Personal Info

Founding partner of Sumpter & González, Corinne Sumpter practices law, but her care for detail relates more to a novelist’s than a lawyer’s. Her client’s files grow the thickest and the margins of her paperwork accumulate the most notes. She has an expert knowledge of law, but she never allows casework to become procedural. For her, each client presents an opportunity to tell a unique story, to develop a protagonist and to structure a narrative.

She has had success in a wide variety of law, both civil and criminal, but specializes in handling juvenile criminal cases. Working with minors allows her to maximize the role she plays in the client’s life and development. As she explains, “I love working with kids and I went to law school to help the poor. The court room is great, but advocacy and counseling clients—building relationships—that’s what it’s all about for me.”

Corinne began to affiliate her interests in social justice and stories as early as college. She grew up in northern California, then completed her undergraduate work in English and Women Studies at the University of California in Los Angeles. Before entering Stanford’s law program she went to work for a Civil Rights law firm. While she loved the work, unfortunate office relations taught her two very important lessons. One, offices function better when operating as a cohesive team. And two, leaders must be both passionate and credible.

Since her experience at the Civil Rights firm she has had much more intensive legal training. During three years of law school she worked for the Mental Health Advocacy Project, the Support Network for Battered Women, the East Palo Alto Community Law Project and the San Francisco Juvenile Public Defender’s Office. After law school she spent two years practicing juvenile law in Washington D.C. while also serving as a teaching fellow at Georgetown University. That first job, however, has established in her the clarity of vision and conscience that running a law firm requires. As a managing partner she is both credible and passionate while also fostering an atmosphere of cooperation and teamwork.

Corinne admits, however, that she did not dream of owning her own law firm. While at Stanford she met David González, who she credits with the idea. Apparently he also proposed the idea of marriage. She never refuses a worthwhile challenge, though, and continuously brings grace and direction to both partnerships. Her holistic approach to life informs the balance she strikes between practicing law, managing a business, raising a family (which includes daughters Olivia and Ramona) and still finding ways to fulfill her other interests.

She does well at involving her family in many of those interests. She shares her love of food by preparing vegetarian meals, she shares her love of music by taking singing lessons with her daughters, she shares her love of the outdoors by pushing the stroller along for a jog around Town Lake, she shares her love of literature by reading to her family every night before bedtime. The yoga classes she attends three times a week, however, are her own to enjoy. And perhaps more than any other of her varied activities, the yoga provides an example of the serene poise that characterizes Corinne’s daily life.