The Liberty Achievement Award, sponsored by Thomson Reuters, was established to recognize attorneys and judges who take leadership roles in promoting diversity in the profession of law. Attorneys or judges who have demonstrated, by choices made in their careers and work done in private and/or public sector positions, that they have actively promoted diversity. This would include their own career, leadership positions or work done to advance diverse attorneys in the profession. Other considerations include significant substantive legal work in areas of diversity as well as community service and/or pro bono work in diversity.
Liberty Achievement Award
Ellie Jurado-Nieves has played a key role in diversity and inclusion efforts at Guardian, serving as a founding member of the company’s inaugural diversity council that established a companywide diversity strategy focused on embedding diversity practices into human capital management, culture and programs. She also established and served as chair of the company’s first employee resource group, the Women’s Leadership Network, to drive the development of programs to build the next generation of leaders at Guardian. The WLN has grown to over 400 members, including a chapter in India. She is the immediate past Diversity Strategy Partner for Guardian’s Law Department where she launched various programs to increase diversity, including programming with Guardian’s retained law firms to partner with and encourage the development of lawyers from diverse backgrounds assigned to Guardian matters.
As former president of the New York Puerto Rican Bar Association, Jurado-Nieves served on the Hispanic National Bar Association’s Latina Commission and has facilitated workshops on executive presence during the HNBA’s Latina Leadership Academy for the past four years. Her commitment to diversity extends beyond the workplace and the legal profession. She is on the faculty of the American Management Association where she teaches several women’s leadership development and diversity and inclusion courses. She also hosts her own podcast, Leadership Strategies for Women, which was ranked by Feedspot as one of the best 25 women’s leadership podcasts in 2022.
“Thomson Reuters is honored to work with the Tort Trial and Insurance Practice Section and proud to support this important award,” said Laura Clayton McDonnell, president of the Corporates business segment at Thomson Reuters. “It’s a privilege to recognize Ellie Jurado-Nieves for her career-long dedication to championing diversity efforts in the legal profession and beyond.”