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Office of the County Counsel
Office of the County Counsel

Sohayl Vafai

Deputy County Counsel

Overview

Sohayl Vafai joined the Office of the County Counsel in 2023.  He is a member of the Public Safety and Justice and Finance, Government Operations, and Technology Teams.   

Before joining the Office, Sohayl represented the U.S. Social Security Administration on appeal in federal courts.  He previously represented individual and corporate clients in a variety of complex civil litigation matters at a global law firm.  Sohayl also served as a law clerk to the Honorable James E. Graves, Jr., at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, the Honorable Claudia A. Wilken at the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, and the Honorable Hilda G. Tagle at the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas.  

In law school, Sohayl externed for the Honorable Jacqueline S. Corley at the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.  Sohayl also externed at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Office of the Chief Counsel, where he was a paralegal specialist prior to law school.  

Office practice areas
  • ​​Public Safety and Justice Team 
  • Finance, Government Operations, and Technology Team 
Education
  • University of California, Berkeley, School of Law, J.D., 2017 
    • California Law Review, Notes Editor & Diversity Award recipient (for spearheading a successful resolution to create a Senior Diversity Editor)  
    • Minority Corporate Counsel Association Scholar (one of 15 out of over 1,300 applicants selected for scholarship) 
  • University of Maryland, College Park, B.A., summa cum laude, 2012 
Prior experience
  • Attorney at the U.S. Social Security Administration, Office of the General Counsel (2021–2023) 
  • Associate at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, LLP (2021) 
  • Law Clerk to the Hon. James E. Graves, Jr., U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit (2019–2020)  
  • Law Clerk to the Honorable Claudia A. Wilken, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California (2018–2019) 
  • Law Clerk to the Hon. Hilda G. Tagle, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas (2017–2018)