Vishad Dewan
Associate Attorney
Education:
California Western School of Law (LL.M. Federal Criminal Trials, 2011)
Santa Clara University of Law (J.D., 2010)
University of California at Davis (B.A., 2007)
Prior Experience:
Sonoma County Public Defender’s Office (Deputy Public Defender IV, 2017-2026)
Mendocino County Public Defender’s Office (Deputy Public Defender III, 2016-2017)
Fresno County Public Defender’s Office (Deputy Public Defender II, 2014-2016)
Private Defense Attorney in Santa Clara County (2010-2014)
Admissions:
Supreme Court of California
Vishad Dewan has been a practicing attorney in California since December 2010, specializing in criminal defense for the entirety of his career. He has handled over 22,000 criminal cases. At Bobbitt, Pinckard & Fields II, APC, he now applies this trial and discovery expertise to the defense of peace officers in internal affairs investigations, critical incidents, and criminal proceedings.
Following law school, Vishad was accepted into California Western School of Law’s Criminal Defense Trial Strategy Master’s program in San Diego, which, at the time, admitted no more than 10 applicants nationwide each year. Over nine months, he trained in the aggressive application of winning trial strategy – trial preparation, the offensive use of the rules of evidence, motions writing and argumentation, and advanced cross-examination – and graduated with highest honors.
He has handled complex matters throughout the state of California, with extensive experience in cases involving fraud, theft, domestic violence, assault, drug and alcohol offenses, all manner of sex offenses, manslaughter, and murder.
Vishad started his legal career as a private defense attorney in Santa Clara County, handling serious gang, sex, and murder cases. He then became a deputy public defender in Fresno County, where he handled everything from failure to pay child support to drunk driving, domestic violence, and murder – and was rarely out of active litigation.
In 2016, Vishad moved to northern California and joined the Mendocino County Public Defender’s Office, where he handled complex litigation and trials.
He transferred to the Sonoma County Public Defender’s Office in 2017, representing clients charged with everything from infractions to the most serious felony crimes. While in Sonoma County, he made a habit of catching the District Attorney’s Office cutting corners—uncovering and winning discovery violation after discovery violation. In 2023, he overturned a felony conviction the prosecution had obtained while the defendant was unrepresented by counsel, exposing a Sonoma County District Attorney policy that undermined a basic constitutional right. In 2024, he proved that the county’s discovery practice had led prosecutors to destroy video evidence in hundreds of pending cases, which led to the court-ordered overhaul of the District Attorney’s discovery disclosure process. He litigated countless motions to suppress illegally obtained evidence, motions to dismiss for speedy trial violations, Brady motions over withheld exculpatory evidence, motions challenging prosecutorial misconduct, and filed motions for gag orders against the sitting District Attorney – consistently holding the government to the constitutional obligations it too often treated as optional.
Across every county he has practiced in – Santa Clara, Fresno, Mendocino, and Sonoma – Vishad has made a career of forcing the government to follow the same rules they are sworn to enforce.
Vishad joined Bobbitt, Pinckard & Fields II, APC, in 2026, bringing nearly two decades of criminal defense experience to the firm. He has taught cross-examination techniques at seminars and serves as an adjunct professor with Monterey College of Law, teaching Evidence, Moot Court, Advanced Case Litigation, Advanced Ethics, and other electives.
He has also coded and developed trial-specific software to help trial lawyers during litigation and facilitate more effective cross-examination.
In his spare time, Vishad is an avid photographer and videographer, and an amateur astrophotographer.