Shawn Anthony Mesa

I became a Florida lawyer in 1999 after graduating from South Texas College of Law as a Doctor of Jurisprudence in the same year.

My main focuses in law practice are immigration/citizenship law and family law/divorce. I practice law in those areas because of the way I came to be born in the United States and my upbringing. My grandfather moved his immediate family from Cuba to the United States a couple of years prior to the Cuban Revolution due to government threats to his well-being.

As I began practicing law, it was natural for me to feel good about helping families with their immigration or transition to the United States. I found that the transition was not only a physical one, but an emotional one too. It was my desire to help people with their emotional transitions that led me to family law and collaborative law practice. So technically, I am a lawyer, but I view my role in life as a person who helps people as they transition geographically, emotionally, and spiritually to a better place.

I am an active member of the Hillsborough County Bar Association, Next Generation Divorce (a collaborative law group), and International Academy of Collaborative Professionals.

As an extension of my international practice, I received a lifetime appointment as a Civil Law Notary in 2010.

A Civil Law Notary is different than a Notary Public. A Florida Civil Law Notary is a member in good standing of The Florida Bar, who has practiced law for at least five years, and who is appointed by the Secretary of State as a Civil Law Notary after completion of specialized notarial training and passage of a state-administered examination.

As a Civil Law Notary I may give legal advice, draft legal documents, and exercise legal power and authority generally similar to those exercised by . Notaries (Notario Publico, Escribano, Notar, Notaire, Latin Notary). I may authenticate or certify any document, transaction, event, condition, or occurrence by issuance of an authentic act, the contents of which are presumed correct as a matter of law.