About Matt K. Nguyen

Matt’s parents fled Saigon as child refugees at the height of the Vietnam War. Arriving in the United States with just a grade-school education and pennies to their name, they lived in refugee camps before making California their home. Through both grit and generous social policies that enabled them to succeed, Matt’s parents built a better life for themselves and their families.

Born and raised in California, and inspired by their refugee journey, Matt is fiercely dedicated to civil rights and equality for all. As Special Assistant Attorney General and senior advisor to CA Attorney General Rob Bonta, Matt oversees the State of California’s litigation, policy, and federal accountability portfolio to advance voting rights, racial justice, gender and LGBTQ+ rights, disability rights, children’s justice, education rights, hate crime prevention, and police accountability. For over a decade, he has contributed to legal and policy priorities of other top leaders as well—including the Harris/Walz campaign, Biden/Harris campaign and transition, then-Senator Kamala Harris’s transition, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Secretary Jennifer Granholm, and California Governors Gavin Newsom and Jerry Brown.

Concurrently with his California state service, Matt serves our nation in uniform as a U.S. Army Reserve Captain stationed as associate general counsel for the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, the U.S. military’s medical service academy. Before that, he was chief legal officer of a California-based brigade of 2,500 soldiers, where he deployed abroad to support NATO. Earlier in his career, Matt litigated high-stakes disputes at Cooley LLP. There, he helped secure major rights-protective rulings, including California Supreme Court wins strengthening whistleblower safeguards for all 110,000+ charities across California and striking down a law that undermines police accountability; Massachusetts and Michigan Supreme Court wins expanding constitutional rights for late adolescents aged 18-20; and a permanent injunction blocking a Trump executive order retaliating against a major law firm for its pro bono advocacy. Matt also co-chaired the Cooley Inclusion Alliance, leading officewide diversity initiatives.

The product of California K-16 public schools, Matt graduated salutatorian from UC Berkeley and earned his J.D. from Yale Law School as a PD Soros Fellow, Coker Fellow teaching torts and legal writing, notes editor of the Yale Law Journal, managing editor of the Yale Law & Policy Review, a founding advocate for the We Care Coalition (LGBTQ+ equality legislation), and student director of the Education Adequacy Project Clinic. Following law school, he clerked for Justice Goodwin Liu on the California Supreme Court. In his free time, Matt enjoys global food and travel, pickleball, volleyball, snowboarding, and adventures with his Shiba Inu.