Eric Cedillo
Eric Cedillo’s greatest accomplishment is being a Father to his four children. Upon graduating from law school, Mr. Cedillo opened up his law firm with a fellow classmate and continues to maintain his practice primarily for those who have been wronged by others in Personal Injury and for those who are in dire need of assistance in Immigration and Business. Additionally, over the past 18 years, Eric had been a Clinical Professor of Law at the SMU Dedman School of Law. For the first 10 years he ran the Consumer Advocacy Clinic, helping community members with deceptive acts against them by unscrupulous businesses. Over the last six years, he has taught an Immigration Asylum Class to law students at SMU and then taken them down to a Detention Facility during Spring Break to help those seeking Asylum with their cases. Mr. Cedillo is currently on the National Board of Directors for LULAC as their National Legal Advisor.
Mr. Cedillo has contributed to organizations monetarily and with generous amounts of personal time to such organizations as Junior Players and Cara Mia Theatre group. Specifically, he has given thousands of dollars in support for these organization’s efforts in summer youth arts and training programs for kids. Combined, both organizations have helped tens of thousands of children through their respective summer programs. In these efforts, he was given the coveted “Obelisk Award” for his support of the Arts in the community. In addition he has served on the TACA grants committee spending hundreds of hours of his time reviewing and assisting with designating grants to a number of local arts groups. Many of which could not exist without funding from these grants.
In addition to his contribution to Kids and the Arts, Eric is a member of the Dallas Superintendent’s Advisory Committee which assists the District with a variety of issues. Additionally, he has served on the Mayor’s Task force on Education and assisted in the drafting of protocols to better assist the students and parents of the Dallas Independent School District. As a member of LULAC and in joint effort with the League of Women Voters, Eric took the time to visit numerous High Schools and helped register to vote tens of thousands of DISD students over the years. In addition to those efforts in the schools, he did numerous “Know your rights presentations” to help students and their families understand the ramifications and reach of SB4 at a very critical time.
Six years ago, Mr. Cedillo created the Latino Voter Empowerment Coalition whose mission it is to register Latino voters. These efforts are realized through grassroots educational programming in predominately Latino neighborhoods, voter registration and Latino community engagement. Through this organization’s efforts, thousands of young Latinos have registered to vote who may not have otherwise done so. He has helped create the SVEC (Student Voter Empowerment Coalition) which creates empowerment chapters within the schools to help students realize the same goals in High Schools and Colleges. Mr. Cedillo is currently the President of the Board of Directors for March to the Polls, a non-profit organization tasked with the job of registering Voters throughout North Texas. It is through March to the Polls that both LVEC and SVEC are possible.
Over the last few years, Eric sat as the Chairman of the Board for the Non-profit Latino Center for Leadership Development Fund. He has assisted the LCLD with various projects in a legal capacity including their sponsorship of various DACA recipients. He most recently sat onthe Advisory Board in a joint venture with the LCLD- and SMU Tower Center that frequently creates forums for community engagement on a range of Latino issues. Additionally, he was the inaugural recipient of that group’s “Adelante Award” for his contributions to the community at large and specifically to those causes.
Mr. Cedillo was one of the founding Board Members of the Mexican American Bar Association of Dallas which has tasked itself with the betterment of Latinos in our community through Legal Representation in Clinical settings and “Know your rights” presentations. Recently, Mr. Cedillo was recognized and named the Outstanding Attorney by that Organization. This year, MABA, has awarded Mr. Cedillo with the “Community Champion Award” for his efforts in assisting the community through the efforts of LVEC and MABA has in fact awarded LVEC with the “Village United Award” for its ongoing efforts in the community. In conjunction with extensive work with the Latino community, Mr. Cedillo was named one of two or three attorneys as “Abogado Consultor” by the Mexican Consulate of Dallas.
Last year Mr. Cedillo was given the coveted “La Luz” award by the Dallas Hispanic Bar Association on its 50th Anniversary. This award is given to those who have dedicated an extraordinary amount of time to bettering our communities in numerous ways.
Mr. Cedillo has served on numerous boards and committees that assist Latinos and the community at large. He is currently the Chairperson of the Dallas County Citizen Election Advisory Committee. He is also on the Board for the Dallas Eviction Advocacy Center which has represented thousands of clients in Pro Bono evictions during the Pandemic. He has sat on the Board of the Dallas Housing Crises Center, and has been an active member in the Dallas Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and the Irving Chamber of Commerce, wherein he recently won Entrepreneur of the Year as well as many other committees and organizations not mentioned here.
In addition to the specific time given to these efforts, Eric has contributed financially to the support of everything from specific scholarships to needy students, to the Pinkston High School travelling band to the creation of a Playground in Cockrell Hill, to the economic support of Marches that helped illuminate the current struggles Latinos continue to endure.
Eric’s firm has contributed countless pro bono hours to those individuals who couldn’t afford legal services, both in the form of individual representation and in the capacity of “know your rights” presentations in general. Over the past two years, and in conjunction with the SMU law school, he has taken several students on their spring break to Karnes Detention facility to help Detained Women, Men and children with their Asylum requests.
