Currently a partner at Dilworth Paxson LLP, Lorena Trujillo did not follow the track of many other aspiring lawyers in her graduating class in Texas. When she graduated the University of Texas School of Law in 2006, unlike her peers, she did not have a prospective job lined up.

But after taking the chance of moving to Philadelphia, Trujillo did something that many of her peers wouldn’t have dreamed of doing. She interned with the Honorable Timothy R. Rice, U.S. Magistrate Judge for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. for free while completing her job search. “And two months in, I got my first job. And despite, people thinking that working for free, especially in the situation I was in wasn’t the smartest, I’m glad I took that leap of faith,” says Trujillo.

Growing up in a relatively small town right on the border of Mexico and Texas, Trujillo was raised in a community that was a mix of people who were in the United States, legally and illegally. “My earliest memories of professional people in our community were primarily attorneys. And they were typically seen as people of very high regard and held with a very high esteem. And they were typically seen as someone who helped their community” Trujillo says.

And whether it is through the work she does in her current position of through her pro bono work with Supervision to Aid Re-Entry (STAR) Program, where she has assisted ex-offenders in reintegrating into society, she continues to aim to help her community as she saw others do before her.