News Details
Hoy newspaper features HSPRD attorney Jose Behar in article, "It Is Difficult To Be the First: Firm adds value to its practice with Jose Behar."
June 26, 2009"It's difficult to be the first one in anything" - Law firm adds value to their staff with Jose Behar
By Blanca E. Avila
Jose Behar, 43 years old, says he has something in common with Judge Sonia Sotomayor, Supreme Court nominee: both pursued a career in law and have paved the path for hundreds of Latinos that are now successfully integrating themselves into the bars of the country's attorneys.
Originally from La Habana, Cuba, Behar has had to work hard and show perseverance, first to study and later to practice as a civil rights attorney. "The first obstacle I encountered in life was at a personal level, when I started practicing law, there were not many Latino attorneys in Chicago," said Behar. "Since I am the first attorney in my family, I did not find someone who could guide me, I had to discover things on my own and above all, I had to earn the respect of my colleagues while at the same time overcome the stereotypes that are created about Hispanics," added Behar, who discovered that he had to be a better attorney to break those negative stereotypes and triumph in the professional enviromnent.
That process led him to not only practice his career with success, but also to become the first Hispanic partner in the law firm Hughes Socol Piers Resnick & Dym, Ltd., and supervise six attorneys and paralegals in the law firm's civil rights department. Behar was quick to respond why he decided to be an attorney. He expressed that at a very young age he discovered his passion for civil rights, "since I was young I knew that I wanted to fight for people's civil rights, I wanted to ensure that everyone had the right to the same justice and I saw that being an attorney was the path to achieve it."
That is how this Latino talent started his studies at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, and later received his law degree from Northwestern University School of Law. His professional history started with the law firm Chapman and Cutler in 1990 as an attorney, and in 1995, he decided to join the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission as a supervisory trial attorney. It was not until 2001 that he went to the law firm Hughes Socol Piers Resnick & Dym, Ltd.
Behar mentioned that while working for the Commission, he met an attorney that worked for the firm and it was he who invited him to join that firm. Now Behar gets by in an open, pleasant and diverse professional enviromnent. "Although it's always difficult to be the first one in anything, I have seen many more Latinos enroll in law schools, increasing statistics will make things easier. If I encountered difficulties as a law student over 20 years ago, I can't imagine the hardships that Sonia Sotomayor faced in her time," added the attorney.
The next career goal Behar confessed that he dreams of becoming a federal judge one day. He mentioned that to do so, he will have to go through several steps; first, he should become a magistrate judge and then later wait until he is nominated by the President to become a federal judge. "Our state judges are elected, federal judges are nominated by the President. I very much like the practice of law in the federal courts, that is why I imagine myself more in a federal courtroom than in any other place," Behar pointed out.
At the same time, he manifested that Latinos who want to become attorneys should employ a lot of courage to obtain it, and lose any fear and work hard to reach the goals that they want to achieve. "To be an attorney, one should have an analytical mind to solve problems, but above all, one should be comfortable in the role of fighting on behalf of other people, and I believe that not everyone feels comfortable in that role," stated Behar.
Behar's maxims:
The client: Being a lawyer isn't about you, it's about your client.
Reputation: The most important thing in a lawyer's career.
Admitting Errors: When you know how to do so, you reputation remains intact.
