Douglas M. Press ( He/Him/His )

Douglas M. Press oversees the Office’s Health & Hospitals Team; the Civil Rights, Tort, and Employment Litigation Team; and the Jail Reform and Custody Operations Team.  Douglas joined the Office of the County Counsel in 2018 after more than twenty-three years in state service, which included serving as the statewide manager for the California Attorney General’s Office Health, Education & Welfare Section, and in gubernatorial appointments as the Chief Counsel for the California Department of Health Care Services and the General Counsel for the California Health & Human Services Agency.  Douglas’s professional expertise includes healthcare law, education law, Americans with Disabilities Act litigation, class action and complex litigation, appellate litigation in federal and state intermediate appellate and supreme courts, mediation and dispute resolution, and statutory and regulatory drafting. 

Office practice areas

• Civil Rights, Tort, and Employment Litigation Team 
• Health and Hospitals Team 
• Jail Reform and Custody Operations Team 

​​Education

• Boston University School of Law, J.D., 1993 
  • Editor-in-Chief, The Boston University Public Interest Law Journal 
• Fulbright Scholar in public health, Sri Lanka, 1987-1988 
• Tufts University, B.S., magna cum laude, 1987 

Prior experience

• General Counsel at the California Health & Human Services Agency (2015-2018) 
• Chief Counsel at the California Department of Health Care Services (2011-2015) 
• Senior Assistant Attorney General at the California Attorney General’s Office (2007-2011) 
• Supervising Deputy Attorney General at the California Attorney General’s Office (2002-2007) 
• Deputy Attorney General at the California Attorney General’s Office (1995-2002) 
• Associate Attorney at Gibbons & Conley (1994-1995)