Clariza Garcia has practiced law in California for over 25 years. She is admitted to practice before all courts of the State of California, the United States District Court for the Northern, Eastern, and Central Districts of California and the United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit. She is a lifetime member of the Filipino Bar Association.

After beginning her legal career at the San Bernardino County Counsel’s office in 1998, from 1999 to 2016, Ms. Garcia was an associate at Los Angeles and Bay Area law firms representing private corporations and public entities in employment, wage and hour, and civil rights actions. She was an associate at the law firm of Patton Wolan Carlise in Oakland, California where she continued to represent public sector clients. In 2016, she opened her practice, Garcia DeWalt, which took over Patton Wolan Carlise’ cases and clients when that practice closed.

Ms. Garcia has provided advice and counsel as well as personnel policy drafting and review. She is a mediator, including appellate mediation for the Third District Court of Appeals of California. For ten years, she was pro bono counsel for the Child Abuse Listening and Interviewing Coordination Center, which conducts forensic interviews of child abuse victims as part of an interagency task force.

Ms. Garcia is a graduate of Western State University School of Law and holds a B.A. in International Relations from the University of California at Davis. During law school, Ms. Garcia was a Paralegal and Certified Law Clerk with the San Bernardino County Counsel’s Office.