SCU School of Law to Honor Alumni and Human Rights Advocates Victor M. Marquez and Leon Panetta Oct. 21 at the Fifth Annual Diversity Gala

Business Wire, Oct 15, 2008

SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- Santa Clara University School of Law will honor two outstanding alumni who have fought for equality and human rights during their careers. The Santa Clara University School of Law Social Justice and Human Rights Awards will be given Tuesday, Oct. 21, to Victor M. Marquez '90, and Leon Panetta '63 at the University'sfifth annual Diversity Gala: A Celebration of Diversity in the Legal Profession.

Victor M. Marquez is the past president of the Hispanic National Bar Association. An immigrant from a small mining town in Mexico, Marquez was the first in his large family to attend college and then Santa Clara Law. In 1993, after a stint at a commercial law firm practicing real estate law, Marquez became the executive director of San Francisco La Raza Centro Legal, a legal resource and program center for Latino, immigrant, and low-income individuals.

There, he expanded the breadth and depth of the organization's key programs: He started a senior law program to help seniors with consumer fraud, elder abuse, social security, and other issues; founded a youth law program to help protect the rights of children in the schools and on the streets; initiated a citizenship campaign program that naturalized thousands of immigrants; and fortified an existing housing and immigration program.

For this and his other community work, he has been recognized by the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce as one of the most influential leaders in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Marquez currently is principal and founder of the Marquez Law Group, a boutique firm in downtown San Francisco focused on real estate transactions, private and public finance, and state and local government relations.

Leon Panetta served as White House Chief of Staff to President Bill Clinton, and before that was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1976 to 1994.

He is being honored in part for his work during the Nixon Administration when he was appointed as Director of the Office for Civil Rights after being identified as a rising star in the Republican Party for his work under Republican Sen. Thomas Kuchel and then Robert H. Finch, Secretary of the U.S. Dept. of Health, Education, and Welfare.

Despite political pressure from then-President Nixon to ease up on civil rights and equal education laws to placate Southern delegates, Panetta chose to enforce those rights and laws. After resigning in 1970, Panetta wrote about his experience in the 1971 book Bring Us Together: The Nixon Team and the Civil Rights Retreat.

Currently, Panetta works as the founder and director of the Panetta Institute, serves as Distinguished Scholar to the Chancellor of the California State University system, and is a professor at Santa Clara University teaching public policy.

Besides recognizing the work of these two outstanding men in the cause of equality, social justice, and human rights, the Diversity Gala also provides students an opportunity to build valuable relationships with members of the legal profession.

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About Santa Clara University

Santa Clara University, a comprehensive Jesuit, Catholic university located 40 miles south of San Francisco in California's Silicon Valley, offers its 8,685 students rigorous undergraduate curricula in arts and sciences, business, and engineering, plus master's and law degrees and engineering Ph.D.s. Distinguished nationally by one of the highest graduation rates among all U.S. master's universities, California's oldest operating higher-education institution demonstrates faith-inspired values of ethics and social justice.

About Santa Clara Law

Santa Clara University School of Law, founded in 1912 on the site of California 's oldest operating higher-education institution, is dedicated to educating lawyers who lead with a commitment to excellence, ethics, and social justice. One of the nation's most diverse law schools, Santa Clara Law offers its 975 students an academically rigorous program, including graduate degrees in international law and intellectual property law; a combined J.D./MBA degree; and certificates in intellectual property law, international law, and public interest and social justice law. Santa Clara Law is located in the world-class business center of Silicon Valley, and is distinguished nationally for our top-ranked program in intellectual property. For more information, see law.scu.edu.

Media interested in the event can contact Deborah Lohse of University Media Relations, (408) 554-5121.