I get asked all the time why and how I became a Santa Barbara, California personal injury lawyer.
I have always had a place in my heart for Santa Barbara. It’s the town I grew up in and called home and a place that I love calling home today. I am a community person, I love to help others.
My path to personal injury law was an organic one. I left Santa Barbara to go to Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon and got my Bachelor’s in Economics. After college, I moved to Los Angeles to work for Raytheon Company, and as a Forensic Economist at Freeman & Mills, Inc., which began to establish my foundation in litigation. I analyzed and built damage models in a litigation setting. My passion for law began there. I went to Southwestern University School of Law in Los Angeles, CA and earned my J.D. in 22 months (36 months is the average timeframe).
I wanted to return to Santa Barbara so I worked for a personal injury firm in town. That’s where I was introduced to personal injury law. Helping people is what this field is about and soon after, I established my own practice in Santa Barbara. I had experience working with insurance defense firms from my time living and working in LA and being on the insurance side was very eye opening. I wanted to be part of the solution, not part of the problem. It is my mission to help people that were injured. I help people get their life back. I am not afraid to take on insurance companies because there’s a huge imbalance between injured individuals without attorneys and insurance companies.
I am very involved in both legal and Santa Barbara community associations. Twenty one years later, my passion still remains in the courtroom, defending folks in the Santa Barbara community and across California.