Candidate for
City Attorney; City of San Francisco

San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera leads an office that has won national acclaim as one of the most talented, progressive and innovative public law offices in the nation.

The first Latino ever to hold the office, Dennis was elected City Attorney of San Francisco in 2001 on a pledge to defend the integrity of our public institutions, to expand neighborhood protection efforts, and to enhance local government's accountability to its citizens and taxpayers. But it has been several of his bolder, affirmative litigation efforts for which Herrera has earned his national reputation.

He filed the first government litigation in American history to challenge the constitutionality of marriage laws that discriminate against gay and lesbian couples. His case was among those that won a landmark 2008 decision that not only toppled the discriminatory marriage exclusion, but solidified civil rights protections for lesbians and gay men from discrimination in California. He led the nation's only public sector intervention to challenge the constitutionality of the Bush Administration's federal abortion ban, representing public hospitals and clinics that are often a safety net of last resort for poor and underserved women, and fighting to protect women's right to reproductive choice all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. He led the groundbreaking public integrity investigation and lawsuit on behalf of the San Francisco Unified School District that blew the whistle on a nationwide scam to defraud the federal E-Rate program, which helps expand access to technology to America's poorest school districts. His testimony before Congress on the case helped establish lasting protections against waste, fraud and abuse for countless public school children. Beyond his role as City Attorney, Herrera is active participant in numerous local, state and national organizations. He serves on the board of the Hunter's Point Boys and Girls Club, and helps to impart his love of sports and recreation by helping to coach local youth soccer and baseball programs. He worked tirelessly to raise money statewide to support the 2008 campaign to defeat Proposition 8. He was chosen to serve on a judicially appointed committee on the independence of the judiciary, and he has spoken and written extensively on the importance of protecting our judicial branch of government from cynical political attacks. He also serves on the board of the American Constitution Society, a prestigious and influential national legal organization past leadership includes U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and others.

Herrera was born on November 6, 1962 in Bay Shore, New York, and grew up in the nearby Long Island community of Glen Cove. He obtained his bachelor's degree at Villanova University in Pennsylvania, and went on to earn his juris doctor from the George Washington University School of Law in Washington, D.C. He was admitted to the California Bar in 1989.

With the inauguration of President Bill Clinton in January 1993, Herrera was appointed to the U.S. Maritime Administration in Washington, D.C., where he served under Transportation Secretary Federico Pena and helped lead implementation of the National Shipbuilding Initiative and Maritime Security Program. Herrera later returned to private practice in San Francisco as a partner in the maritime law firm of Kelly, Gill, Sherburne & Herrera, but remained active in local community service. He was appointed to the City's Transportation Commission by then-Mayor Willie L. Brown Jr., who later named him to the San Francisco Police Commission.

Herrera won high marks from police accountability advocates and police officers' association leaders alike for his fair-minded temperament and focus on bridging divides and solving problems. He would later be elected Police Commission President. As a commissioner, Herrera led a groundbreaking effort to develop police department protocols to assure fair treatment and protect the dignity of transgendered people.

Dennis Herrera and his wife, Anne, live in the Potrero Hill neighborhood of Dogpatch, with their eight-year-old son, Declan.