The Talent
September 9, 2008 5:42 PM
Q&A with Latino Lawyer of the Year Martin Garza
Posted by Francesca Heintz
K&L Gates real estate partner Martin Garza spent last weekend in Los Angeles, where he was named the Hispanic National Bar Association's Latino Lawyer of the Year at its annual convention. Garza, based in the firm's Dallas office, began working at Hughes & Luce (which merged with K&L Gates in January) in 1996. While he has long been involved in efforts to promote diversity, he says he was nonetheless surprised to receive the award. The Am Law Daily caught up with him shortly after the convention.
What does this award mean to you?
It makes me want to continue to work longer and harder to keep pushing for these different projects like education, mentoring, hiring--making sure that those that follow me have the best chance for success that they can.
How long have you been involved in diversity efforts?
I'd say since about 2001. I got involved with the Dallas Hispanic Bar Association and the Dallas Bar Association, looking at diversity as a citywide issue and then applying it to the law firms. We've had different avenues on what we've looked at, within the firms in the city and what other cities are doing, like Houston and Austin and elsewhere in the country.
Are there any major diversity initiatives that you have had a hand in?
About three years ago we started the Dallas Diversity Task Force, and that was bringing together the Dallas Hispanic Bar Association, the JL Turner Legal Association [the city's African American Bar Association], and the Dallas Asian American Bar Association. We got the three groups together to do a survey of the top 20 law firms by size in Dallas to see what minority attorneys were doing in terms of being associates and partners, and to see what the hiring, retention, and promotion efforts are within the law firms.
What did you find?
I think what we're starting to see is a correlation between the number of minority attorneys and the types of efforts the firms have in how successful they are in attracting and retaining these attorneys.
What are the major issues affecting Hispanic lawyers today? Is retention the biggest problem?
Hiring gets them in the door, retention means paying at least as much attention to minority attorneys as other attorneys and understanding how different attorneys come from different backgrounds. You also need to make a connection and focus on understanding the individual as a person and not relying on stereotypes. And there is promotion of course. If there aren't minority attorneys in the highest ranks of the law firms, then you have nothing to look up to and strive for.
Do you see more Hispanics entering the legal profession now than when you started?
I see a whole lot of students nationally at these conventions, like the HNBA, and they're very excited about going into the legal profession. But we need to take a few steps back and make sure that Hispanic students graduate from high school. That's a big problem we have to address. And once they get through high school, [we have to] make sure they get into college and that they aim high, go to the top colleges if they can. That means funding and support to make sure that they can pay for tuition and books. Then, we need to make sure they can take and pass the LSAT to get into law school and make sure they do well in law school. Grades are a high priority for the top law firms, and so you need to address the students early on.
Speaking of promoting education from the ground up, tell me about the Dallas Law Magnet High School Foundation, which you're involved with.
It's a public high school in Dallas for students that are interested in government and law. As a public high school, its demographic makeup is very much what it is in the rest of Dallas, so there's a large Hispanic and African American contingent within the school. Instead of baseball and other extracurriculars, these students get involved in debate, they take trips to Washington, D.C., they do Crimestoppers. They have different tracks where they're looking to get into law eventually, or government or public service.
Do you think that bigger firms are better or worse at diversity in general?
I think big firms are taking their cue from corporate America. We're hearing about a call to action. When you have clients asking for change, that definitely gets the attention of the larger firms. You need to satisfy your client's needs and requests, but also when you look at it from a business standpoint, it makes sense to have diversity within the larger firms. They're coming to realize that you get not just a diversity of people but a diversity of ideas and experiences that help to provide better solutions. And we all want to come up with better solutions.
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