Enrique Espinoza ’22 Receives the 2020 Gary Laser Professionalism Award
Enrique Espinoza ‘22 of Chicago-Kent College of Law at Illinois Institute of Technology has been selected to receive the 2020 Gary Laser Professionalism Award.
Created in 2017, the endowed prize recognizes students working in the C-K Law Group: The Law Offices of Chicago-Kent, who have best exemplified promise as practitioners as well as the highest standard of ethics. The award is named in honor of Associate Professor of Law Emeritus Gary S. Laser, who founded Chicago-Kent’s in-house clinical education program, the nation’s first fee-generating teaching law firm, in 1976. Winners are chosen by the law school’s clinical faculty.
Clinical Lecturer Victoria Carmona and Clinical Professor of Law Pam Kentra, who worked closely with Espinoza this year, both nominated him for the prize with enthusiasm, saying “Espinoza exemplifies the attributes that the Laser Prize was intended to recognize—outstanding legal work plus the highest standards of ethics. He’s able to balance our clients’ interests with the necessary ethics and candor to the court, exhibiting an experience level far beyond his years.”
Kentra adds that “his level of professionalism and dedication to his work is unparalleled among the hundreds of students I have worked with over the past 25 years as a clinical professor.”
Espinoza worked in the Immigration Law Clinic at Chicago-Kent with clients on family petitions, removal proceedings, asylums petitions, bond proceeding, credible fear interviews, and voluntary departure.
“In our Immigration [Law] Clinic, among his overall outstanding work and commitment to the rights of immigrants, Espinoza served as co-chair at a removal hearing in the immigration court and won a difficult case, says Clinical Professor Richard J. Gonzalez. “He attended every court hearing—not only those on which he worked.”
Espinoza also received a mediator certification and worked at the Mediation/ADR Clinic at Chicago-Kent. He was awarded a fellowship to attend the Diversity Student ADR Summit: Roadmap to a Career in ADR in New York in November 2019.
Espinoza is a member of the Immigration Law Society, the American Immigration Lawyers Association, and the Hispanic/Latino Law Students’ Association. He graduated from Universidad Veracruzana with a degree in tourism business administration.
