Metropolitan News-Enterprise

 

Friday, March 19, 2021

 

Page 3

 

Rodriguez Named Acting State A.G.

 

By a MetNews Staff Writer

 

Xavier Becerra, prior to yesterday’s resignation as California attorney general to serve as secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, named Matthew Rodriguez as acting attorney general.

He will serve until Gov. Gavin Newsom’s nominee is confirmed by the Legislature and assumes office.

Rodriguez joined the California Department of Justice in 1987 as a deputy attorney general in the Land Law Section where he represented the California Coastal Commission, the State Lands Commission, and the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission. He was promoted to senior assistant attorney general for the Land Law Section in 1999 and was named chief assistant attorney general for the Public Rights Division in 2008.

 He also served as an interim chief deputy attorney general for then-Attorney General (now Vice President) Kamala Harris, then served as secretary of the California Environmental Protection Agency from 2011-19. In 2019 he returned to the Department of Justice where he again served as the chief assistant attorney general for the Public Rights Division.

His law degree is from UC Hastings College of the Law.

Becerra was confirmed by the Senate by a vote of 50-49.

 

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