Juan Arteaga
At Crowell, leadership sets the tone and leads by example.
Juan Arteaga
This Is My Story.
I was raised by a single Puerto Rican mother in a public housing project in Connecticut.
There were no professionals in my immediate family and certainly no lawyers. But I knew I wanted to be a lawyer when I learned about the civil rights movement in elementary school. I saw the good lawyers were able to do for society and that inspired me to study law.
I believe wholeheartedly that diversity initiatives only work when the people at the top are actively committed to creating change. That's what distinguishes Crowell.
Meet Juan
Juan A. Arteaga is a Chambers-ranked antitrust partner who serves as Co-Chair of the Firm’s New York Antitrust Practice. Juan is the Co-Chair of the firm’s Diversity Council Steering Committee and has been widely recognized as a leader in promoting diversity, equity and inclusion within the legal profession.
Holding the Doors Open
In school and at work I sought out people with backgrounds similar to mine for guidance and advice, but there simply weren’t many. That’s how I became involved with diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. I wanted to create that missing community—that necessary network for people from different backgrounds to feel supported and have a safe place to talk about what they are going through both professionally and personally. I also wanted to ensure that the doors that were opened for me remained open and became wider for those coming after me who also had different backgrounds than most lawyers.
I believe wholeheartedly that diversity initiatives only work when the people at the top are actively committed to creating change. That’s what distinguishes Crowell. The firm leaders invest their personal time and resources and they are looking for meaningful results. For instance, our leadership team has created stringent metrics it wants to meet for diversifying all aspects of our firm, and those metrics and goals are shared with everyone so there is both transparency and accountability.
Still More to Do
As part of our effort to create the most inclusive culture possible, we recently established the Karen Williams award, named for the first female and diverse partner at the firm. She came from a family of civil rights activists and was a diversity trailblazer. This award will recognize individuals within our firm who are making a true difference when it comes to DEI. And doing our part to help fill the pipeline of diverse lawyers from the very beginning, Crowell has formed a strong partnership with Legal Outreach, which works with middle and high school students in underserved New York City communities and has become one of the nation’s most successful diversity pipeline programs for the legal profession.
But there’s still more work to do. With our Racial Equity Task Force we’re examining policies and procedures which might seem benign in nature but could have unintended consequences for our diverse lawyers and professional staff. Where do changes need to be made? We’re considering everything.