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Vance Center Pursues Diversity Initiative for the Latin American Legal Profession

May 2020

The Vance Center and its partner TalentoTotal launched the TotalLAW Prep Program, a collaborative effort engaging law firms, bar associations, law schools, and pro bono clearinghouses to increase diversity and inclusion in the legal profession across the Americas. The program aims to create a broad and ethnically diverse leadership pipeline of highly talented Afro-Descendant and Indigenous (ADI) lawyers from Latin America.

The TotalLaw Prep Program has begun selecting fellows among ADI law school students or recent graduates from Brazil, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Mexico, Panama and Peru, starting with up to six candidates in the first year and increasing each year up to 24. The program will provide fellows with up to 18 months of personalized guidance and support, focused on considering and applying for an LLM program in the United States or Europe and afterwards working in an international law firm’s international associate program. Members of the Vance Center Committee and the Lawyers Council will participate as coaches.

Fellows completing the program, with an LLM and possibly an international associate year, will be primed for leadership roles in their home countries and will join a lifelong network of professionals committed to helping each other and improving diversity and inclusion in Latin America.

Applications to the program are open until June 15. Apply here. Information in Spanish and Portuguese is available.

Learn more about the initiative in our website.