Albert J. Maldonado is an attorney in Best Best & Krieger LLP’s Municipal Law and Special Districts practice groups. He provides legal services to cities, special districts and school districts by handling land use, constitutional and ethics issues, and drafting and negotiating various types of contracts. He advises clients on the application of California’s transparency and ethics laws, including the Brown Act, the Public Records Act, the Political Reform Act and conflict of interest laws. He is well-versed in dealing with sidewalk vendor issues in the wake of Senate Bill 946’s passage and has drafted sidewalk vending ordinances for several California cities.
 
Albert serves as assistant town attorney to the Town of Apple Valley, general counsel to the Beaumont-Cherry Valley Recreation and Park District, and assistant general counsel to the Elsinore Valley Municipal Water District. In these roles, he reviews and helps negotiate public contracts, including those for which the State or the United States government has provided grant funding. He also assists in preparing bid packages and reviewing bids received.
 
Albert serves as counsel to the planning commissions for the Town of Apple Valley, the City of San Bernardino, the City of Upland and the City of Ontario, assisting with planning, zoning and Map Act issues.
 
Albert serves as general counsel to the City of Ontario’s Community Life & Culture Agency, which oversees the Recreation & Community Services Department, the city’s libraries and the Museum of History.
 
Albert assisted drafting a Memorandum of Understanding between the City of Ontario and nine community partners, forming a “collaborative stakeholder structure” necessary to apply for the State of California’s Transformative Climate Communities Program grant. In January 2018, the City was awarded $35 million from the State’s Transformative Climate Communities Program. After the money was awarded, Albert assisted drafting pass-through agreements with each of the nine partners. These agreements set up ways to govern the money’s distribution and the proper administration of the programming in accordance with the Master Agreement between the City and the State. The money will help fund new projects regarding housing, transportation, workforce development, small business development and environmental sustainability initiatives, focusing especially in the City’s downtown commercial areas.
 
Albert volunteers as pro bono counsel to the Rancho Cucamonga Public Library Foundation.

During law school at Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law, Albert participated in the school’s U.S. Supreme Court Clinic, where he helped draft petitions for certiorari and amicus and merits briefs. He was an associate editor of the Northwestern Journal of Law and Social Policy. He also was a recipient of the Federal Bar Association Chicago Chapter’s Lefkow Fellowship and interned for the National Immigrant Justice Center’s Children’s Protection Project.
 
Albert was intimately involved with the National Latina/o Law Student Association, culminating in serving as the organization’s director of public relations from 2016-2017. He currently serves on the organization’s alumni advisory board.
 
Prior to law school, Albert received his master’s degree of theological studies at Harvard Divinity School. He concentrated on studying religion, ethics, and politics and completed half his coursework at the Harvard John F. Kennedy School of Government.
 
While attending Pitzer College, Albert interned for then-Congressman David Dreier and then-Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.
 
Albert is passionate about community engagement and about increasing diversity in higher education and in the legal profession. He is a founding board member of the Hispanic Bar Association of the Inland Empire, serves on the board of the Los Angeles Chapter of the Harvard Latino Alumni Alliance, and served on the National Board of Directors of the Harvard Latino Alumni Alliance as the vice president of finance. He is also president of the Board of Directors for the Ontario-Montclair School District Foundation, which fundraises for and institutes the Promise Scholars Program — a program that works to ensure students have post-secondary education opportunities. Albert grew up in Alta Loma, Calif. He enjoys dancing, especially salsa and bachata, and also plays the piano.
 
Education

• Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law, J.D.
• Harvard Divinity School, MTS
• Pitzer College, B.A., political studies, with honors

 
Admissions

• California

 
Honors & Awards

• Annual Hot List, Lawyers of Color, 2022

Memberships

• Hispanic Bar Association of the Inland Empire Board, president
• Ontario-Montclair School District Foundation Board of Directors, President
• Harvard Latino Alumni Alliance, Los Angeles Chapter, Board
• National Latina/o Law Student Association, Alumni Advisory Board