David Dominguez grew up on the mean streets of South Central Los Angeles, no place for a kid.

He lived next door to a whorehouse and the local drug addict hangout. He was no stranger to being jumped by gang members.

"Between all of the violence, all of the gangs, all of the gunfire - all of the danger, it was very easy to lose your life, and many of my friends did," he said.

But his wife, Lakshimi, calls him a "transcender," someone who overcomes incredible odds against them making it out of such a situation.

His dangerous childhood, in what his wife termed the ghetto, is a long ways away from being a professor of law here at BYU, from recently being honored by the Utah Minority Bar Association for using his legal expertise in volunteer work and from receiving degrees at both Yale and Berkeley.

Dominguez, who is an Evangelical Christian, says he knows God has a mission for him.

"By the grace of God, I am still here," he said, referring to his early years in Los Angeles. "And I take that very seriously. It seems to me that God has spared me so that I can be a servant to the larger community - that's how I live my life."

In his community lawyering class at the J. Rueben Clark Law School, Dominguez is able to be that servant by teaching his students the importance of community service and by leading them through example.

His students work jointly with him on projects to educate the local community on the legal system, people who may otherwise not be able to gain such an understanding.

In the past, they have helped residents of a local high-crime apartment complex know how to improve their community. They've also helped give local immigrants knowledge so they can solve their own legal issues when professional help may not be available for them.

Currently, Dominguez continues to fulfill what he calls his mission by partnering with his students in educating youth in the Slate Canyon Youth Center just up the street from BYU and their parents on how they can better advocate for themselves in court.

Students find Dominguez's class an opportunity to give back, a chance to do something to help others.

"His class makes me feel good," said Brooktynn Zendejas, a 2nd year law student from Omaha, Neb. "It's an opportunity to use what I've learned and to help people who really need it."

Dominguez said in his 18 years teaching here, he's learned BYU and its students are a good fit for him, even though he is not LDS.

"The way I got here is simple enough," Dominguez said. "Professor Jim Gordon was a classmate of mine at Berkeley law school and as the years passed he mentioned that there might be an opportunity for me to teach here, and then one thing led to another."

"The reason I stay at BYU, however, is because I've found that LDS students, by in large, are some of the most hopeful, industrious, caring students that I've ever had the chance to work with," he said. "And the truth is that BYU students are the ones who, because of the Christian faith element, understand that education isn't for just their own benefit, it's a stewardship to manage the greater good."

Dominguez is humble about his contributions to the BYU community, saying he learns just as much from his students as they learn from him, but his colleagues aren't short on praise for the 52-year-old law professor.

"He is a truly unique participant in our university," said law school professor James Backman. "He's greatly respected and appreciated for all that he represents and for what he does for the students. It's obvious that they like him, too - they enroll in his courses and even have had waiting lists to take his classes."

Dominguez was also recently awarded the first ever Jimi Mitsunaga Excellence in Criminal Law or Pro Bono Award from the Utah Minority Bar Association. He said his work on the projects for his community lawyering class is what motivated the association to give him the award.

Dominguez gives much of the credit for his success to his parents, who always taught their five children the importance of education.

He said affirmative action also played a big role in getting him to where he is today.

"If there was ever a poster boy for affirmative action, I'd be the one," he said. "The early '70's were a time when major universities were asking what bold steps they could take to increase the likelihood of minority professionals in the future, and Yale was among those universities."

He said Yale reached out to inner-city Los Angeles and asked school counselors to recommend students with raw talent, "my high school counselor identified me, and because of her willingness to help me understand the opportunity, I took advantage of it."

"Looking back," he said. "It really was a miracle."

Copyright Brigham Young University 3 Nov 2006