Members in the news

Hispanic Bar Association of Orange County meets on Ambergris Caye

Members from the Hispanic Bar Association from Orange County, California, USA, along with family members were in San Pedro over the past week for their yearly meeting. The group of 69 arrived in Belize on Thursday May 26th around noon at Ramon's Village. Shortly after arrival the group of attorneys gathered at the Pineapple Restaurant for the commencement of their seminars.

As practicing attorneys, lawyers are required to have a certain amount of hours of lectures in continued legal education. The group took this opportunity to undergo eight hours of lectures and seminars. While in the country the group participated in programs on various laws such as: Family Law, Bias as a Barrier to Justice, Global Warming and Globalization - The Regulation of the Environment. This marked the first four hours of lectures and included a detailed presentation from Oceana's Ms. Audrey Matura-Shepherd, on Offshore Oil Drilling in Belize.

Following the seminars, Ramon's Village hosted a cocktail hour for the group of attorneys and their family members. Present to offer a welcome to Belize and San Pedro was Hon. Manuel Heredia Jr., Minister of Tourism, Civil Aviation and Culture.

Genoveva Meza Talbott, President of the Orange County Hispanic Bar Association and Attorney at Law, practicing Family and Marital Law, spoke to The San Pedro Sun. "The purpose of this trip is two fold. One is to provide an opportunity for our membership to get together in a location outside of our regular day to day. We also take the opportunity to make it a location worth exploring, worth getting to know and just exposing our members to a different country. We all share a strong interest of exploring different legal systems, and of course, because we are a Hispanic Bar Association, we have a prevalence to go to Latin or Central America of course".

The group also uses the yearly outing to encourage its members to get together to learn, and share their tourism dollars. In deciding on the location for this year's outing Ms. Talbott informed; "We had a committee which sent out an inquiry to all our memberships at different locations and Belize was the number one choice. In choosing the location within Belize, we asked people that had travelled to Belize and this is the destination that a fellow bar association from Orange Country had travelled to on multiple times, and had great recommendations."

Participants were touched by the wonderful, welcoming service they received upon arriving to the island. With only eight hours from the five day stay being occupied by lectures and seminars, the group had much time to truly experience San Pedro, Belize and all their wonderful natural wonders. The divers in the group were excited to get wet in our warm waters, offering unequalled visibility and the wonder of our Barrier Reef systems and all the marine life that exists within.

The group's came to an end with four hours of seminars on Sunday afternoon, followed by a farewell cocktail party at Ramon's Village. In closing Ms. Talbott offered thanks to the Belizean public for being so welcoming and such a good host.

O.C. group honors Sayre as attorney of the year

By RON GONZALES
LATINO NOTEBOOK, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Lawyer honored: Federico Sayre will be honored as attorney of the year this weekend by the Orange County Hispanic Bar Association.

Dolores Huerta, co-founder of the United Farm Workers, will receive the organization's Hon. Francisco Briseño Lifetime Achievement Award, while a legal team that defeated a challenge to a state law that makes it easier for undocumented students to attend public colleges and universities in California is receiving the association's Guardian de Justicia award.

That team includes include Julie Weng-Gutierrez, supervising deputy attorney general; Andrea M. Gunn, Office of General Counsel, California State University; and Ethan P. Schulman, Crowell & Moring LLP.

Latino lawyers denounce Costa Mesa, Arizona law

Published: May 26, 2010

By CINDY CARCAMO
THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

A group of local Latino attorneys has denounced Arizona's new immigration enforcement law, stating that it "encouraged municipalities, including the city of Costa Mesa, to malign undocumented immigrants while ignoring their contributions."

The Hispanic Bar Association of Orange County issued the declaration on Tuesday, stating that they were spurred into action after Costa Mesa council members adopted a resolution declaring their city a "Rule of Law City," unwelcoming to people who are in the country illegally.

"The Arizona law is dangerous because it tempts an irrational response that is detrimental to the Latino community," said Carlos Colorado, the association's president.

The resolution is just the latest in a long line of declarations made in support or against Arizona's immigration enforcement law.

Earlier this month, Santa Ana became the first city in the county to take up the issue and condemn the law, calling it misguided and unconstitutional.

Tuesday night, a councilwoman in Villa Park was unsuccessful in her attempt to pass a resolution in favor of the Arizona's law.

The law — SB1070 — makes it a crime to lack immigration papers in Arizona and requires police to ask for documentation of legal status if there is "reasonable suspicion" that the person they stopped is in the country illegally.

The law only takes place when someone is stopped on suspicion of violating another law. The law was also later amended to discourage racial profiling.

Still, Colorado said, the law to leaves it up to the interpretation of the officer as to what "reasonable suspicion" may be when determining whether the person is in the country illegally.

"Reasonable suspicion is one that usually is not defined in a legal system until it gets to a trial level where it will be questioned or challenged," Colorado said. "I think that is one of the major defects of the law. It does not provide a definition... that's what makes it prone to abuse."

Colorado, whose group has about 500 members, said the association comes short of declaring a boycott of the state but does call for a national comprehensive immigration overhaul.

He said the group felt "morally compelled" to make a statement because of what he said were local implications to Latinos who may be deterred from participating in the legal system out of fear or discrimination.

Who's Who in the OCBA — The Affiliate Bars

Judge Briseño honored by Hispanic Bar Association

Published: March 8, 2010

By RON GONZALES
THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Orange County Superior Court Judge Francisco P. Briseño was honored for lifetime achievement when the Hispanic Bar Association of Orange County celebrated its 40th anniversary on Saturday.

The organization also installed its new officers for 2010, including President Carlos X. Colorado.

About 415 people attended the dinner at Disney's Grand Californian Hotel in Anaheim.

Besides honoring Briseño with the award, the association decided to name the lifetime achievement award for the judge, Colorado said.

"He is held in very high regard for his civility and humanity," Colorado said.

According to Judge Frederick P. Aguirre, Briseño is the longest serving Superior Court judge in the history of Orange County. Briseño was appointed in March 1977 to the Municipal Court bench, and was elevated in April 1979 to the Superior Court.

Along with Briseño, honorees included:

Bob Cohen of the Legal Aid Society of Orange County, attorney of the year.
Gladis Molina of Kids in Need of Defense (KIND), for the Guardian de Justicia award.
The Walt Disney Company, for the corporate citizen award.

Other officers for 2010 included Genoveva Meza Talbott, president-elect; José González, vice president; Theresa C. López, secretary; Leo R. Paredes, treasurer. Monica E. Lukoschek is immediate past president.

Judge Frances Múñoz, the first Latina trial judge in the United States, according to the association, and now retired, installed the new officers.

The keynote speaker was U.S. Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis, who appeared via video.

The association, with more than 150 paid members, is the largest and oldest ethnic-interest bar association in Orange County.

The association awarded Wally Davis Memorial Scholarships to Daisy Sanchez ($3,500, Stanford Law School), Brenda Montes ($3,500, UCLA School of Law), Joel Crespo ($3,500, Boston University School of Law), Elisa Briseño ($3,500, Chapman School of Law), and Flor de Maria Tataje ($2,300, UCI School of Law).

"These scholarships help even the playing field so that needy but deserving students from working class roots can have an opportunity to go to law school and I have never seen a more effective tool for empowerment in the legal community," said Colorado, of Jones Day in Irvine, in a prepared statement. Thirty-three of the 43 recipients have been women.

"Our scholarships are a crucial part of the HBA's contribution to social justice, as they are awarded to students who can demonstrate a commitment to public service," said Colorado, who immigrated from El Salvador as a child and is the association's first president of Salvadoran background. "Therefore, it is no surprise that five scholarship recipients have gone on to become public defenders; three others work for public agencies; and four more have come back to serve on the HBA board, including one who even rose to become HBA president."

"Hola El Salvador"

On March 6, 2010 OC HBA President Carlos X. Colorado appeared on CTN-TV's "Hola El Salvador" hosted by Antonio Ayala, broadcast on local channel 27, DISH network/DIRECTV channel 20, and a TV channel in El Salvador, discussing his role as the first Salvadoran president of the HBA.

Frederick P. Aguirre: “Spirit of Patriotism”
The grandson of Mexican immigrants, Orange County Judge Frederick Aguirre organizes annual tributes to veterans of Mexican heritage.

Published Mar. 02, 2010

By Pat Alston
Daily Journal Staff Writer

FULLERTON - Frederick Aguirre was 8 or 9 when he attended his first district meeting of the League of United Latin American Citizens. The Orange County gatherings always included the Pledge of Allegiance, a prayer for guidance and a talk by a politician or prominent member of the Mexican-American community.

"It was cool," Aguirre said.

From time to time during one of the talks, his father would lean over and whisper, "'See that man? He's an attorney. You could be an attorney.'"

The thought that the son of a bricklayer could grow up to be a lawyer and "do good things for people" made a lasting impression on Aguirre, who majored in history at the University of Southern California and graduated from University of California, Los Angeles School of Law. Today, he is an Orange County Superior Court judge.

It's been a great life, said Aguirre, 63, whose hard-working parents instilled in their seven children a commitment to civil rights, public service and community ties. His father, Alfred Aguirre, was one of a group of World War II veterans who successfully lobbied the Placentia School District to integrate its public schools in the late 1940s.

"When I started school in 1951," Aguirre said. "I was able to go to the integrated schools."

His father later served as a Placentia city councilman.

Following his father's lead, Rick Aguirre took on leadership roles as a teenager, a lawyer and a judge. During his senior year at Valencia High School, he served both as student-body president and national president of the Junior LULAC, as the League is commonly known. As a new lawyer in the mid-1970s, he was a founding member, and later president, of the Hispanic Bar Association of Orange County. And, as a judge, he created the Orange County Superior Court's Leadership Academy, an annual program to educate the community about the judicial system. He continues to serve as co-chairman.

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Luz Herrera: ‘Low Bono’ Pioneer

LegalRebels.com
Oct 14, 2009

by Stephanie Francis Ward

Federally funded legal aid is free, and that needs to change, says Luz E. Herrera, a Harvard Law grad who focuses on access-to-justice issues for low- and moderate-income people.

She allows that those with incomes at the bottom of federal poverty guidelines often can’t afford to pay anything and shouldn’t have to. And for some issues, like domestic violence, she says there should never be a fee. But Herrera believes that in many practice areas, clients would appreciate the choices they’d get by paying something—and that it’s patronizing to assume they can pay nothing.

“The answer is not $300 an hour, but it’s also not $0,” says Herrera, an assistant professor at San Diego’s Thomas Jefferson School of Law. “We can’t look at providing legal services to the poor and assume they’ll always be poor. The current legal aid model is for people who really need help and assumes that’s all there is.”

Herrera’s idea about charging something isn’t well-received by some legal aid advocates, which she finds surprising.

“I think pro bono actually haunts us,” says Herrera, 36. “It minimizes the representation of the legal profession to an aspirational 50 hours a year.”

A former sole practitioner, Herrera is developing a community-based legal clinic for low- and moderate-income clients. And in 2005 she founded Community Lawyers Inc., a Compton, Calif., nonprofit that helps attorneys and paralegals serve low- and moderate-income clients. She pays out of pocket the office’s $1,200 monthly rent.

“It’s hard,” she says, “but I believe in it.”

Hear Herrera talk about her clinic and working with students.

Herrera doesn’t expect all her students to do legal aid work, but she does hope the clinic experience will give them a strong understanding of access-to-justice issues. And she hopes they will use that knowledge in whatever capacity they can.

After a brief, not-so-pleasant experience as a real estate associate at San Francisco’s Heller Ehrman, Herrera opened a storefront law office in Compton in 2002. She says she was the only full-time, Spanish-speaking lawyer in the southern Los Angeles suburb, which has a median household income of only $32,000.

She charged flat fees in some cases; in others, her hourly rate was $150. Consultations were $75. The first year Herrera earned $26,000 and lived with her parents at their home in Whittier.
‘VERY LUZ-LIKE’

Many lawyers dream of opening a storefront office in an underserved neighborhood, and that Herrera actually did it doesn’t surprise some who know her.

“It was very Luz-like,” says her friend Wendelyn Killian. The two met as undergraduates at Stanford University and attended Harvard Law School together. “She’s seen people of color get the short end of the stick, and she wanted to try and fill that void in any way she can,” says Killian, development director at the Community Coalition in Los Angeles. “She also wants financial security, like all of us.”

An only child of Mexican immigrants, Herrera says she has never been poor “because we always worked a hundred jobs.”

“Sometimes when she’s really fixed on what she wants to do, you might misread how flexible she can be—and open to ideas,” says Jeanne Charn, director of Harvard Law School’s Bellow-Sacks Access to Civil Legal Services Project.

Herrera received an alumni award named after Gary Bellow, Charn’s late husband who directed the school’s clinical law programs. Charn was so impressed that, when Herrera was selected for a one-year fellowship at the school’s Community Enterprise Project in 2006, she invited Herrera to live with her.

“You can sort out the people who kind of have a grip on life, deal with their mistakes, and own up to what they should do,” Charn says. “She’s just one of those people.”

Herrera’s accent is one common among people who, like herself, grew up in Los Angeles’ Spanish-speaking communities. She’s a petite woman who often pairs conservative business-casual wear with unique necklaces.

She closed her practice in December 2008 because it was difficult to provide direct legal services and advocate on issues close to her heart.

And Herrera wanted to encourage more lawyers to practice in underserved communities.

“I felt I needed to step out of the role for others to step into it,” she says. “If it was just about me and my practice, that was never enough.”