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Jonathan T Laba
Title: Lecturer
Tel: 925-335-8088
Email Address: Jonathan.Laba@pd.cccounty.us
Jonathan Laba has been a deputy public defender in Contra Costa County since 1997. He has worked in a broad variety of assignments, including felonies and juvenile delinquency, and has represented clients in cases ranging from misdemeanors to capital murder. He currently handles pretrial writs, appeals, and other complex motions for the office. Mr. Laba oversees the office’s Student Extern and Summer Law Clerk programs and assists with developing training programs for the office.
Mr. Laba has a special interest in juvenile justice issues. He is the Deputy Director of the Pacific Juvenile Defender Center, a 501(c)(3) organization that provides support to juvenile trial lawyers, appellate counsel, law school clinical programs, and nonprofit law centers to assure quality representation for children in juvenile delinquency proceedings throughout California and Hawaii. Since 2008, Mr. Laba has participated in the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation’s Juvenile Indigent Defense Action Network (JIDAN), an initiative that engages juvenile defenders, policymakers, judges and other key stakeholders in designing strategies to improve juvenile indigent defense policy and practice. Since 2006, Mr. Laba has co-authored the chapter on juvenile delinquency proceedings in California Criminal Law: Procedure and Practice, published annually by the Continuing Education of the Bar. Mr. Laba regularly organizes and presents at conferences for juvenile defenders.
In addition to his teaching activities at Berkeley Law, Mr. Laba is an adjunct faculty member at Golden Gate University School of Law, where he teaches Children and the Law.
Education:
B.A., University of Virginia (1989)J.D., UC Berkeley (Boalt Hall) (1996)