Academic

Thomas Saenz Biography - New Attorney General For DOJ Civil Rights Division?

By Dan Filler

Based on these sources, here is the biography of Tom Saenz - the likely nominee to head up the Civil Rights Division at the Department of Justice.  His formal title at DOJ would be the Assistant Attorney General.

Saentz grew up in Southern California, skipped eighth grade, and attended Alhambra High School.  He  graduated summa cum laude from Yale University and received his law degree from Yale Law School, where he won the Potter Stewart Prize for moot court. He then served as law clerk for the Honorable Harry L.Hupp of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California and to the Honorable Stephen Reinhardt of the U.S.Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.   He joined the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund as a staff attorney in 1993; he became Los Angeles Regional Counsel in 1996, National Senior Counsel in 2000, and Vice President of Litigation in 2001.   He taught Civil Rights Litigation as an adjunct professor at USC, for several years, and was a Resident Practitioner at Berkeley Law School (aka Boalt) in 2005.  He became counsel to the L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa in August 2005.

Image: Thomas Saez with Vilma Martinez, partner at Munger, Tolles & Olson

Full post as published by The Faculty Lounge on February 17, 2009 (boomark / email).