Sergio Garcidueñas-Sease and Diego Rondón Ichikawa in Trial News – Who Will Represent Washington? A Challenge to the Plaintiffs’ Bar

Latino attorneys make up about 5% of Washington's bar. Among WSAJ members who've disclosed race or ethnicity, just 3.5% identify as Latinx – in a state where the Latino population has grown 133% since 2000.

In this month’s Washington State Association for Justice Trial News, SGB’s Sergio Garcidueñas-Sease and Diego Rondón Ichikawa write about that gap and issue a direct challenge to the plaintiffs’ bar:

“Increasing diversity in our practice doesn’t just happen on its own. It happens because someone in this bar decided, deliberately, to make it happen. Let it be you.”

Check out the key takeaways:

• The pipeline into law for Latinx communities exists, but it wasn’t built to bring attorneys into plaintiffs’ practice.

• Having a lawyer who can listen to clients describe their situation in their language isn't a nice-to-have – it's what access to justice is supposed to mean.

• Advice and mentorship alone don’t change a career, but real investment, like funding an internship or giving someone a seat on the trial team, does.

Read the full Trial News article here.