Underrepresented /
Diversity in Law School and the Profession
The
underrepresentation of Latinos in the legal profession has been a longstanding
problem in the United States. While Latinos now make up over 15 percent of
the U.S. population, the largest minority group in America, the growth rate of
representation of Latinos in the legal profession has failed to keep up. Yet as
recent as Fall 2009, Latinos comprise a significantly lower percent of law
school matriculants, less than 8%, according to the Law School Admissions
Council. Recent statistics from the Hispanic National Bar
Association and the American Bar Association reveal Latinos account for merely
2.2 percent of practicing lawyers in the United States. The gross disparity
is present in all sectors of the legal profession, from law school enrollment
to practice in both public and private environments. Despite our pride in
our most recent Supreme Court Justice, the reality is that Latinos still
comprise less than 4% of the state and federal judiciary. The
"Underrepresentation in the Law" panel makes a critical and
self-reflective analysis of the path to the legal profession and the low
numbers of Latino law students, law school faculty, and practicing lawyers.
The panel hopes to explore the challenges facing prospective students and
the struggle of increasing Latino admissions in law school, as well as the
efforts to promote and improve the experiences of Latino law students.
The panel will also explore the experiences of Latino legal professionals,
focusing on the lack of Latinos in particular areas of law and legal acedemia.
The panel hopes to identify successful models for increasing the Latino
presence in the law and discuss new strategies to continue nuestra lucha,
in order to set the stage diversity in the legal profession and allowing more
Latinos to take leadership positions at the forefront of the legal community.
Moderator:
Professor
Solangel Maldonado
Professor Solangel Maldonado’s research
focuses on the law’s regulation of children’s relationships with parental
figures. She has written several articles examining the law’s responsibility
for paternal disengagement and inter-parental hostility after divorce and is
currently exploring whether the law can facilitate forgiveness between
divorcing parents and children. Her work also examines the legal and social
implications of transracial and transcultural adoptions.
Professor Maldonado is also interested in
comparative work. She is one of the co-authors of the second edition of Family Law in the World Community: Cases, Materials, and Problems
in Comparative and International Family Law, and has conducted
research on paternal involvement in nonmarital families at McGill
University-Faculty of Law in Canada. She delivered the keynote address at the
New Zealand Family Law Conference in 2007.
Prior to joining the Seton Hall faculty,
Professor Maldonado was a litigation associate with Kaye, Scholer, Fierman,
Hays & Handler, LLP and with Sidley, Austin, Brown & Wood in New York.
She was also a law clerk for the Honorable Joseph A. Greenaway, Jr., United
States District Court for the District of New Jersey. She received her B.A.
from Columbia College and her J.D. from Columbia Law School, where she was a
Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar and the Managing Editor of the Columbia Journal of Gender and Law.
Professor Maldonado is a member of the Hispanic National Bar
Association and, in that capacity, she and five other law professors
drafted a comprehensive report on the jurisprudence of U.S. Supreme
Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor in connection with her nomination and
confirmation to the U.S. Supreme Court. This report -- Report of the
HNBA in Support of the Confirmation of the Honorable Sonia Sotomayor as
Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States -- was
entered into the Hearing Record of the United States Senate, Committee
on the Judiciary. Professor Maldonado has served on the New Jersey
Commission on Higher Education, the Board of Directors of the Dominican
Bar Association, and the New York Supreme Court Judicial Screening
Panel. She is currently the chair of the Diversity Council at Seton Hall
Law.
Professor Maldonado came to Seton Hall in 2001 and was awarded a
Dean’s Fellowship in 2006. She was named the Joseph M. Lynch Research
Fellow in 2007.
PANELISTS:
Professor Barbara Atwell
Professor
Atwell was appointed as Director
of Diversity Initiatives on February 3, 2009. Prior to that, she served as the
Director of the Health Law and Policy Program until 2005. Professor Atwell was
a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar and an editor of the Columbia Journal of Law
and Social Problems while attending Columbia Law School. From there she
clerked for Judge Nathaniel R. Jones of the United States Court of Appeals for
the Sixth Circuit. Professor Atwell subsequently joined Arnold & Porter in
Washington, DC, as an associate. While there, her areas of practice included
communication, government contracts and civil rights. She helped draft and edit
Cable Franchising and Regulation: A Local Government Guide to the New Law.
Professor Atwell has served on the Board of Directors of Practicing Attorneys
for Law Students and is a former member of the Tort Litigation Committee of the
New York City Bar Association. She is the author of various law review
articles.
Miguel Pozo, Member of the firm, Lowenstein Sandler PC
Miguel Alexander Pozo
is a home-grown Partner at Lowenstein Sandler PC, where he specializes in
representing companies in the high-end luxury goods industry. With over twelve
years of litigation experience, Mr. Pozo represents Fortune 500 corporations,
businesses, and non-profit organizations in a broad range of federal and state
court litigation.
Most recently, Mr.
Pozo also enjoys providing advice and counsel to
clients in the high end, luxury goods industry regarding trademark and related
issues, specifically brand protection/brand integrity, anti-counterfeiting,
anti-gray marketing, and brand dilution. He has also litigated a range
of commercial litigation matters involving business torts, contract disputes,
disputes under New Jersey’s Franchise Practices Act and New Jersey's Consumer
Fraud Act, as well as defending consumer fraud class actions.
His representative
clients have included TAG Heuer, Christian Dior, Hublot, Thomas Pink, Liz
Claiborne, Inc., LinkShare Corporation, and MTV Networks, among others. Mr.
Pozo also leads his firm's representation of LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton,
Inc. and The Juilliard School. In 2011 and 2010, he was included on the Super
Lawyers magazine list of "Super Lawyers" for his experience in
business litigation. In 2009, he was twice named one of New Jersey's top
"40 Under 40" lawyers by New Jersey Law Journal magazine and NJBiz
magazine.
Mr. Pozo is currently
Regional President for Region III of the Hispanic National Bar Association
(HNBA), and is the Immediate Past President of the Hispanic Bar Association of
New Jersey (HBA-NJ). He is also Editor-in-Chief of DiversityisNatural.com, a
Web site and initiative of Lowenstein Sandler PC dedicated to fostering the
advancement of women and minorities in the legal profession.
Mr. Pozo received his
JD degree from Rutgers University School of Law - Newark and a BA degree from
Hofstra University. He is admitted to practice in New Jersey and in several
federal courts, including the Court of Appeals for the Second and Third
Circuits, and the United States Supreme Court.
Sonji
Patrick – Education
Division Director at LatinoJustice PRLDEF
