One of the nation's largest professional associations for Hispanic lawyers, judges and law students has named Lorenzo Trujillo, assistant dean of the University of Colorado at Boulder Law School, the 2007 Latino Lawyer of the Year.
Trujillo, who graduated from CU's law school in 1993, received the award during the Hispanic National Bar Association's annual convention in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Oct. 3-7. Trujillo has served as general counsel and regional president of the association and has been president of the Colorado Hispanic Bar Association.
At CU-Boulder, Trujillo has taught classes that provide law school students with a working knowledge of Spanish-language legal terms and other vocabulary that will enable them to serve Spanish-speaking families. He is credited with co-authoring a brief that convinced the American Bar Association to change its diversity language for accrediting law schools from "efforts to diversity" to "commitment that is demonstrated by concrete action."
"Lorenzo's advocacy for Latinos is well documented in Colorado," said Judge Gilbert M. Roman of the Colorado Court of Appeals, who nominated Trujillo for the national award.
In addition to the award from the Hispanic National Bar Association, Trujillo received the 2007 Leadership Award from the CU Hispanic Alumni Association at a Sept. 29 homecoming reunion.
"At Colorado Law, we are indebted to Lorenzo Trujillo for making the school attractive and friendly to Latino students who come from across the United States to study law here," said CU Law School Dean David Getches. "He is a champion of diversity in the legal profession and his hard work in this area has propelled our mission of enriching the diversity of the law school."
In September, Hispanic Business Magazine ranked the CU-Boulder Law School 16th among the top 20 U.S. law schools for Hispanics. The national magazine took into account each school's academic excellence, enrollment by U.S. citizens, faculty, student services and retention rates.
The CU law school currently has 40 Latino students, representing 7.8 percent of the student body, and Hispanic students who graduated last year had a 100 percent passage rate for the bar exam.
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