Justin H. Sanders and Reginald Roberts Jr. have soared past every milestone on their path to prove not only that a diverse team of legal minds can succeed, but also that attorneys who better reflect the society they serve can accomplish exceptional results for their clients. And although the pair has already made a lasting impact toward fostering a more diverse and responsive legal environment in Southern California, they are not done yet.
As the co-founding partners of Sanders Roberts LLP, one of the fastest growing law firms in Los Angeles and Southern California, Justin and Reggie know what it takes to thrive in a world that rightly demands a more balanced and diverse perspective from its lawyers. And they have big plans to leverage that knowledge as they pursue their dream to build the first black-owned institutional law firm with a truly national reach. Their hope is that Sanders Roberts LLP will long outlast their own turn at the helm as they build a legacy that continues to enrich the bar and the firm’s clients for generations to come.
Justin and Reggie have been breaking boundaries together for decades. They were classmates and roommates at Morehouse College in Atlanta, GA before both attending the USC Gould School of Law, where they graduated in 2000.
After law school, the two served at some of the most prestigious law firms in the country.
Despite their early individual accomplishments, Justin and Reggie had even bigger goals in mind. In 2008, they stepped away from the legal behemoths to create Sanders Roberts LLP. Their vision was to create a firm with all the strengths of big law, but with an approach that was more agile, responsive to client priorities, and better equipped to represent a more diverse community both inside and outside the courtroom. And they succeeded, expanding Sanders Roberts LLP from just eight attorneys in 2016 to nearly 40 today with offices in Los Angeles, San Diego and the San Francisco Bay Areas, as well as attorneys in Georgia, New York and Michigan.
Since founding Sanders Roberts, the pair have only continued to add to their impressive resumes. Both have been honored as Southern California Super Lawyers from 2021-2024. Mr. Sanders was appointed to the Association of Business Trial Lawyers Board of Governors in 2023. He was also recently appointed to the USC Gould School of Law Board of Councilors due to his “outstanding leadership in the community and commitment to the development and promotion of USC Gould School of Law.” Mr. Roberts served as a Panelist at the 2023 Defense Council Symposium at UCLA on “Effective Pretrial Strategies” and as a Litigation Expert for the March 2023 Webinar “Active Assailant Risk – Exposure Modeling and Insurance Solutions.”
Justin and Reggie are also consistently recognized for their ongoing commitment to diversity both within Sanders Roberts LLP and the broader legal community. Justin was honored by the USC Gould School of Law’s Black Law Students Association as 2023’s ‘Alumi Honoree of the Year’. And he recently co-chaired the National Association of Minority and Women Owned Law Firms (NAMWOLF) Driving Diversity and Leadership Conference.
As for Reggie, he was the recipient of the California Association of Black Lawyers Loren D. Miller ‘Attorney of the Year’ for 2023. And both he and Justin were also recently recognized by the Los Angeles Business Journal as ‘Leaders of Influence: Minority Attorneys’ for their commitment to building a firm that better reflects the diversity of the communities they serve.
Together, they helped to build a firm in Sanders Roberts LLP that was named as an official DEI “Company of the Year” nominee by the Los Angeles Business Journal for both 2023 and 2024, as well as a “Top Rated Company to Work For” in 2023 by the LA Times B2B.
As bright as the past has been for Justin, Reggie and Sanders Roberts LLP, they look forward to an even brighter future. They are excited to continue growing a firm that is not only committed to diversity and inclusion, but also that was founded with that commitment at the very core of its mission.
