CHICAGO, July 30, 2024 — Dolores Atencio, visiting scholar at the University of Denver Latinx Center in the Sturm College of Law in Denver, Colorado, is a recipient of the 2024 Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement Award.
Atencio will receive the award, given annually by the ABA Commission on Women in the Profession, at a ceremony and reception at 3-5:30 p.m. CDT on Sunday, Aug. 4, at the Swissotel Chicago during the 2024 ABA Annual Meeting.
In addition to Atencio, the 2024 award recipients include Pamila J. Brown, Estelle H. Rogers, Gina Shishima and Barbara Wall.
“We applaud the achievements of this amazing group of women, who have and will continue to inspire all of us in the legal profession, including the next generation of women lawyers,” said Karol Corbin-Walker, chair of the Commission on Women in the Profession.
Atencio has practiced in Colorado for 42 years, specializing in employment and education law. In 2015, she created the national legal history project, Luminarias de la Ley | Luminaries of the Law™ to identify and chronicle the accomplishments of Latina lawyers in the country. She is recognized as a national expert on the history of Latina lawyers in the United States.
Atencio has served as an assistant attorney general, as vice president and general counsel of Denver Grand Prix Auto Race, Inc., as a state administrative law judge and was development director for KUVO 89.3FM, joining two other Latinas to start the public bilingual radio station.
She was president of the Hispanic National Bar Association (HNBA) and the Colorado Hispanic Bar Association, served on the ABA Commission on Women in the Profession and the Denver Women’s Commission and was president of the University of Denver’s Law Alumni Council.
Atencio has produced numerous works on Latina lawyers, including Las Primeras, a 50-minute slide show on 21 Latina trailblazers (1993), which was converted to a video documentary (1994), and two published pieces on Latina lawyers: “100 Years of Achievement: Un Historia Abogada” (2013) and “Saluting Hispanic Women Lawyers in the 50 States” (2014). Atencio has received the HNBA President’s Award (2021), the HNBA Primera Abogada Award (2018), and the Ohtli Award, Mexico’s highest honor bestowed to noncitizens (2014).
Atencio earned a bachelor’s degree from Colorado College and a law degree from the University of Denver College of Law.
Click here for a photo of Dolores Atencio.
The Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement Award, established in 1991, honors outstanding women lawyers who have achieved professional excellence in their area of specialty and have actively paved the way to success for other women in the profession. The award is named for Margaret Brent, the first woman lawyer in America. Brent arrived in the colonies in 1638 and was involved in 124 court cases in more than eight years, winning every case.
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