I am an attorney with 10 years experience this past Jan. 15. I started my career while living in Stockton – my hometown – shortly after having a baby. And based on the almost nonexistent job market in Stockton for young lawyers, I turned to government and became a Deputy County Council for San Joaquin County, where I worked for several years. I represented the different departments that made up the county and learned a lot about the place I was born.
One of my clients was the Public Conservator/Public Guardian. I would travel to the local mental health facility three times a week, along with a Superior Court judge, the public conservator, a deputy public defender and a bailiff. We conducted court in the hospital to put in place conservatorships of people held on a 5150 hold – in other words, “those who pose a threat to themselves and others.”
It was an amazing eye opener to see so many mentally-ill people who otherwise seemed normal, looked normal and held normal jobs for the most part, until they got off their medication or had some “incident” that led them astray. I discovered that historically, Stockton was home to one of the largest mental institutions in the state at the time when California had few similar hospitals to deal with this population. As a result, people from all over the state with mental problems were shipped to the Central Valley city for treatment.
Today, I have been in private practice for five years and my firm is in downtown Oakland. I practice in the areas of family law, criminal defense (I spent two years as a Deputy District Attorney also in Stockton), personal injury and bankruptcy. Although I am far from the days of traveling to and from the mental hospital in Stockton, I still – on a day-to-day basis – deal with some of the same issues that manifest in the form of a divorce, a criminal act and more.
I’m always amazed that there are people in this world who are extremely successful on the one hand, holding down great jobs, making good money, raising a family, but on the other end of the spectrum, there are those for whom life becomes simply too hard to deal with for one reason or another. Things fall apart, albeit little by little, and eventually it leads to legal matters.
I try to be a bridge to get my clients to the other side with some legal guidance, wisdom and encouragement. I’m not always successful, and have learned to deal with the fact that not all people want to get to the other side of that bridge as they would simply rather jump off.
But I keep trying.
Roseann Torres
Roseann Torres was born in Stockton, California, and lived there until moving to San Francisco to attend SF State University. She received a BS in Marketing in 1992, and worked for a few years in that area before attending law school at Albany Law School in Albany, New York. She returned to California for the Bar exam and became an attorney in January 2000.
She initially worked as an attorney in Stockton where she was employed by San Joaquin County. She worked at the County Counsel’s office for two years and a Deputy County Counsel. There, she represented various county agencies in legal matters including litigation. Then she worked at the District Attorney’s office also for about two years as a Deputy District Attorney. For the past five and a half years, after moving to Oakland, she has been self-employed practicing in the areas of criminal defense, family law, bankruptcy and personal injury. She is in court on a daily basis, and employs two part time staff and one part time attorney.
For the majority of her career as an attorney, she has consistently volunteered in one way or another with community based organizations, or through youth programs. For the past three years, she has been a volunteer at Centro Legal De La Raza at their family law clinic providing free consultations. She also speaks at various events promoting diversity in the legal field, primarily targeting Black and Latino populations. Overall, she is very active in her local community and civically engaged. 
