Alexandra Guio, Esquire, to Receive the 2022 American Inns of Court Sandra Day O’Connor Award for Professional Service

Alexandra Guio has been selected to receive the prestigious 2022 American Inns of Court Sandra Day O’Connor Award for Professional Service, which honors an American Inn of Court member in practice 10 years or fewer for their excellence in public interest or pro bono activities. Guio will receive the award at the 2022 American Inns of Court Celebration of Excellence at the Supreme Court of the United States October 29.

“Alex Guio, in her relatively brief years of practice, has truly exemplified how a young lawyer can have a dramatic impact through outstanding service to the public and her profession,” writes John C. Eichman, president of the Patrick E. Higginbotham American Inn of Court, who nominated Guio for the award. “Her achievements are all the more remarkable given the obstacles she overcame before she began her professional journey.”

A native of Colombia, Guio was an undocumented immigrant until her junior year at the University of Texas at Arlington. By 2013, the first-generation college graduate achieved two key goals: She became a U.S. citizen and earned a law degree from Southern Methodist University’s Dedman School of Law. That year, she became an assistant district attorney in the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office. She started in the Misdemeanor Division, quickly moved up to the Felony Division, then spent almost two years with the Sexual Assault Cold Case Unit, where she helped win a $1.6 million grant from the National Sexual Assault Kit Initiative. She continued her work as a felony prosecutor in Criminal District Court 2.

Guio also served as a legislative liaison for the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office for the 2019 legislative session, then decided to run for office as a representative in the Texas state legislature. To do so, she left the District Attorney’s Office and set up her own law firm specializing in criminal defense.

Guio’s advocacy extends beyond the courtroom. In 2014, she volunteered with Catholic Charities to help screen unaccompanied minors at the Texas border. As a member of the Dallas Association of Young Lawyers, she cochaired its Equal Access to Justice Committee and helped organize an event that raised $15,000 for the Dallas Volunteer Attorney Program. During the pandemic, she volunteered with Somos Tejas to encourage census participation and voter turnout in Spanish-speaking neighborhoods. In 2019, she received the American Bar Association Young Lawyers Division’s National Outstanding Young Lawyer Award.

The American Inns of Court, headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia, inspires the legal community to advance the rule of law by achieving the highest level of professionalism through example, education, and mentoring. The organization’s membership includes nearly 30,000 federal, state, and local judges; lawyers; law professors; and law students in nearly 370 chapters nationwide. More information is available at www.innsofcourt.org.

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Alexandra Guio, Esq., named recipient of the prestigious 2022 American @InnsofCourt 2022 Sandra Day O'Connor Award for Professional Service. https://bit.ly/AIC_Guio