About Ted Small

Mr. Small is the principal of DEI Facilitation and Consulting. Mr. Small is a respected diversity leader nationally recognized for originating university and community-based programs to facilitate candid discussions about law and the intersectionality of race, diverse characteristics and poverty.  As an active student and alumnus of Harvard College and the University of Virginia School of Law, Mr. Small has over 20 years of experience leading, building and maintaining a culture of diversity, equity and inclusion within these higher education environments through active involvement in various admissions, scholarship selection, alumni, development, diversity, peer advising, campus religious services, performing arts and public service activities.  Mr. Small’s concrete DEI achievements include organizing programs that have achieved significant, sustained and diverse participation by individuals seeking to promote awareness and achieve equity and inclusion, including Students United to Promote Racial Awareness (SUPRA) at UVA School of Law, the Adopt-A-Neighborhood pro bono project at Holland & Knight LLP, the Public Schools Committee and Collaborate to Advocate within the ABA and the Color Line Roundtable in DeLand, Florida.   

Mr. Small earned his A.B., magna cum laude, Harvard University, where he was the recipient of Harvard College Scholarships and the Robert Winfrey Leadership Award.  He earned his J.D. in 1992 from the University of Virginia School of Law, where he was the recipient of the Hardy Cross Dillard Scholarship, the Mary Claiborne and Roy H. Ritter Award, the Herbert L. Kramer Public Service Award, the Alumni Association Special Recognition of Leadership Award and the Black Law Students Association Jack Gravely Award. 

After law school, Mr. Small clerked on the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit for the Honorable Joseph W. Hatchett and has practiced law in both small and large firm settings.  Mr. Small currently manages his own law practice where he represents an independent special taxing district as its outside general counsel and private clients in employment and contract matters.  Before starting his own law firm, Mr. Small was a partner and associate in the law firm of Holland & Knight, LLP, where he practiced commercial litigation and employment law in its Tampa, Washington, D.C. and Orlando offices.

Mr. Small’s significant leadership and community service activities have also included multi-year appointments to the Diversity, Inclusion and Mission Committee of Red Cross National Capital Area (2019-Present), the ABA Commission on Homelessness and Poverty (member 2012-17, chair, 2014-17), Access to Legal Services Committee of The Florida Bar's Vision 2016 Commission (2013-15), Alumni Board of UVA Law School Program in Law and Public Service (2008-2014); ABA House of Delegates (Florida Bar delegate, 2005-2012), Florida Legal Services, Inc. Board of Directors (2005-2011), ABA's Standing Committee on Pro Bono and Public Service (2009-2012), Florida Bar Judicial Nominating Procedures Committee (2006-2012), Virgil Hawkins Florida Chapter of NBA Executive Board (2008-10), ABA's Commission on Racial and Ethnic Diversity in the Profession (2000-03), the University of Virginia Law School Alumni Council (2001-04), and the Selection Committee for the University of Virginia School of Law Dillard Scholar Program (1994-2006). Mr. Small was also a founding member of the Ron Brown Scholar Selection Committee (1997-2003) and a founding member and chair of the Public Schools Committee of the ABA's Section on Individual Rights and Responsibilities (1997-99).