Calleros to receive diversity honor from state Bar

Professor Charles Calleros, who organizes and implements outreach and mentoring programs that connect elementary, secondary and college students with law students and attorneys, will receive a major award from the State Bar of Arizona at its annual convention.

The Bar’s Committee on Minorities and Women in the Law will give its annual award to Calleros at a noon luncheon on Friday, June 11, at the Renaissance Glendale Hotel and Spa, 9495 W. Coyotes Blvd.

The award is made to an individual who has achieved professional excellence in his or her legal field, and influenced minorities or women to pursue legal careers, opened doors for minority or women lawyers in a variety of job settings that were closed to them historically, advanced opportunities for minorities or women lawyers within a practice area or segment of the profession, or advanced an initiative or project on behalf of or to promote minorities and women in the law.

“Charles Calleros is a national leader in the effort to mentor future lawyers and to create a robust pipeline of law students who will help diversify the legal profession,” said Paul Schiff Berman, Dean of the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law. “This is essential work if the United States is to compete in a global legal and business environment, and we at the College of Law are proud to be at the forefront of reimagining the future of the legal field.”

Calleros was nominated by Marisol Diaz, the Director of Admissions at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University, who noted his many outreach activities. They include being the Phoenix organizer of a pilot mentoring program of the Hispanic National Bar Association that connects high school students to teams of law students and attorneys in a variety of educational settings.

“Professor Calleros actively engages each spring in the recruitment of minority applicants and admitted students to the law school,” Diaz wrote in her application. “He conducts special introductory classes for them and meets with them during the welcome program. The special class for newly admitted students reflects the kinds of issues raised by inter-group relations and how the law can begin to help resolve some of the problems."

Among his myriad contributions, Calleros is a coordinator for ASU outreach programs with Maryvale and South Mountain high schools, a volunteer for the Hispanic National Bar Future Latino Leaders Law Camp, a member and former chair of the Association of American Law Schools’ Committee on Recruitment and Retention of Minority Faculty and a former member of the Law School Admission Council’s Minority Affairs Committee.

Roxann Gallagher, the Bar committee’s chair, said Calleros has advanced the interests of diverse attorneys throughout his entire career.

Calleros said he is a representative of several people at the College of Law who are part of a “very impressive jigsaw puzzle” of outreach and support programs.

“I share this award with Kate Rosier, Director of the Indian Legal Program and related outreach and mentoring programs, Lydia Montelongo and Marisol Diaz, who work with me on the College of Law’s four-level mentoring program through the Hispanic National Bar Association, Kristine Reich, who has coordinated the College’s Street Law and Marshall-Brennan programs, and alumni and students such as James Cool, Sarah Barrios, Jillian Tse, Rikke Liska and David Jackson, who work with the eighth- through 12th grade and college mock-trial programs,” Calleros said. “Credit also is due to the dozens of other students and attorneys who participate in our programs.”

Janie Magruder, Jane.Magruder@asu.edu
(480) 727-9052
Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law