I'm pretty forward with the county attorneys, the prosecutors. They know how I am. I'm not those kind of lawyers that I hide the ball or like to sneak out a motion to just like, like, no, I will email them or call them up and say, hey, heads up, I'm filing the motion.

I like transparency even in an adversarial situation because professionalism is never lost. And criminal defense is very different. I think civil lawyers like to go at it. They like to like, you know, I'll be petty and it's not my world.

My world, even if you are trying to sort out a first-year murder, premeditated with

they're looking a lot of time, you still want to pick up the phone, email, let them know.

That's not what this is about. This is about professionalism. So, the other lawyers, the county attorneys, they know that I mean business. If I'm going to present a deviation request, I think you said in your interview that you're a bad ass lawyer.

“So, I think you mean business, you know, you like, can I say bad ass?”

I'm like, say it, you know, you're like, yeah, okay, so I'm a bad ass lawyer, right? I think so. Yes. I am. So there must be some, a lot of stories, right, give me a story and maybe like, oh, my God.

Jay, if I tell you everything about a client, I have to kill you. No, no, no, no, don't give me the details, but just maybe a little something, right? Well, I have so many stories, and I am so proud of so many outcomes, how so many lives have been changed, because it's not only about the no guilty, sometimes it is getting a dad back to his family, getting a dad who's the sole provider back to work.

There are license, the professional licenses are always affected by a crime, if you're

real estate agent, if you're a nurse, if you have any kind of license, even securities license, if you're in the trading world, everything is going to be affected. So negotiations and sometimes end up in a dismissal can really impact not only them, but their children and generations to come. So what is the win? How is that measured? It depends on the case.

So cases that I've had plea offers that are for five years and they get zero days in jail or prison. That's a huge win. Yeah. Recently, I had a plea that was for 10 years, and it was a very young client, a juvenile client, and I was able to bring that down from 10 to 2. So that is very, very impactful to her, her children, and her own parents. So what a win is, it's also the terms of the sentencing

probation. For a juvenile still to get two years, that's it's like sound so heartbreaking. It is. And it's like, oh my god. But in Arizona, when you turn 15 for certain crimes, you get charges in a dog. Yeah. Drive by shootings, on the sides, anything that's the violent crime. Okay. So it's up to the charging attorney. You've represented some of those violent crimes.

I have a lot of them. Yeah. Wow. Yes, I do. Yeah. Like you never know who picks up the phone,

“which which side they're on, right? But you have to just represent anything that anyone that you take on”

their their case, right? Well, people think that they're exempt from crime touching their lives. Yeah. But that's a mistake. Because there's if you really pay attention, you're not too far, your degree of separation from somebody who got in trouble is not too far from you. Yeah. And so what are the Argentinian parents think about you being this criminal lawyer in Arizona? Well, both my parents died, rest in peace. But until the moment that they died,

I don't think that they understood why I'm representing the accused person, right? You know, they were more conservative, very Catholic. And so it was hard for them to reconcile. I had to remind my mother all of them. She'd be like, put him away as long as they can. And I'm like, Mom, I'm literally on the other side. So I want to just try to minimize the impact of the sentence to my clients. Oh, I forget about that. But they supported me in everything that I've

done. Never judge me and always supported me. Even when I was young, when I said in fifth grade,

I'm going to be a paleontologist. They're like, absolutely. They never judged me. They let me be who I wanted to be. And I walked into college thinking that I was going to be a paleontologist. Right. That was 13 years later. And they never shot my dream down, not one time. They never pushed me. They both owned separate law firms. And they never pushed me to follow their footsteps. Which it would have been easier, because law school is free in Argentina. So I wouldn't have

“had to pay for anything. That's funny. How you just kind of settled into it anyways, right?”

Yep. Try to avoid it, right? So you just like, one of those Greek mythologies. You try to avoid, you know, your future, but then you end up there anyway. So it's been a pleasure to have you on the show and also shoot your episode. Yeah. How do people find you? They can find me online, any social

it's billin law firm.com. Spell Bellin for them. Be as a boy, E L E and as a Nancy. Bellin.

“Bellin. And I was like, Bellin or that just like, Bellin or the Medogarra.”

Yeah. When you say it, it sounds so much better, right? But honestly, it's been a pleasure to

add you on the show. And thank you for fighting for everyone, really. Thank you for shoot that.

“Yeah. And thank you guys for joining us again. If you want to tune into our episode, learn all about,”

you know, how she immigrated to the states, went to law school and it became a lawyer,

then please tune into our episode. It's women and power. All right. And we'll see you next time. Cheers everyone.