Cristina C. Arguedas

Thorough, intense pre-indictment preparation for clients facing potential criminal charges is Arguedas’ mantra.

Arguedas said her best work is often done behind the scenes for clients who hope to remain out of the spotlight—and out of prosecutors’ sights. So she often declines to name names. “Almost all my time right now I’m spending on three cases,” she said in late August. “All are pre-indictment, and we’re hoping to keep them that way.”

They include a tax case “for a very prominent individual,” an intellectual property case for a similarly well-known client and the defense of “a legitimate company that distributes opioids,” she said.

“One I’m sure is going to be indicted and the others I hope to talk them out of it,” she said of prosecutors. “I spend enormous amounts of time getting cases ready at the earliest stages. We investigate, retain experts and do the legal work. I am ready to go, and therefore I am powerful in my presentation of why [prosecutors] shouldn’t do it. That’s when you get the best deal — if you’re ready.”

That’s also why she clashed earlier this year at a San Francisco forum featuring herself, U.S. Attorney David Anderson and a third lawyer discussing white collar criminal prosecutions after Anderson announced the creation of a corporate fraud strike force within his office.

Arguedas found fault with Anderson’s plan to indict offenders, make early plea offers, set firm deadlines for defendants to accept the offers and prepare for trial if they don’t. Arguedas calls it the “exploding offer” approach and contends that it puts too much power in the prosecution’s hands. “I can’t know if it’s the best offer until I’ve had a long time to sit with the evidence, to investigate the case from our side,” she said. “I want to get in there before [prosecutors] make the determination of what the case is worth.”

That approach didn’t work this year when Arguedas and colleagues Raphael M. Goldman and Theodore W. Cassman accepted pro bono the defense of a rookie Solano County deputy public defender, Octavio Joseph Reyes, who had already been indicted for allegedly trying to manipulate the mother of a man he was representing on a charge of violating a restraining order, a felony that could have ended Reyes’ career. People v. Reyes, FCR341076 (Solano Super. Ct., filed Oct. 28, 2018).

In June 2019, their legal arguments persuaded a visiting judge to dismiss all charges. “I’m proud of that case,” Arguedas said. “They wanted to ruin his life. To me, he was the most important victim we have represented in a long time.”

— John Roemer