“Carla took me under her protective, assertive, kind, and noble wings. I will forever be grateful. AMAZING LITIGATOR. AMAZING TEAM. ORGANIZED. TALENTED. ETHICAL.”
Carla Ozuna
Family Law Lawyer
Carla Ozuna is one of the firms up and coming superstars. Carla was named Head of the Family Law section in November of 2021. Carla’s legal practice focuses on helping our clients resolve complicated divorce and child custody cases.
Having been raised by a single parent and having been divorced and a single parent herself, Carla understands how difficult the process of a divorce and child custody case can be, and enjoys navigating clients through each challenge and toward a brighter future. Carla is best known by her colleagues for her strong work ethic and diverse real world experiences that give her an extremely unique ability to successfully advocate for her clients.
Carla graduated from high school in the top 10% of her class. While attending high school, she worked in the legal department for JAG (Air Force’s Judge Advocate General’s Corporation), helping to process claims. She was instrumental in getting over a million dollars in claims recouped. She created her own system for data entry, which they went on to use for years.
Carla went on to attend undergrad at St. Mary’s University where she graduated early with a double-major in economics and philosophy. During this time period, Carla was also working full-time to help pay for her education.
Carla went on to work for the Department of Family Protective Services (DFPS), often referred to as CPS (Child Protective Services), as an investigator. She was responsible for overseeing over 100 active cases at a time. Her work at DFPS allowed her to see firsthand how the department operates and how to effectively help clients facing the very scary and overwhelming accusations that could result in their children being removed from their home.
Carla also worked in the courts as a juvenile probation officer. This experience allowed her to see the obstacles families face with their young adult children when their child is accused of committing a crime or violating a school ordinance.
Her work at both DFPS and as a juvenile probation officer is an extremely rare combination of experience that provides Carla a unique perspective as a family law attorney and allows Carla to successfully advocate for her clients based off her inside knowledge of how the system works and what to expect.
Ultimately, Carla’s career path led her to attend law school at St. Mary’s University. During this time, Carla was also working full time to provide for her child as a single parent.
While attending law school, Carla interned at the Bexar County staff attorney’s office. Staff attorneys work for the courts and provide legal advice to the judges on various legal questions that arise during a divorce or child custody case. Staff attorneys also help pro se litigants process their uncontested divorces through the court system by reviewing the documents and verifying that the legal papers in the case are in order before the pro se litigant presents the documents to the Court for signature. With this internship, Carla gained more experience in how the court system works and allowed her to make personal connections with numerous other staff attorneys in the Bexar County Courthouse.
After graduating law school, Carla went on to practice family law. Carla has handled over a hundred family law and civil litigation cases. She is a skilled trial attorney. Carla has represented mothers and fathers, focusing on complex, high-asset divorces, and fiercely contested custody disputes, enforcements, and modifications.
Carla believes that a successful outcome requires understanding and adapting to each client’s individual goals. She also believes that an attorney must be over prepared to zealously advocate her client’s position in a courtroom. Carla’s life experiences and hard work have yielded her significant success in her time at Soyars & Morgan Law.
Here are a couple of Carla’s successful outcomes:
The mom and dad shared custody, the son had some mental health issues. He didn’t want to go to his dad’s anymore; he wanted to stay with his mom. His dad decided to fight that. The dad brought it to court, stating that the mom was creating drama.
The mom ended up winning primary custody of her son.
A significant number of Carla’s case load involves clients who come from other attorneys who have slept on the client’s case, haven’t done their job, don’t believe their clients, or just didn’t do the work. Here’s on example of a case in which the prior attorney failed to do the work.
A client came to her from another lawyer, stating that she didn’t feel like she was being heard or listened to, that no one believes her, and that she was going to lose her baby. The deck was absolutely stacked against her. She had a positive drug test in the past. She was already out of the military. She had a child custody evaluation against her. She was claiming abuse from her husband, but when the cops showed up, her husband had a broken nose, so it looked like it was the inverse. All of it looked horrible for her. She swore up and down that she didn’t do drugs, that she was a better person, and that ultimately it was the postpartum that created this psychosis and no one was listening to her. She also said that her husband had all this money and was hiding it. They took it to court, and after an 8-hour hearing, they were able to get all of that information out. They were able to show that the dad was underemployed and had a ton of money that he wasn’t disclosing, that mom really was going through postpartum, and she took a hair follicle test that showed she was clean from drugs. She won the case, getting to keep primary custody of her child.
Carla knew she was destined to be a lawyer, with a heart for wanting to help people and affect change. Her godmother affectionately told this story at her law school graduation. She said that Carla was arguing with her one day over something silly and said, “Look, I’m the adult. These are the rules. Too bad.”
Carla said, “Well, I don’t like the rules.”
Her godmother said, “Well, if you don’t like the rules, then when you get older, you can be a lawyer and change the rules.”
She responded, “Well, then that’s what I’m going to do.”