The Puerto Rican Bar Association, Inc. (“PRBA”) was established in 1957 with the purpose of offering both personal and professional support to Puerto Rican and Latino attorneys in an effort to address the concerns of a rapidly growing Latino community in New York City.

In 1978, the PRBA founded the Puerto Rican Bar Association Scholarship Fund, Inc. as a separate corporate entity registered under New York State Not-For-Profit Corporation Law by the then PRBA President, the late Donald Grajales, a distinguished New York State Court of Claims Judge.

The Scholarship Fund was created for the purpose of raising funds to award financial scholarships to deserving law students. Through the generosity of our corporate sponsors and the contributions of our members at the Annual PRBA Scholarship Fund Gala Banquet, the Scholarship Fund has been able to award thousands of dollars in scholarships to various law students throughout the years.

Our scholarship recipients are employed in diverse legal settings: state and federal courts, city and state agencies, law firms, corporations, not-for-profit organizations, law schools, solo practitioners and also as elected officials.

The goal of the PRBA Scholarship Fund is to support diversity in the legal profession by providing financial assistance to unrepresented law students. Diversity in law schools are supported through scholarships, grants, tuition and financial assistance programs.

These types of programs are all viable methods of ensuring that Latinos remain represented in the legal profession and the PRBA is proud to support well deserving law students in our community through our scholarship program.