Earlier this month, Botkin Chiarello Calaf partner María Amelia Calaf sat down with Amanda Arriaga, the first Latina president of the Austin Bar Association, to discuss diversity in the profession as part of the Bar’s Council of Firsts series.

The full episode is embedded below; keep scrolling for the highlights.

On how she got the name “MAC”:

… the printer when I was working at PricewaterhouseCoopers would [print] your initials first … people would pick up things from the printer and call out “MAC” and then they started calling me that and it stuck.
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The origin story of the Austin chapter of Cafecitos, a community of Latina attorneys: 

The Cafecitos group in New York had been a really positive influence for me professionally … It was an opportunity to create community and feel supported … And that really was what I was hoping to facilitate [in Austin] … The group is unique in that it’s intimate, it’s inter-generational and it’s super informal.
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Reflections on the W.E.L.L. (Women Empowering Leadership in the Law) Summit, a collaboration of multiple women’s bar groups held on March 24:

The energy of that day was just really powerful, and it was a long day, and yet everybody was so engaged … A lot of the times we talk so much about the technical part of lawyering; we forget to talk about the other part, so it was really helpful to have a day that’s focused on [wellness].”
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On how to launch your own mentorship journey:

My mom always used to say that every little grain counts and really that is the advice. You don’t have to join a committee, you don’t have to lead anything. You just have to show up … Keep showing up until you find your people, and once you find your people it’s really easy.