Regina A. Garza
Partner | Fresno
rgarza@lozanosmith.com
Tel: 559.431.5600
Fax: 559.261.9366
Vcard
Bio
Overview
Regina A. Garza is the Office Managing Partner of Lozano Smith's Fresno office. Ms. Garza provides a wide array of services to the firm's clients, representing both municipalities, special districts, and school districts.Ms. Garza serves as County Counsel for the County of Madera. In that capacity, she acts as the legal advisor to the Board of Supervisors and represents the County and the County's officers and employees in their official capacities. She also serves as the Deputy City Attorney for the City of Clovis and the City of Fowler. She is a prosecuting attorney for municipal code violations, abatement and compliance matters, and is skilled in drafting zoning and regulatory ordinances. She is also experienced in serving as general counsel for public agencies. She regularly consults with executives regarding labor and employment issues, collective bargaining, liability and risk management, the Brown Act and the Public Records Act.
Additionally, Ms. Garza represents school districts as general counsel. She handles certificated and classified employee discipline re-assignments, layoffs and terminations. Ms. Garza is a skilled negotiator, representing public agencies in collective bargaining, grievance arbitrations, and defense of unfair practice charges. She also presents workshops and trainings to school boards, administrators and schoolsite staff on various issues relating to labor and employment law, school finance and the Local Control Funding Formula, negotiations, team building and communications, the Brown Act and other areas of state and federal law.
Prior Experience
Prior to joining Lozano Smith, Ms. Garza worked full-time during law school as a litigation law clerk with the Sacramento firm of Dreyer, Babich, Buccolla & Callaham, LLP. Ms. Garza was involved in the various aspects of litigation, including drafting pleadings, preparing witnesses for trial and deposition, and negotiating settlements.Education
Ms. Garza received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Westmont College, cum laude. She received her Juris Doctor degree from University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law. During law school, she received the prestigious Witkin Award for academic excellence in Negotiations & Settlements. Ms. Garza has received certification through ATIXA as a participant in Level 1 and Level 3 ATIXA Civil Rights Investigator Trainings.Community Involvement
Ms. Garza is a current board member of Community Youth Ministries a non-profit community organization focusing on social and spiritual needs of youth. She has also served as an Adjunct Professor at Fresno Pacific University, teaching Theological Ethics of Conflicts and Peacemaking.New California Laws Affecting Groundwater Sustainability Agencies: AB 293 and AB 709
January 7, 2026 Number 2 Governor Newsom signed two bills this past October that directly impact California’s Groundwater Sustainability Agencies (GSAs). Assembly Bill (AB) 293 requires GSAs to modify their websites on or before January 1, 2026, to include information on their board of directors and executives. AB 709 clarifies that GSA coordination agreements may be amended outside of the Department of Water Resources (DWR) review cycle. Assembly Bill 293 AB 293 see...
U.S Supreme Court Clarifies Majority-Group Plaintiffs Are Not Held to a Higher Evidentiary Standard in Title VII Employment Discrimination Cases
June 27, 2025 Number 25 On June 5, 2025, in Ames v. Ohio Department of Youth Services (2025) 145 S.Ct. 1540, the United States Supreme Court unanimously vacated the Sixth Circuit’s decision to dismiss the plaintiff’s reverse discrimination lawsuit, rejecting the lower court’s reasoning that the plaintiff failed to establish “background circumstances” to support the plausibility of reverse discrimination. The Court held that the standard of evidence for a...
Department of Justice Releases New Rules Regarding Website Accessibility under Title II of the ADA
June 2024Number 29As technology advances, public agencies are increasingly relying on websites, software, digital applications, and social media pages on various platforms to provide access to their services. With the increase in web-based content utilized by public agencies, and the growing use of and public reliance on such content for information, it is important for public agencies to understand the applicable legal requirements for content accessibility in accordance with the Americans w...
California Supreme Court Holds Public Health Service Plans Not Immune from Reimbursement Actions
August 2023Number 30In a recent opinion, the California Supreme Court held that medical providers are entitled to receive reimbursement for emergency medical services at rates based on the reasonable and customary value for such services, even where a contract does not exist between the provider and the operator of a public health care service plan.The public entity in this case argued that immunities against “tort damages” afforded to the entity under California law protected it ...
Attorney General Confirms Board or Council Member Health Care Benefits cannot be more Generous than Employee Benefits
August 2020Number 64The California Attorney General, in a recent opinion, has concluded that members of legislative bodies may not receive health and welfare benefits not widely offered to the agencies' employees and officers and that mistakes made in determining benefit plans offered to legislative body members can yield serious consequences.BackgroundThe City of Moreno Valley (City) provided its City Council members with benefit contributions at a flat rate plus a percentage of the average ...
Overturning Longstanding Precedent, Supreme Court Rules that Non-Union Members Cannot Be Required to Pay Agency Fees
This news brief is intended for municipalities and special districts. For the Janus news brief intended for public school districts, including community colleges, click here.June 2018Number 28In a 5-4 decision, the United States Supreme Court has held that non-union public employees may no longer be required to pay mandatory agency fees on the grounds that such fees violate the First Amendment. In so holding, Janus v. AFSCME reverses 40 years of legal precedent. Janus may be one of the most...
New Law Establishes Preemptive Solution to School Bullying
September 2014 Number 70 Governor Brown recently signed into law Assembly Bill (AB) 1993 which requires the California Department of Education to develop an online training module to assist all school staff, school administrators, parents, pupils, and community members in increasing their knowledge of bullying and cyberbullying. The law becomes effective January 1, 2015, however no time frame is specified for the California Department of Education to complete the training module. AB 19...
New Case Clarifies Temporary Teachers' Preferential Rights To Vacant Positions
March 2013 Number 15 Under Education Code section 44918, temporary teachers who have served two consecutive school years shall receive "first priority" in filling a vacant position in the subsequent school year, if the vacancy occurs at the grade level in which that teacher served during either of the two prior years. The Education Code does not define "first priority" and is silent as to the discretion a district has in granting "first priority" rights to such temporary teachers when fil...
Governor Brown Signs Bill Affecting Child Abuse Reporting Obligations
October 2012 Number 60 Over the past year, the impact of recent child abuse cases has affected educational institutions on local, state, and national levels. In California, state legislators proposed several changes to strengthen existing reporting laws and Governor Brown recently signed four such bills, one of which will become effective January 1, 2013. Although three of these bills, Assembly Bill (AB) 1435, AB 1434, and Senate Bill (SB) 1264 were signed into law, the new mandated repo...
New Law To Require Concussion Training for High School Coaches
August 2012 Number 47 Effective January 1, 2013, high school coaches will be required to receive training on recognizing the signs of concussions and responding to them appropriately. Assembly Bill (AB) 1451 was signed into law by Governor Jerry Brown on August 17, 2012. A study published in the Journal of Athletic Training found that an estimated 300,000 sport-related traumatic brain injuries, predominantly concussions, occur annually in the United States. In high school sports played...
The California Supreme Court Clarifies Meal and Rest Period Obligations
May 2012 Number 24 The California Supreme Court recently issued the decision Brinker Restaurant Corporation v. Superior Court (2012) ___ S.Ct. ___ (2012 WL 1216356) clarifying an employer's duty to provide non-exempt employees meal and rest periods and reminding employers to record and keep those wage and hour records. The Brinker decision offers welcome relief to private sector employers that must comply with state meal and rest period requirements. Public agencies have traditionally bee...
Teacher Does Not Have Constitutional Right To Display Banners Containing Religious References In The Classroom
September 2011 Number 51 In Johnson v. Poway Unified School District (9th Cir. 2011) ___ F.3d ___, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a trial court ruling and held thePowayUnifiedSchool District(District) did not violate a high school teacher's free speech rights when it ordered him to remove two banners containing religious references from the walls of his classroom. For approximately two decades, Bradley Johnson, a math teacher in the District, had displayed two banners in...
Court Analyzes Free Speech Rights Of Public Employee Who Associated With Co-Worker Facing Discipline
July 2011 Number 30 On June 24, 2011, the United States Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a decision in Nichols v. Dancer (9th Cir. 2011) __ F.3d __ ("Nichols"), which analyzes a public employer's right to limit an employee's freedom to communicate and associate with a co-worker who is the subject of pending disciplinary action. In Nichols, the court held that a true "balancing test" must be used when a public employer implicates the First Amendment by disciplining public employees f...
Teacher Has Constitutional Right To Display Banners Containing Religious References In The Classroom
April 2010 Number 11 CLIENT NEWS BRIEF TEACHER HAS CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT TO DISPLAY BANNERS CONTAINING RELIGIOUS REFERENCES IN THE CLASSROOM In Johnson v. Poway Unified School District (Feb. 25, 2010) __F.Supp.2d__, a United States District Court for the Southern District of California ruled that the Poway Unified School District ("District") violated a high school teacher's free speech rights when it ordered him to remove two banners from the walls of his classroom because they "over-...
Significant Cases
In Doe 1, et al. v. State of California, et al., plaintiffs alleged state constitutional and federal statutory claims against a small Central Valley school district and the state Department of Education. Ms. Garza successful represented the school district, negotiating a settlement with the American Civil Liberties Union and others, which substantially limited attorney fees, and included other terms that enabled her school district client to better serve its students.