Adjunct Catalina Lozano ’81 Receives Diversity Award

Left to rights: 2020 ALMA President Anna Pletcher, Catalina Lozano and Marin Superior Court Judge Sheila Lichtblau (courtesy photo)

Longtime adjunct professor and civil rights fighter Catalina Lozano ’81 has been awarded the Unity Award by The Minority Bar Coalition, a network of over 40 diverse bar associations in the San Francisco Bay Area, for her efforts to advance attorneys and law students of color.

Lozano joined the UC Law SF faculty as an adjunct shortly after graduating. She serves as faculty adviser to the UC Law SF La Raza Law Students Association and coach for the UC Law SF Hispanic National Bar Association (HNBA) moot court team.

She moderated a well-attended panel of Latina judges Feb. 7 who shared their career advice on behalf of UC Law SF La Raza. The panel included Appellate Court Justice (Ret.) Maria Rivera, San Francisco Superior Court Judge Suzanne Bolanos, and Marin County Superior Court Judge Sheila Shah Lichtblau ’93.

“When I went to law school at UC Law SF, the only brown faces I saw were pushing brooms and emptying garbage cans. That’s the reason I teach at UC Law SF,” Lozano recently told the North Bay Business Journal.

3L Cindy Muro, a teaching assistant for Lozano’s legal writing class who has an interest in criminal law and immigration, encountered Lozano in her moot court training. Muro recalls being very excited the first time she walked into Lozano’s classroom. “I was so happy when I saw her name, to realize I had a Latina professor. She was so welcoming and helpful,” Muro told the Journal.

“She’s like the Pied Piper, with students always following her. Because of her, students have gotten their first jobs and internships. She’s been incredibly inspirational to Latino students,” Lichtblau shared with the Journal in the same article.

For almost two decades, Lozano served as court-appointed counsel for defendants in criminal appeals. Her successful reversals include In re: Rochelle B. (1996) 49 Cal.App.4th 1212; People v. Williams (1988) 197 Cal.App.3d 1320; and People v. Groody (1983) 140 Cal.App.3d 355.

Lozano maintains a private practice in San Rafael, where she serves as corporate counsel to small businesses, handling business law, corporate law, business formations, employment law, construction law, mechanics liens, transactional matters, and civil appeals.

She recently served on the Council on Access and Fairness (COAF), which advises the State Bar of California on strategies to enhance diversity opportunities and advancement in the legal profession.