[caption id="attachment_23975" align="alignnone" width="620"]
Kaitlyn Garcia.[/caption] Less than two years ago at age 23, Kaitlyn Garcia was one of the youngest students to ever graduate from South Texas College of Law Houston. With more than a year of practice under her belt, Garcia recently opened her own firm in Houston at an age when some of her contemporaries are still in law school. Garcia, now 25, launched KNG Law in November, where she focuses on business immigration law but also does family-based and citizenship work. She said she recently hired her first law clerk and first legal assistant, and plans to hire additional lawyers in the future and eventually open a second office in her hometown of Tampa. After passing the Texas Bar Examination in 2016, Garcia said she worked for a year as an associate at Houston immigration firm Reddy & Neumann, where she did a considerable amount of H-1B visa work, and in particular helped IT consulting companies obtain H-1B visas as third-party providers. She said she has handled hundreds of H-1B visa cases, which are non-immigrant visas for skilled workers with specialty occupations. Garcia said she learned a lot about immigration law while at Reddy & Neumann, but left because she "just wanted to do my own thing." She said her plan is to continue to offer clients a creative approach to their immigration needs. Emily Neumann, a partner at Reddy & Neumann, did not immediately respond to a request seeking comment on Garcia's departure. Garcia said she did not make the move to solo practice without giving it serious thought. "I set up my website and thought about my clients that I had really good relationships with, to see if they were interested in my services," she said. "I am actively engaged in chambers of commerce, just networking and getting out there." Garcia added that she also blogs on business immigration issues. She declined to identify her clients but said she brought some work with her to her own firm and picked up some new clients. Garcia said she is willing to take the risk of opening her own firm, even at her young age, because she is so passionate about her immigration work.