On Oct. 22, AL DÍA is honoring five Latino lawyers that are champions of justice not only for their clients, but also the next generation of Latino lawyers to enter the field and follow in their footsteps.

Along with the recognition of the five champions, the night’s virtual festivities will also include a fireside chat with Judge L. Felipe Restrepo.

He currently sits on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit — a position he was appointed to in 2016. Before that, Restrepo was a judge on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania for three years. He was nominated for the district court spot by President Barack Obama in 2013.

Restrepo’s journey to judgeship began back on Sept. 7, 1993, when he took the oath as a new citizen to the United States of America.

“Citizenship is not a spectator sport. You must participate in a democracy,” he said in a speech at the 2018 Mother Cabrini Immigrant Heritage Awards.

For the then-young lawyer in 1993, taking the U.S. citizenship oath was 31 years in the making. 

Restrepo first came to the states with his parents from Colombia in 1962 to escape escalating violence in the South American country. The family’s permanence in the U.S. hung on his father’s G-4 visa.

Law became Restrepo’s career choice after seeing all the career options a degree opened while working at a firm following his undergraduate studies at the University of Pennsylvania. 

For law school, he enrolled at Tulane University and graduated in 1986 — the same year U.S. President Ronald Reagan passed the Simpson-Mazzoli Act, which paved the way for Restrepo’s citizenship seven years later.

He took that citizenship to heart.

In 2018, Restrepo was also honored as an archetype at AL DÍA’s Hispanic Heritage Awards.

Tickets are now on sale for AL DÍA's 2020 Top Lawyers Forum, which will take place on Oct. 22 at 5:30 p.m.