Pamela started her professional legal career as a criminal defense attorney at the Bayview Hunters’ Point Community Defenders’ office in San Francisco. Her first trial was a felony robbery based on a mistaken identity and she won an acquittal for her client. As a community defender, she handled hundreds of misdemeanor and felony cases and often represented young people caught up in the criminal justice system at San Francisco’s infamous Youth Guidance Center. She left the Community Defender’s office to start a private practice in Oakland, California.
Following years of training working for small firms, Pamela started her own firm in 1991. Over the next 30 years, she represented everyday people in state and federal courts, and became a nationally recognized civil rights attorney. Specializing in employment litigation, Pamela represented countless victims of retaliation, wrongful termination, sexual assaults, sex, age, religion, disability and race-based discrimination. Her clients included nurses, doctors, electricians, oil workers, teachers, office workers, police officers and correctional officers from all walks of life. Her particular passion is suing the California Department of Corrections on behalf of employees, particularly women subjected to sexual harassment.
Pamela is a graduate of Yale College and UC Berkeley Law School, and a survivor of the Ohio juvenile justice and foster care systems.