DiversitY enhanCes bar LeaDershiP institute eXPerienCe
Bar leadership Institute Committee Chairs: Nicole Duga- Hill Ward Henderson; John Marchione – Himes & Hearn; and Valeria Obi – Midland Credit Management, Inc.
“ in diversity there is beauty and there is strength.”— Maya angelou
Even a cursory glance at the Bar Leadership Institute Class of 2017- 2018 will reveal just how diverse this group of rising professionals is. The 26 of us boast a diversity of race, age, and gender. Beyond that, our individual career paths reflect a wide breadth of professional backgrounds— we come from the public and the private sectors, from law offices both large and small; we do insurance defense and family law, complex business litigation and medical malpractice, personal injury and criminal law— from both sides of the aisle. All in all, we represent a true cross section of Hillsborough County’ s legal community.
Despite our differences, we share a common goal: developing into the Bar leaders of tomorrow. Because of our demonstrated interest in leadership, the HCBA symbolically passed the torch to us when it selected us to participate in this year’ s Bar Leadership Institute. And, the diverse composition of our class is no coincidence. It reflects an axiomatic tenet of effective leadership, borrowed from Maya Angelou, that the HCBA holds dear— that in diversity, there is beauty and there is strength. We bring with us an amalgam of perspectives that inform our decision-making processes and leadership styles. We share a commitment to the betterment of the profession, but have different ideas about what
that means and how to achieve that goal.
In furtherance of the BLI’ s mission, the HCBA has given us the incredible opportunity to benefit from a group of very different but all highly successful leaders within Hillsborough County’ s legal community. Already, we toured the Port of Tampa Bay, where general counsel provided insight into how management effectively deals with countless moving parts in order to ensure a smooth, profitable, and everexpanding operation. We visited the Moffitt Cancer Center, where we were awestricken by the extent of the Center’ s innovation and the unique role its legal counsel plays in its success. We witnessed firsthand how Judge Michael J.
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