As a teenager, Phil met a labor lawyer on a picket line in Farmersville. The way the man spoke and carried himself left a lasting impression and left him dreaming of becoming an attorney. After military discharge, Phil attended CSUF, graduating summa cum laude in Literature, and then attended SJCL. After passing the bar, he worked for an attorney in Visalia and encountered District Attorney Will Richmond at a bank opening, pressing him for a job. The following Monday he was interviewed and hired as an entry level Deputy District Attorney. Over the next 12 years he worked in the District Attorney’s Office, including seven years trying homicide cases before being selected as Assistant District Attorney by District Attorney, Gerald Sevier. After Mr. Sevier was elected judge, Phil became District Attorney, serving for 20 years. Since retiring in 2012 he remains active in the law, teaching Constitutional Law at the College of Sequoias and serving as a consultant for companies working with the legislative process. He also writes a blog on Constitutional Law (philcline.com). “I was one of the lucky ones. I had John Loomis for Contracts, Dan Eymann for Torts and Justice Hollis Best for Evidence. They engendered in me a love of the law and how it works.”
Alumni Success
Explore the diversity of our Alumni careers, to learn what a Juris Doctor degree can provide. One Degree. A World of Option.
Phillip Cline - Class of 1978 - Consultant, Former Tulare County District Attorney
Extensive and Diverse Alumni Network
Our success can be seen in the extraordinary achievements of our graduates in bar passage rates and dynamic careers. San Joaquin College of Law graduates serve as District Attorneys, Superior Court judges, court commissioners, administrative law judges, general counsel of large corporations, in-house counsel to agricultural enterprises, and much more. Alumni have benefitted from launching their careers in a region where the population is growing and the prospect of getting into a prominent position quickly is proven higher. If a graduate desires to leave the Valley, he or she is in a strategic position to make a lateral move to a city of their choice or obtain a leadership position nationally or internationally.
More than 30% of the practicing lawyers in the Fresno-Clovis area are SJCL graduates. Of the women lawyers in the area, nearly 44% are SJCL graduates. More than 37% of the minority lawyers are graduates.
Careers of SJCL Alumni in the Area Include
- Administrative Law Judge
- Baker, Manock & Jensen
- Bankruptcy Judge, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of California
- California State Assistant Attorney General
- Centex Homes In-House Counsel
- Children’s Hospital of Central California Counsel
- City Attorney
- County Counsel
- District Attorney
- Dowling Aaron
- Fresno County Clerk/Registrar of Voters
- McCormick, Barstow, Sheppard, Wayte & Carruth
- Magistrate Judge, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of California
- Member, Fresno County Board of Supervisors
- Pappas Telecasting, Special Counsel & Vice President
- Private Practitioners in every area of practice
- Public Defender
- Saint Agnes Medical Center Counsel
- Superior Court Commissioner
- Superior Court Judge
- Research Attorney, Fifth District Court of Appeal
- Research Attorney, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of California
- Trinity Fruit In-House Counsel
Careers of SJCL Alumni Outside the Area Include
- California Environmental Protection Agency, Deputy Director
- California Secretary of Health & Human Services
- California State Water Resources Control Board, Member & Chair
- Chevron Human Resource Manager, Asia south Business Unit, Thailand
- Chief of Staff for California State Assemblyman
- Contra Costa County Court Commissioner
- Delta Dental, In-House Counsel, San Francisco
- Glenn County Superior Court Judge
- Honeywell Corporation, Phoenix, Arizona
- Monterey County Superior Court Judge
- Nevada Care Counsel & CEO
- Point Loma Nazarene University, Fermanian Business Center Director
- San Francisco Assistant City Attorney
- San Luis Obispo County Court Commissioner
- Santa Barbara County Counsel
- TelePacific Communications Corp, Assistant General Counsel, Nevada
- U.S. Food & Drug Administration, Washington, D.C.
- Wells Fargo Bank, Trust Counsel, North Carolina