Licensed in California

Helping people of modest means in rural northern California protect their rights at work, fight predatory consumer lenders, and plan for the future

Cristina lives in rural coastal Northern California, where she provides legal services for average people.  In her solo practice, she helps people of modest means protect and expand their rights in the workplace, defend against consumer debt, and plan in order to protect their assets for the next generation.  At the local court’s Self-Help Center, she helps litigants represent themselves, primarily in family law, small claims, and restraining order cases.  She also represents the California Low-Income Consumer Coalition in proceedings at the California Public Utility Commission.  

Cristina began advocating for workers and consumers as a paralegal for a rural solo practitioner in Pennsylvania, then in the Bay Area as a law clerk at Centro Legal de la Raza, California Rural Legal Assistance, WorkSafe, Legal Aid at Work, and the Consumer Justice Clinic at the East Bay Community Law Center.  She graduated from Berkeley Law after two decades as an educator, teaching college English and high school ESL, English, and Spanish.  She received a B.A. from Yale College and a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from Stony Brook University.  She has served on a school board, helped found a community garden, and led a shade tree commission that planted a lot of community trees.