Sometimes You Have To Go AwayTo Come Home Again

By Susan Leff (GGU JD 95),
Acting Director of Clinical Externships and Adjunct Law Professor

During my years as a student at GGU School of Law, I worked in several different kinds of public defender agencies – county, federal, and state offices – and I experienced both trial work and appellate work. I was also extremely fortunate to be mentored by great GGU law professors with strong connections to criminal defense, including Professors Calhoun, Rutberg, and Keane. Through both my work experiences and my conversations with my mentors, becoming a public defender trial attorney became my life’s dream.

However, when I graduated in 1995, it was a difficult time to find a job in my chosen area of law. Although I lived in San Francisco, getting a job in the San Francisco Public Defender's Office was nearly impossible. So after taking the California Bar Examination, I applied for employment to public defender offices in over 30 of the 58 California counties. I finally heard back from offices in two different counties: Kern and San Joaquin Counties. Although I had never stepped foot in either county – I wasn’t even exactly sure where to find either of them on a map! – I quickly responded by calling back the San Joaquin County Public Defender’s Office, simply because their call was the first one I received. With great excitement, I set up a time for an interview with the Public Defender. Before I hung up the telephone, I asked the Public Defender whether he could pick me up at the Greyhound station because I didn’t have a car.

Much to his credit, the Public Defender agreed to meet me at the Greyhound station. On the day of my interview, he personally picked me up there and walked me to his office. After our interview, I asked the Public Defender whether I could stay and have lunch with the misdemeanor trial attorneys on his staff and then shadow them in court after lunch: after all, I explained to him, my bus back to San Francisco wouldn’t leave until the end of the business day. He agreed and took me to meet and have lunch with his misdemeanor staff, and I trailed those attorneys in court that afternoon before getting back on the Greyhound bus for San Francisco. The very next morning, the Public Defender called me and offered me a job in his office, which I gratefully accepted.

In my first year at the San Joaquin County Public Defender's Office, I tried 18 cases in nine months. I spent the next four years working as a public defender attorney in California’s Central Valley, commuting over 90 miles each way to work – and yes, after commuting for several months by MUNI, BART and carpool, I did eventually have to buy a car. After that I spent over four years commuting to Napa County to work as a public defender attorney in the Napa County Public Defender's Office. In the Central Valley and in Napa, I had the time and experience to develop my craft and become the kind of public defender attorney I wanted to be. After nine years working as a public defender attorney, and nearly 60 trials, I finally received an opportunity to work in San Francisco in the San Francisco Public Defender's Office as a public defender attorney – my dream job in my chosen home.

Although it took a lot of time, work and energy, I had to go away and work somewhere else in order to get more trial experience – not to mention valuable life experiences – in order to come home again.