Ellen Valentik Leonida is a partner at BraunHagey & Borden. Her practice focuses on leading a broad range of impact litigation in state and federal courts. She also heads the firm's white collar practice. Ellen has conducted over 80 jury trials in federal courts in the Northern District of California and California state courts. She served as the forensic staff attorney for the Northern District of California Federal Defender's Office, where she developed an annual DNA boot camp and offered training and guidance to criminal defense attorneys throughout the country on forensic issues. She has lectured nationally on topics including DNA, digital forensics, and trial skills.

Education

Leonida attended

University of California, Santa Cruz The University of California, Santa Cruz (UC Santa Cruz or UCSC) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Santa Cruz, California, United States. It is one of the ten campuses in the University of C ...

, as an undergraduate majoring in American Studies. In 1993, she received a bachelor's degree with College Honors and Highest Honors in the major and was admitted to

Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States. It was founded in 1776 at the College of William & Mary in Virginia. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal arts and sciences, ...

. She attended law school at

UC Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after the Anglo-Irish philosopher George Berkele ...

Boalt Hall School of Law The University of California, Berkeley School of Law (Berkeley Law) is the law school of the University of California, Berkeley. The school was commonly referred to as "Boalt Hall" for many years, although it was never the official name. This cam ...

Berkeley, California Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Anglo-Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland, Cali ...

. In law school she was director of the Homeless Outreach Project and a founding member of the Boalt Hall Chapter of the

National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) is an American criminal defense organization. Members include private criminal defense lawyers, public defenders, active U.S. military defense counsel, law professors, judges, and def ...

as well as a volunteer at the California Asylum Representation Clinic. Ms. Leonida received her JD in 1996. On December 3, 1996, she was admitted to California State Bar.

Early career

In 1997, Leonida joined the Contra Costa County Public Defender's Office. Prior to joining the office she interned at the Lawyer's Committee for Civil Rights and the Youth Law Center. From 2010 to 2021 she was assistant Federal Public Defender in the Northern District of California, where she served as the forensic staff attorney. In that capacity, she successfully challenged the government's ability to obtain cell cite location data without a search warrant.

Scott Dyleski

Her most famous client from her state public defender days is Scott Dyleski. In the fall of 2005, Dyleski, then 16, was accused of beating the wife, Pamela Vitale, of prominent criminal defense attorney Daniel Horowitz to death in their

Lafayette, California Lafayette (formerly La Fayette) is a city in Contra Costa County, California, United States. As of 2020, the city's population was 25,391. It was named after the Marquis de Lafayette, a French military officer of the American Revolutionary ...

home. She became his attorney after the Dyleski family fired their attorney, Thomas McKenna due to a conflict of interest. McKenna had defended the driver of a car that killed Dyleski's sister and another passenger in 2002. Dyleski was later convicted of the charges and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Leonida, Ellen Living people California lawyers 1970 births People from Chișinău Soviet emigrants to the United States American criminal defense lawyers 21st-century American women lawyers Public defenders UC Berkeley School of Law alumni University of California, Santa Cruz alumni 21st-century American lawyers