Antonio Arocho (born Hatillo, Puerto Rico), more commonly known as Tony Arocho, is an attorney and former Chief Operating Officer of the Hispanic National Bar Association (2006–2008). He is the founder and principal attorney of the Arocho Law Office. He is a member of the District of Columbia and U.S. Virgin Islands bars. He is also admitted to practice before the U.S. Court of International Trade, and U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.
Education
Arocho has degrees from Seton Hall University School of Law (Juris Doctor) and Rider College (now Rider University) (Bachelor of Science in Commerce in Business Administration). While in high school he took college courses at Mercer County Community College.
As a freshman at Rider College, he was instrumental in resurrecting the La Tropicana Club, the predecessor to the Latin American Student Organization (LASO), and in transforming the club into a Latino/Hispanic student union organization. La Tropicana Club was founded as a social club at Rider College in the 1930s by Cuban and Puerto Rican students who named their club after a famous venue in Havana, Cuba. While serving as President of the La Tropicana Club, Latino students at Rider College began to serve as tutors for Latino students at Trenton High School. Also he was instrumental in increasing the recruitment and retention of Latino/Hispanic students. During his junior year, Arocho presented a proposal to the Rider College president and administration for a minor program in Hispanic/Latino studies. He also organized voter registration drives focusing primarily on registering poor citizens in Trenton, New Jersey. In his senior year, he unsuccessfully attempted to create a statewide association of Hispanic/Latino college organizations.[add citations] He was elected as Senator in the Rider College Student Government Association. While in law school he served as student attorney for the Essex-Newark Legal Services legal clinic program.
Public service
Arocho served as an Assistant U.S. Virgin Islands Attorney General, Director of Labor Relations for the U.S. Virgin Islands, and as a special assistant to the Delegate to U.S. House of Representatives from the Virgin Islands. He has substantial experience with litigation in federal and local courts. He also served as a hearing officer with the District of Columbia Public Service Commission. As an Assistant U.S. Virgin Islands Attorney General he argued several high-profile cases on behalf of the Government of the U.S. Virgin Islands in federal and territorial courts. One of these cases is the seminal right-to-die case, Fredella v. Farrelly (a 1993 Territorial Court of the U.S. Virgin Islands decision), which set forth the medical standards that requires two EEG tests be performed within a 24-hour period to confirm the absence of brain activity and that neurological tests be performed by two neurologists. See, e.g., 28 V.I. 90 (Territorial Court of the Virgin Islands, 1993).
While a student at Rider College, he was appointed by the Mercer County Board of Freeholders to serve on the Mercer County Office of Training & Employment Services Advisory Board. On September 12, 2000, he was appointed by the Honorable Parris N. Glendening, Governor of the State of Maryland, to serve as a Commissioner on the Governor's Commission of Hispanic Affairs the remainder of a term of three years from January 1, 2000. He served as an officer in the Maryland state reserve of the Maryland Military Department that is called Maryland Defense Force.