PracticePro Diversity Program 2018

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TABLE OF

CONTENTS

3 Who is PracticePro?
4-6 Diversity ​Scholar P​ rogram​Overview & Timeline
7 Program History
8 Career Conferences & Diversity Receptions
9 Law Firm & Corporate Partners
Benefits of Becoming a Law Firm Diversity Partner
10 Class of 2020 Diversity Scholars
11-13 Featured Alumni
14-16 Scholar​ Spotlights​

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2

PracticePro is a San
Francisco-based legal
education company with
expertise in skills training
and career coaching for
diverse and first-generation
attorneys and law students. 
We can help you recruit, train, and
retain top diverse talent.

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Diversity Scholar Program Overview

Intensive training, coaching, and recruiting program to help diverse law students
become successful lawyers and leaders.

Proactive career Networking
management

Professional branding Business development

Communication skills Project management

Leadership Litigation skills
Cultural code switching Relationship and
conflict management

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Program Benefits, Eligibility, and Selection

Our pipeline starts in the spring semester of 1L year and ends 12 months after graduation.

Each PracticePro Diversity Scholar participates in a number of training and coaching programs to
become practice ready. A few examples include:

1) Full-day training at a PracticePro Career Conference in Chicago, Houston, New York City, San Francisco, or Washington D.C.
2) Intensive career and leadership coaching by a PracticePro certified coach
3) Introductions and recommendations for employment to law firm partners
4) New Attorney Basics: Junior Litigation Associate Bootcamp
5) Mentorship match to senior in-house corporate counsel

ELIGIBILITY: APPLICATION REQUIREMENTS: SELECTION CRITERIA:

• First-year law student • Biographical sheet • Academic excellence
(Class of 2021 ) at ABA- • Resume • Character: integrity,
accredited law school • Undergraduate and law school
resilience, grit
• Diverse: race, ethnicity, transcripts
gender, disability, LGBT • 350 word essay • Leadership and ambition
• Optional: 2-minute video • Bonus: early application,

communication, organization

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Program Timeline | Class of 2021

Date Event

October 15, 2018 Early Program law firm diversity partners selected

November 1, 2018 1Ls (nationwide) can apply to the program

1L January 20, 2019 Application deadline
Year February 4, 2019
March 1, 2019 Diversity Scholar Class of 2021 selected
Law firm diversity partners gain access to scholar and runner-up application materials in their
March 1 - June 7, 2019 region of sponsorship
Scholars attend career conferences in Chicago, Houston, New York City, San Francisco, or Washington D.C.;
May 13, 2019 Law firm diversity partners co-teach career conferences and meet scholars and other attendees
Scholars start 6-month intensive career and leadership coaching
2L Year May - August 2019
& Beyond Fall 2019, 2020, or 2021 Law firm diversity partners receive personalized recommendations of outstanding scholars
Post bar admission
Scholars attend New Attorney Basics: Junior Litigation Associate Bootcamp

Scholars are matched with senior in-house mentors

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Program History

2014-15 (Class of 2017) 2015-16 (Class of 2018) 2016-17 (Class of 2019) 2017-18 (Class of 2020)

• Bay Area • Bay Area • Bay Area • Nationwide
• Texas • Texas
Geographies • Texas • Illinois • Illinois 230
• Washington D.C. • Washington D.C.
Applicants 25 • Top 30 schools 46 students representing
103 37 schools
Scholars 14 students representing 125 • Career Conferences
10 schools 38 students representing • New Attorney Basics
20 schools 45 students representing • Career Coaching
• Career Conferences • Career Conferences 34 schools • Webinars
• New Attorney Basics • New Attorney Basics • Post-graduation in-house
• Career Coaching • Career Conferences
• New Attorney Basics mentoring
Programs • Career Coaching
• Webinars

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Last Year’s Sponsors

Diversity Corporate Partners
Diversity Founder (nationwide)

Diversity Leaders
Diversity Champions
Diversity Benefactors

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10

Class of 2020 | Diversity Scholars

Sahar Adora Rachel Barnes Vanessa Bateau Justin Cajero Celin Carlo-Gonzalez

George Washington Virginia William & Mary Cornell Stanford

Cameron Chan Francisca Chimenelli Fred Chung Rachael Clark Brandon Cofield

Boston University Loyola Chicago Harvard University of Washington Texas A&M

Michael Drab Mary Jane Dumankaya Raquel Flynn Clinton Ford Juan Garcia

University of Houston Penn Baltimore Emory SMU

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Class of 2020 | Diversity Scholars

Yoseily Garcia Cristina Gil Matthew Green Justin Greene Ali Habhab

University of San Francisco American WCL UT USC Michigan

Noor-ul-ain Hasan Priscilla Hernandez Melvin Kenney Paul Kim Anja Kong

Berkeley Stanford Howard Emory Columbia

Cyrus Kotenai Kristina Krasnikova Sarah Kyung Gabriel Lara Ashley Lee

TSU Thurgood Marshall Berkeley University of Illinois Chicago-Kent UC Hastings

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Class of 2020 | Diversity Scholars

Prachi Mistry Megan Mitchell Laura Moedano Anika Nayyar Andrew Nietes Nicholle Lamartina

UC Irvine South Texas UT UC Davis Fordham Palacios

NYU

Yevgeniy Pilipovskiy Micaela Piña Robert Sachs Laurel Saito Tamara Sakijha

Berkeley Columbia UCLA Georgetown University of Richmond

Christopher Santana Michele St. Julien Devonna Thompson Mitchell Santos Lauren Valentor

Columbia Virginia Northwestern Toledo Chicago

Harvard

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Featured Alumni – Where are they now?

Nneka Adibe Tristin Brown Sophia Cai Wevine Fidelis Fallon Griffin

University of Maryland 2019 George Washington 2019 Stanford 2019 Berkeley 2019 Berkeley 2019

CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield Perkins Coie Covington & Burling Gibson Dunn Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe
(Summer Associate) (Summer Associate) (Summer Associate) (Summer Associate) (Summer Associate)

Abdul Hafiz Ernan Kiselica Jihad Komis Wesley Nash Stella Oyalabu

Fordham 2019 Berkeley 2019 George Washington 2019 TSU Thurgood Marshall 2019 Boston University 2019

White & Case Skadden Williams & Connolly Jackson Walker Prince Lobel Tye
(Summer Associate) (Summer Associate) (Summer Associate) (Summer Associate) (Summer Associate)

Priyank Patel Shruthi Prabhu Roberto Rodriguez-Orozco Kevin Shin Katherine M. Skipper

UCLA 2019 Virgnia 2019 UCLA 2019 Georgetown 2019 Northwestern 2019

Fenwick & West Bracewell Goldfarb & Lipman Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft Fried Frank
(Summer Associate) (Summer Associate) (Summer Associate) (Summer Associate) (Summer Associate)

Michelle Sosa-Acosta Carina Tenaglia Daniel Wei Whitney Williams BinQuan Zhuang

Berkeley 2019 George Washington 2019 Emory 2019 American U. WCL 2019 Stanford 2019
Haynes and Boone
Morrison & Foerster Hogan Lovells (Summer Associate) Squire Patton Boggs Sidley Austin
(Summer Associate) (Summer Associate) (Summer Associate) (Summer Associate)
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Featured Alumni – Where are they now?

David Chen Miranda Dore Celia Guzman Ama Gyimah Juvian Hernandez Feza Kikaya

Stanford 2018 American WCL 2018 UC Hastings 2018 Loyola Chicago 2018 SMU 2018 University of Maryland 2018

Latham & Watkins Akin Gump Strauss Hanson Bridgett SmithAmundsen Robins Kaplan Schlachman, Belsky
Hauer & Feld & Weiner

Sara Kim Lucy Liu Eduardo Mendoza Olivia Mora Mallory Morales Tina Ngo

Chicago 2018 Michigan 2018 St. Mary’s 2018 UT 2018 Berkeley 2018 Berkeley 2018

Jenner & Block White & Case US District Court for the K&L Gates Morrison & Foerster Baker Botts
Southern District of Texas

Jose Rico Erica Santamaria Mashal Shah Adedamola Sokoya Ashley Vega

UC Davis 2018 Georgetown 2018 George Washington 2018 Howard 2018 South Texas 2018

Morgan, Lewis & Haynes and Boone Troutman Sanders Alston & Bird Thomas Quinn
Bockius

Winnie Weil Jay Zhang Christine Zhao Beck Zucker

Berkeley 2018 University of Houston 2018 Georgetown 2018 George Washington 2018

Sheppard Mullin Thompson & Reilley Fried Frank Kator, Parks,
Weiser & Harris

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Featured Alumni – Where are they now?

Nare Aleksanyan Kenesia Cook Isaiah Deporto-Plick Janice Dow Royce Egeolu

Berkeley 2017 George Washington 2017 Stanford 2017 Berkeley 2017 Minnesota 2017

DLA Piper Kilpatrick Townsend O’Melveney & Myers Orrick, Herrington Shook, Hardy & Bacon
& Stockton & Sutcliffe

Christopher Garcia Dennis Hui Kirsten Johansson Taneska Lewis-Jones Drew Neumann

UC Hastings 2017 George Washington 2017 UT 2017 University of Houston 2017 South Texas 2017

Wilson Sonsini The Court of Special WilmerHale Shellist Lazarz Slobin Daw & Ray
Goodrich & Rosati Appeals of Maryland

Baltazar Salazar Macy Smith Winnie Wong

TSU Thurgood Marshall 2017 Texas A&M 2017 Berkeley 2017

US District Court for the Munsch Hardt Haynes and Boone
Southern District of Texas Kopf & Harr

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Scholar Spotlights

PracticePro Diversity Scholars are impressive for many different reasons.

Check out part of their stories below and click here to read more about these scholars and others.

Eduardo Mendoza

St. Mary’s, Class of 2018, Federal Law Clerk, Dallas & Laredo, TX.
Eduardo discusses a challenge he faced growing up, how he overcame it, and how it shaped who he is
today: “I grew up with a stuttering disability and attended speech therapy in high school. I learned to
control it. When I earned the Best Speaker award at a mock trial competition in law school, I knew the
stutter would not hold me back as a lawyer.”

Michelle Sosa-Acosta

Berkeley, Class of 2019, 2L Summer: Morrison and Foerster, San Fransisco, CA.
Michelle is the first in her family to pursue both a college and graduate degree. Her mother was
deported when Michelle was a child and she saw how her mother persevered through all of the
challenges she faced. Michelle says, “Today, I have my mother’s strength because she taught me that
there is always a way to keep going.”

Nicholle Lamartina Palacios

NYU, Class of 2020, 1L Summer: Milbank, New York City, NY.
Nicholle has dedicated herself to serving Latino and LGBT communities and was a founding member
and Associate Editor for Yale’s first recurring LGBT print publication, Q Magazine. In the upcoming
academic year, she will chair the NYU Law Host Committee of the annual National Latino Law Students
Association Conference and serve as the Outreach Chair for OUTLaw.

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