Commitment to Diversity
DLD Lawyers is a minority-owned trial law firm with a strong commitment to providing equal opportunity to people of all backgrounds and gender. We fully support the ABA’s goal “to promote the full and equal participation in the legal profession by minorities, women, and persons with disabilities.” We not only meet the ABA’s criteria, we far exceed it with 60% of our firm’s managing members, 40% of our associates, and 75% of our paralegals.
DLD Lawyers is certified as a Minority Business Enterprise (MBE) by the National Minority Supplier Development Council (NMSDC), and its local affiliate, the Southern Florida Minority Supplier Development Council. We believe that achieving diversity in the workplace does not entail any specific formula, but a willingness to commit your time and resources to attaining this goal.
Recruitment, Retention & Mentoring
As a minority-owned firm, we have a unique insight to the obstacles that are often confronted by minority lawyers in our profession. We believe we know where to seek diverse talent, and we pursue entry-level associates and law clerks from atypical avenues.
Our mentoring program begins long before the hiring of our associates. The lawyers at our firm, through the local Hispanic National Bar Association (HNBA) affiliate, serve as mentors for law students, some of whom are extended offers to join the firm as law clerks and/or associates upon completion of The Florida Bar. At the firm, our associates are assigned a senior lawyer, who serve as the associate’s mentor during their time at our firm, and in many cases, through much of their initial career.
Collaboration with Community & Bar Associations
Hispanic National Bar Association (HNBA): DLD Lawyers is actively engaged with the HNBA mission to serve as the national voice for the concerns and opinions of Hispanics in the community generally, and in legal profession in particular, by working with other bar associations, governmental agencies and community groups to achieve greater involvement in and understanding of the American legal system by the national Hispanic community. HNBA goals include promoting the recruitment and retention of Hispanics in law schools and provide them with financial assistance, developing mechanisms to facilitate the exchange of information among Hispanics involved in all segments of the legal profession, providing continuing legal education for attorneys and foster the exchange of ideas and information among its members, and testimony before Congress, state legislatures and executive agencies on issues of concern to Hispanics.
Cuban American Bar Association (CABA): DLD Lawyers is an active member of CABA and long-standing supporter of its “Art in the Tropics” event that serves to fund CABA’s Pro Bono Project established in 1984 in response to the needs of indigent, Spanish-speaking individuals who did not have adequate access to Spanish-speaking lawyers and the courts. In 1992, the CABA Pro Bono Project was nationally recognized by President George H. W. Bush as a “Shining Point of Light.”
National Bar Association (NBA): DLD Lawyers is an active member and a regular sponsor of the National Bar Association, “the nation’s oldest and largest association of African American lawyers and judges.”
Pipeline Initiatives
In a continued effort to increase the pipeline of qualified diverse attorneys in our community, DLD Lawyers has been an avid supporter of the Florida International University (FIU) College of Law since its inception, which includes a sizable contribution for a reading room in the law library. FIU ranked by Hispanic Business among the top 10 law schools for Hispanics, and among the top 10 schools for best value in legal education by the National Jurist. The Princeton Review ranks it as one of the nation’s most welcoming schools for diverse students. We were pleased to learn that with a passage rate of 80% on the February 2019 Florida Bar Exam, FIU Law surpassed the statewide average passage rate of 57.3% by 22.7 percentage points and finished first in the state for the seventh time in the last eight examinations.
