James Gibbons-Shapiro grew up in San Jose, attended Gunderson High School, Yale University, and UCLA Law School.  He has worked at the Santa Clara County DA’s Office for 27 years.  He has prosecuted almost every kind of case, and in 2003 won the Felony Trial Attorney of the year award for his work on the Sexual Assault Team.  Currently he is one of the six Assistant DAs that manage the trial and other teams in the DA’s Office.  He supervises the Family Violence Team, The Crime Strategies Unit (using data analytics and information sharing to solve more crimes and prosecute them better), the Victim Services Unit, the High-Tech Crimes Team, and the Issuing Team (that reviews police report and files criminal cases in court).  He chairs the County’s Domestic Violence Death Review Team, and the periodic efforts to update and revise the County’s Domestic Violence Protocol for Law Enforcement and the Child Abuse Protocol for Law Enforcement.  He serves on the County’s Domestic Violence Council, and is the Chair of the Child Abuse Prevention Council.