Hispanic Bar Association of New Jersey Records

The Hispanic Bar Association of New Jersey was founded in 1980 (formerly The Puerto Rican Bar Association) to unite Hispanic Lawyers and to resolve issues affecting Hispanics within the legal community. Margarita Echevarria helped to found the organization and served as the association’s first president. The Hispanic Bar Association engaged in outreach that involved grants for students to attend law school, holding fundraising events, and raising awareness of Hispanics in the legal profession. Collection consists of newspaper clippings from the early organization of the Hispanic Bar Association of New Jersey (H.B.A.N.J.), correspondence related to the organization of Hispanic National Bar Association, the American Bar Association plan for developing a successful minority counsel program, Hispanic National Bar Association Newsletter, founding documents of the H.B.A.N.J., scholarship dinner dance, board member lists, issue of Abogado newsletter of H.B.A.N.J., outreach activities, correspondence related to Hispanic Issues Task Force, and the Puerto Rican/Latino Empowerment Symposium. Portions of this collection have been digitized.