Melvin R. Krimko,
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Caribbean L 24 ife, Jan. 18–24, 2019
Several board members and co-founders of the Caribbean Attorneys Network
(CAN). From left, Simone Archer, co-founders, Kadion Henry, Moya
O’Connor, and Ricardo Salmon, and Sheryl Fyffe. Caribbean Attorneys Network
Caribbean-American
collective of lawyers
By Alexandra Simon
Founded in 2014, the Caribbean
Attorneys Network (CAN) is a collective
of professional lawyers of Caribbean
heritage working in the field of
law. The creation of the organization
was the idea of three law school friends
— Moya O’Connor, Kadion Henry, and
Ricardo Salmon. Upon passing the
bar, O’Connor, who is first generation
Jamaican-American, created a Facebook
group called Caribbean Attorneys
Networking in hopes of connecting
with people in the law field of Caribbean
background.
“I started it as a networking group
with the intention of it becoming the
professional group that it is now, and
that was mostly based on a lot of my
friends in law school being West Indian,”
she said.
Throughout her law studies,
O’Connor frequently met other law
hopefuls with direct connection to the
region and wanted to expand on that.
An alum of Brooklyn Law School,
O’Connor has been a practicing attorney
for a decade and practices general
liability litigation, which covers personal
injury and insurance. She saw
the need for a collective such as CAN
to further boost and encourage lawyers
like herself and her friends.
In the early days of the group’s
launch, O’Connor and other members
added Caribbean-American law graduates
they knew, and through word of
mouth, were able to link with hundreds
by sharing useful information amongst
each other, such as job postings, networking
events, and career advising
material.
The online group was not only a
place to find encouragement with other
like-minded people, but a safe space to
discuss the challenges of law school,
the pros and cons of the legal field, and
cultural similarities. And they would
feature someone who talked about their
experiences in practicing law.
“Every month we would feature an
attorney who would get candid about
the good and the bad because not everyone
is going to graduate at the top of
their class,” said O’Connor.
The group is still active online and
organizes brunches, educational community
events such as ‘Know Your
Rights’ forums for locals, Black History
Month events, and brunch meetings for
lawyer networking.
Passing the bar exam on her second
try and not making the top of her class
did not deter O’Connor from pursuing
law, and she wants to push others to do
the same.
“It’s not something I’m ashamed
of and I want to be an inspiration
for others and show them how they
can confront all the factors they’ll be
faced with, and see us as a home with
resources,” she said.
A little help along the way from people
who may come from similar upbringing
to you is an added bonus because they
are often rare, said O’Connor.
“I felt like throughout law school not
only was there no group catering to
West Indians, there wasn’t a group or
bar association that quite catered to the
middle class either,” she said.
The lack of mutual groups acknowledging
the diverse experiences sprung
up the idea for one specific to Caribbean
Americans, hence CAN, said
O’Connor
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