In 2019, Silicon Valley’s inside and outside counsel teamed up to boost diversity in law with a first-of-its-kind 1L program—the Law in Technology Diversity Collaborative.
Select Law Schools Participate
LiTCs accepts applications from first-year law students from only 11 law schools in the country. By the launch, the program had only invited nine schools to participate, and one was the University of Miami School of Law.
The LiTC “reached out to our office since they were impressed with the diversity in our student body and recognized the talent pool of our law students,” said Sajani Desai Granquist, then adviser in the Office of Career and Professional Development.
Since its inception, the highly selective program, which annually chooses between 30 to 40 students, has accepted many Miami Law students.
The program expands the legal diversity pipeline by providing women, underrepresented minorities, and other first-year law students with internships, networking, and educational events. Hence, interns develop a lasting professional cohort.
Unique Opportunity for 1Ls
While many law students are interested in intellectual property, technology law, and data security, there are not many summer opportunities for 1Ls in these areas of law.
The LiTC website describes the program as an “opportunity to introduce high-potential law students to rare in-house technology company experience and also create a pipeline for companies and firms to cultivate diverse talent.”
The first Miami Law students selected to LiTC in 2019 were Michael Bailey and Shanzay Pervaiz, who both worked at eBay and then Bailey at Baker McKenzie and Pervaiz at Hogan Lovells.
Bailey described the experience, saying “The opportunity at eBay gave me the chance to work side by side with…preeminent legal minds.
“The opportunity to work at Baker McKenzie allowed me to go a little further into client services for technology companies helping them explore some of the risks associated with the data privacy regulations that are constantly proliferating around the world,” he said.
The experiences paid off as Bailey, J.D. ’21, is now an associate at Greenberg Traurig and a member of its intellectual property & technology practice group. Pervaiz is applying her expertise in the field as a senior researcher at American University’s Tech, Law & Security Program.
Going Back to the Miami Law Well
Since selecting Bailey and Pervaiz from Miami Law in its inaugural year, LitC has chosen 10 more ’Canes—one student in the 2020 class, five in the 2021 class, and four in the 2022 class.
The students have worked at prestigious in-house counsel positions at eBay, Dynatrace, Intuit, Oracle, Roofstock, Uber, and Zynga. They also received hands-on experience at premier law firms, including Allen & Overy, Gibson Dunn, Goodwin Proctor, King & Spaulding, Morrison Foerster, Orrick, and WilmerHale.
Miami Law Cohort Pays It Forward
While Miami Law’s career office actively communicates the opportunity to 1Ls through its blog, emails, and an info session where an alum of the program speaks, Granquist said ultimately, it is “the prior year’s alumni who take on the initiative to tell 1Ls how great the program is.”
With 360 1Ls in the newest Miami Law 1L class, the Office of Career and Professional Development is ready to promote this opportunity again.
“We are excited Miami Law has been so well represented in the Collaborative and look forward to having more of our outstanding students selected in the future,” said Amy Perez, assistant dean of the Office of Career & Professional Development.
