El Cajon

For the second year in a row, El Cajon attorney Bruce Cozart was named “Lawyer of the Year,” by the San Diego Volunteer Lawyers Program, a 650-member panel of attorneys who provide free legal counsel to the needy.

Founded in 1983, the program is co-sponsored by the San Diego County Bar Assn., the Legal Aid Society of San Diego and the University of San Diego Law Center.

Carl Poirot, executive director of the program, said most of the volunteers are young lawyers who, through helping the program, get legal experience while providing a service to people who otherwise couldn’t afford an attorney.

Cozart, 28, has won the award each of the first two years he has been an attorney.

The University of San Diego law school graduate said the experience has been personally rewarding and has helped him build his own law practice in El Cajon.

“I’ve gotten much more out of the program than I’ve put in,” Cozart said.

Last year, Cozart volunteered more than 300 hours of his time, the most time any attorney has ever given, a program spokeswoman said.

The San Diego Volunteer Lawyers Program provides mainly family law counseling to clients, who must be county residents and meet federal poverty limits for personal income.