Loyola Law School » About Us » Faculty & Administration » Faculty » Faculty List L-R » Pacheco, Maureen

Maureen Pacheco

Associate Clinical Professor of Law 
Clinical Director, Center for Juvenile Law and Policy

BA, magna cum laude, University of Michigan
JD, magna cum laude, Georgetown Law School, Order of the Coif

Background

After graduating from Georgetown Law in 1986, Maureen Pacheco spent a year and a half in practice with Mitchell, Silberberg and Knupp, before joining the Los Angeles County Public Defender's office.  During her twenty-two-year tenure there, she tried over fifty criminal jury trials and worked in the Mental Health Court and the Juvenile Appellate Division.  She served as the Juvenile Justice Legislative and Policy Advisory to the Public Defender for two years before coming to Loyola.  As a zealous juvenile-justice advocate, she has worked with the California Public Defenders Association as their primary juvenile-justice liaison, writing position papers and testifying as an expert witness before the California Legislature.  Ms. Pacheco sits on the board of the Pacific Juvenile Defender Center, where she cofounded and co-chairs the Amicus Committee.  A frequent lecturer on all aspects of juvenile justice, she has led seminars at the Juvenile Law Institute, Partnership Conference, CPDA Annual Delinquency Seminar, and Beyond the Bench. She chairs the Juvenile Justice Committee of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and currently sits on numerous local and statewide committees.   

Public Service

  • National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, Juvenile Justice Committee Chair, past vice-chair of Mental Health Committee
  • California Public Defenders Association, Legislative Committee, Juvenile Justice Specialist
  • Pacific Juvenile Defender Center (PJDC), Board Member and Amicus Committee Co-chair
  • Founding co-chair, LGBTQ Probation Youth in Detention Task Force

Selected Scholarship

  • Co-author, Amicus Brief on In re C.H. (opin., pending, Cal. Sup. Ct.) re validity of commitment to DJJ for youth accused of non serious sex offense
  • Co-author, Amicus Brief on People v. Caballero (pending Cal. St. Ct. oral arg.) re validity of 110 year sentence imposed consecutively on three non-homicide offenses
Representative Academic Presentations
  • National Juvenile Defender Center Leadership Summit: Ethical Obligations to Mitigate Consequences of Delinquency Proceedings, and Challenging the Government's Forensic Labs (with Marvin Schechter) (Oct. 2011)
  • NITA Juvenile Delinquency Trial Skills, teacher (Sept. 2011)
  • Legislation and Policy Advocacy Post Graham, NACDL Conference (Aug. 2011)
  • Case Law Update and Future Trends Post Graham, MACDL Conference (Aug. 2011)
  • PJDC Annual Delinquency Seminar
  • CPDA Annual Delinquency Seminar
  • Los Angeles County Public Defender Annual Delinquency Seminar
  • Juvenile Law Institute
  • Beyond the Bench
  • Partnership Conference