Class of 1976
The Honorable Efren N. Iglesia is a retired judge of the Monterey County Superior Court. Unlike many who devote their careers to the law, Judge Iglesia initially aspired to be something else entirely, a journalist. Upon obtaining his license to practice law, however, he dedicated a total of 44 years to it – 31 as a lawyer and 13 as a judge.
Having dropped out of college during the tumultuous years of the Marcos regime in the Philippines, Efren immigrated to the United States in 1971, and was taken in by a family in Reedley. He completed his undergraduate degrees at Reedley College and Fresno Pacific University, where he learned of a new law school that had started up. Efren became a member of SJCL’s third graduating class in 1976, and went on that same year to pass the bar on his first try.
He began his legal career as a criminal defense attorney at the now defunct law firm of Gendron & Gendron in Madera. He then served as a deputy county counsel in Imperial County for four years, and at the Monterey County Counsel’s Office for 24 years. There he supervised attorneys in the land use division handling planning, zoning, and environmental law litigation. He was appointed to the Monterey County bench in 2007, becoming the first Filipino immigrant and Filipino-American to be appointed a judge in the Monterey County superior court. During his 13-year tenure on the Monterey County superior court, his assignments rotated between the criminal and civil courts.
Judge Iglesia is currently a member of the California Judges Association, the Alliance of California Judges, and the American Bar Association. He is also a former member of the State Bar of California, the Monterey County Bar Association, and the (now defunct) Castroville Rotary Club. He served on the board of trustees of Monterey College of Law for six years and was its chairman in 2015. His daughter, Kimberly, is a lawyer and a graduate of the same law school. His son, Jonathan, is a registered nurse in the oncology department of the local hospital, and his second daughter, Patricia, is a licensed clinical social worker with the Orange County Department of Health. Judge Iglesia has been married to his wife, Lite – a retired registered nurse – for 46 years. In retirement, he plays an electric guitar with a couple of rock ‘n roll bands in Salinas and Morgan Hill, whacks tennis and pickleballs several days a week, and has an uncurable wanderlust in between!
Paying forward what his American family and the City of Reedley had done for his education, Judge Iglesia and his wife Lite, recently established a scholarship at Reedley High School and Reedley College in memory of Roger and Pat Freet (whom he considers his U.S. parents). The scholarship is in partnership with the Community Foundation for Monterey County and the Reedley Rotary Club, commencing with the 2024 school year. He is in the process of doing the same for the elementary and high schools in the Philippines from which he graduated.
When asked upon retirement what he is most proud of in his career, Judge Iglesia responded it is the fact that he has a family who are engaged in the profession of serving other people: two registered nurses and a daughter who is a lawyer and works for a federal agency in the Washington D.C. area, a son-in-law who is currently serving in the U.S. military, and another daughter with a Master’s degree in social work who has found her calling as a licensed clinical social worker for a mental health facility. “This,” he says, “is my modest American Dream fulfilled.”