Brian Amaya

Brian was born and raised in Central Los Angeles by a single mother, who was a Civil War Refugee from El Salvador. Even though his mother did her best, Brian grew up poor and in 18th Street Gang Territory. Due to his living circumstances, Brian was exposed to and experienced first-hand when the police and the justice systems fails its most vulnerable citizens. Because of this, at a very young age, Brian vowed to become an Attorney for his People.

Due to his hard work and determination, Brian was able to go to college at his dream school, the University of California, Los Angeles. After graduating at UCLA, Brian moved up to the Bay Area to attend law school at the University of California College of Law, San Francisco (formerly UC Hastings). During his time at law school, Brian continued to pursue his career goal of becoming a criminal defense attorney by clerking at the California Appellate Project (doing death penalty appeals work), the San Francisco’s Public Defender’s Office, and the Alameda County’s Public Defender’s Office.

After graduating from law school, Brian was offered and accepted a position as a Public Defender with the Alameda County Public Defender’s Office. At the age of 25, Brian had begun his career defending people against the Government. During his near decade as a Public Defender, Brian represented clients from nearly every walk of life, charged with every crime imaginable and rose to the rank of Deputy Public Defender in the office.

After leaving the Public Defender’s Office, Brian spent a year at Bay Area Legal Aid as the Supervising Attorney for their Youth Justice Team, providing free legal civil services for Bay Area Youth that were either experiencing homelessness, were being abused or neglected at home, were being trafficked, or were being suspended or expelled from school.

Before coming to the Law Offices of Melanie Abea, Brian spent two years as the Senior Attorney at Morris Law PC, a criminal defense firm located in Berkeley, California. 

Brian has handled all types of cases ranging from armed carjacking and sexual assault to murder. He has spent his entire life serving the Bay Area Community and considers himself privileged to do so. 

Due to his time at the Alameda County Public Defender’s Office (where he worked as a Juvenile Public Defender) and at Bay Area Legal Aid, Brian also has extensive experience working with youth that are accused of crimes in the Juvenile Justice System or being accused of wrongdoing while school.  Brian has defended children in delinquency proceedings, in school expulsion and suspension proceedings, and young people being accused of Title IX violations.

Brian is a native Spanish Speaker.

Brian is also the President of the East Bay La Raza Lawyers Association, where he works tirelessly to promote more people of Latinx heritage to become lawyers and judges in the State of California. He is also the recipient of California Lawyers Association
s 2024 Community Service Award for all his work in the community.