Governor Edmund “Jerry” G. Brown, Jr. appointed the Honorable Benjamin T. Reyes II to the Superior Court of California on May 22, 2017. On July 12, 2017, Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye administered the oath of office to Judge Reyes in a private family ceremony at the Supreme Court. Judge Reyes is the first Filipino American judge appointed the Contra Costa bench, and only the second Filipino American trial court judge appointed in the nine San Francisco Bay Area Counties.

Judge Reyes serves as the Supervising Judge of the Family Law Division of the Court and sits on the Court’s Executive Committee. He previously served as Supervising Judge of the Civil Grand Jury. He was honored as the Trial Judge of the Year by the Alameda Contra Costa Trial Lawyers Association.

Judge Reyes is an Eagle Scout and served as the President of the Boy Scouts of America, Alameda Council. He previously served as the President of the Alameda Free Library Foundation, as a Board Member of the California Alumni Association (Berkeley) and as the Chair of the Contra Costa City Attorneys Association. He is active in the California Asian Pacific Judges Association, Filipino Bar Association of Northern California, the National Filipino American Lawyers Association, the Asian American Bar Association, and the Contra Costa County Bar Association.

Judge Reyes teaches on the faculty of the University of California Berkeley School of Law and on the University of San Francisco School of Law.

Judge Reyes earned a Juris Doctor degree from the University of San Francisco School of Law and a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of California, Berkeley. He, and his wife, Susan, have two adult children, Benjamin Adam III, and Isabel Reyes.

Alex Padua is an associate attorney at Dentons US, where he practices in the firm’s Commercial Litigation group. Prior to joining Dentons, he served as a Deputy Attorney General in the California Department of Justice’s Civil Division. In that role, he represented various government entities and officials, law enforcement, and medical personnel in civil rights and tort-law matters across the state. Alex obtained his JD from UC College of the Law, San Francisco (formerly UC Hastings) in 2019. As a student, Alex served as Co-President of the Pilipinx American Law Society, was a member of the Hastings Law Journal, a board member on the Hastings Moot Court Team, and a teaching assistant for legal writing and appellate advocacy classes. Alex currently serves as an alumni coach for the Hastings Moot Court Team.

Dana is an attorney at Bass & Benabou, LLP, a small general practice in Walnut Creek.

Prior to joining the firm, Dana clerked for the Honorable Mark E. Recktenwald, Chief Justice of the Hawaii Supreme Court, and worked at the Legal Aid Society of Hawaii, designing and implementing the Whole Child Project, which provided comprehensive and accessible legal services to Windward Oahu’s children and families.

Dana received her J.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law in 2018 and her B.A. from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 2012.

Rhean Fajardo is Associate General Counsel with the Oakland Athletics and San Jose Earthquakes. In her role, Rhean works on some of the most exciting issues in Major League Baseball and Major League Soccer including real estate matters related to the relocation and development of a new ballpark for the Oakland A's. Rhean’s day to day practice also includes support of the corporate partnerships, stadium operations, baseball/soccer operations, ticketing, marketing, and community and events teams.

Prior to joining the A’s and Quakes front office, she served as Corporate Counsel at several Bay Area companies focusing on fin tech, bio tech and, most recently, cybersecurity and digital safety at Norton LifeLock where she advised on a wide range of innovative business development initiatives and strategic partnerships, including commercial and technology licensing agreements for both domestic and international deals. Her experience also includes a 6-year stint in the public sector as Deputy City Attorney for the City of Daly City focusing on code enforcement and administrative law. Rhean earned her J.D. from the University of San Francisco, School of Law and her B.A. from the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Idrian Mollaneda (he/him) is an associate in the employment practice group of Farella Braun + Martel and a 2021 graduate of Berkeley Law. In law school, Idrian interned with the AIDS Legal Referral Panel, the East Bay Community Law Center, and the Hon. Jon S. Tigar of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. He was also co-president of PALS and Queer Caucus. Idrian has served on the FBANC Board as Social Co-Director for the past two terms, and recently began serving on the AIDS Legal Referral Panel Board. Idrian is a proud Cebu native, and speaks fluent Cebuano and passable Tagalog.

Vannalee Cayabyab graduated from UC Davis School of Law in 2022 and was inducted into the Order of the Coif and Order of Barristers. After law school, she began her year-long judicial clerkship for the Honorable U.S. District Judge Ana de Alba in Fresno. Now, she works as an Associate Attorney at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP in San Francisco in the general litigation department.

Kelsea graduated with a Juris Doctorate from the University of San Francisco, School of Law in 2023 and received a Public Interest Law Certificate due to her community service and studies in the public sector.

During her time at USF, she was an active member and historian for the Pilipino American Law Society, and a co-chair of Mentorship in the Asian Pacific American Law Students Association. To be an advocate for her community she was also a member and Secretary of Pride Law, and participated in community service through the USF Public Interest Law Foundation.

Kelsea has experience in Immigration doing asylum work as a legal intern for Oasis Legal Services, as well as working with trademark management for a tech company. Kelsea is currently an Associate Attorney for Lepera + Associates, which practices civil litigation for personal injury, contract, and employment claims.

Raymond Magsaysay is an attorney, educator, and scholar. He is currently a judicial law clerk for Justice Goodwin Liu of the California Supreme Court and then for Judge Jacqueline Nguyen of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit beginning fall of 2024. Raymond previously served as an Associate at Latham & Watkins, working on high-stakes cases including white-collar investigations and defense litigation, billion-dollar government contract disputes and transactions, and pro bono immigration matters.

Raymond is also a legal scholar, publishing “Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders and the Prison Industrial Complex” in the Michigan Journal of Race & Law.

Before his legal career, Raymond taught at both the university and elementary school levels in Madrid, Spain. He also worked as an advocate for prisoners and indigent defendants as well as a labor organizer and student activist. These efforts earned him various recognition and awards including the Fulbright and Truman scholarships.

Raymond obtained his law degree from the University of Pennsylvania where he was an inaugural First Generation Professional Fellow and Don H. Liu Scholar. He holds a master’s degree in teaching from the Universidad de Alcala de Henares and a bachelor’s degree in sociology, with general and departmental honors, from Vassar College. He is licensed to practice law in Washington, D.C. and Pennsylvania.

In his free time, Raymond loves to fuse Spanish and Asian cuisines, shop at museum stores, and eat, eat, eat.

Director of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, Office of City Attorney David Chiu

Specialist for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion for Goodwin Law

Director of Candidate Development.

Major, Lindsey & Africa

Honorable Jeffrey Javinar is an administrative law judge for the California Office of Administrative Hearings, General Jurisdiction.

Before joining the bench, he practiced before state, federal, administrative, and private tribunals. His career has spanned both criminal and civil and includes both advisory work and complex litigation. He previously served as a Vertical Advocate with the Department of Corrections, as a Hearing Officer at the California State Personnel Board, and as a Deputy Attorney General with the California Department of Justice. Before that, he was an associate with Littler Mendelson, P.C. He also worked as a prosecutor with the Sacramento County Office of the District Attorney.

Judge Javinar has been active in the APA community. From 2015-2020, Jeffrey served as the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA) as a Board Member, as a Regional Governor and Secretary. He helped expand NAPABA programming and served on various NAPABA award and service committees. From 2019-2020, he served as a member of the NAPABA Strategic Plan Task Force. From 2010-2016, he served on the board for the Asian/Pacific Bar Association of Sacramento. Jeffrey has been the driving force in establishing the Sacramento Filipino American Lawyers Association (SacFALA). He also assisted in forming the new California Asian Pacific American Bar Association, where he served as Secretary for several years.

Currently, Judge Javinar serves as the President of SacFALA, as well as an At-Large Trustee for the National Filipino American Lawyers Association, where he chairs the Leadership Education and Attorney Development Task Force and founded the NFALA Leadership Academy. A complete bio is available here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/javinar/.

Marlo Nisperos has been an Administrative Law Judge for the State of California since 2019. Prior to becoming an ALJ, she had a successful practice specializing in criminal defense and family law. After graduating from law school, she worked as a deputy district attorney for 10 years in Solano County where she prosecuted over 75 cases to trial. In 2005, she graduated from Loyola Law School, Los Angeles, and was ranked in the top 20% of her class. She graduated from Mills College in 1999 with a degree in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. She was the inaugural President of the Asian Pacific American Bar of Solano County, was a Regional Governor for the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association, and served on the Solano County Bar Association board. Currently she is the vice president of the Sacramento Filipino American Lawyers Association.

Hon. Patrice De Guzman Huber is an Administrative Law Judge for the State of California. Previously, she was enforcement counsel at the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control, staff attorney for the Department of State Hospitals, and a public defender.

Judge De Guzman Huber is a first generation immigrant from the Philippines and is dedicated to serving the community. She actively serves as a mentor to high school law academy students and law school students in the Sacramento area. She also serves on the boards of the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA), the Sacramento Filipino American Lawyers Association (SacFALA), and the Asian/Pacific Bar Association of Sacramento. She is a barrister in the Schwartz Levi Inn of Court and a member of the California Asian Pacific American Judges Association (CAPAJA) and California Women Lawyers.

Judge De Guzman Huber earned her J.D. from University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law in 2014 and her Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy from California State University, Fresno in 2011. For fun, she enjoys practicing hot yoga, veganizing recipes, and taking photos of the ocean.