The Hispanic National Bar Association (HNBA) has elected Julia Lopez, a partner in Reed Smith’s life sciences and healthcare practice, to be the new HNBA vice president of programs - su carrera. The HNBA is an incorporated, not-for-profit, national membership association that represents the interests of more than 78,000+ Hispanic attorneys, judges, law professors, legal assistants, law students, and legal professionals in the United States and its territories.
Lopez, who previously served as the HNBA’s national finance director, will lead PODER25™, the HNBA’s general counsel talent pipeline initiative. PODER25’s mission is to increase the number of Hispanic/Latinx attorneys occupying senior positions within corporate legal departments by developing a pipeline of legal talent and assisting with their collective advancement. The association’s immediate goal is to increase the number of Hispanic/Latinx general counsel in Fortune 500 companies to a minimum of 20 by the year 2025.
Lopez’s practice focuses on products liability litigation and commercial litigation. She primarily defends pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturers. Her experience includes working on single plaintiff matters, coordinated cases and multidistrict litigation in both federal and state courts nationwide.
Widely recognized as a diversity and inclusion leader, Lopez is the partner chair of UNIDOS, Reed Smith’s Hispanic/Latinx business inclusion group. Outside of the firm, she served as the 39th president of Hispanic Bar Association of New Jersey, during which she founded the first scholarship endowment for the organization. She is also an active member of the New Jersey State Bar Association and has also served on the New Jersey Supreme Court Committee on Minority Concerns, as well as the New Jersey Supreme Court Committee on Civil Practice.
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