Paula T. Edgar, Esq.
Principal, PGE LLC and President, Metropolitan Black Bar Association (New York, New York)
Paula T. Edgar Esq. is Principal of PGE, LLC – a boutique speaking, coaching and consulting firm. The firm provides innovative and strategic solutions on career management, executive/leadership development, diversity efforts, higher educational outreach and retention programs, intercultural competence initiatives, networking and social media strategy.
She is a well sought after speaker in the areas of networking, branding, social media, leadership and diversity. Paula moves audiences with her motivational and inspirational speeches, workshops and seminars. Gatherings, both large and small, of attendees from a variety of industries including the legal profession, higher education and corporate diversity settings, have all benefited from her directive to “engage your hustle!:tm:”
For more than a decade, Paula has demonstrated leadership in the areas of diversity and inclusion, issues related to students of color and the legal diversity pipeline. Currently active with a number of organizations and social justice initiatives, she serves as the President-Elect of the Metropolitan Black Bar Association, the immediate past Chair of the Diversity Pipeline Initiatives Committee and member of the Enhance Diversity in the Profession Committee at the New York City Bar Association and she is an active member of the New York State Bar Association. Paula was also a 2015 Council of Urban Professionals (CUP) Fellow.
Her professional experiences include serving as the inaugural Chief Diversity Officer at New York Law School, the Associate Director of Career Services and member of the Diversity Council at Seton Hall University School of Law, and as the Executive Director of Practicing Attorneys for Law Students Program, Inc. (PALS), a non-profit organization dedicated to increasing diversity in the legal profession and providing mentoring, academic support, and networking opportunities to law students and junior attorneys of color. Prior to working at PALS, Paula practiced in the Law Enforcement Division of the New York City Commission on Human Rights.
Paula received her B.A. in Anthropology from the California State University (Fullerton) and her J.D. from the City University of New York School of Law.
Paula has been recognized by The Network Journal Magazine as a “40 Under Forty” Achievement Awardee, as Ms. JD’s “Woman of Inspiration” and as was honored by Lawyers of Color Inc. in the first annual “2013 Lawyers of Color Hot List.” She also received the Distinguished Alumni award from the Black Law Students Association at CUNY Law School and the Ruth Whitehead Whaley Service Award by the Association of Black Women Attorneys (ABWA).