Downey couple honored for work in the community

DOWNEY – Downey couple Ricardo Perez and Maria Torres were each honored last week for their contributions to the Downey community. 

Perez, who is a civil litigation attorney with a law office in Downey, received the Downey Mayor’s DNA Award for outstanding volunteerism, selflessness, extraordinary leadership and exceptional service in an effort to make the community of Downey a better place to live. 

Torres received the Soroptimist International of Downey Women of Distinction Award, which acknowledges women who work to improve the lives of women and girls through personal or professional activities. These efforts help to promote the issues that are important to the Soroptimist organization. Honorees are women who have worked in extraordinary ways to benefit women and girls.

While Perez focuses his work on personal injury and civil rights cases, he also performs extensive pro bono work. Perez is active in the Downey community, working with the Warren High School Ideas Club, organizing free legal fairs and citizenship clinics, and supporting Downey Art Vibe, which oversees Stay Gallery, where he served for many years on the Board of Directors. 

Through his attorney work, Perez has litigated and settled numerous high profile cases. Most recently, Perez worked to secure the release of Marco Contreras, an innocent man who was wrongfully convicted of attempted murder, sentenced to life in prison, but was finally released after over 20 years of incarceration. 

Perez was born in Mexico and brought into the United States as a child. Perez held no legal immigration status for much of his life before finally obtaining U.S. citizenship while in law school. As a result, Perez worked with Torres and co-founded Ferias Legales, a non-profit organization devoted to bringing free legal resources to the underserved communities as well as providing student programming aimed at increasing diversity in the legal community.

Perez is a graduate of Bell Gardens High School, UCLA, and Loyola Law School. Perez moved to Downey while in college and has lived in Downey for most of his adult life. He serves in the boards of directors for multiple organizations, including the Rio Hondo College’s Pathway to Law School Program where he serves as co-chair and serves as president of the local UCLA Alumni Association known as the Southeast Bruins.  

Maria Dolores Torres, or “Marilola,” as she is known to close friends and family, was born in Zacatecas, Mexico and migrated to Los Ángeles as a child with her parents and five sisters. 
Torres’ mother worked as a seamstress and her father a dishwasher to care for Torres and her sisters. They taught her to always be responsible, take dignity in her work and lend a hand to others. 

Torres began attending college while still a junior in high school. Since then, Torres has earned a Master’s degree in Clinical Psychology on top of her Bachelor’s Degree in the same field where she was invited to attend the Honors Convocation as a Cum Laude graduating student. 

During the course of her enrollment in the Clinical Program she became involved in the Child and Adolescent Assessment Clinic where she provided diagnostic psychometric assessments and evaluations of children referred for suspected Learning Disability/Dyslexia, Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, and their associated learning and behavioral issues.

For nearly 12 years, Torres has worked in the non profit sector. She worked particularly close with attorneys and judges in her role as the executive administrator for a legal non-profit organization. Feeling that a need existed in the community for more consistent access to free legal resources, Torres worked with Perez to establish a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization known as Ferias Legales (Spanish for “Legal Fairs”).

Through Ferias Legales, Torres has ensured the delivery of services to women. As a former victim advocate in the family violence division of the Los Ángeles County District Attorney’s Office, she launched the first Ferias Legales “Break the Cycle: A Free Domestic Violence Clinic” where battered women obtained free assistance with legal, mental health, and victims services. 

More broadly, Ferias Legales has provided free legal services to underserved communties. Overwhelmingly, the recipients of these services have been women.

In her capacity as executive director of Ferias Legales, Torres was instrumental in establishing a mentorship program for Rio Hondo College students.  The mentorship program paired attorneys and judges with students who are enrolled in the Rio Hondo College Pathway to Law School Program, which is designed for college students with an interest in law with the goal of increasing diversity in the legal field. 

She also oversees multiple interns in various sites. Many of these students are young women and Torres stresses to them the importance of “paying it forward” to other young girls and women in the community through legal clinics and volunteer opportunities.

Due to her work in in the community, Torres was named to the Downey Patriot’s “40 under 40” young leaders in 2017.