Understanding the Status of Latinas in Law: Dr. Jill Lynch Cruz on Navigating Barriers and Building Careers

As an elite executive coach and distinguished scholar, Dr. Jill Lynch Cruz has devoted her career to empowering diverse attorneys—particularly Latinas— as they navigate the challenges they face within the legal profession. Her longstanding partnership with the Hispanic National Bar Association’s (HNBA) Latina Commission combined with her role as a lead researcher on several national studies have established her as a highly regarded thought leader and champion for equity in the field.  With a background as a former Chief Human Resources Officer at a top law firm and over a decade of experience coaching top-tier legal talent, Dr. Cruz brings unparalleled insight into the obstacles faced by women of color in law.  

I sat down with Dr. Cruz to explore key insights from her latest research article, “Still Too Few and Far Between: The Status of Latina Lawyers in the U.S.”  With refreshing candor, she reveals both the hard truths and the promising developments, offering advice that only a seasoned expert with her depth of experience can provide.  Dr. Cruz also reveals an exciting personal project on the horizon that promises to be an essential resource for Latina lawyers.  Although her groundbreaking research highlights the challenges faced by Latinas in law, Dr. Cruz’s insights apply broadly to all underrepresented women of color in the profession.  Her guidance transcends ethnicity and even gender, offering strategies that any attorney of color can use to build a successful career in law. 

Sara Santoyo: For those unfamiliar with it, could you provide some background on the original study you did 15 years ago with the HNBA’s Latina Commission?  

Jill Lynch Cruz:  Back in 2008, the Latina Commission was established by then-HNBA President Ramona Romero to address the challenges and goals specific to Latina attorneys, as there was no existing data on their experiences.  The goal was to assess their professional status and understand why Latina attorneys appeared to be so disproportionately underrepresented.

At the time I was conducting my own doctoral research on women attorneys, focusing on why so few women and women of color held leadership roles in the legal profession.  This led to my collaboration with President Romero, Professor Melinda Molina, and Dolores Atencio, the first chair of the Latina Commission.  Together, we traveled all across the U.S., conducting focus groups in major cities.  For many Latina attorneys, it was their first time being in a room with so many other Latina lawyers—sometimes as many as 20 to 30.

We asked questions about formative experiences, challenges, and factors that contributed to their success in law. Then we did a national survey based on those questions.  Our key findings revealed that Latina attorneys face a multi-layered glass ceiling due to gender, race, ethnicity, and cultural challenges that were unique to them.  We also identified that they are among the most underrepresented in leadership roles across the profession and are significantly underpaid relative to their non-Latina attorney peers.

SS: Now 15 years later, your latest article provides updated findings on the status of Latinas in law in 2024.  

JLC:  I didn’t initially plan to do a large-scale analysis, but the more data I found, the more it became necessary.  There are two major findings: one is that the pipeline is improving.  Latina law students are now one of the largest cohorts of entering law students, doubling their representation.  That’s really a beacon of hope. 

The paradox is that at the highest leadership levels—law firm partners, corporate counsel, federal judges, and law school deans and professors—Latinas remain among the most underrepresented across all racial and ethnic groups.  

SS: I was shocked to read that only one in 100 partners are Latina. So while there’s progress at the entry level, it isn’t reflected in leadership roles.  

JLC:  In some ways, we’re not only failing to progress but even losing ground.  Over the last 15 years, the Latina population in the U.S. has increased by almost 2%, yet the percentage of Latinas who are partners in law firms has only risen by 0.6%.  So, relatively speaking, their representation is actually shrinking.

SS:  We start out on a relatively equal footing out of law school, but things change drastically as we try to move up.  Why do you think that is? 

JLC:  Lean In did a report on Latinas in corporate highlighting a “broken rung” which is that first step into leadership.  I think that speaks to a lot of the disconnect here.  The broken rung is where Latinas are not getting those leadership opportunities and not having access to sponsors.  Upper mobility is based on not just what you know, but also who you know, and who's going to hold the door open for you.  Latinas do an excellent job in terms of their abilities, their talent, their merit, but they often struggle with having limited access to influential sponsors for various reasons. 

SS: What are some of those reasons? 

JLC:  It’s a combination of things.  For one, sponsors tend to reach out to people who resemble themselves—usually white men.  Informal mentoring relationships tend to develop organically, favoring people with similar backgrounds, and affinity bias plays a role in this.  

There's also a lot of gender bias.  Leadership is often viewed through a masculine lens.  This means women, and Latinas especially, aren’t always initially perceived as leaders.  A lot of Latina attorneys are often misidentified as someone other than the attorney.  Implicit biases also keep Latinas from being perceived as someone that sponsors want to identify and support.  For a Latina attorney entering a law firm, not being identified within the first year can mean falling behind in building connections with people who provide key opportunities.  And this is cumulative over time.  Cultural and individual factors also play a role.  One of the things with networking is that Latinas, or Hispanics in general, tend to have more of what we call “dense networks” where they know the same people as their immediate contacts but lack the broader, more diverse networks that open up wider career opportunities.

SS: There's also an affinity bias on our end where we tend to seek out other Latinas or other people of color in our network, but we need to expand beyond that to access opportunities that are only outside of us. 

JLC: Exactly.  It’s about expanding your network and then those individuals can connect you, like linking pins, to other networks.  Another key factor is self-promotion.  Latinas often struggle with this due to a core cultural value of humility, which can make self-promotion feel uncomfortable. 

SS:  I think this has been one of the biggest barriers for a lot of us.  We tend to be the workhorses, and we want to keep our head down and just keep working.  How do you help Latina lawyers learn to promote themselves in a way that feels authentic to them? 

JLC:  That's the critical element—it has to be authentic.  We conflate self-promotion with bragging or being egotistical.  But self-promotion doesn’t mean boasting; it means clearly conveying the value you bring to others, especially as part of your group or your community.  Highlighting how your work benefits others is such an important component.  I think of bragging as “self” centered, whereas self-promotion is “you” centered.  It’s really a mindset shift, and it leads to a win-win. 

SS: That mindset shift is so empowering because Latinas are all about wanting to help and serve.  You spent over 20 years in law firm human resource management impacting policies and training at a high level.  What made you want to work one-on-one with attorneys?  

JLC:  I impact change at various levels—as a thought leader, writer, and speaker, and through my involvement with organizations like the HNBA and other affinity bar associations.  For me, it’s about creating awareness for change and addressing it with different stakeholders.  One-on-one coaching has been the most impactful for me because systemic change takes time.  The legal profession has been very slow to change, and while we continue to fight the good fight, progress remains slow.

Where I’ve seen the biggest impact is in empowering Latina attorneys to identify where they have control and to fully step into their power.  Coaching is all about clarity—recognizing what you can control, what you can’t, and where you may have influence.  It’s also about identifying what’s artificially holding you back and understanding why.   Sometimes, it’s just a shift in mindset or behavior that allows you to take meaningful action.

This is the foundation for my upcoming book which outlines the RISE Empowerment Process to help Latina attorneys face and overcome career challenges.  The book serves as a roadmap for success, focusing on strategies to empower individual change even as we work toward broader, systemic transformation.

SS: I’m excited for your book! It sounds like the career roadmap Latina lawyers have needed but never had. Given the slow pace of change within law firms, what recommendations do you have for how they can better support Latinas?

JLC:  Law firms have really struggled to promote more women, particularly Latina attorneys, into the leadership. One recommendation is to focus on ways to help Latinas within these organizations build the necessary skills and awareness to take proactive, intentional steps early in their careers.  From what I’ve observed, there’s often a tendency for Latinas to wait too long before realizing they’re falling behind.  Strategic career planning should begin from day one in a legal career, with an emphasis on understanding the specific things Latinas need to be doing from the beginning.  Leadership development must happen in the early stages because transitioning from associate to partner is often a complete mystery.  The skills required are different, and without a sponsor or mentor—as many white male attorneys may have—Latinas miss critical opportunities.  Ideally, everyone would have a coach.  Where I've seen a huge difference is when I share with clients a lot of the things that they may not be aware of like the political navigation, or the things that partners really consider when making decisions.  Having served on partner and associate review committees, I know what truly matters and what can hold someone back.  That kind of information is critical.  

I’m also a big soapbox person for equal pay.  Learning to negotiate compensation is essential.  Research shows, and my coaching experience confirms, that many Latina attorneys are underpaid relative to their peers. Organizational transparency around pay practices can help, but it’s equally important for Latina attorneys to recognize their worth and negotiate confidently.  This is actually where I see the needle moving forward in individual careers, even if the impact isn’t as visible at a macro level.

SS: What advice would you give young women of color in the early stages of their legal career?   

JLC:  Let’s talk about the imposter phenomenon because it’s one of the most common struggles.  Feeling like an imposter stems from self-doubt and we tend to make it mean more than it does. Most people experience self-doubt and they think, “I don’t know what I’m doing,” or “I’m going to fail.”  This is just your inner critic trying to keep you safe.  The key is to reframe it: recognize that self-doubt is normal and that it doesn’t mean you’re not capable.  Self-doubt just means you’re growing.  Developing this awareness allows you to see that self-doubt doesn’t need to hold you back. We often think we need to feel ready before taking on something big, but that’s rarely the case.  Most of us, when we do the greatest things we do are scared to death—I know I am!  Just remember self-doubt is simply your brain’s way of trying to protect you. You are enough. You can figure it out, and you will succeed because you’ve done it before.  And it’s okay to fail or make mistakes because that’s how we learn.

SS: Yes! One of my favorite mantras when I’m experiencing imposter syndrome isn’t “fake it ‘till you make it” but rather “face it ‘till you make it.” There is no faking it; we can’t fool our own brain. We just have to face the challenge, put in the reps and keep showing up until we improve and our self-confidence grows.  What is the one final piece of advice that you would offer to a young woman of color entering the legal field? 

JLC:  Besides getting a coach, have intention around what you want and surround yourself with people who can support you in the way you need to be supported.  Too often, we keep our heads down.  Instead of looking at the forest, we just look at the tree in front of us.  We knock that tree down, and then we go to the next tree, and the next, and then we get to this point where we don't even know where we are. 

It's important to keep stepping back and widening the aperture so you don’t get trapped in the cycle of constantly moving to the next thing without direction.  Look at your career holistically and identify what you need to do.  If you don’t stay connected to what matters to you, before you know it, you're taking off on a path that was never intended for you.  I'm shocked by the number of people that do that, and I’ve been there myself.  This is especially common among younger professionals who may let others define their path instead of taking ownership of their goals and being clear about what matters most to them and what truly energizes them.

Ask yourself:  Who am I, and who do I want to become in this career?  What’s my “why?”   What’s my passion? Always stay connected to that.  While how it looks may change, the heart of it remains, especially for women of color.

SS: Thank you for generously sharing your wisdom and time.   

Dr. Cruz holds a PhD in Organization and Management from Capella University, an MS in Management from the University of Maryland, and a BS in Psychology from the University of Maryland. She is also a Certified Professional Coach (CPC), a Global Career Development Facilitator (GCDF), and a Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR).  She is also, quite simply, one of the loveliest people I know.  

To learn more about her work as a champion for gender diversity and inclusion in law, and the services she offers, visit https://www.jlc.consulting. 

Sara Santoyo is on a mission to diversify the field of law, one woman of color at a time. As a first-gen attorney who passed the hardest bar exam in the nation and who overcame the barriers she faced as a WOC in law to land her dream attorney role, she developed the skills and confidence that comes from knowing that she can turn any adversity into an advantage. Sara now devotes her professional life to coaching young WOC lawyers to do the same and more.