Mr. Estrada began his law career as a clerk for Judge Robert J. Timlin of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California and then for Judge Arthur L. Alarcón of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Moving into private practice in 2004, Mr. Estrada served as an associate at Munger, Tolles & Olson. 

In 2007, Mr. Estrada transitioned to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California, where he served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney. During his time in this position, he served as the Deputy Chief of the Violent and Organized Crime Section and the International Organized Crime Coordinator. His prosecution of a broad array of significant criminal cases earned him numerous recognitions, including the Director’s Award for Superior Performance from the Department of Justice. Mr. Estrada returned in 2014 to Munger, Tolles & Olson, where he worked as a partner until assuming his current role. 

Mr. Estrada has repeatedly been recognized for his advocacy, having been named a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, one of the Top 100 Lawyers in California by the Daily Journal, and among the “Top Litigators in Los Angeles” and “Minority Leader of Influence,” and one of the “Most Influential Minority Lawyers in Los Angeles” by the Los Angeles Business Journal. He is also a two- time recipient of the California Lawyer Attorney of the Year (CLAY) award and has received numerous other recognitions including awards from the Federal Bar Association, the Minority Corporate Counsel Association, and the Daily Journal. 

 Mr. Estrada has been deeply committed to pro bono work over his career. Among other notable cases, he was the lead attorney for the Bruce family in the Bruce’s Beach litigation, which allowed the County of Los Angeles to return beach-side land to the descendants of a Black family who had the land taken away from them based on racial animus in the 1920s; he led the trial team in Martinez v. New Mexico, a first-of-its-kind education rights victory against the State of New Mexico; and he partnered with the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles to create a virtual domestic-violence restraining order clinic during the pandemic. He has served as a board member for the Federal Bar Association, the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles, and the Alliance for Children’s Rights, and was a member of the State Bar Judicial Nominations Evaluations Commission (JNE). 

As United States Attorney, Mr. Estrada pursued impact litigation to promote public safety and the rule of law, prioritizing matters involving civil rights, hate crimes, public corruption, corporate crime, national security, human trafficking, and violent crime.  He focused the office on impact cases that better the lives of those who are most vulnerable and do not always have a voice. Among other things, Mr. Estrada established the Figueroa Corridor Human Trafficking Initiative, targeting those who exploit children; Operation Safe Cities, addressing gun crimes against victims in neglected communities; the new position of Environmental Justice Coordinator, bringing a civil-rights approach to environmental violations; the Vulnerable Communities Task Force, focusing on fraud against older adults, immigrants, indigent individuals, and other vulnerable victims; and the Fentanyl Initiative, in which his office prosecuted more cases involving deaths of children and young people caused by drugs than any other district. 

Mr. Estrada led the office in handling some of the most high-profile cases in the country, including the prosecution of those responsible for the death of actor Matthew Perry, the conviction of the translator for Shohei Ohtani for stealing over $16 million from the baseball superstar, the prosecution of celebrity lawyer Tom Girardi, and the apprehension, conviction, and sentencing of the Pico-Robertson shooter who sought to murder two Orthodox Jewish men based on religious and ethnic animus.  He also initiated important criminal justice reform measures, including creating one of the first federal conviction integrity committees and a new executive position of Chief of Ethics and Post- Conviction Review, and expanding the district’s pioneering Conviction and Sentencing Alternatives (CASA) diversion program for low-level offenders. 

Mr. Estrada received his J.D., with distinction, from Stanford Law School in 2002 and his B.A. magna cum laude, from the University of California at Irvine in 1998. 

Mr. Estrada grew up in Orange County, California, after his family emigrated to the United States from Guatemala. He is fluent in Spanish.