Convincing people that this country needs more attorneys is the least of James Rowader Jr.’s problems.
After all, Rowader is talking about Hispanic attorneys, and plenty of statistics indicate that they’re underrepresented in the law profession. The real problem is finding the formula that puts people from this fast-growing segment of society into lawyers’ shoes, where they would be in a unique position to address some of the country’s most pressing problems.
The answer, advocates hope, lies in education. Rowader, vice president and general counsel for employee and labor relations at retail company Target, has been appointed to the first board of directors of the Hispanic National Board Association (HNBA) Legal Education Fund, a nonprofit organization dedicated to addressing this issue.
The veteran attorney knows his work is cut out for him.
“Nobody would argue there’s a shortage of lawyers,” says Rowader (AB ’87, political science), with a laugh. “[But] I think we have a shortage of diverse lawyers. I think members of both Hispanic and African American bars are continuing to address that reality. You [want to] create a larger pool of lawyers who have the cultural experiences and sensitivities to potentially better serve those communities.”
Rowader, the Puerto Rican son of a taxi driver and secretary who grew up in Chicago, says that despite the selection of Sonia Sotomayor to the U.S. Supreme Court in 2009—which was a “shot of adrenalin,” he says—the influence of Hispanics in the law feels flat at a time when immigration reform could affect millions of lives in the United States.
The Hispanic population in the United States surpassed 50 million in 2010, according to the Census Bureau, and grew by 43 percent in the last decade, so that now an estimated 16 percent of people in the country are Hispanic.
By comparison, Hispanics made up 3.7 percent of attorneys in 2010, a number which has barely budged from 3.4 percent in 2000, according to the American Bar Association.
“Some of it has to do with the economy and some of it has to do with the fact that there’s still a lot of work to do in terms of ensuring that not just Hispanic lawyers, but I think all minority lawyers, are more successful in the legal profession,” Rowader says.
The HNBA Legal Education Fund has taken on several initiatives to reverse this trend. Steps include need-based law school scholarships and events such as the Uvaldo Herrera National Moot Court Competition, during which Hispanic law students competed against each other in preparing legal briefs and oral arguments.
The fund has also started an outreach program called “The Promise in the Law,” designed to increase participation and confidence in the U.S. legal system in the Hispanic community in general. The fund has created a booklet in Spanish describing the basic features of the U.S. government, from the Constitution and office of the President to basic rights in criminal proceedings.
Rowader knows how little things like the outreach program could snowball into an influential career. He recalls how his interest in law was sparked at a young age by a government class at Luther North High School in Chicago.
“I think sometimes we take for granted the idea that everybody learns this in grade school and high school and none of that really needs to be explained,” Rowader says. “We’re trying to deal with a situation within the Hispanic community throughout the United States where you can’t necessarily take that for granted.”
