ANTOURAGE
Justice for All
By Kristin Baird Rattini
In his office as the U.S. attorney for the Central District of California, Martin Estrada ’98 keeps several photos for inspiration. There’s one of his hero Dolores Huerta, the United Farmworkers co-founder and civil rights leader who originated the phrase “¡Sí, se puede!” (“Yes, we can!”) There are pictures of the judges who served as early career mentors. There are pics of Estrada’s wife and children. And there are shots of his parents, Guatemalan immigrants who instilled in him his calling to advocate for the victims in society.
That calling shaped Estrada’s legal career and propelled him in 2022 to his leadership role over the most populous judicial district in the country – home to nearly 20 million people across seven counties, including Los Angeles and Orange counties – and the district he’s lived and worked in nearly his entire life. “To be able to represent this community that I know so well means so much to me,” he says. “It’s the ultimate privilege.”
Estrada’s parents and two older siblings immigrated to the United States from Guatemala to escape the corruption and violence of that nation’s devastating 30-year civil war. Whenever he would travel with his family from Costa Mesa to visit relatives in Guatemala, “what I saw and experienced when I was there is a place where the law really worked just for the few, the powerful, the privileged, the rich,” Estrada says. “For everyone else, the law was just a way of keeping people down. That really sparked in me an interest in learning about the history and political system [of the U.S.], as well as admiration for our legal system.”
By the time he followed in his siblings’ footsteps and entered UC Irvine – as a history major – he’d already seen that the university was “a place where learning mattered most,” Estrada says.
“That greatly appealed to me.” His Latin American history courses taught him the importance of seeking primary sources and crafting original arguments, skills that would benefit him tremendously in his career.
Estrada found not only his profession but his passion while at UC Irvine by volunteering as a Spanish-language translator at the Legal Aid Society in Santa Ana. “I saw how you could use the law to help people in their most dire times of need: when people were fighting for housing, dealing with threats of domestic violence, when they didn’t have food or money,” he says. “I saw how the law could be such a powerful instrument to help people. It told me I wanted to be a lawyer.”
While at Stanford Law School, Estrada met his wife, Kerry O’Neill (now a lecturer at UCLA’s School of Law), and started the pro bono work that would become a constant throughout his legal career. “When my family came to this country, they instilled in us a really deep sense of gratitude for the opportunities we had here and the freedom we had here from corruption,” he says. “My pro bono work is a way of giving back.”
During his two tenures at the law firm Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP – first as an associate, then as a partner – Estrada balanced high profile cases for such corporations as Southern California Edison, Wells Fargo Bank and Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation with equally newsworthy pro bono cases. He won a landmark trial in July 2018 against the state of New Mexico to establish equal educational rights for Latinos, Native Americans and other underrepresented groups in the state. During the pandemic, he worked with the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles to create a virtual domestic violence clinic for victims stranded at home with their abusers.
In his office as the U.S. attorney for the Central District of California, Martin Estrada ’98 keeps several photos for inspiration. There’s one of his hero Dolores Huerta, the United Farmworkers co-founder and civil rights leader who originated the phrase “¡Sí, se puede!” (“Yes, we can!”) There are pictures of the judges who served as early career mentors. There are pics of Estrada’s wife and children. And there are shots of his parents, Guatemalan immigrants who instilled in him his calling to advocate for the victims in society.
That calling shaped Estrada’s legal career and propelled him in 2022 to his leadership role over the most populous judicial district in the country – home to nearly 20 million people across seven counties, including Los Angeles and Orange counties – and the district he’s lived and worked in nearly his entire life. “To be able to represent this community that I know so well means so much to me,” he says. “It’s the ultimate privilege.”
Estrada’s parents and two older siblings immigrated to the United States from Guatemala to escape the corruption and violence of that nation’s devastating 30-year civil war. Whenever he would travel with his family from Costa Mesa to visit relatives in Guatemala, “what I saw and experienced when I was there is a place where the law really worked just for the few, the powerful, the privileged, the rich,” Estrada says. “For everyone else, the law was just a way of keeping people down. That really sparked in me an interest in learning about the history and political system [of the U.S.], as well as admiration for our legal system.”
By the time he followed in his siblings’ footsteps and entered UC Irvine – as a history major – he’d already seen that the university was “a place where learning mattered most,” Estrada says.
“That greatly appealed to me.” His Latin American history courses taught him the importance of seeking primary sources and crafting original arguments, skills that would benefit him tremendously in his career.
Estrada found not only his profession but his passion while at UC Irvine by volunteering as a Spanish-language translator at the Legal Aid Society in Santa Ana. “I saw how you could use the law to help people in their most dire times of need: when people were fighting for housing, dealing with threats of domestic violence, when they didn’t have food or money,” he says. “I saw how the law could be such a powerful instrument to help people. It told me I wanted to be a lawyer.”
While at Stanford Law School, Estrada met his wife, Kerry O’Neill (now a lecturer at UCLA’s School of Law), and started the pro bono work that would become a constant throughout his legal career. “When my family came to this country, they instilled in us a really deep sense of gratitude for the opportunities we had here and the freedom we had here from corruption,” he says. “My pro bono work is a way of giving back.”
During his two tenures at the law firm Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP – first as an associate, then as a partner – Estrada balanced high profile cases for such corporations as Southern California Edison, Wells Fargo Bank and Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation with equally newsworthy pro bono cases. He won a landmark trial in July 2018 against the state of New Mexico to establish equal educational rights for Latinos, Native Americans and other underrepresented groups in the state. During the pandemic, he worked with the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles to create a virtual domestic violence clinic for victims stranded at home with their abusers.
I saw how the law could be such a powerful instrument to help people. It told me I wanted to be a lawyer.
Estrada was also lead litigator on a groundbreaking pro bono action known widely across Southern California: the Bruce’s Beach case, in which property in Manhattan Beach unjustly seized in 1924 from a Black family was returned to the heirs. “The family was so thankful,” he says. “But I thanked them for the opportunity to do something that benefits not just the family but our entire community, our entire state, to do something about this egregious wrong that had taken place 100 years before.”
Between his two stints in private practice, Estrada served for seven years as an assistant U.S. attorney in the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles, specifically as deputy chief of the violent and organized crime section. He prosecuted hundreds of criminal matters, ranging from bank fraud and identity theft to drug and firearms trafficking to murder and kidnapping. “Being able to work with victims who have been harmed by these organized crime groups is important,” he says. “When you work on a big case like that, you see real changes in the community.”
Since becoming the U.S. attorney for the state’s Central District in September 2022, Estrada has taken on a number of cases that have made national headlines: a 76-count indictment against a white supremacist group charged with drug and firearms trafficking and fraud; indictments of Sudanese cybercriminals accused of causing widespread damage worldwide; and fraud and bribery charges related to COVID-19 relief funds.
He’s also confronting head-on the forces that make the Los Angeles area the country’s top hub of drug trafficking, with recent prosecutions of Sinaloa cartel members and Chinese money launderers; a Canadian (and former Olympian) smuggler moving vast quantities of cocaine across borders; and five people connected to the drug-related death of actor Matthew Perry. Regarding those last proceedings, Estrada states that the investigation was not because it concerned a celebrity’s death, noting that his office has filed charges in some 60 similar cases since he began. “For us, every life matters,” he told People magazine.
Alongside the high-profile litigation, Estrada continues to prioritize his outreach efforts too. He launched the Vulnerable Communities Task Force, aimed at fraud that affects older adults, immigrants and indigent individuals. He hosted a distinguished panel of Latino jurists in celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month and participates in a community civil rights roundtable. And his office welcomes student groups of all ages to learn more about how the U.S. attorney’s office serves them.
“I want to make sure that all the residents of this district, including people who don’t speak English, hear about our great work,” Estrada says. “I’m able to use the skills that I possess to amplify that message.”
And on those days when the competing din of news and social media or the turning of world events seems to mute his message, he doesn’t need to look far for inspiration. “Whatever success I’ve had is because of the sacrifices that others have made,” he says. “The photos [in my office] are a good reminder to keep that momentum going.”
Editor’s note: U.S. attorneys serve at the pleasure of the U.S. president. This article was reported and written in October, and Martin Estrada held the post of U.S. attorney for the Central District of California at that time.
Estrada was also lead litigator on a groundbreaking pro bono action known widely across Southern California: the Bruce’s Beach case, in which property in Manhattan Beach unjustly seized in 1924 from a Black family was returned to the heirs. “The family was so thankful,” he says. “But I thanked them for the opportunity to do something that benefits not just the family but our entire community, our entire state, to do something about this egregious wrong that had taken place 100 years before.”
Between his two stints in private practice, Estrada served for seven years as an assistant U.S. attorney in the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles, specifically as deputy chief of the violent and organized crime section. He prosecuted hundreds of criminal matters, ranging from bank fraud and identity theft to drug and firearms trafficking to murder and kidnapping. “Being able to work with victims who have been harmed by these organized crime groups is important,” he says. “When you work on a big case like that, you see real changes in the community.”
Since becoming the U.S. attorney for the state’s Central District in September 2022, Estrada has taken on a number of cases that have made national headlines: a 76-count indictment against a white supremacist group charged with drug and firearms trafficking and fraud; indictments of Sudanese cybercriminals accused of causing widespread damage worldwide; and fraud and bribery charges related to COVID-19 relief funds.
He’s also confronting head-on the forces that make the Los Angeles area the country’s top hub of drug trafficking, with recent prosecutions of Sinaloa cartel members and Chinese money launderers; a Canadian (and former Olympian) smuggler moving vast quantities of cocaine across borders; and five people connected to the drug-related death of actor Matthew Perry. Regarding those last proceedings, Estrada states that the investigation was not because it concerned a celebrity’s death, noting that his office has filed charges in some 60 similar cases since he began. “For us, every life matters,” he told People magazine.
Alongside the high-profile litigation, Estrada continues to prioritize his outreach efforts too. He launched the Vulnerable Communities Task Force, aimed at fraud that affects older adults, immigrants and indigent individuals. He hosted a distinguished panel of Latino jurists in celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month and participates in a community civil rights roundtable. And his office welcomes student groups of all ages to learn more about how the U.S. attorney’s office serves them.
“I want to make sure that all the residents of this district, including people who don’t speak English, hear about our great work,” Estrada says. “I’m able to use the skills that I possess to amplify that message.”
And on those days when the competing din of news and social media or the turning of world events seems to mute his message, he doesn’t need to look far for inspiration. “Whatever success I’ve had is because of the sacrifices that others have made,” he says. “The photos [in my office] are a good reminder to keep that momentum going.”
Editor’s note: U.S. attorneys serve at the pleasure of the U.S. president. This article was reported and written in October, and Martin Estrada held the post of U.S. attorney for the Central District of California at that time.
UC Irvine Magazine is produced by the Office of Strategic Communications & Public Affairs.
To contact the editor, email ucimagazine@uci.edu.