About Us
The Civil Prosecutors Coalition formed in November 2021 to strengthen collaboration among our offices, foster innovative litigation strategies, and drive impactful legislative and policy initiatives. Our offices both defend actions brought against our jurisdictions as well as file affirmative matters on behalf of the People of the State of California.
Our Members
- David Chiu • Chair • San Francisco City Attorney
- Tony LoPresti • Vice Chair • Santa Clara County Counsel
- Dawyn Harrison • Los Angeles County Counsel
- Claudia Silva • San Diego County Counsel
- Heather Ferbert • San Diego City Attorney
- Nora Frimann • San Jose City Attorney
- Ryan Richardson • Oakland City Attorney
David Chiu
Chair • San Francisco City Attorney
David Chiu is the 15th City Attorney of San Francisco. As one of the top municipal law offices in the country, the San Francisco City Attorney’s Office provides legal counsel to the Mayor, Board of Supervisors and over 100 departments, boards, commissions and offices that comprise the government of the City and County of San Francisco.
During David’s tenure, his office won $350M in one of the country’s most successful settlements against the opioid industry; saved the state’s largest skilled nursing facility from being shut down; rooted out corruption by public officials and city contractors; established a worker protection team and a gun violence restraining order program; stood up for consumers defrauded by corporations; took on online tobacco retailers; led a groundbreaking effort to hold fossil fuel companies responsible for infrastructure costs related to sea level rise; and launched the Legal Alliance for Reproductive Rights, a network of 70 law firms providing pro bono services to people seeking and providing abortions.
David previously represented San Francisco in the California State Assembly, where he authored 75 laws addressing civil, immigrant, reproductive and worker rights, health, housing, public safety, and the environment, while serving as Assistant Speaker pro Tempore, Chair of the Assembly Housing & Community Development Committee, and Chair of the California API Legislative Caucus. Previously, David was the only President of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors ever elected to three consecutive terms, where he authored 110 local laws. He is the first Asian American to hold each of his three elected positions.
Before holding public office, David served as law clerk to Judge James R. Browning of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, a civil rights attorney with the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights, a criminal prosecutor at the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office, Democratic Counsel to the US Senate Constitution Subcommittee, and general counsel to a public affairs technology company. The son of immigrants, he received his undergraduate, master’s in public policy and law degrees from Harvard. David is married to Candace Chen, a public interest lawyer who manages a refugee foster care program; the two are raising their eight-year-old son.
Tony LoPresti
Vice Chair • Santa Clara County Counsel
Tony LoPresti is the County Counsel for the County of Santa Clara. As County Counsel, Tony oversees all aspects of the Office and serves as the chief legal advisor to the Board of Supervisors, the County Executive, and all County elected officials and department heads. He oversees all litigation brought by the County and the defense of all litigation filed against the County, its officers, and its employees. The Office has a dedicated staff of over 250 employees, including 110 attorneys. Tony was appointed to the position of County Counsel on February 6, 2023, and assumed the role on July 10, 2023.
Tony joined the County in 2018 as a member of both the Social Justice and Impact Litigation Team and the Environment and Land Use Team. He was appointed as an Assistant County Counsel in July 2020, overseeing the Office’s Community Protection Team and Environment and Land Use Team, and coordinating the Office’s legal work in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Prior to his legal career, Tony worked as a fisherman, professional baseball player, bread deliveryman, busboy, waiter, and bartender.
Education
U.C. Berkeley School of Law, J.D., Order of the Coif, 2012
Eleanor Swift Award for Public Service
Sandals Fellowship for Environmental Leadership
Coblentz Land Use Fellow
U.C. Santa Cruz, B.A., Latin American Latino Studies, Highest Honors, 2003
Professional associations
Board Member, California Rural Legal Assistance (2015-2021)
Prior experience
Associate at Altshuler Berzon LLP (2016-2018)
Litigation Fellow at Altshuler Berzon/Natural Resources Defense Council (2014-2016)
Law Clerk to the Honorable Richard A. Paez, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (2013-2014)
Law Clerk to the Honorable Roger L. Gregory, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit (2012-2013)
Campaign Director/Policy Advocate, Environmental Health Coalition (2005-2009)
Research Associate, Center for Justice, Tolerance, and Community (2003-2005)
Dawyn Harrison
Los Angeles County Counsel
The Office of the County Counsel for the County of Los Angeles provides legal advice to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, County officials and departments, and other County entities in the nation’s largest and most diverse County. With a County Counsel career that spans 25 years, Dawyn Harrison rose through the ranks of the office to hold the office’s top executive position – County Counsel.
Ms. Harrison joined the Office of the County Counsel in 1994. Upon joining the County Counsel’s Office, Ms. Harrison handled a variety of assignments, beginning with her passion for child welfare advocacy advising the Los Angeles County’s Department of Children and Family Services and Department of Public Social Services. Eventually, Ms. Harrison became advisor to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, Executive Office, and Chief Executive Office. In 2014, Ms. Harrison was promoted to Division Chief of the Dependency Division. In 2016, she was promoted to Senior Assistant overseeing numerous divisions in the office, and in 2020, was made Chief Deputy. In April 2022, she became the Interim County Counsel, a position she held until February 28, 2023, when the Board of Supervisors appointed Ms. Harrison as the County Counsel.
Ms. Harrison serves as the seventeenth County Counsel, and she is the first African American County Counsel since the office’s establishment in 1913. The Office of the County Counsel is one of the largest municipal civil law offices in the country, with over 350 attorneys and more than 700 employees. The County Counsel’s Office has consistently enjoyed the reputation of being among the finest public law offices, and alumni include judges, legal scholars, and authors, as well as business and political leaders.
Ms. Harrison oversees a culturally diverse group of talented attorneys privileged to advise the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors and other county officials on a variety of matters, including some of the most critical social issues of our time, and leads the office to promote truth and justice, protect the rule of law, and create social and legal reform that considers the experiences of the diverse county residents whose lives will be most impacted by the County’s policies and laws.
Ms. Harrison received her undergraduate degree in 1991 in legal studies from the University of California Berkeley and her juris doctorate in 1994 from the University of Southern California Gould School of Law.
Claudia Silva
San Diego County Counsel
Claudia Silva serves as the County Counsel for the County of San Diego. As County Counsel, she is the chief legal advisor to the Board of Supervisors, County officers, County departments, boards and commissions, and represents the County in all civil actions and proceedings. This includes representing the County in juvenile dependency matters as well as administering public liability claims. Claudia oversees a full-service law office of 111 attorneys and 74 support staff who undertake this wide range of work.
Claudia joined the County of San Diego in 2016 as Assistant County Counsel, became the Director of the Office of Ethics and Compliance in January 2019, and became the County Counsel in September 2022. As the Director of the Office of Ethics and Compliance, Claudia launched the Office of Labor Standards and Enforcement and brought the offices together under the Office of Ethics, Compliance and Labor Standards. During that time, she also served as the executive lead for the newly launched Leon Williams Human Relations Commission in 2020 and served as the Chair of the Diversity & Inclusion Executive Council.
Claudia has been a lawyer since 1993. She received her bachelor’s degree from UCLA and her law degree from the University of San Diego. Claudia began her career at the San Diego City Attorney’s Office, working there for 12 years as a litigator and advisory attorney, appearing in state and federal court. She worked at the City of National City, City Attorney’s Office for 11 years, serving as their City Attorney for six years, handling a wide range of legal issues, including conflicts of interest, ethics, governance, personnel, land use, redevelopment, and public contracting. Public service has been her calling throughout her legal career.
Heather Ferbert
San Diego City Attorney
Heather Ferbert serves as San Diego City Attorney, the City’s chief legal officer and City prosecutor. She was elected to office in 2024. The City Attorney, through a team of deputies and staff, prosecutes crime, defends the City in litigation, initiates litigation in the interest of the public, and serves as legal adviser and attorney for the City.
Prior to her election, Heather served as a San Diego Chief Deputy City Attorney, where she and a city attorney team worked to stop multi-million-dollar real estate scams and made women’s health clinics safer and more accessible. Throughout her career, Heather has focused on serving the City to provide and protect access to housing.
The City Attorney’s Office houses Your Safe Place, the City’s family justice center, which provides supportive services to empower survivors of domestic violence, family violence, elder abuse, sexual assault, and sex trafficking as they reclaim their lives. The City Attorney’s Office, in its role as a prosecutor, also fights to hold abusers accountable.
Heather is also working to expand the Gun Violence Prevention Unit that has removed thousands of firearms from people who pose threats to themselves or others. The City Attorney’s Office’s use of gun violence restraining orders and other firearm-prohibiting orders has been recognized as one of America’s most innovative and effective “red flag law” gun violence prevention programs.
Heather is a graduate of California State University Long Beach and the University of San Diego School of Law. She’s active in the Lawyer’s Club of San Diego, the women’s bar association, and has served as an adjunct professor at the San Diego School of Law. Heather and her husband Andrew have one daughter.
Nora Frimann
San Jose City Attorney
Nora Frimann serves as the City Attorney for San José, California. She was appointed by the City Council to this position in September 2020, becoming the city’s second female City Attorney. In 2001, Ms. Frimann joined the San José City Attorney’s Office as an Assistant City Attorney, overseeing litigation and related matters.
Prior to joining the City Attorney’s Office, Ms. Frimann was a shareholder with a prominent law firm in San Jose handling a variety of litigation and business matters, and served as the firm’s managing shareholder.
She has served on various committees of the Santa Clara County Bar Association and on State and Federal Court committees. She is a long-time member of the American Inns of Court and enjoys participating in various law-related organizations, including on the Board of the Santa Clara University Law School Social Justice and Public Service program. In 2015, she received the Santa Clara County Bar Association’s Professional Attorney of the Year award.
Ryan Richardson
Oakland City Attorney
Ryan Richardson is City Attorney and serves as a member of the office’s Executive Management Team.
Ryan’s legal career began at Jones Day, where he worked on major transactional and litigation matters. He subsequently founded his own law firm and also taught legal writing as an adjunct professor at USC Law School. In his private practice, Ryan represented employees against Fortune 500 employers in harassment, discrimination, wrongful termination, retaliation and wage/hour litigation.
Ryan has been working for the City of Oakland since 2013. Prior to his current role, he supervised the team that advises City management on employment matters, represents the City in related hearings, advises the City during labor negotiations, and supports the City’s police–accountability efforts. In this role, Ryan helped finalize Measures LL and S1 to create and strengthen the Police Commission, Community Police Review Agency, and Office of the Inspector General.
Ryan is a graduate of Howard University and the University of Southern California Law School.
