Professor Pérez Receives Defensor de Justicia Award

The Cruz Reynoso Bar Association awarded Professor Amagda Pérez its 2025 Defensor de Justicia Award at a May 2 ceremony in Sacramento.

Like the bar association, the award recognizes the legacy of late California Supreme Court Justice and UC Davis Law Professor Cruz Reynoso, who died at age 90 in 2021. Previous recipients include Professor and former Dean Kevin R. Johnson and former California Attorney General and U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra.

In bestowing the 2025 award, the bar association noted that Pérez, like her mentor Reynoso, has devoted her career to assisting the most vulnerable and underserved among us.

A daughter of farmworkers, Pérez graduated from UC Davis Law in 1991 and joined the faculty in 1994. She serves as co-director of the Immigration Law Clinic and executive director of California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation. In both capacities, she provides legal representation to low-wage rural immigrants and trains law students and pro bono attorneys in public interest law, removal defense, family-based immigration, Special Immigrant Juvenile Status, U Visas, naturalization, and other forms of humanitarian relief.

“Through her training of law students and fellows, she has brought greatly needed information and immigration legal services to underserved rural communities in the Sacramento and Central valleys,” the bar association noted, adding that Perez and Reynoso also both were honored with prestigious Ohtli awards by the Mexican government. Pérez also received UC Davis Law’s 2010 Distinguished Teaching Award and is a member of the International Educators Hall of Fame.