Marta R. Vanegas

Background

Marta’s main areas of practice are labor and employment law, business law, civil rights law, and general civil litigation. She is a zealous and compassionate advocate for her clients, unafraid to go the extra mile for a successful resolution of their situations. Marta approaches each case with a keen sense of justice and with her immense knowledge of California’s exacting labor and employment statutes.

Marta believes the law is a highly effective conflict-resolution tool and analytical framework. For her, the most rewarding part of practicing law is empowering her clients to move on from the dispute and refocus their lives. Marta takes her role as an advocate seriously by providing innovative, practical approaches to often intractable problems. As the chief strategist of Vanegas Law Group, she oversees the firm’s talented team of attorneys and paralegals to provide excellent and courageous service to their clients.

A native of Budapest, Hungary, Marta calls California home for the past two decades. Prior to private practice, Marta served as Deputy Legislative Counsel in Sacramento, California, drafting legislative proposals and providing counsel to legislators on labor, employment, and business law issues. She also builds on her experience of eight years as a Patent Paralegal at two large San Francisco law firms’ intellectual property practices.

Marta holds a Juris Doctor degree from the UC Davis School of Law (J.D., 2011) and from the ELTE University of Budapest, Hungary (J.D. summa cum laude 1998). She also earned an LL.M. degree in International Business Law from Central European University, Budapest, Hungary (LL.M. with distinction 1999) where she studied, among other things,  Comparative European Labor Law and International Commercial Arbitration.  While at UC Davis Law School, Marta served as Senior Symposium Editor of the UC Davis Law Review, and as Senior Articles Editor of the UC Davis Business Law Journal and served as the Chair of the Feminist Forum.

Marta is fluent in Hungarian and proficient in Spanish. She is admitted to practice in all courts of the state of California, in the U.S. Northern and Eastern District Courts of California, and in the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Each year since 2017, Marta has been recognized as a “Rising Star” by Northern California Super Lawyers, an honor reserved for the top 2.5% of attorneys who in the first 10 years of their practice have attained a high degree of peer recognition and professional achievement. Marta frequently presents continuing legal education programs on cutting-edge legal issues.

When not in the office, Marta serves as a Director on the Governing Board of the Contra Costa County Bar Association (CCCBA). Marta is a Past President of the Board of the CCCBA’s Employment Law Section and serves as President of the Business Law Section. Marta is also an Editor of the Contra Costa Lawyer magazine. Marta volunteers on the Parent-Faculty Club of Clayton Valley Charter High School as Parliamentarian and Auditor and serves as a Judge at the UC Davis School of Law Annual Intraschool Negotiations Competition. An avid reader and occasional yogi, Marta keeps herself (somewhat) fit through dancing, gardening, and never-ending home renovations.