The Puente Leadership Institute (Puente) represents the next evolution of the Hispanic National Bar Association and VIA Fund’s Su Carrera portfolio—an ambitious, high-impact leadership development experience intentionally designed to elevate our mid-career members into positions of senior influence across the legal profession and beyond. As one of the only national bar associations dedicated specifically to the advancement of Hispanic legal professionals, our new program Puente is both a strategic talent pipeline initiative and a community-empowerment engine, aligned with HNBA’s decades-long commitment to expanding representation, building leadership capacity, and ensuring that positions of power in the legal field better reflect the communities they serve.

At its core, Puente addresses a persistent and well-documented challenge: despite comprising one of the fastest-growing segments of the U.S. population, Latinos remain dramatically underrepresented in senior legal roles, including general counsel positions, partnership ranks, judiciary appointments, and executive leadership roles in public service. HNBA/VIA has long recognized that meeting this challenge requires more than traditional professional development—it requires a comprehensive, culturally responsive leadership ecosystem that supports attorneys at critical career inflection points.

Drawing inspiration from the metaphor of a bridge—connecting talent to opportunity, experience to empowerment, and individuals to a nationwide leadership community, Puente offers a structured, six-month leadership journey that blends executive coaching, skills-based training, strategic career mapping, and immersive learning. Participants move through a carefully sequenced curriculum designed to strengthen foundational leadership competencies, deepen self-awareness, and enhance the strategic judgment required to lead in fast-paced legal, policy, and corporate environments.

A distinguishing feature of this program is its dual-track structure, which acknowledges that corporate counsel and law firm attorneys face different challenges and require different leadership skillsets.

Each track is informed by subject-matter experts, seasoned practitioners, and cross-sector leaders who understand the unique barriers and opportunities facing attorneys.

Complementing the virtual curriculum are Puente’s in-person leadership convenings, strategically held during HNBA’s major national events—including the Corporate Counsel Conference, the Washington, DC Board of Governors Meeting, and the HNBA Annual Convention. These touchpoints offer participants unparalleled access to national networks, prominent thought leaders, potential sponsors, and influential decision-makers. Through these gatherings, participants become part of a leadership community that extends far beyond the program’s formal boundaries and into the broader ecosystem of Hispanic empowerment, professional mobility, and civic engagement.

Ultimately, Puente is more than a training program—it is a transformative leadership pipeline designed to produce visionary, strategic, and community-centered leaders. Graduates of Puente will be equipped not only with enhanced executive competencies and career-advancing tools, but also with a reinforced sense of cultural pride, responsibility, and purpose. They will be prepared to lead with clarity and confidence, to navigate complexity with integrity, and to bring the full strength of their voices and lived experiences to leadership tables.

Mid-career HNBA members seeking accelerated leadership growth, who are committed to career advancement, organizational influence, and community impact. Puente is designed for high achieving individuals ready to strengthen executive presence, leadership clarity, and strategic positioning to advance their career objectives. Puente welcomes HNBA mid-career members looking to:

• Be elevated from non-equity to equity partner,
• Laterally move after making partner,
• Elevation to assistant or deputy GC,
• GC – ready, or
• Join law firm leadership.