What do get when you combine 6 professional women with 14 children between them? A lot of practical life experience, really fun birthday parties, and an incredibly efficient law firm.

Sumpter & Gonzalez is a wonderfully chaotic lifestyle as much as it is a boutique criminal law firm. Our core group of lawyers has worked together for over a dozen years. We are there for birth of each other's children. We are there for the death of a parent. All of our kids are have been in day care and elementary school together. We pick up each other's kids when a hearing runs late. Our kids constantly get each other sick. We share joy. We share pain. We encourage. We inspire. We challenge. We support.

For good times and bad, for sickness and in health, for richer or for poorer - these values necessarily seep into the culture of a law firm started by a husband and wife.

We trust each other with our lives. We think this is a good model for why you should trust yours with us.

High performing teams require a significant amount of trust and loyalty and communication and honesty and commitment. A single lawyer can do excellent work; a team of excellent lawyers can accomplish more. A high performing team has unlimited potential.

But without question, the engine of Sumpter & Gonzalez is strong women. Women who don't tolerate drama. Women who used to work on Wall Street as a foreign currency trader and for the Los Angeles Police Department and for federal district court judges. Women who are smart, women who are organized, women who are tough, and women who are very good at what they do. As a lawyer from another firm wrote after watching one of our lawyers in a contentious hearing:

“I was in awe; I was mesmerized; I was a fan for life in 5 seconds. She didn't do acrobats in court, and she didn't wave a magical wand, or speak in 25 languages. She simply stood at counsel table, alone, opposed to the other counsel table with 5 members from the District Attorney's office that included 2 appellate attorneys and the District Attorney himself (whom I greatly respect). And [she] put them all to shame. It was a small hearing, about a pretty important criminal discovery matter, and she was elegant, articulate, straight to the point, and respectful of the court. I approached the judge and the staff later, asking if they knew her…”

This is what working mothers do, without expecting compliments or glory or praise. Because no sooner do they leave the courthouse steps they're dashing to Target to pick up birthday presents for Saturday's four different parties and Trader Joe's for a few more things for dinner and they still arrive in time to catch the end of their kids' swimming or soccer or baseball or choir or softball or volleyball practice. Which demonstrates how we take our work seriously, not ourselves. It makes us better advocates. It makes us better negotiators. It makes us better people.

Before we ask you to share the intimate complexity of your life with us, it's only fair that we share ours with you.

This is our Firm, and we are very proud of the culture we have built. If you become client, we welcome you into our fold.

(And pick your socks up off the floor. Do I really have to say it 3 times?)