Mayda Colón Tsaknis

Mayda Colón Tsaknis

Founder
Maryland Hispanic Bar Association

As a Hispanic attorney from Utuado, Puerto Rico, Mayda Colón Tsaknis noticed her accent stood out during negotiations and in the courtroom. She responded by making an effort to always be extremely well-prepared. While working for the first trial team of the Equal Opportunity Commission in the 1970s, that preparation prevented her from feeling intimidated when she was representing the government by herself against corporations and their teams of attorneys.

“I carried the confidence I gained from that experience into my future endeavors,” Tsaknis was quoted as saying in The Modern American in 2008.  Tsaknis, who earned her law degree at the University School of Law in San Antonio, Texas, would go on to have a successful legal career, ultimately founding a fully bilingual women’s law practice in Maryland with offices in Rockville and Frederick.

In 1993, she became the founding president of the Maryland Hispanic Bar Association. The association immediately addressed a major issue – that the court had no minimum qualifications for Spanish interpreters, which meant the courts couldn’t always tell which ones were credible. After the association drew attention to the issue, there are now established procedures and requirements for people who serve as interpreters in the state courts.

“I had been thinking about starting the association for a few years but the number of Hispanic lawyers in Maryland was minimal,” Tsaknis said in the association’s history. “The problems, however, for our Hispanic population continued to grow, and I felt it was necessary to take the bull by the horn and go with it.”