ABA Young Lawyers Division - Diversity Initiatives

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ABA YLD Diversity Team

The Diversity Team assists the ABA YLD in fulfilling its commitments to meeting the needs of all young lawyers. The team is lead by a director and two assistant directors, and is comprised of a number of committee leaders, national affiliate representatives, and liaisons.

ABA YLD Diversity Director
Mario A. Sullivan, Chicago, IL
ABA YLD Diversity Assistant Directors
Carlos Moore, Grenada, MS	Latanishia Watters, Birmingham, AL

Meet the entire 2009-2010 Diversity Team

Message from the Diversity Director

YLD is the leader in diversity. It is our goal to remain the leader and continue to increase the diversity of our membership. Our Division promotes full and equal participation in the YLD for a membership inclusive of lawyers of varying racial, gender, ethnic, national and sexual orientation backgrounds, and of lawyers with disabilities. The YLD recognizes that our strength and success is due, in large part, to the diversity that our membership brings and is continually recognized as the most diverse entity within the ABA.

While we’re certainly proud of the recognition, we realize that meaningful diversity goes beyond citing high numbers and have, therefore, put diversity “in action” through our Diversity Plan. By implementing diversity-related programs and initiatives, we are committing ourselves to being a leader in diversity. We offer several scholarships to encourage the participation of minority, solo/small firm, government, private sector, and military service attorneys in the Young Lawyers Division. In addition, throughout the year we offer numerous diversity CLE programs at our four conferences and by teleconference on various issues facing our minority members and community. Finally, we also provide extensive diversity training for our leaders and members because ensuring diversity is everyone’s job.

The YLD is committed to assuring that the legal profession reflects the society it serves and to providing the tools and opportunities that young lawyers need to succeed both professionally and personally. As a fellow young lawyer, we need you engaged and involved in order to build upon our success and continue to promote diversity.

I invite you to explore our website to see the exciting initiatives and programs that we have planned for the 2009-2010 bar year and hope you will join us in putting diversity “in action.”

If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Mario A. Sullivan

YLD Diversity Plan and Goal III

While we’re certainly proud of the recognition as the most diverse entity within the ABA, we realize that meaningful diversity goes beyond citing high numbers and have, therefore, put diversity “in action” through our Diversity Plan. By implementing diversity-related programs and initiatives, we are committing ourselves to being a leader in diversity. For more information visit: www.abanet.org/yld/diversityplan.pdf.

As part of its continued commitment to diversity, YLD strives to and has accomplished the objectives set out in the ABA's Goal III; which are to eliminate bias and promote full and equal participation in the association, our profession, and the justice system. To assist in evaluating its accomplishment of the Goal III objectives, the YLD has developed a voluntary Goal III reporting form.

Scholarship Program

Each year the ABA YLD awards a number of scholarships to encourage the participation of minority, solo/small firm, government, private sector, and military service attorneys in the Young Lawyers Division.

Minorities in the Profession Committee
Omar Anorga, Los Angeles CA
Donyetta Bailey, Cincinnati OH
Dolores Dorsainvil, Hyattsville MD
Lacy Durham, Dallas TX
William (Bill) Ferreira, Englewood Cliffs NJ
Ebony McCain, St. Louis MO
David Nguyen, Indianapolis IN
Susan Park, New York NY
Angela Scott, Windsor Mill MD
Edward Wright, Milwaukee WI

GP Solo Committee
Ernestina (Tina) Cruz, Albuquerque NM
Shontrai Irving, Crown Point IN
Tiffany Russell, Durham NC

Government, Military and Public Sector Lawyers Committee
Clarissa Freeman, Harrisburg PA
Nikki Johnson-Huston, Philadelphia PA
Laura Young, Minneapolis MN

Meet the 2009-2010 Scholars

ABA Diversity Resources

Current Diversity Links

YLD Pipeline Diversity Projects

This year’s project is “They Had a Dream Too”, which will be a multi-media project comprised of a thirty-minute film, a website, and classroom curriculum.

It is designed to inspire and educate 11th and 12th graders about the important and often little-known role of students, teenagers and children in the Civil Rights Movement. It is also designed to encourage students to positively change the world around them. Through edgy music, photographs, video, and interviews with actual young leaders from the time, They Had A Dream Too takes students on a ride through the turbulent Civil Rights Movement of the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s.

As young lawyers, we can help realize the dream by taking this project into our local schools and helping today’s youth realize that their voice counts.

The Young Lawyers Division has a strong history of inclusion. To help insure future inclusion and those individuals of color are represented in the legal profession the YLD developed a pipeline project designed for high school students of color: Choose Law: A Profession for All.

Choose Law encourages individuals of color to become attorneys through the use of a new video, a written guide, a website, attorney volunteers and educators. Through Choose Law, students learn about the importance of the legal profession and how the law affects all aspects of their lives. The project also teaches students that attorneys of color have played a crucial role in the development of this noble profession. Finally, Choose Law shares the wonderful and diverse opportunities available for individuals pursuing a legal career and lays the path for which to get started.

Choose Law is perfect for career day seminars, for guidance counselors, for social study classes, or for programs designed to educate students about the practice of law and to encourage them to consider becoming attorneys. Educators and counselors can use the video and written materials as a stand-alone project or as a supplement to similar local programs, such as programs where a local attorney or judge speaks to high school students about the practice of law. You can modify the project to suit your needs. Choose Law can be presented in fifteen minutes or an hour depending on what will work best. How you incorporate Choose Law into your curriculum or program is up to you.

Although Choose Law is primarily directed at students of color, its message about the importance of the legal profession, overcoming obstacles and pursuing an education is appropriate for everyone.