Diversity is in your hands: lawyers gather for diversity dialog.

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During his motivational pep rally, James Amps III asked the audience to hold their hands like open books, look at life lines creasing their palms, and reflect on these words: "Your destiny, with the help of God, is in your hands."

"If you want something you've never had, you have to do something you've never done," challenged Amps, who bills himself as a "personal accountability speaker."

"Move out of your comfort zones and grow, and you have to feel uncomfortable to grow. The only way to come out of your zone of comfort is if you build new relationships and understand new people."

The Florida Bar's Fourth Annual Diversity Symposium at Florida International University's College of Law provided plenty of opportunities to break out of comfort zones, hear new perspectives, and meet new people.

Of 111 participants, a few rolled in on wheelchairs.

A blind woman kept a hand on the harness of her guide dog.

Three judges and two lawyers came prepared for a frank discussion about coming out as gays and lesbians.

A Cuban-American shared the story of his rise to CEO of one of the largest law firms.

The chair of the Board of Bar Examiners provided a peek into the controversial impact on minorities of raising the bar passage rate.

A Supreme Court justice acknowledged being Hispanic was definitely a strong undercurrent of his appointment to the high court.

A judge told of taking her campaign manager's advice and dropping the Hispanic part of her hyphenated surname from the ballot in Broward County so she'd have a better chance at winning the election.

The law dean of a historically black university discussed the challenge of reversing declining minority enrollment.

And a black corporate lawyer for Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., said his boss came to realize the color of diversity is green.

April 13 was a full day of discussing diversity in that most diverse of Florida cities, Miami.

"In Dade County, we have a very fractured, multicultural community. We've got Anglo-Saxons, Hispanics, and blacks, and a lot of times in this community we are at each other's throats," said Reggie Clyne, chair of Equal Opportunities Law Section and chair of the Diversity Symposium Committee.

"But one thing I've noticed is the lawyers--Cuban American Bar Association, Florida Association for Women Lawyers, Wilkie D. Ferguson, Jr., Bar Association, the Haitian Lawyers Association, the Asian Bar Assocation, and the Dade County Bar Association--we all come together...