A boutique California practice spanning criminal defense, appellate work, and corporate training — led by a litigator with extensive trial experience, from representing the Oakland Raiders to defending individuals in California's criminal courts.
Flat fees, agreed up front. No surprise bills, and no meter running when you call with a question.
You'll hear what's actually likely — not what's easiest to tell you. Clarity is the entire point.
Not passed down a chain of associates. The person you hire is the person who fights for you.
Misdemeanor and DUI defense across the Bay Area, with plain-language guidance on the charges people most often face.
A neutral, lower-conflict way to resolve divorce and separation — assets, support, custody, and disclosures — outside of court.
Workplace harassment-prevention and compliance training for California employers, delivered live.
Appellate briefing and writ practice in the California Court of Appeal — available to clients and to other counsel.
Ms. Mehan tried more than thirty-five cases to a jury as a deputy public defender in Los Angeles and Contra Costa Counties, handling matters from intake through verdict and appeal. In Los Angeles County, she was appointed to train incoming deputy public defenders — a role assigned to the office's experienced trial attorneys — and tried a range of contested cases, including a three-week jury trial involving fifteen witnesses.
In Contra Costa County, she served as both a trial and appellate attorney. She briefed an appeal, drafted and argued more than two hundred motions, and carried a caseload of over two hundred clients, and she successfully advocated to make civil conservatorship placement hearings standard practice in the county.
Before entering public defense, Ms. Mehan practiced commercial litigation at Howard, Rice, Nemerovski, Canady, Falk & Rabkin in San Francisco, where she represented the Oakland Raiders in their fraud case against the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum and handled white-collar, bankruptcy, contract, and class-action disputes. Her appellate work includes briefing and writ proceedings in the California Court of Appeal and a petition to the California Supreme Court.
Earlier in her career, she worked as a litigation consultant at the Law & Economics Consulting Group, applying economic and financial analysis to antitrust, intellectual-property, and energy matters for law firms and corporations.
Plain-language information on the charges people most often face in the Bay Area — and what they actually mean.
A criminal charge raises immediate, practical questions: what you're accused of, what the penalties are, and what can be done about it. Below is general information on the charges Circle Law handles across Alameda, Contra Costa, and the surrounding counties. None of it is legal advice for your situation — but it should help you understand where you stand before you call.
Driving under the influence carries a second, separate consequence beyond court: the DMV moves against your license, and you generally have only 10 days from arrest to request a hearing. These cases often turn on the traffic stop, the testing, and how the evidence was handled.
Charges between people in a relationship or household move quickly and frequently come with a protective order that affects where you live and your contact with family. The details of what happened — and who said what — matter enormously.
Assault is the threat or attempt to use force; battery is the unlawful touching itself. Many are charged after fights or one-sided accounts, and the facts often look very different once the full story comes out.
Petty theft, shoplifting, and grand theft, depending on the value involved. Many can be reduced or resolved in ways that keep them off your record — which matters for jobs, housing, and licensing.
Possession and related charges. California offers diversion and treatment options in many cases that can lead to a dismissal rather than a conviction, depending on the charge and your history.
A catch-all for public-conduct offenses. They sound minor, but a conviction still creates a record — and they are often more negotiable than people assume.
Brandishing and related offenses. Penalties vary widely with the specific facts, and exactly how a weapon was involved is usually the central question in the case.
Alleged violations of a restraining or protective order are taken seriously by the courts. The precise terms of the order — and whether contact was actually prohibited — are where these cases are won or lost.
Leaving the scene of an accident. Whether you knew an accident occurred, and what duty applied, are central — and these often resolve more favorably than people fear.
The standard and procedure differ from a new charge. A good outcome here often means reinstatement of probation rather than custody.
Circle Law also handles appellate briefing and writ proceedings — an area many defense practices don't cover. If you believe a ruling or conviction was wrong, there may be a way to challenge it, and the firm can assess whether that option is open in your case.
A calmer, less expensive way to resolve a divorce or separation — guided by a neutral, not fought in court.
Mediation lets two people settle the terms of a divorce or separation themselves, with a neutral attorney guiding the conversation — instead of handing the decisions to a judge. It is usually faster, far less expensive, and far less adversarial than litigation, and it keeps control with the people who have to live with the outcome. As the mediator, Circle Law does not represent either side; the role is to help both reach a fair, workable agreement.
A session can address some or all of what a separating couple needs to settle:
It is typically quicker and less costly than going to court, and it lowers the temperature of an already hard process. An agreement reached in mediation can be put into the proper forms and filed with the court, so the result is just as binding — without years of conflict.
For couples who want to stay civil, keep their children out of a courtroom fight, and keep their finances private, mediation is often the better path.
Workplace harassment-prevention and compliance training for California employers — delivered live.
California law requires employers with five or more employees to provide sexual harassment prevention training — two hours for supervisors and one hour for every other employee, with new employees trained within six months of hire and everyone retrained every two years. Circle Law provides that training, and the related workplace-conduct instruction employers are expected to give their teams, in sessions built to hold a room rather than run out the clock.
Training is tailored to the employer's size and workforce, and can be delivered on-site or virtually:
The training is led by a trial lawyer who has spent a career explaining the law — to juries, and to rooms of new attorneys as an appointed trainer. The result is instruction people actually absorb: practical, current, and engaging, rather than a slideshow they click through and forget.
For California employers, that means meeting the mandate and giving employees something worth their time.
Tell the firm briefly what's going on. If Circle Law is the right fit for your matter, you'll hear back to set up a time to talk.
By appointment. Serving Alameda, Contra Costa, and the greater Bay Area.
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