Candidate for
Democratic Party County Central Committee; Assembly District 22

Patent Attorney

I counsel high tech companies on patent and other intellectual property matters. I also prepare patent applications and work to get patents issued by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

Prior to focusing on patent law, I represented clients in patent litigation and other complex commercial litigation. When I was working as a litigator, I volunteered some of my time to represent individuals who could not afford a lawyer.

Recipient of Fulbright Binational Business Grant

I lived and studied business and law in Mexico for the 2000-2001 academic year. I am proficient in Spanish. I hope to use my ability in Spanish, and my experience living in Mexico, to reach out to Latino voters in our community. We must work hard to earn the support of Latino voters, and their active involvement in the Democratic Party. We must convince them that ours is the party that will best serve the needs of their community, as it has for other immigrant and minority communities for the past 100 years or more.

Stanford Law School

I graduated from Stanford Law School in 1994 in the top 10% of my class.

Active Duty, U. S. Navy

I served on active duty for five years, from 1986 to 1991. For 2-1/2 of those years, I served onboard a destroyer based in Yokosuka, Japan. I was awarded the Navy Achievement Medal for my service in Japan and the Navy Commendation Medal for my service on shore duty in San Diego, California during the Persian Gulf War, for coordinating the expedited delivery of advanced damage control and chemical/biological warfare defense equipment to ships participating in the war.

U.S. Naval Academy

I graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1986 in the top 1% of a class of over 1,000. In my four years at the Naval Academy, I completed a dual major in Mechanical Engineering and History.

Longtime Democratic Activist

I got my start in electoral politics in 1976, when I was in sixth grade, distributing campaign literature for President (then Governor) Jimmy Carter. Since moving to the Bay Area to attend law school in 1991 (and after a six month stint in Los Angeles just after graduating from law school in 1994), I have been active in Democratic Party politics through my involvement in the Peninsula Democratic Coalition and as a volunteer for various candidates for local office.

While at Stanford Law School during the 1992 election cycle, I joined with two friends to form the Law School Democrats, whose members registered voters in minority communities and volunteered to work on campaigns. I was very proud to have done my part to get President Carter elected, but I was elated when we led our Party to victory in the 1992 elections, winning the White House and sending Senators Boxer and Feinstein and Congresswoman Eshoo to Congress. More recently, I was a founding member of the Peninsula Young Democrats.

I enjoy grass roots work -- knocking on doors, making phone calls, distributing flyers -- and I'll continue to work on the front lines if I am elected to the Central Committee.