Leo has experience handling sensitive and complex investigations for a variety of public and private sector clients, including matters involving C-suite executives, department heads, and other organizational leaders.  Leo’s public sector experience includes matters for diverse cities, counties, and K-12 school districts.  Leo has also worked with private sector employers from a range of industries, including clients in the technology, healthcare, education, legal, construction, and non-profit sectors, among others.  Leo also has experience testifying in support of his investigations.  

Leo approaches investigations with an extensive employment law background, including experience representing both employers and employees.  Before joining Van Dermyden Makus, Leo spent several years at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP, where he defended corporate clients in class, collective, and representative actions and significant single-plaintiff cases.  Leo then opened his own solo practice, focusing on representing individuals in employment law disputes.  

Leo earned his J.D. from the University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law, where he graduated first in his class.  During law school, Leo was a member of the Moot Court Honors Board, served as Chief Articles Editor of the McGeorge Law Review, and externed for the Hon. Frank C. Damrell, Jr. of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of California.  

Before law school, Leo worked as a newspaper reporter and as a high school English teacher.  He earned his B.A. with a dual major in Government and Literature from Claremont McKenna College. 

CA State Bar No. 285571