Dear Members and Friends of the Hispanic Bar Association of Orange County,
 
Hard to believe the year is going this fast! We just wrapped up another successful month here at the HBA full of good company and reconnecting with our members at in person events.
 
Our End of Summer Mixer allowed us all to see each other in person, catch up and plan for future events. It is always so good to see our members and reconnect. Thank you all for coming out and making this event such a success, we appreciate you all. 
Very special thanks to our sponsors for your continued support of the HBA! 
Aside from the great company at our summer mixer, we had the honor of delivering backpacks and school supplies to our community. Thanks to your generous contributions to our backpack drive we were able to surpass the number of backpacks donated last year and we delivered almost 300 backpacks to our kids in Project Youth, TKO Boxing Club, Centro Cultural de Mexico and Wallace R. Davis Elementary School.  
Our deepest gratitude to all our donors for joining forces with us to help our Orange County community children as they transition to in person school again after such a challenging school year. Very special thank you to: 
 
Franz Miller, Fabio Cabezas, Karen L. Robinson, Michael Mooney, Nancy Wieben Stock, John Gastelum, Javier Rivera Carbone, The Vasquez Law Group, Judicate West and Nelida Mendoza, Councilmember for City of Santa Ana.


We are humbled and honored to be able to celebrate this year’s Judge’s BBQ in person and present this well-deserved award to Judge Julie A. Palafox for her commitment and positive impact to our justice system and our Orange County community.
 
Judge Julie A. Palafox has taken on the Supervising Judge role at the Lamoreaux Justice Center. She has dedicated and encouraged the legal profession to understand complex issues pertaining to Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction Act and how it relates to families in other countries. Judge Palafox has stepped up in 2021 with the overflow of cases, taking cases of those who have moved assignments, maintaining her own caseload, and dedicating duties to SIJS (Special Immigrant Juvenile Status) dependency cases.
 
We are so proud to honor Judge Julie A. Palafox with the 2021 Judge of The Year: James O. Perez Trailblazer Award. Please join us at the outdoor celebration on Saturday, September 18, 2021 at the beautiful home of Attorney Christopher Hernandez in Anaheim Hills. Space is limited, so make sure to register today!

We remind our members to please stay vigilant regarding health precautions as they relate to COVID-19. We can beat this pandemic, but we must do so together. If you have any questions regarding COVID-19 vaccinations please visit OC Health Care Agency.
 
We close our newsletter with a heavy heart as we mourn the passing of Honorable Greg Muñoz. A trailblazer in our legal community, his admirable work ethic, undeniable kindness, approachability and humbleness made him the amazing person he was. HBA co-founder and member of many other organizations in Orange County, he was always looking for ways to make an impact and inspire future generations and he achieved it. As stated by our HBA past president Carlos X. Colorado “May his example and legacy of excellence guide the next generation and all that follow in his footsteps.” We could not agree more, we lost a great one and he will be sorely missed.
Warmest regards,