Leaning Into Growth

When bullets ricocheted nearby, Angelo Villarreal ducked behind a building in a dense Brazilian neighborhood. Crouched between concrete walls in a stark hillside community, the then-21-year-old felt something unexpected: motivation. Though his heart pounded, the moment only affirmed his desire to see the world in all its complexity—the good, the bad, the brutal. 

“I come from an extremely isolated place, so when I got out, I let my curiosity run wild. That’s how you learn. And as a lawyer, if you’re not learning new things, you’re not growing,” says Villarreal, who advises Central Valley school districts.

Villarreal was raised by a single, immigrant mother from Mexico, and he grew up in a particularly low-income part of Bakersfield. While rival gangs battled for territory in nearby Rexland Park, Villarreal found ways to keep busy. At 11, he worked 10-hour weekend shifts at a mobile car wash business for $30 per day plus homemade Colombian food for lunch. As a teenager, he was a lifeguard at a city pool, worked at a restaurant, and cleaned houses alongside his mother on the wealthier side of town. He also cut his teeth with an uncle on local construction jobs, enduring triple-digit heat. Seeing what years of roofing and framing could do to a body, Villarreal came to a conclusion: “I wanted a different type of life.”

A fascination with social inequities inspired Villarreal to enroll in the international studies program at UC Santa Barbara. As an undergraduate, he studied abroad at the Brazilian equivalent of an Ivy League institution, but he left the safety of those halls to volunteer as a grant writer at a nongovernmental organization focused on education in the Rocinha favela of Rio de Janeiro. On his first day, he heard the gunfire of drug traffickers. Yet the elementary-aged children he encountered appeared unfazed, eager to learn and play. 

“Seeing them gave me hope,” Villarreal says. “If the kids in these circumstances can be this spirited, there is still a way to effectuate positive change in this world.” 

Following graduation, Villarreal spent 10 months teaching English in South Korea to pre-K through middle school students. Because he didn’t speak Korean, he learned to read body language, a skill that still informs his work. Understanding nonverbal communication is key, he says, when conducting labor negotiations and workplace investigations.

In Korea, in-between his full-time job and studying for the LSAT, Villarreal explored, seeking out connections with expats from Europe, South Africa, Australia, Canada and New Zealand. Alone in a foreign country, he found himself engaging with people of various ages, cultures and socioeconomic backgrounds. 

In 2016, after earning his J.D. from what is now UC Law San Francisco, Villarreal embarked on a two-month backpacking trip through South America, exploring thunderous waterfalls in Argentina, otherworldly salt flats in Bolivia and tropical swamps in Brazil. The trip allowed him to clear his head and, as he says, “come back to myself.” 

Upon return, Villarreal took on an associate role at an international tax accounting firm in San Francisco. Years after washing cars for $30 per day, he had landed in the world of major hedge funds. “It was interesting to be in a place where someone from my background was highly, highly unlikely to work in those roles. It was very eye-opening, and I felt very privileged to be in a situation to learn about those complicated financial topics,” he says. “It’s definitely something I carry with me to this day.” 

Villarreal found his true calling a few years later, as a labor and employment lawyer with the Fresno-based Atkinson, Andelson, Loya, Ruud & Romo. Sometimes, he’s thrust into a controversy over a pride flag in the classroom of a conservative district. Other times, he’s advising schools on their course of action should an immigration officer approach a student on a field trip. 

“The travel has helped tremendously in my current role, where I work with so many different kinds of people,” says Villarreal, who advises school districts across the spectrum—from conservative to progressive, well-resourced to cash-strapped. “This ability to connect is how I build relationships and earn clients’ trust as a problem solver.”

If Villarreal ever feels overwhelmed, he remembers time spent moving through unfamiliar places, figuring it out as he went. “I’m grateful I put myself through those challenges,” he says. “They taught me that I can lead with courage, put my head down and get the job done. I just have to believe in myself.”