The Hon. Lydia M. Villarreal is a judge for the Monterey County Superior Court in California. She was appointed to the bench by former Governor Gray Davis in 2001. Prior to her appointment to the Superior Court, Judge Villarreal sat briefly on the Monterey County Municipal Court after being appointed by former Governor Pete Wilson in 1995 but was quickly ousted after losing the seat five months later in a special election.
Judge Villarreal received her B.S. from the University of California, Santa Cruz in 1976. She went on to earn her J.D. from the University of California, Berkeley School of Law in 1980.
Villarreal began her legal career as an attorney with the California Legal Assistance, where she practiced for eight years. Then, after a brief stint in private practice, Villarreal joined the Monterey County Deputy District Attorney's Office in 1989. Villarreal practiced as a deputy district attorney with the D.A.'s office for twelve years, her tenure only interrupted by her brief stint on the Municipal Court bench.
During her time on the Superior Court, Judge Villarreal has served as the Presiding Judge of the Court.
She has served as a board member of the Monterey Bay Aquarium and the Elkhorn Slough Foundation and also served as chair for the James Irvine Foundation. Villarreal founded the nonprofit Center for Community Advocacy in Salinas, a program developed to provide help with housing, health, and education to local low-income families and farmworkers.