Cris Arguedas is recognized as one of the finest criminal defense lawyers in the United States. In her 20-plus years in private practice, she has represented high-profile clients in some of the most visible cases around the country, as well as many little-known clients on relatively routine matters that never make the nightly news.

Cris is equally adept at handling complex white-collar cases, sensational murders, and the full range of less serious criminal cases. She works closely with other ACH lawyers as well as a team of investigators, jury consultants and other top experts she has assembled over more than two decades.

Singled out for her thorough preparation, shrewd strategizing, and impressive courtroom skills, Cris has been named the lawyer other lawyers would hire if they got arrested (California Lawyer), one of the 10 best lawyers in the Bay Area (San Francisco Chronicle, Northern California Super Lawyers), one of the 50 most influential women lawyers in the United States (National Law Journal), one of the 100 top lawyers in California (San Francisco Daily Journal, The Recorder), and one of the five most promising women lawyers in the country (Time).

Cris’s expertise also makes her a highly sought-after lecturer, teacher, and advisor to public officials in both major parties. She has served on advisory committees for San Francisco’s district attorney, Kamala Harris, and for two top federal prosecutors: San Francisco’s current U.S. attorney, Kevin Ryan, and his predecessor, Robert Mueller (now Director of the FBI). At the statewide level, she has been appointed to several commissions on judicial standards by California Supreme Court Chief Justice Ronald M. George. Cris has also headed U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer’s Federal Judicial Selection Committee, which recommends nominees for the federal judiciary and for the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of California.

Cris’s admirers include judges (“She comes into court with ‘solutions, rather than problems’”—unnamed judge, The Recorder) and prosecutors (“She has an excellent reputation as a very good attorney and a very straight shooter”—Alameda County District Attorney Thomas J. Orloff, San Francisco Daily Journal). Among defense lawyers, her fans include some of the most experienced attorneys in the Bay Area and the country. (“She’s one of the most marvelous cross-examiners you'll ever see.” —S.F. federal public defender Barry Portman, California Lawyer. “She’s got great judgment. And she is known as a good person to work with.” —John Keker, Daily Journal.)

Background
A New Jersey native, Cris graduated summa cum laude from Rutgers Law School in 1979. She came West to work on landmark battered-women’s cases, helped defend one of Patty Hearst’s kidnappers, and then landed a plum job as an assistant federal public defender in San Francisco—almost unheard-of in an office that had its pick of far more experienced lawyers. At 26, she stunned the federal court by filing suit, in conjunction with the Larry Layton-Jonestown massacre murder trial, to have the local grand jury selection process declared unconstitutional on racial grounds. While still a public defender, Cris met Penny Cooper, a Berkeley attorney who was a legend in the Bay Area criminal defense community, when they were trying cases in adjacent courtrooms. Both won, and in 1982, they decided to team up.

In the past two decades, Cris has represented dozens of high-profile clients—many of whom prefer to remain anonymous—charged with public corruption, securities fraud, intellectual-property theft, environmental offenses, sex crimes, drug manufacturing and trafficking, and murder, as well as hundreds of lesser-known individuals accused of far less serious crimes. In many instances, she’s been able to persuade prosecutors not to bring charges against a client or to drop the charges before—or even during—trial.

In recent years, Cris has made a specialty of defending corporate officials at such companies as Enron, Tosco, British Petroleum, Avant!, and Critical Path. In 1995 she was invited to join the “Dream Team” defending O.J. Simpson on double-murder charges. Her job was to put Simpson through a grueling mock cross-examination to help the defense team determine whether he should testify in court. (He didn’t.)

Honors and Awards
In 1983, when Cris was 29, Time magazine named her one of the country’s five most promising women lawyers under 35. Since then, she has repeatedly been recognized as one of the nation’s leading criminal defense lawyers by such publications as The Wall Street Journal, the National Law Journal, California Lawyer magazine, San Francisco magazine, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Recorder and Daily Journal legal newspapers, and every edition of Best Lawyers in America published since its inception in 1983.

In 2000, she was elected a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers (an honor reserved for just a tiny percentage of lawyers in the nation), and in 1995 she was named to the International Academy of Trial Lawyers. A former president of California Attorneys for Criminal Justice, a statewide criminal defense organization, Cris was named in 2001 as one of a handful of lawyers who other California attorneys would choose to represent them if they found themselves in trouble with the law.

Cris has taught criminal trial practice at Boalt Hall School of Law and trial advocacy at Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University. She has served on the boards of the Innocence Project of Northern California and the Western Center on Law and Poverty, among many other organizations.

Her Philosophy
PREPARE AGGRESSIVELY
Cris is renowned for her ability to think on her feet, cross-examine witnesses, and negotiate with prosecutors. While admirers praise her as “a born lawyer,” she knows that meticulous preparation is the key to her success.

Many defense lawyers make a basic mistake: They take their time investigating a case, allowing prosecutors to gain an early advantage and retain control through the entire legal process. By contrast, Cris believes that the more she knows about a case—and the earlier she knows it—the better the result will be for her client. “We put a lot of work into the beginning of a case,” she explains, “then figure out both the worst-case scenario and the best place that client can end up, whether that’s no charges filed, an acquittal, or a conviction with a lenient sentence. Next, we craft a strategy to get there. Preparation allows us to control the case. We never let the case control us.”

BE DIRECT
Cris and her ACH colleagues work hard to keep clients fully informed and involved in all parts of their defense. She believes that lawyers serve their clients best by being honest and forthright. “A lot of lawyers soft-pedal bad news,” she says. “But we think that being very upfront and direct helps the clients make the best possible choices.”

Some cases, she notes, “need to be fought all the way no matter how strong the prosecution thinks its evidence is.” On the other hand, “if a prosecutor has overwhelming evidence of guilt, it’s very possible that the best thing a person can do is make a good deal at the beginning of the case. If he’s my client, he’s not going to miss that opportunity because he’s living in a world of denial.”

GET TO KNOW THE CLIENT
High-profile attorneys are often better at handling cases than dealing with clients; it’s not uncommon for a lawyer to limit his or her knowledge of the client to the facts of the alleged crime. Not Cris. She tries to find out as much as she can about her clients, their families, their troubles, and the crime of which they’re accused. “Our goal is not to judge them,” she says, “but to understand what happened so we can control the course of the case.”

Where appropriate, she will refer a client to counseling or treatment programs. In high-profile cases, Cris works to take the spotlight off the client to ensure fair treatment by prosecutors, judges, and jurors. “For celebrity clients,” she says, “my job is to get them to be treated like they’re not celebrities.” When representing corporate executives—for example, someone accused of wrongdoing in a deadly industrial accident —“my job is often to prevent my client from becoming a scapegoat.”

WORK WITH PROSECUTORS
As one of the top defense lawyers in the country, Cris commands enormous respect from prosecutors, and she’s comfortable working with them to protect her clients’ interests. After she and the ACH team have thoroughly investigated a case, it is not uncommon for her to share her findings with prosecutors, to demonstrate why charges should be reduced or dropped.

“Frequently we are able to talk prosecutors out of bringing cases,” Cris says. On the flip side, she is more than willing to “play the courtroom warrior,” as she puts it, when the situation demands. When prosecutors realize they will face a strong challenge in front of a jury, they often agree to cut her client a more favorable deal.

BE DISCREET
Cris does not believe in fighting her battles in the media. She endeavors to keep her clients out of the public eye—not just high-profile corporate executives, but anyone charged with a crime who would be embarrassed by media attention. Sometimes, alas, it is not possible to entirely divert press attention. In such highly publicized cases, Cris helps manage news coverage so that it is more favorable than it might otherwise be.

Bar Admissions

• California Supreme Court (1979)
• U.S. District Courts: Northern District of California (1979), Southern District of California (1983), Central District of California (1982), Eastern District of California (1982), and District of Arizona (1991)
• United States Courts of Appeals:  9th Circuit (1980);  10th Circuit (1985); 2nd Circuit (2007) 
• U.S. Supreme Court (1983)
• U.S. Tax Court (1994)
• Admitted pro hac vice in Federal District Courts in Illinois, Iowa, Hawaii, Guam, New York, and New Mexico

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Professional Activities

• Appointed Member, Judicial Council’s Bench Bar Media Steering Committee (Appointed By Chief Justice Ronald M. George, Chief Justice Of California)
  2008 to Present
• Member, ABA Section of Litigation Trial Advisory Board
• Committee Chair, White Collar Criminal Defense Committee for National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers
• Board of Directors, United States District Court for The Northern District Of California Historical Society (2004)
• Appointed to Advisory Council for San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris (2004)
  
• Board member, Western Center on Law and Poverty (2004 to present)
  
• Member, State Bar Advisory Task Force on Attorney-Client Privilege (Business & Professions Code § 6068) (2003 to present)
  
• Board Member, California Attorneys for Criminal Justice Foundation (2003 to present)
  
• Appointed by U. S. Attorney Kevin Ryan to Criminal Justice Advisory Committee for the Department of Justice, Northern District of California (2003 to present)
  
• Board of Governors, Association of Business Trial Lawyers, Northern California Chapter (2002 to present)
  
• Advisory Board Member, Northern California Innocence Project (2001 to present)
  
• Department of Justice Dialogue Committee, American Bar Association Criminal Justice Section (2001 to present)
  
• Appointed by Chief Justice Ronald M. George to the California Supreme Court’s Advisory Task Force on Multijurisdictional Practice (2001-2002)
  
• Appointed by Chief Justice Ronald M. George to the Judicial Council Criminal Law Advisory Committee (1999-2002)
  
• U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer’s Federal District Judicial Appointment Advisory Committee, chair (1993-1997), member (1993-present)
  
• Appointed by Chief Justice Ronald M. George to the Judicial Council Task Force on the Quality of Justice Subcommittee on Alternative Dispute Resolution and the Judicial System (1998)
  
• International Academy of Trial Lawyers, Fellow (1995-present)
  
• The American Inns of Court, Master (1999-present)
  
• American Board of Criminal Lawyers, member (1990)
  
• Federal Magistrate Judge Merit Selection Panel for the Northern District of California, member (1998)
  
• California Attorneys for Criminal Justice, President (1996)
  
• National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, member (1979-present)
  
• Ninth U.S. Circuit Judicial Conference, Lawyer Representative (1986-1989)
  
• Center for Constitutional Rights, Cooperating Attorney (1981-present)
  
• California Attorneys for Criminal Justice, Board of Governors (1981-1987)
  
• First District Appellate Project, Board of Directors (1988-1991)
  
• Alameda County Bar Association, Judicial Evaluation Committee (1986-1989)

Publications

• (With Rory K. Little) Criminal Litigation Ethics for Prosecutors and Defense Attorneys, Litigation Ethics: Course Materials for Continuing Legal Education, American Bar Association Litigation Section (2000)
• Editorial Board, Jefferson's California Evidence Benchbook, Third Edition (1998)
• Duties of a Criminal Defense Lawyer, Loyola Law Review Vol. 30 No. 1.
• (With K. Ridolfi) Women’s Self-Defense Cases: Jurywork and Legal Strategy, Jurywork: Systematic Techniques (1979)

Media Honors
Listed in Chambers USA, America’s Leading Lawyers for Business 2005 edition as leading lawyer in White Collar Crime and Government Investigations.

Named in 2003 as one of the top ten lawyers in the Bay Area, by the San Francisco Chronicle.

Named in 1998 as one of the 50 most influential women lawyers in America, by the National Law Journal.

Named in 1998 as one of the 100 most influential attorneys in California, by California Law Business.

Listed in all editions of Best Lawyers in America (Naifeh & Smith, Woodward/White, 1989-present).

Featured as a nationally prominent criminal lawyer by numerous news media outlets, including:

• The New York Times
  
• The Wall Street Journal
  
• Time
  
• California Lawyer
  
• American Lawyer
  
• San Francisco Focus
  
• Los Angeles Times
  
• San Francisco Chronicle
  
• San Francisco Daily Journal
  
• The Recorder
  
• Schiller and Willwerth, An American Tragedy: The Uncensored Story of the Simpson Defense (Random House, 1998)
  
• Town & Country

Media Work
“CBS Evening News”—Legal Analyst for the Oklahoma City bombing case

CNN’s “Crossfire”—Legal Analyst discussing Harvard’s withdrawal of admission to a student with a juvenile record

“CNN & Company”—Legal Analyst for the O.J. Simpson trial

Teaching and Lecturing

• Faculty, “The 22^nd Annual National Institute on White Collar Crime”
  American Bar Association Criminal Justice Section
  Miami, Florida 2008
• Speaker, “Capital Case Seminar 2008”
  California Attorneys For Criminal Justice And California Public Defenders Association
  Monterey, California 2008
• Speaker, “Technology and Graphics”
  Santa Clara County Public Defender’s Office
  Santa Clara, California 2008
• Panelist, “Make or Break Decisions at Trial”
  The Bar Association Of San Francisco
  San Francisco, California 2007
• Panelist, “Defending the White Collar Case: In & Out of Court”
  National Association Of Criminal Defense Lawyers & Georgetown University Law Center
  San Francisco, California 2007
• Panelist, “Annual Review of Supreme Court Decisions”
  American Bar Association
  San Francisco, California 2007
• Artist, “The Trial of Hamlet”
  The John F. Kennedy Center For The Performing Arts And The Shakespeare Theatre Company
  Washington, D.C. 2007 Playbill
• Panelist, "You Be the Judge: Balancing the Equities in Sentencing"
  Ninth Circuit Judicial Conference
  Huntington Beach, California 2006
• Panelist, "Environmental Rights - Can I Sue the President"
  Law Day, United States District Court for The Northern District Of California, C.A.R.E.S.
  San Francisco, California 2006
• Faculty, "The Sentencing Revolution after Twenty Years; Its Impact on White Collar Crime"
  20th National Institute on White Collar Crime
  San Francisco, California 2006
• Faculty, “Experts: Getting & Grooming Yours; Derailing & Defusing Theirs”
  National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers Fall Meeting & Seminar
  Santa Fe, New Mexico 2005
• Faculty, “13th Annual Golden State Antitrust and Unfair Competition Law Institute”
  Antitrust and Unfair Competition Law Section, the State Bar of California
  San Francisco, California 2005
• Faculty, “Capital Case Seminar 2005”
  Los Angeles County Public Defender’s Office
  Los Angeles, California 2005
• Faculty, “Impact of Technology in Trial Proceedings”
  2005 Statewide Judicial Branch Conference
  San Diego, California 2005
• Faculty, “What Every Civil Lawyer Should Know About The First Step Into The Bridge Of A Criminal Problem”
  American College of Trial Lawyers
  Half Moon Bay, California 2005
• Faculty, “Dude, Where’s My Trial?”
  Northern District of California Judicial Conference
  Santa Cruz, California 2005
• Faculty, “Defending High Profile Cases”
  ABA White Collar Crime Defense Seminar
  Las Vegas, Nevada 2005
• Faculty, “Criminal Defense for the Civil Practitioner”
  The Rutter Group’s 2004 Seminar
  San Francisco, California 2004
• “The Power of Persuasion - Winning Over Judges & Jurors — Everything to Lose: Countering The Assault on Attorney/Client Privilege”
  The National Association Of Criminal Defense Lawyers Annual Meeting And Seminar
  San Francisco, California 2004
• Adjunct Professor, “Criminal Trial Practice”
  Boalt Hall School of Law, University of California.
  Berkeley, 2000 to present
• “Cross-Examination”
  San Francisco District Attorney’s Office Training Panel
  San Francisco, California 2004
• “Champions of the Courtroom, The Art of Trying Cases”
  The State Bar Of California Litigation Section Annual Trial Symposium co-sponsored by The Labor And Employment Law Section
  Napa, California 2004
• “The Power of Persuasion - Winning Over Judges & Jurors — Everything to Lose: Countering the Assault on Attorney/Client Privilege”
  The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers Annual Meeting And Seminar
  San Francisco, California 2004
• “Annual Survey of the Supreme Court Decisions: Criminal Cases”
  Criminal Justice Section of the American Bar Association, ABA Annual Meeting
  San Francisco, 2003
  
• “Advanced Techniques of Direct and Cross Examination”
  ABA Annual Meeting
  San Francisco, 2003
  
• “The Post-Enron Landscape: What Civil Litigators Need to Know About the Latest Development in Criminal Law”
  Litigation Section of the Bar Association
  San Francisco, 2003
  
• “Litigating for Social Justice III: Strategies for Winning Jury Trials”
  The National Lawyers Guild and the Bay Area Community Law Foundation
  San Francisco, 2003
  
• Faculty, Intensive Trial Advocacy Program
  Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, Yeshiva University
  New York, 2002
• “The Criminalization of Commercial Intellectual Property Disputes”
  The Federalist Society's Silicon Valley Lawyers Chapter and Intellectual Property Group Dinner Program
  Palo Alto, 2001
• “How Jurors’ Predispositions and World Views Might Affect Their Consideration of Evidence”
  Federal District Court Conference: Central District of California
  Santa Barbara, 2001
• Faculty, Ethics Panel
  American Bar Association Criminal Justice Section—15th Annual National Institute on White Collar Crime
  San Francisco, 2001
• Faculty, “Preventing Wrongful Convictions: Bringing Reliability to the Trial Process”
  California Attorneys for Criminal Justice Annual Fall Seminar
  Oakland, 2000
• “The Investigation and Prosecution of White-Collar Cases”
  Northern District of California Judicial Conference
  Santa Cruz, 2000
• Faculty, “Champions of the Courtroom”
  Annual Trial Symposium of the Litigation Section of the State Bar of California
  La Jolla, California, 2000
• Faculty, “Pitfalls and Pluses of Video: Effective Use of Videotaped Evidence at Trial”
  Association of Business Trial Lawyers of Northern California Seminar
  San Francisco, 1999
• “Federal Motions That Do It All: Get What You Need, Educate the Judge, Keep the Government on the Sidelines—and Even Pay Your Bill”
  National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, Spring Meeting and Seminar, “Advocacy Techniques: a Masters’ Course”
  San Francisco, 1999
• Faculty, “Champions of the Courtroom”
  Annual Trial Symposium of the Litigation Section of the State Bar of California
  Napa, 1999
• “Representing the Corporation and Its Officers in Criminal Proceedings”
  American Bar Association Business Law Section—Spring Meeting
  San Francisco, 1999
• Faculty, “Robes v. Bar”
  American Bar Association Criminal Justice Section—13th Annual National Institute on White Collar Crime
  San Francisco, 1999
• Faculty: “How to Present a Business Case Effectively”
  Association of Business Trial Lawyers—25th Anniversary Seminar
  Hawaii, 1998
  
• “Against All Odds: Handling the Difficult Case”
  Association of Business Trial Lawyers
  San Francisco, 1998
• Faculty, “Training the Woman Advocate”
  National Institute of Trial Advocacy
  Berkeley, 1998
• Faculty, “Champions of the Courtroom—The Masters in Action”
  Annual Trial Symposium of the Litigation Section of the State Bar of California
  Palm Springs, 1998
• “Selecting and Persuading Juries in a Diverse Society”
  Association of Business Trial Lawyers
  Rancho Mirage, 1997
• Faculty, Intensive Trial Advocacy Program
  Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, Yeshiva University
  New York, 1997
• “Take a Judge to Lunch—Go to Prison”
  Los Angeles County Bar Association, White Collar Crime Committee
  Los Angeles, 1996
• Speaker, Professional Responsibility Officers’ Conference
  U.S. Department of Justice
  Washington, D.C., 1996
• “Trial Evidence in the Federal Courts”
  American Law Institute—American Bar Association
  San Francisco, 1996
• “Witness Examination”
  State Bar of California, Litigation Section Annual Trial Symposium
  Palm Springs, 1996
• “Criminal Case Management and the Crime Bill”
  Ninth U.S. Circuit Judicial Conference
  San Francisco, 1995
• “Women in the Courtroom”
  California Public Defender’s Association
  Lake Tahoe, 1995
  
• “Cross Examination”
  Oregon Criminal Defense Attorneys Association
  Hawaii, 1994
• “Cross Examination”
  California Attorneys for Criminal Justice
  San Francisco, 1993
• “White Collar Crime: The Media and the Backlash”
  Ninth U.S. Circuit Staff Attorneys
  San Francisco, 1993
• “Issues in Defending White Collar Crime”
  Risk Managers Association
  San Francisco, 1992
• “Issues in Defending White Collar Crime”
  Bar Association of San Francisco
  San Francisco, 1991
• “Crimes in High Places”
  Aspen Advanced Criminal Defense Seminar
  Aspen, Colorado, 1990