John Trasviña, President and General Counsel. Appointed MALDEF President and General Counsel in November 2006, Mr. Trasviña began his career at MALDEF in Washington, DC as a legislative attorney in 1985. He later worked for U.S. Senator Paul Simon as General Counsel & Staff Director for the U.S. Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution. In 1997, President Clinton appointed Mr. Trasviña as Special Counsel for Immigration Related Unfair Employment Practices. As Special Counsel, he led the only federal government office devoted solely to immigrant workplace rights. He was the highest ranking Latino attorney at the U.S. Department of Justice. After returning to California, he taught immigration law at Stanford Law School.
A highly sought after advocate, Mr. Trasviña testified in the last Congress before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee in support of extension of the Voting Rights Act and before the U.S. House Education and Workforce Committee against English Only legislation. In 2006, he was named Attorney of the Year by the Hispanic National Bar Association, as well as the San Francisco La Raza Lawyers Association. In 2007, Mr. Trasviña was named to Poder magazine’s “The Poderosos 100,” Latino Leaders magazine’s “101 Top Leaders of the Hispanic Community,” and Hispanic Trends identified him as a “Mover and Shaker.”
A native of San Francisco, Mr. Trasviña is a graduate of Harvard University and Stanford Law School. Before coming to Los Angeles, he was a member of the San Francisco Elections Commission, president of the Harvard Club of San Francisco, and a board member of the La Raza Lawyers Association, CORO of Northern California, Lowell High School Alumni Association, League of Women Voters and Pacific Coast Immigration Museum. He now serves on the boards of the Latino Issues Forum, Campaign for College Opportunity and Harvard Club of Southern California and was recently elected to be a member of the American Law Institute.