Elizabeth M. Calciano’s practice includes advisory work and the prosecution of municipal code violations as well as civil litigation matters. She has experience with a wide range of municipal laws including land use, environmental, open meeting, public records and conflict of interest laws. She currently serves as Assistant City Attorney in the cities of Monterey Park and Rolling Hills and provides legal services to many of the firm’s clients.
Ms. Calciano has a decade and a half of legal experience. She began her career in municipal law working for six years with Burke, Williams and Sorensen. During that time she served as the Assistant City Attorney for the City of Chino Hills, the primary legal advisor to the Chino Hills Planning Commission, Assistant General Counsel for the San Gabriel Valley Council of Governments and the Acting Assistant City Attorney for the City of Glendora. In 1998, she joined the Children’s Law Center of Los Angeles where she spent seven years representing abused children at all stages of juvenile dependency proceedings, including over five hundred formal mediations and more than one hundred trials. In 2006, she left the Children’s Law Center of Los Angeles to work on policy issues benefiting children. She served as a Legislative Deputy for Children and Education for Los Angeles County Supervisor Gloria Molina, during which time she advised Supervisor Molina on legislative issues impacting children and worked with County department heads to improve the condition of children throughout the County of Los Angeles.
In 1988, Ms. Calciano earned her B.A. degree, cum laude, in government and legal studies from Bowdoin College, Maine, where she also served as the chairperson of the student government. She earned her J.D. from the University of California, Hastings Law School in 1992. At Hastings, she also served as an editor on the Hastings International and Comparative Law Review, a member of the board of moot court and a representative in the student government.
Ms. Calciano authored ”Questioning Child Witnesses: A Few Simple Techniques Can Help Child Witnesses Provide Accurate Information@ which was published in Los Angeles Lawyer in June 2000. She also wrote AUnited Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child: Will It Help Children In The United States@ which was published in the Hastings International and Comparative Law Review, 1991-1992 volume.
In addition to her law practice, policy work and publications, Ms. Calciano has served on numerous boards and task forces. She was president of the Barristers of the Los Angeles County Bar Association from 2002 to 2003 and served on the Barristers Executive Committee for many years prior. She served as a member of the board of directors of the Los Angeles County Bar Foundation from 1999 to 2000 and again from 2004 to 2006, and was a member of the board of directors of Public Counsel from 2000 to 2003. She served as a member of the Los Angeles County Bar Association Juvenile Courts Task Force from 1999 to 2002. She has also served as member of the board of directors of several nonprofit charitable organizations.
Ms. Calciano and her husband Tom Fagan have three sons (all under the age of six). Consequently, she is also knowledgeable in matters pertaining to Spiderman, Superman and Speed Racer.
