A. Niki Mehan

Ms. Mehan tried more than thirty-five cases to a jury as a deputy public defender in Los Angeles and Contra Costa Counties, handling cases 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 briefed an appeal, drafted and argued numerous pretrial and trial motions, carried a substantial criminal caseload, and 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 was on the team that represented the Oakland Raiders, and handled white-collar, bankruptcy, contract, and class-action disputes.

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 regulatory matters in large-scale litigation.