Sheri Valley: Serving the Community Where It Is

The Colleges of Law alumna Sheri Valley got her JD later in life so she could help those in need no matter their status.

Pursuing a psychology degree later in life, Sheri Valley was once on track to become a family therapist. “After working for years as a court reporter, I was blindsided when I witnessed a family member’s first psychotic episode. I decided to enroll in some psychology classes to learn everything I could to help,” Valley says. “The next thing I know, I was taking a full course load.”

She graduated summa cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in psychology from California State University Channel Islands. Her focus of study was psychology in the legal system, but when she had the opportunity to participate in a mock trial, her career plans changed.

Valley volunteered to participate in the mock trial because the case involved someone who committed a crime while experiencing a manic episode. It was a study conducted in Valley’s criminal psychology class to show the biases of juries, but what it also revealed to Valley was her own desire to become a lawyer and advocate for people who live with mental health issues.

Law career unlocked

Once she knew she wanted to practice law, Valley’s path to getting there was different from that of many 20-something undergraduate students. Having married young, Valley was an older prospective student, and even her friends and family weren’t sure she could do it.

“I had basically no support when I started,” Valley says. “I applied without telling anyone and wasn’t sure I’d even get in. But I did.” The lack of support from some people in her life only made her more determined to become successful to prove everyone wrong.

The Colleges of Law, with its encouragement of students to work toward their legal goals no matter what stage of life they are in, seemed a natural fit for Valley’s unique needs. As  a student there, she earned several scholastic awards, a Witkin Award, and the Women Lawyers of Ventura County’s Mary Sullivan Scholarship Award.

Valley also worked as an intern at the Ventura County Public Defender’s Office during her time at The Colleges of Law. Being at the public defender’s office, she saw the ways the legal system was helping those who faced mental health challenges, but also the ways it was failing them. She participated in the “Assist” task force and drafted the first legal protocols to support the implementation of Laura’s Law in Ventura County.

Laura’s Law was enacted to allow families and loved ones to get help for the person in their life who is suffering from serious mental illness yet is reluctant to accept the treatment they need. Caseworkers meet those in need where they are—whether that’s a park bench, a shelter, or somewhere else—and keep showing up to meet with and encourage everyone along the way to voluntarily accept mental health treatment. Valley worked to figure out how the law could best serve those in need and collaborated with multiple county agencies, Ventura County Behavioral Health, the public defender’s office, Ventura County Counsel, and other experts.

One in five American adults experiences some sort of mental illness, and one in 25 experience a serious mental illness. As someone personally touched by the effects of mental illness on families, Valley is an advocate for families and loved ones who need support, assisting them in finding resources, including the National Alliance on Mental Illness, which Valley says was a lifesaver for her when she was searching for knowledge and support.                                                       

During her two years as a certified law clerk with the public defender’s office, Valley worked diligently in the mental health and veterans’ courts. She resolved 58 legal cases for veterans at Ventura County Stand Down, an annual event that offers homeless vets free legal and medical services. Yet Valley knew that once she passed the bar, she would only be able to work in mental health court if she stayed in the public defender’s office. Instead, she applied to private practice law firms.

“Unless someone gets in trouble for committing a crime or is being involuntarily hospitalized, lawyers’ jobs generally do not interact with those who live with severe mental illness. But there are so many other ways I try to help parents and loved ones find the resources they need,” Valley says.

“Many of us want to help those who live with mental illness avoid jail and hospitalization,” Valley adds. “With programs like Ventura County Behavioral Health’s Assist Program (Laura’s Law), National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), and Turning Point Foundation of Ventura County, another service that helps those with mental illness get jobs and maintain stability, there are a lot of programs where they can find help. There’s never going to be enough resources, but helping someone navigate the system is a start.”

Valley’s first case as a newly minted attorney still looks like serendipity to the outside eye. Drawing again on her psychology degree and background, she worked on a national product liability case for victims of electroconvulsive therapy products who suffered brain injury.

“Seeking treatment for mental health issues, these plaintiffs were struggling every day with all sorts of cognitive issues after being treated with these shock therapy machines,” Valley says.

In her newest venture as an associate at the law firm of Myers, Widders, Gibson, Jones & Feingold, LLP, Valley works on construction defect and insurance litigation, focusing on bad faith claims against insurance companies that, “inter alia,” are not willing to pay the insured’s claim. Whether Valley is helping people fight their insurance company for benefits or assisting in navigating the Ventura County Behavioral Health system, she’s serving her community.

As a longtime Camarillo resident, Valley praises The Colleges of Law for providing support to students who are in unique situations. “I wouldn’t have been able to do any of this without The Colleges of Law. We had access to practicing lawyers and judges from Day One. In Ventura County, everyone knows and respects The Colleges of Law because of the teachers and the lawyers who are currently working in the field.”

Oh, and eventually her friends and family came around. “After I passed the first year of law school, they realized I was really doing this, and now they couldn’t be more supportive.”