© 2016 The Texas Lawbook.
By Natalie Posgate
DALLAS (May 9) – University of Texas Regent Sara Martinez Tucker said Wednesday that she is “stunned to find the legal profession among the least diverse” for people of color – notably Hispanics.
“Just 12 percent of our country’s lawyers are people of color,” the former Under Secretary of the U.S. Department of Education told the 150 lawyers, judges, legal educators and law students attending the Dallas Hispanic Law Foundation’s fourth annual Amanecer Luncheon. “We have to level the playing field.”
The DHLF program raised $103,350 and awarded 15 scholarships and bar exam study grants to Latino law students across the state.
“The rising cost of tuition and bar review courses should not be a barrier to Hispanics graduating from law school and passing the bar exam,” said MetroPCS Senior Legal Director and DHLA President Chris Luna. Hispanic law students often need funds to finish law school and to prepare for the bar exam and the Foundation helps fill that gap.”
The DHLF also awarded five judicial internships with judges across North Texas. The recipients will intern with the judges for at least four weeks and receive a $2,500 stipend.
“To get jobs, Hispanic law students need meaningful work experience,” Luna added. “Our internship program helps these law students get practical, hands-on legal experience. A judicial internship gives law students the opportunity to research issues, analyze case law and improve their legal writing.”
Proceeds for the 20 scholarships, study grants and internship stipends totaled to $53,000.
“I think our keynote speaker said it all: We need to create a more level playing field,” said Lennox International Chief Legal Officer John Torres, who co-chaired DHLA’s luncheon. “This organization doesn’t do it alone but we’re in a step in the right direction.”
Overcoming barriers
Tucker experienced her own barriers before soaring to success in the education and corporate world. The former Hispanic Scholarship Fund CEO and AT&T executive grew up in a low-income family in Laredo, a town not revered for strong public schools.
Fortunately for Tucker, her parents saw the value in education and made sacrifices to put her through a private Catholic school, which placed her at a “big advantage” when she got to high school. After graduating from the University of Texas at Austin, Tucker was a reporter at the San Antonio Express-News before returning to UT for her MBA.
Tucker was quick to admit she was luckier than many of her Latino peers, who she said face three major barriers in reaching their potential for success: quality of education, a lack of financial resources and no outreach by mentors and loved ones who believe in their potential.
Tucker told the crowd of lawyers the money they are donating not only “makes college more affordable” for financially-strapped Latinos, but also helps to “give them the confidence they need to shoulder the tough times.”
She also stressed the need for more legal help for Latinos in the Dallas-Fort Worth community – 40 percent of which consists of Latinos yet only a small fraction of lawyers in the area are of that same demographic.
Tucker encouraged the audience – which included fellow successful Hispanics who came from economically challenging backgrounds – to go beyond the financial support they brought to the scholarship fund and provide outreach to the beginning of the diversity pipeline: children at local schools and churches.
“There is tremendous power in telling your story to students,” Tucker said. “Help them understand how far you got despite the obstacles.”
For Tucker, her most powerful experience of outreach came when she visited Travis High School in Austin on the way to the airport. She had been at UT, where she serves as a member of the university’s board of regents. She spoke to a group of predominantly Hispanic students about her personal journey from growing up in Laredo to her now prosperous career path.
After her talk, Tucker spent time in the classroom speaking with students who had lingered, too embarrassed to ask questions in front of a crowd.
A girl named Rosa stayed in the room, but never approached Tucker.
Tucker asked Rosa if she had a question, and she quietly replied, “No ma’am.”
Later, when Tucker was about to leave, she found Rosa waiting at the edge of the parking lot.
Tucker probed again. “Rosa, I will probably never see you again. What is it that you want to tell me?”
“That someone like you would speak to someone like me,” Rosa replied.
Tucker said it hurts her when young women like Rosa and in her hometown cannot “see herself in my shoes.”
Tucker’s greatest successes as the nation’s former top higher education official included making nearly $70 billion in federal student loans available during the financial crisis and implementing a website called college.gov, which helps students and families prepare for college.
During her nine years leading the Hispanic Scholarship Fund, Tucker raised $280 million for scholarships, growing annual scholarships from $3 million to more than $25 million.
At AT&T, she served as the regional vice president of the company’s global business communications systems, as well as vice president for consumer operations.
Most recently, she served as CEO of the National Math + Science Initiative, which works to improve student performance in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) by helping teachers of these subjects become better equipped to teach them.
Legal industry sponsors at Wednesday’s DHLF program included:
• Gold Sponsors: Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld; AT&T, Greenberg Traurig; Jones Day; Locke Lord; McKool Smith; Thompson & Knight; Vinson & Elkins; and Walmart Stores, Inc.
• Silver Sponsors: Dentons; Fluor Corporation; Gardere Wynne Sewell; Jackson Walker; Law Office of Domingo Garcia; Linebarger Goggan Blair & Sampson; Littler Mendelson; Ogletree, Deakins, Nash Smoak & Stewart; and The Texas Lawbook
• Bronze Sponsors: Andrews Kurth; Chris Luna; Kent Mecklenburg; Dallas Bar Association; Empire Media Services; Farrow-Gillespie & Heath; Fish & Richardson; Haynes and Boone; Lennox International; MetroPCS/T-Mobile; Munsch Hardt Kopf & Harr; Norton Rose Fulbright; Perkins Coie LLP; Polsinelli; Rebecca Garza Greenan; Rent-A-Center Inc.; SMU Dedman School of Law; Sommerman, McCaffity & Quesada; Southwest Airlines; Texas A&M University School of Law; UNT Dallas College of Law; and Winstead
• Small Firm Sponsors: Cowles & Thompson; Dallas Hispanic Bar Association; Dr. Pepper Snapple Group; Gruber Elrod Johansen Hail Shank; Law Office of Elise Healy; Mary Kay Corporation; Orenstein Law Group; and Susan & Sam Stricklin
• Public Official Sponsors: Hon. Theresa Daniel, Hon. Bonnie Goldstein, Hon. Ken Molberg, Hon. Sally Montgomery, Hon. Tonya Parker, Hon. Craig Smith, Hon. Ken Tapscott and Hon. Dale Tillery
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