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Feature TYLA Affiliate

El Paso Young Lawyers Association
By:  Carlos G. Madrid

It’s halfway through the fall and the El Paso Young Lawyers Association (“EPYLA”) is working hard and going full speed ahead to ensure that we have another successful year, providing valuable services to our members and reaching out to the El Paso community. Recently, EPYLA hosted its annual golf tournament. In line with TYLA’s and the State Bar’s focus on Texas Lawyers for Texas Veterans, the golf tournament honored our American heroes. Veterans from all of the local VFW posts played as our guests of honor at the tournament. Prior to the golf tournament, EPYLA conducted its first of two rollouts of the State Bar’s and TYLA’s Texas Lawyers for Texas Veterans pamphlets.

On October 22, EPYLA will be working with TYLA and the University of Texas at El Paso to host the second annual Pre-Law Diversity Symposium for high school students. This spring, as a continuation of a focus on diversity, EPYLA will be working with the Mexican American Bar Association of El Paso to host several events to encourage diversity in not only the legal profession, but also the medical field and other professional fields. The current plan is to have several “boot camp” learning sessions to help El Paso area college students successfully apply for admission to professional and graduate schools, and to hold several panel discussions with various professionals, legislators, educators, and other community leaders on the importance of having a professional workforce that reflects the demographics of the community.

In addition to EPYLA’s annual Christmas of Hope party, designed to benefit the children of parents who are suffering from and treating for cancer, and other community service oriented projects, EPYLA also has plans for several projects aimed at providing training and networking opportunities to our members. In the spring of 2010, EPYLA offered New Lawyer Training. The project was such a success that this year, two New Lawyer Trainings are being organized, one for the fall and one for the spring. CLE opportunities are also available at most of the EPYLA monthly meetings.

As for networking, EPYLA members meet and mingle with each other at the monthly happy hours. There are also several opportunities for EPYLA members to meet and form relationships with judges and more experienced attorneys. This year, a judicial liaison position was established to promote relationships between EPYLA members and the judiciary. The Honorable Philip R. Martinez, of the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas, is the judicial liaison for 2010-2011.