From State Politics to Law School: Meet UC Law SF 1L Student Victor Torres
UC Law SF 1L student Victor Torres spent five years working in Sacramento politics before entering law school this year.
UC Law SF student Victor Torres, JD 鈥25, spent five years working in Sacramento and helping to pass state legislation, including significant reforms to California鈥檚 criminal justice and health care systems.
This year, Torres will go from making laws to studying the law as he pursues a JD at UC Law SF.
Torres, 28, said he hopes to use his law degree to serve underrepresented communities, 鈥淚 think having a law degree will make me a more effective advocate to help address justice, equality, and equity issues.鈥
After earning a bachelor鈥檚 degree in political science from UC Irvine, Torres was accepted into the Capital Fellows Program, which brought him to Sacramento. He spent a year working for California State Senator Robert Hertzberg (D-San Fernando Valley), a 1979 Hastings alumnus.
Torres later returned to his hometown of Fresno, where he worked on political campaigns, including one in which State Senator Melissa Hurtado (D-Fresno) defeated an incumbent Republican in 2018, making her the youngest woman elected to the California Senate. While working in Hurtado鈥檚 office, Torres helped advance that expanded health insurance gap coverage for Californians from 10 days to one month.
In his most recent job as senior legislative aide for State Senator Josh Becker (D-Menlo Park), Torres did research and advocacy work to support the passage of a . The law makes people who were potentially unjustly convicted of attempted murder or manslaughter eliglbe to have their convictions overturned.
Torres, a Mexican-American, said he chose to go to law school in part because he thinks the legal profession should be more diverse, 鈥淭he legal field needs people who understand the lived experience of workers, immigrants, people in foster care, and people of color.鈥
He added that he picked UC Law SF because of its proximity to diverse opportunities in the legal field and because of its public-interest service offerings, such as the Community Group Advocacy and Social Change Lawyering Clinic.
One accomplishment Torres said he鈥檚 particularly proud of is a program he launched at the state capitol to offer workshops and seminars that give people of color more expertise in policymaking sectors that lack diversity; sectors such as energy, water, and transportation. He said, 鈥淚 feel I鈥檓 leaving the capitol space better than I found it.鈥
Coming from the Central Valley, where land use, water rights, and health care are major issues, Torres said he鈥檚 eager to learn more about environmental and health law, but he鈥檚 open to exploring other areas of legal study.
Torres said he is considering becoming an attorney for social justice organizations after law school, but he鈥檚 keeping an open mind about other career opportunities, 鈥淲ith my background in politics and policy and my training at UC Law SF, I believe it will help me become a stronger advocate to make sure people have their rights protected.鈥