Valerie Escalante Troesh, Partner

• Administrative and Civil Enforcement
• Code Enforcement Advisory Work
• Code Planning, Drafting, and Advising
• Nuisance Abatement and Receiverships
• Public Entity Litigation Defense
• Writs and Appeals
• Police Services

• Cornell Law School J.D., and L.L.M. in International and Comparative Law
• Bachelors from UC Berkeley
• Law clerk for the Honorable Judge Terry Hatter in the Central District of California
• Extern for the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Los Angeles, Civil Division.

ADMISSIONS

• California Bar, Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, Central District of California, Northern District of California, Eastern District of California, and Southern District of California.

Ms. Troesh's expertise focuses in the broader area of administrative and civil enforcement matters, in which she advises clients on key strategies of protecting the community, engaging with the community, and utilizing the various enforcement tools available to public entities in the State. Ms. Troesh manages attorney and paralegal teams in both affirmative enforcement actions—such as nuisance abatement suits and receiverships—and defensive actions—such as appeals of administrative actions and writs. She advises code enforcement departments, building and safety departments, planning and zoning teams, business licensing staff, city attorney offices and other key parties in public service.

Ms. Troesh's work with jurisdictions in the State extends to also ensuring that code enforcement laws relied on, such as municipal codes for citations and nuisance abatement, are compliant with State law and Federal and State Court opinions to ensure proper enforcement techniques are utilized. Her focus is engagement with key staff and the community, reducing liability for public entities, and ensuring teams have the proper tools available to serve their citizens efficiently and effectively.

In addition to her health and safety-related work, Ms. Troesh has a broad range of litigation experience in both state and federal courts. Ms. Troesh brings significant experience defending public agencies against a variety of claims, including and among others: torts for personal injury; suits challenging code enforcement actions under the FHA, ADA and other laws brought by the US DOJ and private parties; suits challenging city council invocations under federal and state establishment clause laws; suits under the Public Records Act; writs of mandate for planning and permitting decisions; suits claiming excessive force against police and suits claiming due process and equal protection claims against code enforcement actions under constitutional law. Ms. Troesh has also served as an administrative hearing officer.

Ms. Troesh enjoys providing pro bono trainings to various groups in the code enforcement community, including the California Association of Code Enforcement Officers and Women Leaders in Code Enforcement. She is also the volunteer Legal Director for the Code Enforcement Officer Safety Foundation and holds the Code Official Safety Specialist Designation from the Foundation.

In addition to her work with public entities, Ms. Troesh also brings significant perspective from her private litigation experience as well as her adjunct professorship in Legal Research and Writing for Mt. San Antonio Community College.