Maritza Sanchez Earns Leadership Council on Legal Diversity 2024 Atlas Award
FORT WORTH, Texas – Feb. 11, 2025 – The Leadership Council on Legal Diversity (LCLD) honored Fort Worth associate Maritza Sanchez with its 2024 Atlas Award. She led the group’s 2024 Pathfinder class in engagement and commitment to the program’s mission to build a more equitable and diverse legal profession.
Maritza joined 80 up-and-coming lawyers across the U.S. who received the second annual award.
Phelps is a longtime supporter of the LCLD. Founded in 2009, it includes more than 400 corporate chief legal officers and law firm managing partners committed to creating a truly diverse legal profession. The organization’s programs support law students, emerging legal leaders and experienced lawyers, offering career development tools to help them reach the next stage of their practice.
Before earning the Atlas Award, Maritza completed the LCLD Pathfinder Program, where she learned to leverage her professional network, build on her foundational leadership skills, and develop strategies to grow her practice. She quickly emerged as a leader, co-running peer discussions between a dozen attorneys in the LCLD’s South Region as they worked their way through the program’s curriculum.
"As a 2024 LCLD Pathfinder, I found the networking opportunities to be incredibly enriching,” Maritza said. “Engaging with diverse professionals made the entire experience feel effortless, and I gained valuable insights from their unique perspectives and experiences. The curriculum, speakers and presentations were unlike anything I had experienced before—top-notch and filled with information that could be used and applied immediately.”
Maritza has shown promising potential for leadership at Phelps, too. An associate on the firm’s Fort Worth labor and employment team, she counsels employers through all stages of litigation to resolve claims of harassment, discrimination, wrongful discharge, retaliation and breach of contract. She works closely with HR professionals and in-house counsel to avoid issues by managing employee relations and internal investigations.
