Today we’d like to introduce you to Tremaine L. Hemans. Them and their team share their story with us below:
TREMAINE L. HEMANS, ESQ.
Tremaine L. Hemans, Esq. is a Jamaican-born, Florida Barred Immigration Lawyer. She is the managing attorney and CEO of the Hemans Law Group, P.A. based in Miami and Fort Lauderdale Florida, and is eligible to practice U.S. Immigration Law in all 50 U.S. She is a 2019 graduate of the FIU College of Law in Miami, Florida.
Mrs. Hemans is a proud immigrant hailing from Moneague, St. Ann, Jamaica, attending the Moneague Primary and Junior High School and St. Hilda’s Diocesan High School thereafter. Her personal experience with the United States Immigration system sparked her passion for Immigration Law.
Before law school, she entered the United States as an international student and attended Broward College, first obtaining her Associate of Arts in Pre-Law with the highest honors and then her Associate of Science in Paralegal Studies with high honors. She then worked as a paralegal for 5 years and simultaneously obtained her Bachelor’s degree in Legal Assisting summa cum laude from Nova Southeastern University.
While attending FIU College of Law, Mrs. Hemans also noticed the significant lack of black law students in her class and sought to do what she could to change the number of black students in her school. She is very active in her school and in community service. She served as the 2018-2019 president of the H.T. Smith Black Law Students Association and the Caribbean Student Bar Association.
During her tenure, she created the 1L retention committee to combat the low percentage of black students who passed their 1L year. She also began quietly mentoring the 1Ls and 2Ls at school, who sought her advice on topics from study skills to tackling imposter syndrome. This was the birth of the LegallyTrem mentorship program.
At FIU Law, she also served as a student ambassador, traveling the country recruiting minority students for FIU Law; a member of her school’s diversity and inclusion committee; a member of the FIU Law Trial Team; and a Student Attorney in the Carlos A. Costa Immigration & Human Rights Clinic. She also became a published author in the University of the District of Colombia’s Law Review for her article entitled “The Intersection of Race, Bond, and ‘Crimmigration’ in the United States.”
In pursuing her passion for social justice and immigration law, Mrs. Hemans interned in the Miami Immigration Court, with the Office of the Principal Legal Advisor (OPLA) for the Department of Homeland Security, and numerous private law firms in Miami area.
After law school, she formally launched the LegallyTrem mentorship program (www.legallytrem.com) in April 2020, outside the walls of FIU. Opened her “big sister” attitude to young men and women all over the United States. Mentoring them from applying to law school, surviving law school, studying for the bar, to obtaining positions as attorneys, while always encouraging them to be proud of who they are and to celebrate the stories that led them to law school.
She has assisted students in Washington DC, Georgia, California and as far as Jamaica and the U.K. Her mentees have successfully been admitted to law school, some with scholarships and grants; excelled in school, and have passed the bar exam.
Tremaine’s passion lies in advocating for diversifying the field of law, increasing the 5% of black lawyers across the nation, and advocating for the rights of immigrants seeking their American Dream just as she had when she entered the United States. In pursuit of this passion, She founded The Hemans Law Group, P.A. in May 2021.
She specializes in family-based applications, removal defense cases; and immigrants who have fallen victim to domestic violence and crimes as well as Personal Injury Premises Liability and Auto Accident cases. She is a member of the Florida Bar, The United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, the American Immigration Lawyers Association, and the Gwen S. Cherry Black Women Lawyers Association.
Tremaine is the 2022 Recipient of the Florida Bar’s Young Lawyers Division Pro Bono Award and received the honor at the Florida Supreme Court on January 20, 2022. She has previously been awarded the 2020 Pillar of the Community Award from her alma mater, Broward College.
She received the Faculty Recognition Award for the FIU Law Graduating class of 2019, for her exceptional leadership, service, and commitment to the College of Law. She lives by the motto and bible scripture of Philippians 4:13, which states that I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Certainly not!
Growing up, I had loving attentive parents who made sure my sister and I understood our commitment to education.
However, when I was 12, my mother decided to move to the United States to allow us to have a better future. I am grateful for her sacrifice but that was hard. She was still very present though! My mother would call my high school every month from the U.S. to check in on me and make sure I was on the straight and narrow.
She made sure we had all the best school supplies and would visit her here in Miami every summer. This is a phenomenon that many Caribbean children know all too well, so it makes me proud to know that my mother’s sacrifice was not in vain.
Like many other young people, I experienced a LOT of bullying in school, but at one point the bullying sent me into severe depression. I’m very fortunate to have made it through those times, thanks to my amazing dad and guardians who raised me.
The first obstacle I faced when I moved here as an international student from Jamaica at 17, was my immigration status. I had big dreams, but The U.S. Immigration laws are such that students are not given a lot of freedom to work and move around while they are in school and any gap in your status means having to pause school sometimes–like in my case, for years.
That led to depression at times but I am grateful for those in my corner like my incredible husband and mother-in-law who never allowed me to give up when I finished community college and was not able to matriculate to a Bachelor’s program right after. These dark times taught me to be flexible and adapt to changes in my plans which I think is a major key to being successful.
I’ve also dealt with personal family struggles along the way but I have been very fortunate to have amazing mentors and family to pray for me through it.
When I got to law school a new host of obstacles presented themselves, which in hindsight I now see have made me the woman and attorney I am today. Imposter syndrome is not a feeling I was familiar with before law school because I was blessed to attend truly diverse undergraduate programs at Broward College.
Therefore, when I walked into my first law school class and only saw two other black faces looking back at me in my section (which had roughly 70 students), I was taken aback and started to feel like I did not belong.
That is a powerful feeling and it took a lot of work to get past it. Through my mentorship program, I have since learned that so many young people across the country experience this same feeling and it is disheartening. However, just like I found out, once they speak with me or another mentor I contact them with, they become more confident and flourish.
Thankfully my school was willing to listen and implement policies to assist students in feeling more comfortable and confident in being themselves both on and off-campus.
These experiences did not force me to shrink but instead prompted me to stand in my identity and excel. I did so many things in law school and beyond that the little girl from Moneague, St. Ann could never have imagined.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
We are a client-focused practice, dedicated to zealous advocacy and making the immigration process and Personal Injury Litigation as seamless as possible for our clients. At the Hemans Law Group, no client is treated like another number; each story is given the appropriate respect and attention it deserves.
The Immigration or Litigation process can be daunting and requires a competent, sharp, and prompt attorney to defend and advocate on behalf of you—the client. Each case is carefully analyzed to ensure that the case is presented in the form most beneficial to the client and pursuant to the client’s expectations.
We formulate case strategies based upon the facts and applicable law of each case, in tandem with the vision to advance our client’s overall goals and legal needs.
What I am most proud of is that I have developed a reputation of being an approachable lawyer who is most concerned about THEIR needs over my own. My clients feel comfortable talking to me and confident in my representation of them.
This is important to me because there always seems to be a negative connotation attached to lawyers and it feels good to know that I am building a brand of being known as a fabulously dressed servant haha.
Is there something surprising that you feel even people who know you might not know about?
I sing. I led the choir in church since I was about 14 years old and taught youth choir between 2010 and 2019.
My faith is very important to me and I believe that is what has kept me grounded. I also sang the national anthem at my law school graduation.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.hemanslaw.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/legallytrem/?hl=en
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HemansLaw/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/hemanslaw
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqRZ8-DSq76IBPXA4xwDuCQ
- Other: https://g.page/r/CarhSQ79N6crEBM/review
Image Credits
Weirsworld Media and Athena House Visuals
Davion Forbes Photography
