Nadia María Davis-Lockyer, Esq.
Nadia María Davis-Lockyer graduated from U.C.L.A. in 1993 with a degree in Sociology and from Loyola Law School in 1996. She was admitted to the California State Bar in 1997. Her deep commitment to empower others and assist the underprivileged is inextricably linked to every aspect of her personal and professional life.
As a student, Nadia led numerous efforts to empower and inspire youth in Orange County and Los Angeles. She mentored inner-city youth with U.C.L.A.’s “Project Motivation” and taught motivational drama classes with “Unicamp.” As an independent study, she mentored and conducted a study of paroled youth with the David Kenyon Juvenile Justice Center in Los Angeles. While attending college, she worked at the FOX television show “In Living Color” and initiated a college awareness campaign for the show’s producer. As a law student at Loyola Law School, she led pro bono efforts while chairing the Public Interest Law Foundation, mentored students at a neighboring elementary school, studied Human Rights in Central America, and transcribed law books for a blind law student. During law school, Nadia also worked at some of the largest pro-bono law firms in the nation, including Public Counsel, the Center for Human Rights & Constitutional Law, and the Mexican American Legal & Defense Foundation. She also externed for California Superior Court Judge Paul Boland.
After law school, Nadia independently authored a handbook and conducted seminars at high schools and colleges throughout California for immigrant students regarding their rights to higher education. She was a member of Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez’s legal team and protected the voting rights of new citizens against unfounded accusations of voter fraud. She also worked as Senator Lou Correa’s fundraiser in his bid for State Assembly. Nadia later spearheaded the collaboration of major political parties in Orange County for the Southwest Voter Registration & Education Project and the National Association of Latino Elected Officials.
Nadia was thereafter elected to serve on the Santa Ana Unified School District Board of Trustees. During her term, she led the School District’s efforts to increase college attendance rates for graduates of the SAUSD and collaborated with local elected officials while also working as a lawyer in the Public Law Department of Best Best & Krieger, LLP.
After suffering a near fatal car accident in which she broke 22 bones, Nadia never gave up her commitment to free a wrongfully convicted youth named Arthur Carmona. After nearly three years of legal filings, lobbying, petitions, press coverage, raising funds for the family, and securing top investigators and legal representation, Arthur was eventually freed.
Nadia has been honored to receive the State Democratic Party’s John F. Kennedy Jr. Public Service Award, the Orange County Human Relations Commission’s Public Service Award, the Women’s Suffrage Day Award, and the L.U.L.A.C. Hispanic Woman of the Year Award.
She currently practices law representing adult victims of childhood sexual and physical abuse, provides pro-bono counsel for her ancestors, the Juaneño Band of Mission Indians, and serves on the boards of Orange County’s Family Violence Project, Loyola Law School’s Center for Juvenile Law and Policy, the Orange County Bar Foundation, and Future Leaders of America.
Without a doubt, Nadia’s personal favorite accomplishment and source of happiness is her husband, California State Treasurer Bill Lockyer, and their baby boy, Diego Wallace Lockyer (named after Wallace R. Davis).
