Alexandra Guio received the Wm. Reece Smith Jr. National Outstanding Young Lawyer Award from the American Bar Association Young Lawyers Division.

Each year, the award recognizes an ABA YLD member in good standing who exhibits professional excellence; service to the profession, bar, and community; and advancement of ethics and professional responsibility.

Guio, an assistant district attorney in Dallas County, was recognized for her work as a prosecutor. From 2015 to 2017, she was a member of the county’s sexual assault division, working cold cases and campaigning for the Sexual Assault Kit Initiative, a grant that funds the testing of approximately 4,000 rape kits and allows the county to fully investigate and prosecute cases. In November 2017, Guio moved to the 257th Judicial District Court, where she prosecutes felony cases, including aggravated robbery and murder cases.

Guio was also recognized for her role as a mentor. As a member of the Texas Young Lawyers Association, or TYLA, and the Dallas Bar Association, Guio has been a mentor for first-year law students at UNT Dallas School of Law and has coached them in mock trial competitions, as well as given them insight on work at the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office. She is also the law school liaison for the Mexican American Bar Association, or MABA, meeting with students for lunch and helping guide them through law school, including at her alma mater, SMU Dedman School of Law.

Guio helped screen 70 local election candidates with a MABA, screening committee and initiative. The effort educated candidates on the needs of the Mexican-American community in Dallas. She has also co-chaired the Dallas Young Lawyers Equal Access to Justice Committee, helping raise funds for the Dallas Attorney Volunteer Program.

“The ABA YLD will be hard pressed to find a more well-rounded candidate who exemplifies professional excellence, unparalleled service to the community and the profession, and the highest moral character,” TYLA President Sally Pretorius said in an award nomination letter to the ABA. “As you know, we encounter extraordinary young lawyers every day—all good people doing good things. It is no exaggeration as I submit to you that Ms. Guio, as young as she is in her career, surpasses them all.”

For more information about the Texas Young Lawyers Association, go to tyla.org.