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Bio:

Wendy Patrick Mazzarella is a San Diego County Deputy District Attorney, named by her peers as one of the Top Ten criminal attorneys in San Diego by the San Diego Daily Transcript in both 2008 and 2007. She began her legal career as a San Diego County Deputy Public Defender.  Most of her practice is trial work; she has completed approximately 135 trials including 86 criminal jury trials ranging from stalking, to torture, to first-degree murder.  In her current assignment in the Sex Crimes and Stalking Division she prosecutes cases involving sexual assault and sexually violent predators.  She received her Bachelors degree from the University of California Los Angeles, and her Law Degree from California Western School of Law.  Her legal education included study in Vienna, Austria, Budapest, Hungary, and London, England.

Ms. Mazzarella is in her fourth year as Chair of the San Diego County Bar Association’s Ethics Committee, one of 16 members of the California State Bar Committee on Professional Responsibility and Conduct, and an accomplished public speaker on the topic of ethics both nationally and internationally.  She teaches ethics around the country on a regular basis for various legal and business organizations, and is an Institute of Criminal Investigation (ICI) certified instructor for law enforcement.   Ms. Mazzarella has been featured as a media topic area expert on the radio as well as on both local and international television.

In a different genre of programs, Ms. Mazzarella presents motivational seminars, keynote speeches, and workshops nationwide.  She is a frequent conference opening speaker around the country on the subjects of “reading people” and “how to make a great impression,” and she also presents at business retreats and workshops on the topics of “leadership,” “building partnerships,” and related subjects.

Ms. Mazzarella is published on a regular basis.  She is co-author of the Revised Reading People (Random House fall 2008), was a contributing author to the Encyclopedia of Race and Racism (Macmillan Reference 2007), and Hate Crimes: Causes, Controls, and Controversies (SAGE 2004).  She has her own ethics column in the San Diego Daily Transcript, a regular column in Law Enforcement Quarterly, is a columnist and editorial Board member for San Diego Lawyer, and has been published multiple times in California District Attorneys Association publications and the California State Bar Criminal Law Journal.  She has also been published in the Los Angeles Daily Journal, has contributed several MCLE ethics articles for the California Bar Journal, and has been published in The Professional Lawyer, published by the American Bar Association Center for Professional Responsibility and the Standing Committee on Professionalism.  She is a contributing ethics author for Doing Justice and The Practical Prosecutor (National College of District Attorneys national publications).  

Ms. Mazzarella sits on the Executive Committee of the California State Bar Criminal Law Section and is a Master in the Louis M. Welsh American Inn of Court.  She is a past Vice President of the SDCBA, a past Vice President and Programs Chair of the Lawyers Club of San Diego, and a former member of the San Diego Citywide Advisory Committee to the Office of Ethics and Integrity.  Ms. Mazzarella is admitted to practice in California, the United States District Court in the Southern District of California, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, and the United States Supreme Court.

Ms. Mazzarella has been recognized for her legal work as well as her work in the community.  She received the Friend of the Community Award from the Tom Homann Law Association in 2003, the Service to the San Diego County Bar Association Award from the San Diego County Bar Association in 2005, and was recognized as one of San Diego Metropolitan Magazine’s 40 under 40 honorees in 2001. 

On a personal note, Ms. Mazzarella holds a purple belt in karate, plays first violin with the La Jolla Symphony, and plays the electric violin professionally with a rock band, performing both locally and in Hollywood.  She is also a full time student at Bethel Seminary where she will graduate in June 2009 with a Masters in Divinity degree.