I was born in San Francisco and raised in San Leandro, Fremont, Menlo Park, Redwood City, San Francisco, Burlingame, Hillsborough and San Mateo. I attended Burlingame High School, UC Davis, and Stanford Law School.

My first job was a paper route when I was 12 years old. In high school I worked at the San Mateo Adult School, Planned Parenthood, Burlingame Parks Department, NASA Ames Research Center, and Phillips and Ober Electric Supply. In college I cleaned the swimming pool at UC Davis,  worked at Safeway, Round Table Pizza,  a local group home, and the Yolo County Public Defender's Office.  During my college years I took a leave of absence from UC Davis and became a VISTA Volunteer working with homeless youth at the Larkin Street Youth Center in San Francisco.

In law school I worked at a small firm that practiced constitutional property law, the East Bay Community Law Project in East Palo Alto, the Alameda County Public Defender, and the California State Public Defender. My first job out of law school was at the Contra Costa County Public Defender's Office in 1991. I have been in private practice in Oakland and the San Francisco area since leaving the Public Defenders' Office in 1994.