July 15, 2025
Serving Beyond the Uniform: A Marine's Journey to Law with Leo Fuentes, Esq.
Shoot me a message! Marine Corps veteran Leo Fuentes shares his journey from enlisting at 18 to becoming a California attorney, showcasing how military leadership skills transfer to civilian success in the legal profession. • Choosing military service as an escape from neighborhood gang violence and a path toward creating a better future • Gaining leadership experience at just 19 years old, managing troops much older than himself • Learning to adjust expectations when transitioning to civili...
Marine Corps veteran Leo Fuentes shares his journey from enlisting at 18 to becoming a California attorney, showcasing how military leadership skills transfer to civilian success in the legal profession.
• Choosing military service as an escape from neighborhood gang violence and a path toward creating a better future
• Gaining leadership experience at just 19 years old, managing troops much older than himself
• Learning to adjust expectations when transitioning to civilian life and not expecting civilians to operate like military personnel
• Using military discipline to complete law school and pass the challenging California Bar Exam with a 32% pass rate
• Building special connections with veteran clients who feel immediate trust upon learning about shared military experience
• Creating a family legacy with three brothers serving in the Marine Corps
• Finding purpose in representing clients against powerful opponents, particularly enjoying the role of defending the underdog
• Maintaining the military mindset of service while advocating in the legal system
For transitioning service members: Start planning your exit strategy early, even if you think you'll serve 20+ years. Utilize tuition assistance while active, save your GI Bill, seek mentorship, and remember you don't have to navigate the transition alone.
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Episode Powered By Act Now Education
00:00 - Marine Corps to Law Practice Introduction
09:16 - Finding Purpose in Military Service
18:48 - Leadership Lessons from Military to Civilian
27:54 - Building Trust Among Fellow Veterans
34:42 - Family Military Legacy and Brotherhood
44:54 - Surviving the California Bar Exam
55:08 - Final Thoughts and Contact Information
WEBVTT
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Warriors fall in.
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It's time for formation.
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Welcome back to the podcast folks, where we dive deep into the real stories of leadership, survivability, adapting from beyond the uniform.
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Today we're honored to have a guest whose path speaks to grit, growth and give back.
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From a young Marine leading troops at 18 years old to a California-based lawyer defending clients of both criminal and personal injury law, leo Fuentes embodies what it means to adapt and overcome.
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Not only does he serve our country with honor from his veteran experience, but he's now serving the justice system with purpose.
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So let's welcome to the show.
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Marine Corps veteran attorney and brother in the fight for what's right.
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Leo Fuentes, thank you for joining me today, man.
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Thank you for the invite.
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Kp.
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Appreciate it, brother.
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Listen, man, the honor is all mine.
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It truly is, man.
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I know you have a very, extremely busy schedule.
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I've been slammed with the flu the last two days and I was like there's no way I'm canceling on this guy because we already had the reschedule once.
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So thank you for being so flexible, man.
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Thanks, because we already had the reschedule once.
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So thank you for being so flexible, man.
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Thanks, it's all good, it's all good.
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So, leo, I want you to take us back to your mindset after high school.
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What led you to join the military, specifically the Marine Corps, and what ultimately drove your decision to sign on the dotted line and take that step forward.
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Yeah.
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So to be honest with you, KP, it was just one of those things where I felt like it was my duty to serve, mainly because I wanted to give back to this country.
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It gave me the opportunity to get here.
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I was originally born in Mexico, so I was brought here and I felt that it was just the right thing to do.
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And also, my close friends were joining.
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They joined before me, right after high school and, you know, not to mention, I wanted to throw on the dress blues at some point right One day.
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But yeah, it was more like service to country and it's just to give back and do my time, do my duty.
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When you were brought up, though I mean, I can tell you that serving in the military and willingly signing on the dotted line to go away and go to boot camp or basic training or anything like that, that's not an easy task.
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I mean, a lot of my friends were not doing that, they were going straight to college, and a lot of them actually looked at the military as a last resort.
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I looked at it as kind of like how you did, because my dad served for 20 years and I thought, okay, well then, I guess I'll just go into the military too, but was there any other encouragement as far as, like, family members that helped push you in the military, or was it just kind of on your own journey?
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No, so I'm the oldest out of four boys my poor mom, right, no daughters.
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So I was the oldest out of the four boys.
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I didn't really have anybody to teach me or lead me, but what I did know is that I needed to do better and go to college.
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Go to school, get a career, and I knew that the military was a great stepping stone for discipline and the experience of leadership.
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And just everybody who I met that joined the Marine Corps was happy and happy that they did it.
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And then they came out and they just talked about how they transformed them and I think it goes to all the branches, right, you go in one person and you come out a different person with growth.
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But one of the things too that kind of drove me to join was I needed to get the heck out of my town.
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At the time my town wasn't what it is now.
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Now you have nice restaurants, nice breweries, it's a great, great community.
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We even have a downtown now and at the time it was just fields.
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And growing up I've experienced a lot of a lot of like run-ins with the local gangs and, you know, trying to defend myself or defending my brother, and you know my father was actually robbed and shot at one of the local markets and I remember, like it was yesterday, my mom was banging on the door, I was finishing taking a shower and she was like they shot your dad.
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They shot your dad and I was like what?
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And it was just like surreal.
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So I went over there and just things like that drove me like I need to do better, I need to get out of here, I need to go, make something out of myself and then come back.
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Come back and get my family, get my family out of this neighborhood.
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But now, like I said, they're living there now and it's a lot better and yeah, it's just life experiences better and yeah, it's just life experiences.
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And at the time, you know, I think I was just trying to fall, trying to falling into, kind of falling into like the wrong crowd.
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So I'm like I need to go.
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I need to go.
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I was, I was offered to join the local gang I don't even want to call it offered, right.
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I was asked right, but luckily I was.
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I was smart enough to say you know what, I'll get back to you, I'll get back to you next week.
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And I just never got back to them.
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Instead, I joined the Marine Corps.
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Now, was there any kind of delay after high school joining the Marines, or did you go right in?
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No, yeah.
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So after high school, all my buddies joined and they were off to boot camp and I was recruiting out of one specific office and what happened is I hadn't not received the specific document that I needed to join.
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So then the recruiter just kind of dropped me and looking back at it, you know I get it.
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You know I might've wanted him to be a lot cooler about it and I ignore my phone calls and just kind of ghost me, but it is what it is now Right.
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So I ended up going to college first semester and I was leaving my first period class and I was walking by the campus and I see this Marine and his Charlies stacked and his ribbons are just stacked, impressive, with his just looking like he would pass inspection right.
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So I walked past him literally and then something inside of me told me go back and talk to him.
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I don't know why, I don't know for what reason, but other than it's meant to be right, I am a believer in God and the universe and things happen for a reason.
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So I went back, I talked to him and, sure enough.
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After that he's like let me talk to you, come see me in my office.
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I ended up recruiting out of another office and it was kind of like on the download, because he told me I'm not supposed to be here.
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But if I can get you in and help you out, I'll do it.
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It's like you were never here.
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It was one of those.
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You were never here.
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I never saw you, you know.
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So I recruited out of a different recruiting station, out of a different recruiting station.
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But you know another interesting thing at MEPS I, the day you know the day for the Marine Corps at least I don't know how it is for other branches, but for the Marine Corps you go to MEPS and then, right after MEPS, you do your final medical and then you're off to bootcamp the next day.
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That day I ran into the recruiter who kind of just stopped taking my calls and he asked me like, what are you doing here?
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And, like I said, it was so much pride.
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I was like I'm joining, that's what I'm doing here, you know.
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So I was like.
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So then I was like, and I just like kept walking because it was my turn to do whatever they're having us do for the medical exam.
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But it's so interesting how like just things come back.
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Sometimes things come back full circle.
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You know, I never thought I was going to see him again, but I saw him and then I was off to bootcamp and and joined man.
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It is a small world, especially in the military community.
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I I ran into one of my drill sergeants when I was in Iraq.
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I ran into sergeant majors that worked for my dad back in the day.
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So it's a small military man.
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You run into people all the time.
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But was there any?
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Was there ever?
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a moment when you felt like this was meant to be.
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Yeah, I think it was.
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It was that specific moment.
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And then, you know, when I graduated, when I graduated bootcamp, that was the first time I saw my dad cry.
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Actually, my dad wasn't an emotional guy, he wasn't really a lovey-dovey type of guy.
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He was always.
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That's how he was raised, right.
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So when I graduated boot camp and they told us I were dismissed, I found him and my family and then next thing I know I see him just bawling and I was like, well, I've never seen this, but I think that was his way of saying that he was proud.
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But I think that was his way of saying you know that he was proud.
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But I think at that moment the graduation days when I feel like it's all worth it, this is, this is meant to be, and this is only the beginning, because I know that there's more.
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There's more.
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At the time I didn't know whether I was going to stay in or not or get out.
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But yeah, once it was all done, it was said and done, I was like this is the right decision.
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I in and done.
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I was like this is the right decision, I feel good, I'm proud.
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Let's go.
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What's next?
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Right, let's see where life takes me.
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Yeah, the oldest brother helping pave the way there for the rest of the younger ones.
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I mean, that's really impressive, man.
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I mean I'm the youngest in my family and I'm pretty much the only one that made it out, you know.
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So it's good on you, man, for being a true leader at such a young age.
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After you got through boot camp in the Marines, what was your first leadership experience like?
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So the first?
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Well, first I want to say thank you for your service, kp.
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I know I don't know if I've got a chance to say that, but thank you for your continued service.
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Thank you for doing this podcast.
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We appreciate you.
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It's definitely motivating.
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When I first saw it I was like man, that's motivating.
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Trash right there, heck, yeah, you know.
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So thanks for that.
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It's an honor.
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It's an honor to talk to folks like you, man, it really is.
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Thanks, brother, I appreciate it.
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The interesting thing is, when I got to, so I was stationed in Japan, the first duty station, right.
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And next thing, I know I'm 19 years old, I'm in charge of 37-year-olds or 35-years-old and you know, because you know it's based off rank in the military and I was fortunate enough to get promoted to the NCO ranks and then I was there, I was like whoa, now I'm supposed to tell these guys what to do, I'm supposed to lead them.
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So at the time it was a little scary, a little cautious, because you're talking about a 19-year-old guy who's never been anywhere, he's just starting his life right.
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But I was really grateful that the military, the Marine Corps, allowed me the opportunity to learn, because I'll tell you what KP.
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I've seen it in the military and even out in the civilian world, in the legal field too.
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There's a big difference between leading other people, leading a team, and leading your own life.
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There's a lot of people that I in the legal community have done a great job leading their life to get to where they are, their achievements, but then you put them in a situation where they need to lead a team now or they need to do other things.
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Some of them don't really know how to do it, and obviously, too, no fault of their own right.
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But I think it just goes to show you that, whatever branch you join, remember that you picked up some skills One of them is leadership, another one is the grit and just remember who you are and don't limit yourself.
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Don't limit yourself to what you can do.
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If you want to do something, do it, try it.
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What's the worst?
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that can happen.
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It doesn't happen.
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You get to try again, Right, Yep?
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You just pick yourself up and you keep on going.
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That's part of leadership.
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Man is failing and then getting back up and then figuring it out and trying to improve every time.
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So how would you say that your leadership roles in the Marines affect how you now lead your law practice?
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I think that the discipline is one of the things that stands out.
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And talking to people, because when you're in charge of people in the military, you have to be able to get to know your troops, your team, your colleagues, and you can't talk to everybody the certain way right.
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That transfers over to my clients.
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For example, when I used to do criminal defense, I couldn't talk to every single person the same way because everybody's different right.
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Some people were more angry, other people were more chill, and even now talking to other attorneys too, like opposing counsel, that also applies Adapting and overcoming situations right, for example, for my clients.
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When I used to do criminal defense, some of them were really angry.
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A lot of them were vets too.
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So what I noticed is that once they found out that I was military, they gave me an extra layer of trust.
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They gave me kind of the confidence that they wanted to do in their attorney right, and I think it matters.
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It matters how you talk to people.
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It matters how you lead people.
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You have to lead your clients, too when it comes to whether or not they should go to trial, because sometimes you have to be very cautious of what you do, because at the end of the day, if you go to trial, nothing's guaranteed right.
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You're giving your future, the outcome, to 12 members of the community, so you have to be able to know how to lead them in the right direction, what's best for them, including in criminal defense or in personal injury as well.
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Yeah, that's actually a really great point.
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You got to have those soft skills in there.
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I know that a lot of people think they watch Full Metal Jacket and they think that a lot of military leaders lead that way, where it's just in your face and you'll do it now or you'll get skull fucked or something like that.
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But in reality you have to learn how to work with people, whether it's civilians.
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I know when I was working at battalion as the S3, I had to work with contractors to get what I wanted, and having that attitude was not going to help me at all.
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So I had to learn how to have the gift of gab, I guess you could say to get to the objective, whatever it was, whatever I needed to get at that time.
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So I wanted to ask you what are some of the things that you've experienced?
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I know for me, like working in the civilian sector for a while, there are some misunderstandings about military leadership, military leadership training.
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What are some of the things that civilians often misunderstand about the leadership, training or responsibility that veterans carry?
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I think that a lot of times a lot of the veterans are misunderstood.
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I've run into people in the civilian world and the legal field where if you have a soldier or an airman or a Marine or whatever branch they were in, and they may not be performing at the top-notch level that they're capable of, right, but they're judged.
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They're judged by saying, oh, like this guy, this guy was in the Marine Corps and he can't even get any clients, or X, y and Z right, or he's not making any money, whatever the reason is right.
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But I think that a lot of times people judge the branch individually just based on one person or based on people that they may run into, who they have no idea what they're dealing with, what demons are battling or what they're going through.
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So I noticed that and it kind of I don't want to say it bothers me, but it just kind of like, kind of sucks right, because I do feel for them, because I feel like they may not be at their full potential right now.
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But you got to work at it.
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I didn't just get out of bed one day and you know like, oh, I have all this right.
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It's step by step, you got to work on it, and one of the things I struggled with when I got out of the military was remembering that I wasn't in active duty anymore.
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I remember in undergrad I wanted to lock on people.
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It's crazy.
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I think back and I'm like I told myself wait, you can't be trying to lock people on or like yell at them because they're not acting the way people were acting when they're active duty.
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It's like it's not.
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That's not it right, so that along with just getting the skills to, like you said, talk to other people, everybody talks to other people a different way.
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People don't listen if you yell at them or you got to tell them a certain way.
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But that's one of the things that I noticed.
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I noticed that the judging right and I think people just have to remember that Just be kind and just be.
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Keep in mind that not everybody's at their full potential when you first meet them and you know, some people just haven't tapped into the full potential.
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So it's okay.
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Yeah, I run across a lot of stereotypes a lot of times.
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There was a lot of things that I was stereotypical of until I went to war and I had to work with Marines and I had to work with the Air Force, and I had to work with other branches.
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And I'll tell you like there was an Air Force unit, like where I was at in Iraq, and they did the same job I did.
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They went outside the wire, they got, they got tuned up complex ambush, ieds, all kinds of crazy stuff.
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And then there was Marines I worked with and man, where the when the rubber meets the road and you guys have to depend on each other, you gain more respect for other branches as well.
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I mean the Marines.
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I was really impressed with how professional they were, how on point they were.
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I was impressed by that Air Force unit very much, so that did the same job that I did.
00:16:49.313 --> 00:16:52.288
They had to show up and show out too, just like everybody else.
00:16:52.288 --> 00:16:55.009
So I completely understand where you're coming from.
00:16:55.009 --> 00:17:01.240
On that, leo, when you started to transition out of the Marines, what was your mindset?
00:17:01.240 --> 00:17:01.480
What was?
00:17:04.041 --> 00:17:04.303
your mindset.
00:17:04.303 --> 00:17:15.132
So I actually, if I could tell young Marines, young soldiers, young airmen that are a year, two years in start planning now, because that was my mindset.
00:17:15.132 --> 00:17:21.616
My mindset was at the time they were given 100% tuition assistance.
00:17:21.616 --> 00:17:27.963
So in my mind I was like, why the heck am I not going to take advantage of this?
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You're telling me I can go to school 100% tuition coverage and save my GI bill for when I get out I was like, why wouldn't I right?
00:17:34.204 --> 00:17:47.454
So I've always the mindset was always do anything that will make you more knowledgeable, make you a better person and help you grow Always.
00:17:48.140 --> 00:18:00.875
And I remember when I was stationed in Japan, my buddies in my unit would actually wait for me to finish my assignment, hit the submit button and then it was the party time.
00:18:00.875 --> 00:18:07.012
So, looking back at it, they even tell me now a lot of them are law enforcement too.
00:18:07.012 --> 00:18:11.332
They're part of different federal agencies DEA, fbi, department of State.
00:18:11.332 --> 00:18:14.368
They're all successful law enforcement also.
00:18:14.368 --> 00:18:22.839
And they tell me, dude, they're like I remember when we would wait for you to submit your assignments and they're just like I wish we would have done it sooner.
00:18:22.839 --> 00:18:24.262
I'm like it doesn't matter, brother, you're here now.
00:18:24.262 --> 00:18:28.031
You're here now You're here now, right, it's all good, props to you, you made it right.
00:18:32.079 --> 00:18:37.760
But yeah, that was my mindset the whole time Start planning because, look, there's nothing wrong with doing 20, 30 years in the military, nothing wrong at it, right, it's whatever you want to do.
00:18:37.760 --> 00:18:39.983
But you just never know what happens.
00:18:39.983 --> 00:18:48.296
And I've heard a lot of stories of motivators in the Marine Corps and other branches that wanted to do 20, 30 years but unfortunately they got injured.
00:18:48.296 --> 00:19:01.172
And then what's even more unfortunate is that they didn't have a plan B to transition into right and they end up at places where they can do more right.
00:19:01.172 --> 00:19:11.869
They can do more, they can do more in the community, more for people, but because they didn't have the plan B or they didn't start planning for an alternative, they have to do that and kind of go through that rough patch.
00:19:12.140 --> 00:19:13.563
Right, yeah, that.
00:19:13.563 --> 00:19:16.810
I mean that definitely there's a transition for sure.
00:19:16.810 --> 00:19:22.708
And that's great advice to get started transitioning as soon as you.
00:19:22.708 --> 00:19:29.569
Because I knew guys that when I was in I would ask them like, hey, are you taking time to go to the education center?
00:19:29.569 --> 00:19:32.326
And they're like no, sir, I'm doing 20 years.
00:19:32.326 --> 00:19:41.928
And I knew one of those guys who said he was doing 20 years ended up getting medical doubt against his will and that's just life.
00:19:41.928 --> 00:19:49.887
I mean, the best place to be is a place where you can transition or you have lateral mobility when life happens.
00:19:49.887 --> 00:19:56.174
And so when they, when they started medicaling him out, he was just kind of like no, I don't know what I'm going to do now, you know.
00:19:56.174 --> 00:20:05.007
So it's definitely you always need to invest in yourself, but how long did it take for you to discover your fullest potential after leaving active duty?
00:20:05.007 --> 00:20:08.230
Like, at what point did you sign up to go to law school and everything else?
00:20:09.441 --> 00:20:09.662
Man.
00:20:09.662 --> 00:20:14.423
That's another one of those moments where I think it was just, it was meant to be and I think again it was just.
00:20:14.423 --> 00:20:17.786
I think my story was written already, I just didn't know about it.
00:20:17.786 --> 00:20:30.573
I ended up going to ask for legal help at a legal aid society clinic and I talked to the attorney, got the advice I went to get and I went to my car and I literally turned on.
00:20:30.573 --> 00:20:36.573
My car was about to pull out and something again inside me told me ask to volunteer.
00:20:36.573 --> 00:20:38.201
So I did.
00:20:38.201 --> 00:20:46.853
I turned my car off, walked back into the legal clinic and I told the retired attorney do you think I can volunteer, Like whatever you have like, can I volunteer?
00:20:46.853 --> 00:20:48.016
And he said, yeah, definitely.
00:20:48.577 --> 00:20:55.843
So I ended up volunteering for almost two years while I was an undergrad at this legal aid clinic and it was at different branches or different locations.
00:20:55.843 --> 00:21:07.263
And it just got to the point where I got tired of telling people I'm sorry, we can't help you, we don't have the resources to represent you in court, we're going to have to refer you out.
00:21:07.263 --> 00:21:10.781
Hopefully they do your case pro bono or hopefully we can connect you with an attorney.
00:21:10.781 --> 00:21:13.368
So then I was just like what, if I go to law school.
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What's the worst that can happen?
00:21:15.040 --> 00:21:16.461
They say no.
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So it was a big step.
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