Rosemary Koo

Senior Associate

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Ms. Koo is a Senior Associate at Jones Mayer serving as Deputy City Attorney for the cities of Costa Mesa, Fullerton, La Verne, and Santa Fe Springs, Deputy General Counsel for the Gateway Cities Counsel of Governments Affordable Housing Trust, and works on various matters for the cities of Encinitas, Gardena, and Lakewood, and other public entities throughout California. Prior to joining the law firm of Jones Mayer in 2023, Ms. Koo served as a Senior Deputy City Attorney at the City of Riverside City Attorney's Office and Deputy City Attorney at the Los Angeles City Attorney's Office. Before working for local government, she was an Associate at Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard and Smith LLP defending government and public agencies in a wide range of issues in litigation, writs, and appeals.

Her primary practice areas are municipal law and transactional matters. Ms. Koo works closely with elected officials and staff in various areas of law including cybersecurity, technology licenses, cyber breach incident response, service mark registrations, and First Amendment, social media, and communications issues. She provides advice and training on the Brown Act, the Public Records Act, and conflicts of interest. Ms. Koo has advised on and drafted numerous departmental policies and forms (including IT, HR, and City-wide records retention policies), district and JPA formations, resolutions, and ordinances, including appropriations limit (Gann) resolutions, fees and charges resolutions, budget resolutions, and special tax assessment ordinances. Ms. Koo has handled development agreements and related documents for Housing Authority projects, contracts related to homeless services, and CDBG, HUD and HOPWA grant funded contracts.

While at the City of Riverside, Ms. Koo worked with most of the departments within the city, including the Housing Authority, and has advised several City Council Subcommittees (Public Safety, Finance, and Community and Economic Development), and Advisory Boards and Commissions including the Library Board of Trustees, the Museum Board, among others. She advised the Community Police Review Commission and the Human Resources Board for several years in open and closed session meetings where they conduct hearings on grievances by, and complaints against, city employees.

Ms. Koo utilizes her experience to assist multiple cities in drafting ordinances and resolutions, drafting and reviewing contracts, advised on procurements, procurement policies and ordinances, CUPCCAA, and is nurturing a growing passion for CEQA, planning, and land use law.

In addition to dedicating her entire legal career to public agency representation, Ms. Koo serves her local community as a tutor and mentor to younger students to help them identify career paths through higher education and find scholarship opportunities.

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Practice Areas

• Municipal Law
• Advisory and Transactional Matters

Education

• J.D., University of La Verne College of Law, 2006
  Full Tuition Scholar
• B.S., Biology, Psychology, & Communications, Eastern Michigan University, Ypsilanti, MI, 2000
  Summa Cum Laude

Bar and Court Admissions

• California Supreme Court
• United States District Court for the Central District and Southern District of California
• U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit

Professional Associations and Memberships

• State Bar of California
• California Lawyers Association
• Asian Pacific American Lawyers of the Inland Empire (Past President)
• Asian Pacific American Bar Association
• Delta Theta Phi Law Fraternity
• University of La Verne College of Law Alumni Association (Past Secretary)

Publications

• California Municipal Law Handbook review team for multiple years