ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT: JOSÉ BLAZQUEZ Undergraduate students in Texas seeking a prelaw education are offered solid advice from the texasbar.com website. “Consider courses that develop organized thinking . . . and the ability to work well with others. Do not choose the least demanding courses for a high grade point average at the expense of achieving valuable learning skills.” For attorney at law, José Blazquez (‘99), his years at #UTSAMUSIC as a music marketing major and active student musician were in line with that advice. Music and law are comparable pursuits; both demand clarity in thought and discipline in action. Good musicians maneuver between ensemble and solo situations as a matter of course. We asked Blazquez, who in 2017 established the Blazquez Law Office in Houston, to travel back to his pre-law days when he was a student musician at UTSA to share his memories with us.
What was your motivation for becoming a lawyer and what role did being a music marketing major play? The Music Marketing degree was broad enough that it exposed me to areas that I had not considered previously. I had to take a Business Law class. During that class, I discovered I had a real interest in reading legal texts and cases. I found it fascinating that the material concerned real people with actual and tangible problems and situations. When I decided to go to law school, I imagined myself as a music lawyer. Once I got to law school, however, I discovered that I preferred trial and appellate advocacy more so than what I imagined to be the music lawyer’s life of sitting in front of a computer all day dealing with paperwork. I was drawn to the excitement of the trial setting, examination of witnesses and investigation. Looking back, I think it may have been the musician in me looking for a stage.
After you graduated from UTSA where did you attend law school? I graduated from Texas Tech School of Law in December of 2001, after one year at St. Thomas School of Law in Miami, Florida. I passed the February 2002 bar and was licensed in May of 2002. I began my career in San Antonio and moved to Houston in 2013. In 2017, I opened my own law office and that is currently where I work. My law practice is primarily focused on civil litigation, although I handle other civil matters as well as contracts, real estate, etc. Most of my work is representing large companies when they are sued for accidents, contracts, etc.
