Maritza C. Fernandez, Esq. is an Associate Attorney licensed in Washington. Her practice focuses in commercial liability defense, personal lines, and construction & development. Maritza graduated from the University of Miami School of Law in 2022. Prior to that, she graduated with a B.A. in History from the University of Washington in 2019.
Before joining Smith Freed Eberhard, Maritza worked as a legal writer and she also interned at the Children and Youth Law Clinic in Miami, where she represented foster youth in juvenile dependency cases. Maritza says her focus has been in Litigation, which is what brought her to SFE.
Maritza successfully advocated for the expedited reunification of a transgender child with a gender-affirming parent in another state. She also wrote an article published on KidSide Miami with her supervising attorney at the Children and Youth Law Clinic on how courts and lawyers can best advocate for LGBTQIA+ children and youth in foster care. Additionally, Maritza wrote around nineteen articles published on BlackPast as a means of using her historical research skills to preserve and highlight African-American people and events (from musical groups like The Jackson Five to political advocates like Marielle Franco).
Maritza was born and raised in Florida. She is a first-generation lawyer. Her hobbies are creative writing, knitting and crochet, and spending time with her family and her cat.
Within her first month at SFE, Maritza settled a high-limit underinsured/uninsured motorist claim.
University of Miami School of Law, J.D., 2022
University of Washington, B.A. History, 2019
Member, Washington State Bar Association