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
- Tony LoPresti • Chair • Santa Clara County Counsel
- Heather Ferbert • Vice Chair • San Diego City Attorney
- David Chiu • San Francisco City Attorney
- Dawyn Harrison • Los Angeles County Counsel
- Ryan Richardson • Oakland City Attorney
- Damon Brown • Incoming San Diego County Counsel
- Susana Alcala Wood • San Jose City Attorney
Tony LoPresti
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.
Prior to his time at the County, Tony served as an attorney for Altshuler Berzon LLP, and as a law clerk for Judge Richard A. Paez on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and Judge Roger L. Gregory on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. Tony holds a law degree from U.C. Berkeley School of Law and a B.A. from U.C. Santa Cruz. Before law school, he was a campaign director and policy advocate for the Environmental Health Coalition, an environmental justice organization active in the San Diego/Tijuana border region.
Heather Ferbert
Vice Chair • 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.
David Chiu
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.
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.
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.
Damon Brown
Incoming San Diego County Counsel
Damon M. Brown serves as San Diego County Counsel, appointed on January 13, 2026, and assuming office on January 26, 2026. In this role, he oversees all civil legal affairs of the County and leads a team of attorneys and professional legal staff who advise and represent the Board of Supervisors, County departments, and independent agencies in matters involving governance, complex litigation, juvenile dependency, and public accountability. His work reflects a commitment to strengthening public institutions and ensuring that the County’s legal services advance transparency, integrity, and the public good.
Before joining San Diego County, Damon served as Special Assistant Attorney General at the California Department of Justice, where he was the chief legal and policy advisor to Attorney General Rob Bonta on civil rights, voting rights, education, labor, public safety, and immigration. In that role, he guided statewide initiatives and enforcement actions, and served as one of the Department’s lead strategists on complex federal accountability litigation involving civil and voting rights and immigration. He also worked closely with other state attorneys general, subject‑matter experts, and community stakeholders to advance coordinated enforcement and policy efforts across the country.
Damon previously served as City Attorney for Compton, CA, where he modernized the City’s legal operations and advanced equity‑centered policies in public safety, housing, and economic development. His work included helping establish one of the nation’s first and largest city‑based guaranteed income pilots and strengthening legal frameworks that supported community‑driven reform. Earlier in his career, he held senior and partnership roles in Am‑Law 100 firms, representing public agencies and major employers in complex employment litigation and labor compliance.
A graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, and Vanderbilt University Law School, Damon’s career reflects a deep commitment to public service, democratic governance, and equitable policymaking. He and his wife are proud parents of two children, and his family remains a grounding source of joy and purpose in his work.
Susana Alcala Wood
San Jose City Attorney
Susana Alcala Woods serves as the City Attorney for San José. She was appointed by City Council to the position in August of 2025, and became the City’s first Latina City Attorney. She is the President of the International Municipal Lawyers Association, and is on the Board of the CalCities City Attorney’s Department.
An attorney specializing in Municipal law, Susana has worked for multiple cities throughout California. Susana was served as City Attorney for the City of Sacramento from March of 2018 to October of 2025, and as the Assistant City Attorney for the City of Stockton from November 2013 to March 2018 where her responsibilities included advising several Council Committees and Citizen advisory commissions. She was also the principal Legal Advisor to the Stockton Police Department. Prior to her work at the City of Stockton, Susana served as the City Attorney for Modesto for 8 years, where she was the primary legal advisor to the City Council and City Manager. While at Modesto, Susana guided the City Council and staff through their historic Charter amendment shift from an at large council election system to a by-district election system. Susana also oversaw and directed hundreds of investigations involving allegations of harassment, discrimination, and related complaints involving city staff, department heads, and city management.
Susana worked as a Deputy City Attorney for the cities of Stockton and El Monte. As a deputy she was responsible for advising multiple departments on addressing blight, deteriorated and dangerous housing, nuisance conditions, drug, red-light, and gang activity. Susana began her career with the City of El Monte in 1988 while still in law school when she was hired as a law clerk. Upon passing the California Bar exam in 1991, she was appointed as a Deputy City Attorney.
