José Apolinar Olivera Went from Adversity to Attorney

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José Apolinar Olivera, director and associate general counsel at Meta, has a life story that could be the storyline of an Oscar-worthy film. He grew up in California’s Central Valley. At age six, his father was arrested and prosecuted for drug trafficking. Seven years later, another traumatic event: the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) arrested his father and brother, shaking his family’s foundations.

“I was thirteen and it was a hot July night. I fell asleep on the floor of my bedroom; my brother slept on the bed,” Olivera recalls. “At around 6 a.m. the next morning, I was awakened by the sound of the front door crashing in, and then the sound of pounding footsteps coming in my direction. Suddenly, there were flashlights and rifles pointed at my brother and me.

“It was the DEA. They handcuffed my entire family except my little sister and sat us on the sidewalk outside of our home. We sat there as our neighbors looked on for a few hours while our home was searched.”

The DEA raid resulted in a five-and-a-half-year federal prison sentence for Olivera’s dad before he was deported to Mexico, where he later died. Olivera’s older brother received a federal prison sentence of more than seven years.

“That July day marked the beginning of very hard times for us,” Olivera relates. “Our family was broken. We moved around a lot and at times lived in poverty. I took any job, working on a taco truck, in a furniture store, and on a dairy.”

Despite the challenges, Olivera became the first person in his family to graduate from high school. At eighteen, he joined the US Air Force out of a desire to serve his country and for an opportunity at a different life.

“It was after 9/11 and I wanted to join and serve,” he recalls. “Also, there weren’t a lot of opportunities for me, and the military gave me one. I learned so much while serving, including about myself. I deployed to Iraq, led convoys across Iraq where bombs and gunfire were constant threats. It was my honor to serve my country.”

“By sharing my story, I hope to encourage youth to draw strength from their lived experiences and believe that they too belong in places that may seem out of reach.”

José Apolinar Olivera

During his six years of service, Olivera rose to the rank of staff sergeant, earned his bachelor’s degree, and was admitted to law school. He attended the University of California, Davis, School of Law, where he now serves as a visiting professor. After law school, Olivera joined the US Justice Department in Washington, DC, and spent three years as a civil trial attorney.

“I had wanted to be a prosecutor ever since my dad and brother were prosecuted,” he shares. “I applied to the US Attorney’s Office in San Francisco and became a federal prosecutor, which was a significant moment for me and my family. I now held the same position as the person who prosecuted my father and brother seventeen years before.”

What Olivera knew from his upbringing was that every case was different, circumstances varied, and the impact of prosecution on families could be devastating. His personal experience with the justice system helped him be a better and more thoughtful prosecutor.

By 2019, having spent fourteen years in federal service, Olivera made a big change. “I wanted to continue working on safety issues, but also on legal issues involving new technologies. As a federal prosecutor, I had the opportunity to handle significant criminal cases involving new technologies, and that interested me,” he notes. “Going to Meta allowed me to work both on safety and security issues and on legal issues involving cutting-edge technologies.”

At Meta, Olivera began as an associate general counsel and is now a director and associate general counsel. He leads a team of attorneys that provide legal guidance on security, safety, and data disclosure issues, including related to emerging technologies in the AI and encryption spaces.

Olivera also works with a variety of teams to help keep Meta’s users and platforms safe. “It’s rewarding to work with a dedicated team whose mission it is to help protect our users and platforms from bad actors and protect user data,” he says.

He collaborates with outside counsel as well to resolve a variety of issues. “José simplifies complex disputes and resolves them practically and efficiently,” says Ron Machen, a partner at WilmerHale. “Working with José is a true collaboration, as he is an active in-house counsel, and his work ethic is second to none. He has overcome numerous challenges to ascend to his current position, and he is not done.”

Having grown up without many professional role models, it’s important to Olivera to be a mentor and help underprivileged students achieve their goals. He’s served as a board member and mock trial coach for the Centro Legal de La Raza’s Youth Law Academy and often speaks at high school and college events about his experience.

“I believe I have a responsibility to give back, especially to underprivileged and at-risk youth,” he says. “Latinos remain largely underrepresented in the legal profession, especially with backgrounds like mine. When you come from these backgrounds, you can believe that your experiences are less valuable. There can also be a stigma around having family members who are or were incarcerated.

“But this shouldn’t be the case. By sharing my story, I hope to encourage youth to draw strength from their lived experiences and believe that they too belong in places that may seem out of reach.”

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