Commission on Race & Gender Fairness Member Biographies

Honorable Lorenzo Arredondo

The Honorable Lorenzo Arredondo, Judge of the Lake Circuit Court in Indiana, recently received the Hispanic National Bar Association’s highest honor, the Lincoln-Juarez Award, which has been given only five times in the 35-year history of the organization, for outstanding achievements in the legal profession. The award recognizes Judge Arredondo’s lifelong passion and commitment to justice, fairness, and equality under the rule of law. The award’s namesakes are Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Benito Juarez, both of whom were leaders in the legal profession and were committed to the struggles against injustice.

For over three decades, Judge Arredondo has served the citizens of Indiana as a member of the judiciary. His distinguished career includes service on the faculty of the National Judicial College, the Indiana Trial Advocacy College, and the Board and Executive Committee of the American Judicature Society. He has been a member of AJS since 1978. He was a founder and has served as President of the Hispanic National Bar Association and its more than 33,000 members of the Hispanic-American lawyers, judges, law professors, and law students in the United States and Puerto Rico. He has served on the Board of Governors of the American Judges Association and on numerous committees of the American Bar Association. Judge Arredondo now serves on the Indiana Supreme Court’s Commission on Race and Gender Fairness, on the Board of Directors of the Legacy Foundation and Indiana Legal Services, and on the Advisory Board of the Indiana Conference for Legal Education Opportunity.

Judge Arredondo received the Indiana Judges’ Association Award for Excellence in Public Information and Education. “I was a teacher before I was a lawyer,” he says. “I taught social studies, government, and history at the high school level, so I think it’s important to explain to people.” He is the recipient of the Indiana State Bar Association’s esteemed Rabb Emison Award in recognition of the significant contribution made in advancing opportunities for minority lawyers in legal employment and the legal profession. He has also received the Sherman Minton Award for Judicial Excellence.

The White House has summoned Judge Arredondo on several occasions to participate in annual conferences and to discuss issues vital to Latinos and the legal profession. He founded the Northwest Indiana Hispanic Lawyers Association and is co-founder of the Calumet Inns of Court. He created the Family Division of the Lake Circuit Court, the Domestic Relations Counseling Bureau, and the “Children’s Room” to reduce the stress on children whose parents are attending any of the many courts in the Lake County Government Center in Crown Point, Indiana.

Judge Arredondo received his A.B. and M.S. in Secondary Education from Indiana University, and his J.D. from the University of San Francisco. He served with the Lake County Prosecutor and the Lake County Assistant Attorney before joining the Lake County Court.