Jacque has had his “dream job” as an attorney in our Office for over 20 years. An experienced and prolific trial attorney, Jacque has served as our Office’s Training Director and Lead Attorney for the Pre-Trial Release Unit. He has mentored hundreds of high school, college, and law students through our Court Watch program, and serves as an Adjunct Professor at the University of San Francisco School of Law Criminal and Racial Justice Clinics. He currently co-manages our Misdemeanor Unit and oversees our Intern and Fellow Program, demonstrating his ongoing commitment to cultivating the next generation of defenders.
Jacque helped reform California’s felony murder rule though the passage of SB 1437, significantly narrowing the circumstances under which an accomplice can be charged with murder and enabling many unjustly sentenced individuals gain their freedom. He grew up in Modesto, California where his father was a community activist, inspiring him to fight injustice from a young age. Jacque graduated from Stanislaus State University and received his J.D. from Golden Gate University in San Francisco. He is co-founder of Advocates For Justice, a non-profit organization that fights for social, economic and criminal justice, which received the Living the Dream Award during the San Francisco Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights 50th Anniversary Celebration and Martin Luther King Jr. Awards event in 2018.