Marina A. Torres
Marina A. Torres
Marina A. Torres is Assistant United States Attorney in the United States Attorneys' Office in Los Angeles, California. She is running for City Attorney of Los Angeles in 2022.[6]
Early Life & Education
Marina first developed an interest in law when she believed that one of her close family members was being treated unfairly by the judicial system. She received her law degree from Stanford Law School in 2008, where she was on the executive board of the Stanford Law Review. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts. from the University of California,Berkeley in 2004.
Legal Career
Assistant U.S. Attorney
Torres has been Assistant United States Attorney since 2015; From 2015 to 2018 she worked in Washington, D.C and since 2018 she has been Assistant United States Attorney for the Central District of California. She was a political appointee with the United States Department of Homeland Security under President Barack Obama, where she was part of the policy team leading the design and implementation of the President’s executive actions on Immigration.
Honored By F.B.I.
She was honored by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in 2019 in recognition of her outstanding contribution to the FBI's investigative efforts in a fraud trial.
Member Of Law Firms
Prior to joining the Presidency of Barack Obama, Ms.Torres honed her lawsuit skills at the Law firm of Wilmer Pickering Hale from 2011 to 2014. She was an Attorney for Munger Tolles and Olson LLP from 2008 to 2011.Her Linkedin page explains her level of experience:
She is an experienced litigator and federal prosecutor with over 30+ trials in federal and state courts. Her practice focuses on trial work of all types, complex litigation, criminal investigations and enforcement. She has broad experience with government enforcement actions, corporate internal investigations, and solving complex and sensitive legal, policy, and regulatory issues.
Honored By ACLU
She has been honored for her Immigration and civil rights work by the ACLU of Southern California (twice) and by the National Immigration Law Center. She was previously selected for the 2013 "Inaugural Hot List" for the Mid-Atlantic Region by "Lawyers of Color," Ms. Torres was also listed in The Huffington Post's "Top 40 Latinos under 40 in Politics," and she was chosen as the “2015 Rising Star” by the Hispanic Bar Association of DC (HBA-DC). She was selected as a Political Partner in the Truman National Security Project and a Term Member for the Council for Foreign Relations. She has served on numerous boards of various nonprofits in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.
Worked For C.I.A. In 2002
She was employed by the Central Intelligence Agency in 2002. While there, she worked on the Presidential Analyst Support Staff, under the Directorate of Intelligence.. She assisted in the daily creation and distribution of the Presidential Daily Briefing (including the daily Threat Matrix) and the Senior Executive Memorandum.
Political Candidate
Marina Torres is running for Los Angeles City Attorney in 2022. She filed official campaign papers on March 9,2020.The following statement is from her Campaign website:
As a United States Attorney and first-generation Latina who worked for President Obama, Marina Torres represents the American Dream. Growing up with incarcerated family members, her personal and professional experiences have given her a greater understanding of the justice system and the important role it plays in serving the people in our community. She understands the importance of providing access and opportunities to working class communities and how the government, when working for the people, can change lives. Marina's experiences have shaped her values -- of justice, of fairness, and on fighting for what's right. And those are the values that she brings to her campaign. With over a decade of civil and criminal legal experience, Marina is the right person to be City Attorney of Los Angeles.
Everipedia
Matthew E. O'Neil, a top ten editor for Everipedia, contacted Torres on March 11, 2020.Torres responded with a statement:
Marina will always fight for justice.
Marina has prosecuted a wide variety of cases as a federal prosecutor, including international narcotics and firearms trafficking, domestic violence opioid distribution,fraud and money laundering cases.
In one trial, she secured the conviction of a criminal who not only was committing mortgage fraud against hundreds of poor and immigrant victims but who also had ties to white nationalist groups.
In another, she convicted the owner and operator of a sham pharmacy who was illegally diverting fraudulent prescriptions for oxycodone, a powerful opioid at the center of the nation’s opioid crisis.
She has made her community safer, sought alternatives to incarceration where appropriate, and fought for the most vulnerable people in society.
Marina is the candidate who will fight for all Angelenos.
Marina’s commitment to public service is rooted in her personal experiences.
Marina’s experiences growing up taught her to see a world beyond just herself, and to be conscious and compassionate about the struggles of her community.
After college, Marina spent a life-changing year as an AmeriCorps Fellow at the Legal Assistance Foundation of Metropolitan Chicago, where she provided litigation aid to migrant farmworkers throughout the state who were victimized by recruiters and employers.
She returned to California to attend Stanford Law School, where she served on the executive board of the Stanford Law Review and was co-president of the Stanford Latino Law Students’ Association. While in her final year at Stanford University, Marina decided to become a prosecutor after seeing a close family member be given two strikes as a 16 year-old first-time offender. It was this moment when Marina understood the power that prosecutors wield and the responsibility that comes with it -- how being a prosecutor could both help keep communities safe and enable her to advocate for those who needed their voices heard. Marina also worked for President Obama, where she helped craft and implement DACA and immigration policy at the Department of Homeland Security.In her role as an advisor on DACA issues, Marina got to change the lives of young men and women “Dreamers” who, like her, had lived with the constant fear of deportation and family separation. Marina embodies the potential of so many in Los Angeles. Marina is the daughter of undocumented parents who, like many others, came from Mexico in pursuit of a better life.Marina was born in Los Angeles County before her parents moved to a struggling neighborhood in the Inland Empire. Her father worked at the Sunkist Factory in Ontario until he passed away before Marina was 3 years old. Her single mother worked a variety of jobs to keep the family afloat. As the oldest, Marina helped look after her younger brothers while her mother was at work. Growing up, the fear of her mother's deportation was never too far away. From a young age, Marina understood the struggles of poverty and being undocumented, and how hard work and access to opportunities could change lives. Although English was her second language, Marina understood that education was the only way to help her family and community move forward. While in school,Marina herself carried a multitude of jobs. In high school, she worked as a cashier at Burger King to afford the fees for her Advanced Placement tests. Graduating near the top of her high school class, Marina was admitted to the University of California,Berkeley when she was just 16 years old.