Feature
When Opportunity Comes Knocking, Don’t Be Afraid to Answer the Door How Melissa Martorella Made the Most of a Chance in the Lending Industry By Mark Dewyea, Contributing Writer for Originate Report
A
s the old adage goes: “If life
industry. Yet when the opportunity
gives you lemons, then make
presented itself, Melissa hit the
lemonade.” In the case of
ground running and hasn’t looked
Melissa C. Martorella, a Partner and Department Head of Geraci LLP’s Banking and Finance practice, it’s more like life gave her lemons and she somehow turned them into fine wine. It’s hard to believe that Melissa, who has been selected to the Southern California Super Lawyers Rising Stars list for three consecutive years (for context only 2.5% of attorneys earn this distinction a single time) and has earned a meteoric rise up
back since. Today you can find her overseeing a dynamic team of lawyers and loan processors in the efficient preparation
of
loan
packages—
providing quality representation to a diverse conglomerate of leading national mortgage providers for all of their transactional documentation requirements. We had the pleasure of sitting down with Melissa to discuss her career accomplishments thus far and the advice she has
“A pessimist sees the difficulty in
the ranks at Geraci LLC, initially had
for young professionals looking to
every opportunity; an optimist sees
no hard-set plans during law school
emulate her impressive track record
the opportunity in every difficulty.”
to practice specifically in the lending
of success.
–Winston S. Churchill
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