There are approximately one hundred Black and Hispanic attorneys in the Capital District, including several judges from federal and state or city courts. Most Black and Hispanic members of the bar in the Capital District work as attorneys in the public sector; fewer than ten percent are employed in private law firms. After several years of inactivity, the CDBHBA was restarted, renamed and merged by an initial board of local Black and Hispanic attorneys, including U.S. Magistrate Judge Randolph Treece, with the assistance of Nixon Peabody LLP, which has served as host to and sponsor for all of the meetings of the initial board of directors.
The objectives of the CDBHBA are as follows:
- To promote an increase in racial and ethnic diversity at all levels of the legal profession in the Capital District (Albany, Rensselaer, and Schenectady counties and surrounding areas) for the benefit of Black, Hispanic, and other attorneys of color and the entire legal profession
- To create awareness in the legal profession about the value of racial and ethnic diversity and the need for full equal employment of racial and ethnic attorneys of color at every level and in every sector
- To assist in the adequate preparation of Blacks, Hispanics, and other students of color as they pursue a legal career
- To promote an increase in the number of Black, Hispanic, and other students of color who attend and graduate from law school
- To assist Black, Hispanic, and other students of color to pass the bar examination
- To encourage the recruitment of Black, Hispanic, and other attorneys of color within the public and private sectors of the legal profession
- To foster an increase in the retention and advancement of Black, Hispanic, and other attorneys of color in private law firms and in corporations with in-house legal departments in the Capital District
- To work collaboratively with other bar associations, governmental agencies, and community groups to achieve greater understanding of and involvement of Blacks, Hispanics, and other people of color in the American legal system and here in the Capital District at the federal, state, and local levels
- To work with other organizations to pursue the interest of justice within all communities, but particularly the communities of color within the Capital District
- To promote diversity within the judiciary at all level
On February 2, 2004, John Higgins, counsel at Nixon Peabody LLP, was elected as president of the recently reorganized Capital District Black and Hispanic Bar Association (CDBHBA).
