Hispanic National Bar Association logo/courtesy photo

Six tech companies are teaming up with the Hispanic National Bar Association to increase the number of Latino attorneys in intellectual property law.

The association announced Friday that Adobe, Apple, Facebook, Google and Lenovo are new corporate sponsors of its Intellectual Property Law Institute, a program that links Latino law students to attorneys, legal scholars and members of the federal judiciary and administrative agencies. Microsoft has been a sponsor since 2013.

Less than 5 percent of the legal industry population is Latino, according to the association. And of that 5 percent, only 2 percent practice IP and technology law.

"As one of the founding members of the HNBA IPLI program and a Latina IP attorney that has been practicing for over 20 years in the space, I am beyond thrilled to see our program expand. There is a dearth of Latinos in the IP field so there is a significant need for our program," said Jennifer Salinas, the association's national president and the executive director of IP litigation worldwide at Lenovo, in a press release. "I'm grateful that some of the largest technology companies in the world also see the need and are partnering with us."

The institute launched in 2013, with Microsoft as its first corporate sponsor. More than 150 students have gone through the program, the "vast majority of whom are now IP and technology attorneys," according to the association.

The association's executive director and chief operating officer Alba Cruz-Hacker said 75 percent of all the institute's scholars went on to pursue IP careers, and 45 percent of the graduates are women.

"With the much larger underrepresentation issue among attorneys practicing IP law, the number of female IPLI graduates has directly impacted the national percentage of female attorneys in the area of IP law," Cruz-Hacker said. "These statistics show the significance and impact of a program like IPLI for the Hispanic community in the U.S.”

In recent years, tech companies, including Google and Microsoft, have launched summer programs aimed at increasing diversity in the legal industry. Microsoft and Hewlett Packard Enterprise have set diversity standards for outside counsel to put pressure on firms.

Adobe, one of the institute's new sponsors, launched a first-year law student program for diverse students last year, partnering with firms for a split-summer internship.

The San Jose-based company's general counsel Dana Rao stressed the importance of diversifying the legal industry in a July interview with Corporate Counsel, shortly after he moved up to the GC spot from head of IP.

"We are honored to partner with the HNBA and be a part of a program that will help move the needle for increasing diverse perspectives for legal problem solving and decision making," Rao said in a press release Friday. "By fostering underrepresented groups, we are strengthening the legal profession with diverse ethnicities and cultures that will bring innovative ideas to the tough issues we are tackling."

Facebook GC Colin Stretch said the program was an "important step in increasing diversity in the legal profession." Applications for the institute open Feb. 1.

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