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The Volunteer Lawyers Program Advisory Board is comprised of
incredibly
dedicated, compassionate attorneys and judges who
help the VLP with such
activities as new volunteer recruitment, CLEs
and trainings, programmatic
decisions, and moral support.
Pima County Advisory Board
Hon. Gus Aragón,
Jr.
A
native Tucsonan, Gus Aragón is a graduate of the
University of Arizona School of Law. He was admitted
to the Arizona Bar in
1977 and joined the firm Haralson
Miller Pitt Feldman & McAnally, P.L.C. in 1988. Aragón
attended Stanford University and graduated from the
University of Arizona and the University of Arizona
College of Law. He practiced as an Internal Revenue
Service attorney and as a Deputy Pima County Attorney
before going into private practice in the area of personal
injury litigation. Aragón
previously served on the Board of Directors of the
Arizona Trial Lawyers Association, as well as the Arizona Supreme Court
Committee on
Character and Fitness. Aragón is now a Judge with the
Pima
County Superior Court.
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Stacy Butler
Stacy
Butler received her bachelor's degree from Trinity
University in 1999 and her Juris Doctorate from the
University Arizona College of Law in 2002. Following
graduation from law school, Stacy Butler served as a law
clerk to the Hon. William C. Canby at the Ninth Circuit
Court of Appeals. Stacy Butler was formerly an
associate at the law firm of DeConcini McDonald Yetwin
& Lacy, where her practice focused on civil and probate
litigation. Currently, Stacy Butler serves as a law clerk
to the Hon. Jennifer C.
Guerin at the United States District Court for the District of Arizona. Stacy
Butler's involvement with VLP began with a summer internship during
college
and has since included participating in student clinics,
taking cases for direct
representation and writing articles about
VLP for various
news publications.
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Fred Dardis,
Commissioner/Judge Pro Tempore
Frederic
J. Dardis, a native Tucsonan, received his
undergraduate degree from the University of Arizona
in 1966.
After spending
two years in Belize as part
of the Peace Corps
mission. He returned to Tucson
and received his Juris Doctorate from the University of
Arizona in 1971. Dardis
commenced his law career
with Arizona Legal Aid Society, eventually branching out to
direct the Neighborhood Law Office, a Model
Cities Project at the University of
Arizona Law School.
Dardis then served as the appellate supervisor in the
Pima
County Legal Defender's office and a city magistrate for the city of
Tucson. Dardis took up the reins of the Pima County Public
Defender’s
office, where he remained until 1986 when he
and fellow attorney, Thomas
Hippert opened an office on Cushing Street, specializing in domestic law.
In December 1998, Dardis
was appointed commissioner in the Superior
Court, where he headed the Child Support Collection Program.
In 2000,
Dardis was named the National Child Support Commissioner by NCSEA.
This was followed up in 2001 when Dardis
was honored with the Arizona
Judicial Officer of the Year award presented by ACSEA – first ever
Commissioner so honored.
His current assignment is to the Domestic
Relations Bench.
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Members of the
Pima County VLP Advisory Board receiving
the VLP VIP Award in 2004.
From left: Hon. Fred Dardis,
Justice Rebecca White Berch, Alyce
Pennington, Luis Ochoa,
Gus
Aragon, and Juan Perez Medrano.
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 Todd
Jackson
Todd Jackson is a
shareholder with McNamara,
Goldsmith, Jackson & Macdonald, P.C., where he
concentrates his practice on commercial litigation,
multi-party disputes, and banking, trust, and
construction law. He is a frequent speaker and
author
of seminar papers on litigation-related topics,
has
served as a Judge Pro Tem for the Arizona Superior Court, and
is active
in the
State Bar and the Volunteer Lawyers Program, among other community
activities. He received his J.D., summa cum laude, from the
University of
Arizona in 1988, where he was an Articles Editor for the Arizona Law
Review
and
member of the Order of the Coif. Following law school, Jackson
served
as a law clerk for a Federal District Court Judge in Chicago, and
then
practiced for several years at a Chicago law firm before returning
to Arizona
with
his family. He is currently licensed in Arizona, Illinois, and
Nevada.
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Karen Nygaard,
Commissioner/Judge Pro Tempore
A Pima County Superior Court Commissioner, Karen
Nygaard is an experienced trial lawyer and a former
shareholder in the law firm of DeConcini McDonald
Yetwin & Lacy. Her practice area was civil litigation,
representing individuals, corporations, and governmental
agencies in the areas of employment, civil rights, person-
nel issues, contract disputes, and appeals. Before joining DeConcini, Nygaard
served as a trial deputy with the Pima County Attorney’s Office and was a
Judicial Law Clerk to the Honorable James D. Hathaway, Arizona Court of
Appeals. Nygaard attended the University of Arizona for a B.S. in Mathe-
matics, a Masters of Education in Counseling and Guidance, and a J.D.
with Distinction.
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Luis Ochoa
After receiving his bachelor’s degree from the University
of Arizona in 1983 and his Juris Doctorate from the
University of Arizona College of Law in 1986, Luis Ochoa
has focused his practice on gaming and Indian law and
the counseling of exempt organizations and business
clients in all phases of corporate operations, including
commercial transactions, tax, business planning, real
estate, and bankruptcy matters. Ochoa currently serves
on the Board of Directors for the Pima County Bar
Association, and is a
partner at Quarles & Brady Streich Lang, L.L.P. in Tucson.
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Alyce Pennington
As a shareholder of DeConcini McDonald Yetwin &
Lacy’s Tucson office, Alyce Pennington practices in
the areas of domestic relations, probate, and general
civil law. Prior to joining the firm in 1997, she was a
partner in the law firm of Richards & Pennington.
Pennington was previously an attorney for the Pima
County Public Fiduciary and was responsible for the defense of proposed
patients in civil commitment proceedings, probating estates, and acted as
public guardian and conservator. Pennington obtained a B.S. from the
University of Arizona in Secondary Education in 1978 and a J.D. from the
University of Arizona College of Law in 1982. Pennington is a certified
Specialist in Family Law, and serves on the Executive Council of the State
Bar Family Law Section.
Pennington has received local and statewide
recognition for her volunteer efforts, including her selection as a
recipient
of the
Governor's Service Award.
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Juan Perez Medrano
Juan graduated
from the University of Arizona James E.
Rogers College of Law and
was admitted to the Arizona
Bar in 1983. A sole-practitioner,
Juan's work focuses on
bankruptcy/receivership, domestic relations and
injury and
wrongful death. Juan has a long history of involvement with
the provision of legal services to the poor that includes
seventeen years as
a volunteer lawyer. He has received countless awards for
his pro
bono work which includes selection as a finalist for the Golden Rule
Award
in 1999, which is an award that is presented annually by the Volunteer
Center
of Tucson. Juan
also served as a member of Southern Arizona Legal
Aid's Board of Directors, where he completed his term as Board President in
2003. Juan
is also involved with the Minority Bar Association and many
other
charitable organizations.
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Tom Roberts
Tom Roberts,
currently a partner in the Tucson firm
Goering,
Roberts, Rubin, Brogna, Enos & Treadwell-
Rubin, P.C., obtained his bachelor’s degree from the
University of Arizona in 1970 and his Juris Doctorate
from the University of Arizona College of Law in 1973.
Roberts began his career as an Assistant Attorney
General involved with the investigation of land fraud
and real estate corruption; since then, he has focused
on the defense of liability litigation with special emphasis on commercial, real
estate, and related matters.
A dedicated volunteer lawyer, Tom has volun-
teered
with the VLP for twenty years, and has served as co-chair of the
VLP
Advisory Board for ten years.
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Hon. Bernardo Velasco
Judge Velasco attended the University of Arizona
where he received
both his Bachelor of Science and
Juris Doctorate degrees. He
was
admitted to the
practice of law in 1974. After practicing law
for some
time he was selected as a Superior Court Judge in
Pima County. Currently he is a Federal Court Magistrate. In addition to his
work on the VLP Advisory Board, Judge Velasco was recently appointed to
Southern Arizona Legal Aid's Board of Directors.
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Cochise County Advisory Board
Cary T.
Inabinet
Cary T. Inabinet grew up in South Carolina and
Tennessee. He
graduated from the University of
Tennessee in 1968 with a BS in
Business
Admini-
stration. He entered the U.S. Army in 1969 and
served three
years as an officer, including one year
in Viet Nam. Cary returned and
entered law school at the University of
Tennessee, where he
graduated in two and a half years. After
graduation, he
worked as a law clerk for the Arizona Court of Appeals and eventually entered
private
practice in Phoenix with a small firm in general practice for the
next 25
years. Cary currently works for the Arizona Attorney General's
office
rep-
resenting Child Protective Services in Sierra Vista. He is proud
to
have
been involved with VLP since the 1980s.
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Hon.
Charles A. Irwin
Judge
Irwin was first elected in November 1996 to the
Superior Court of Cochise County, Division IV and served
in
that capacity till January 2005. Case assignments
during
this period included juvenile delinquency and
dependency (abused and neglected children), adult
criminal, civil, family law, probate and guardianship
matters. In November 2006, Judge Irwin was elected
to
Superior Court, Division I. From January 1999 to
November 2000 and again from May 2003 until January
2005,
Judge Irwin served as the Presiding Juvenile Court Judge. From
January
2007
until present, Judge Irwin is the appointed Presiding Family Law
Judge
for
Cochise County, but has a varied case load of family law, civil and
adult
criminal matters. Judge Irwin received his B.S. in Public
Administration in
1976
from the University of Arizona, a Master of Science in Business
Administration in 1982 from Boston University and completed his
Juris
Doctorate in 1985, with high distinction, from the University of
Arizona Law
School. Judge Irwin is admitted to practice in the Arizona State and
Federal
Courts, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and the United States
Supreme
Court.
Judge Irwin’s volunteer service includes the Arizona State Bar Board
of
Governors, the Arizona Bar Foundation, Cochise County Bar
Association,
Cochise County Volunteer Lawyer Program, the High School Mock Trial
Program, St. Andrew the Apostle Catholic Church, La Purisima
Retreat
Center, Our Lady of the Sierras, and Boys and Girls Club of Sierra
Vista.
He is
married to Dolores Irwin (32 years) and they have three children,
ages
29,
25, and 15.
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Pat
Moreno
Patricia Moreno received her BA in Political Science
in 1997 from
the University of Arizona and her Juris
Doctorate in 2001 from the James
E. Rogers College
of Law at the University of Arizona. She was
previously
an attorney with the firm of John F. Kelliher, Jr., where
she practiced
in the
area of family law. Pat currently
provides child support services
in
Cochise County through Policy-Studies,
Inc. She is also an adjunct
instructor at the University of Arizona South,
where she has taught
classes on civil rights, liberties and federalism, and
gender issues
in the
law.
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Jeanne
Benda Whitney
Jeanne Benda Whitney received her Bachelor’s
degree from Iowa State University in
1980 and her
Juris Doctorate from Arizona State University in
1983. In the past, Jeanne has worked as a Maricopa
County Deputy
Public Defender, a Drug Enforcement
Prosecutor in Cochise and Pinal Counties and was the
Supervising Attorney for the Cochise County
Attorney's
Child Support Office. Currently, she practices part time in
landlord/tenant
cases and is raising her two sons and various pets.
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