Linda Lye, Deputy Secretary for Law Enforcement and General Counsel

Linda Lye was appointed by Governor Gavin Newsom in November 2020 to serve as Deputy Secretary for Law Enforcement and General Counsel at the California Environmental Protection Agency. 

Prior to her appointment, she served for two years as a superior court judge in Contra Costa County.  Before entering government service, she was a senior staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Northern California where she spearheaded litigation on issues that included surveillance, open government, voting rights, and lethal injection. Earlier in her career, she was a partner at Altshuler Berzon LLP in San Francisco, where she represented labor unions in state and federal court and before administrative agencies. She also served as a law clerk for the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg of the Supreme Court of the United States and for appellate Judge Guido Calabresi of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

Linda received her law degree from the University of California, Berkeley, where she graduated Order of the Coif, and her undergraduate degree from Yale College, where she graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa.