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In the United States, Latinos account for approximately 18 percent of the population. But Latinos are only 1.8 percent of Fortune 500 general counsel—that's nine out of 500.

The Hispanic National Bar Association is on a mission to close that gap. In March, the group launched Poder25, an initiative to get 20 Latino GCs at Fortune 500 companies by 2025. Poder means “to be able to” in Spanish.

The initiative aims to address implicit hiring bias against Latinos and the lack of mentorship and networking opportunities available by working with recruiters and those already in GC roles.

HNBA national president Erica Mason said Poder25 was inspired in part by the Asian American Bar Association's successful 10 by 10 and 20 by 20 initiatives.

Two Latina in-house lawyers at Target Corp., Angelita Hernandez and Mara Garcia Kaplan, approached the HNBA with the idea. Both worked alongside Target GC Don Liu, an active leader in the AABA's initiative, and thought the Latino community should develop something similar.

“Hispanics in the U.S. represent the largest growing minority and account for nearly half of all consumer spending growth. Yet, Corporate America is falling behind when it comes to Hispanic representation in the leadership ranks,” said Garcia Kaplan, who also serves as director counsel, M&A at Target, in an email. “We are positioning the HNBA to be the platform for companies to find top talent to lead their legal departments. Through the Poder25 initiative, the HNBA will provide a pipeline of candidates ready for those leadership positions.”

Poder25 sorts selected participants onto either the GC Ready or GC Next track, depending on where the individual is in his or her career, a system similar to the one the 2025 Black GC initiative has said it is using. Lawyers currently serving as deputy general counsel or equivalent roles at large companies with big legal teams qualify for the “ready” track. There are 15 individuals currently on this track for Poder25.

And there are 25 participants on the “next” track. The lawyers in this category typically serve at the associate level GC at Fortune 500 companies or the GC role at smaller ones.

Mason said the HNBA kept the first class sizes small on purpose on both tracks as they wanted to ensure participants got to work closely with mentors and partner GC recruiters.

As the program gains more mentors, she said she hopes they'll be able to accept more participants.

“Because Latinos are the most statistically underrepresented [in the GC role]—our population size compared to our representation in the legal profession is abysmal—we need all the help we can get from other organizations and our non-Latino allies,” Mason said.

She said she hopes participants who leave the “ready” track to move into GC roles will give back by mentoring the next class. Those on the “ready” track are already helping those on the “next” track further their careers with advice and mentorship. “My hope is that as these people benefit from this program, they pay it forward,” Mason said.

That's a cycle of progress that Hernandez, who is director counsel, real estate at Target, would welcome.

“Progress has been slow for Latino representation in General Counsel roles [of] Fortune 500 companies,” Hernandez said in an email. “Although more and more Latinos enter into and participate in the legal profession, we are often excluded from leadership pipelines and succession planning. It's time to create our own pipeline, set our own goals, and execute.”