Lorena Peñaloza
Chief Campus Counsel, University of California, Riverside

Lorena joined the University of California (UC) in 2017, serving as Chief Campus Counsel for UC Santa Cruz until January 2023, and currently, serving as Chief Campus Counsel for UC Riverside. She provides advice to the University on a broad range of legal issues, including Clery, employment, police, academic affairs, Title IX, land use, environmental health and safety, and student affairs. She reports jointly to Chancellor Kim Wilcox and UC Senior Vice President and General Counsel Charles Robinson, serving on their respective leadership teams.

Prior to joining UC, Lorena worked for the Office of General Counsel for the California State University; first as a litigator and then as university counsel for two of the system’s twenty-three campuses.  Formerly, she was an Assistant City Attorney with the City Attorney’s Office for the City of Santa Ana, and began her legal career as a Presidential Management Fellow (formerly known as the Presidential Management Internship) with the Social Security Administration’s Office of the General Counsel in Maryland.  Lorena earned her B.A. in Sociology and Political Economies of Industrial Societies from UC Berkeley, and her J.D. from UC College of the Law, San Francisco (formerly known as UC Hastings, College of the Law).

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