Speaker: Thomas A. Saenz, MALDEF

Back to speakers list

Thomas A. Saenz is Vice President of Litigation at MALDEF. He oversees MALDEF's efforts nationwide to pursue civil rights litigation in the areas of education, employment, political access, immigrants' rights, and public resource equity.

Tom was born and raised in southern California. He graduated summa cum laude from Yale University in 1987 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in history and political economy. In 1991, Tom received his law degree from Yale Law School, where he served as a teaching assistant and was awarded the Potter Stewart Prize (moot court) and the C. Larue Munson Prize (clinical work).

After graduating, he served for one year as a law clerk to the Honorable Harry L. Hupp of the United States District Court for the Central District of California. Tom then served for a year as a law clerk to the Honorable Stephen Reinhardt of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Tom joined MALDEF 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. Tom has served as counsel in numerous civil rights cases, involving such issues as affirmative action, educational equity, employment discrimination, immigrants' rights, language rights, and day laborer rights. He served as MALDEF's lead counsel in successfully challenging California's Proposition 187 in court; as such, he presented extensive written and oral arguments on numerous occasions in three different cases involving the anti-immigrant initiative. He is also MALDEF's lead counsel in two court challenges to Proposition 227, the English-only education initiative that voters enacted in 1998. Tom also teaches "Civil Rights Litigation" as an adjunct lecturer at the U.S.C. Law School.
In 2000, the California State Bar awarded Tom its Jack Berman Award of Achievement for Distinguished Service to the Profession and Public, which is presented annually to a young lawyer.

Tom was also recognized as one of five Local Heroes of the Year for Hispanic Heritage Month 2000 by KCET-TV and Union Bank of California. He was recently named one of the 100 most influential attorneys in California for the year 2000 by the journal California Law Business and one of 26 "lawyers of the year" for 2000 by California Lawyer.