Lisa M Sciandra

I am a San Francisco Bay Area-based appellate and motions practice attorney. My litigation experience spans both civil and criminal practice in the federal and California courts. I use this breadth of legal experience to strongly advocate for clients.

I currently have a small law practice in which I primarily handle federal and state appeals, and some federal and state habeas corpus petitions filed in the federal courts. My recent victories include:
* Winning a grant of a habeas motion to vacate a 30-year federal prison sentence, with a new trial for the defendant; and
* A Ninth Circuit reversal of a denial of a state habeas petition, with the grant of an evidentiary hearing in the district court for the petitioner.

In addition to my law practice, I have also taught advanced legal writing at an ABA-accredited law school.

In my former capacity as a Deputy Attorney General for the State of California, I established a track record of successful litigation by winning favorable judgments on dispositive motions for her clients in every case I completed. These were primarily federal civil rights claims and state tort actions brought by prison inmates against prison wardens and other correctional officials and staff.

Before becoming an attorney, I worked as a copy editor drafting statutory amendment notes for LexisNexis’ well-known California codes publication, Deering’s California Codes Annotated.

I am admitted to practice in these jurisdictions:

* California courts
* U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
* U.S. District Court, Northern District of California
* U.S. District Court, Eastern District of California
* U.S. District Court, Central District of California