June 2, 2020 (San Diego, California): Kudos to Abril Perez of California Western School of Law’s Class of 2020 for being the recipient of this year’s Alec L. Cory Pro Bono Award, given annually by Procopio to deserving law students who demonstrate both academic excellence and a commitment to community and public service.

As a public interest law student, Abril has worked on behalf of underrepresented communities, such as asylum seekers, human trafficking victims, the Latinx community, and the LGBTQI community. While performing near the top of her class, she mentored law students from underrepresented communities and clerked with the Casa Cornelia Law Center, providing valued assistance to asylum seekers. In addition, in 2019 she wrote a commentary for the San Diego Union-Tribune on the tragic shooting in El Paso, where she grew up as a child of immigrant parents. Abril recently finished her externship at the California Court of Appeal, Fourth Appellate District, and is now studying for the bar exam.

“I astutely understand the lack of access to social justice that has disenfranchised individuals in such communities. Serving underrepresented communities is the entire reason I decided to go to law school to begin with,” Perez said. “As a Latina who is a member of the LGTBQI community, I want to empower the communities who have lifted me up despite their own staggering lack of power in legal and political realms.”

Alec Cory was a co-founder of Procopio as well as San Diego’s Legal Aid Society. He was one of the first in the San Diego legal community to embrace pro bono work and provide legal services to the poor. It was a cause very dear to his heart and something he championed during his life. Cory not only set an example, but he also prodded people in his firm to give back. During a legal career that spanned more than six decades, Cory established a scholarship fund that assisted students with a demonstrated interest in public service or public interest law, and Procopio has continued in this tradition in his honor.