Criminal Defense
Felonies and misdemeanors across three counties: DUI, drug offenses, theft and fraud, domestic violence, assault, weapons charges, probation violations, and record expungement under Penal Code § 1203.4.
A lawyer who knows how to tell your story.
Criminal defense, civil litigation and business counsel across San Bernardino and Riverside counties. At the California bar since 2006.
2006At the California bar. Admitted before all California state courts and the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.
300Felony and misdemeanor matters handled as conflict-panel counsel at the Victorville Superior Court.
3Counties served: San Bernardino, Riverside and eastern Los Angeles.
1Attorney on your file, from the first consultation through to the courtroom.
You are probably reading this on one of the worst days you have had in a while.
Someone has been arrested, or served, or handed a letter that changed the shape of the year. The internet has already told you six contradictory things. Everyone you know has an opinion.
What you actually need is narrower than all of that. Somebody who has stood in the courtroom your case is going to, who will read the paperwork properly, and who will tell you the truth about it, including the parts that are not in your favor.
That is the whole job. It has been the job here since 2006.
Four practice areas, one attorney
Matters that cross between them, and they often do, stay on one desk.
Civil Litigation
Disputes taken from the first demand letter through pleadings, discovery, motion practice, mediation, arbitration, trial and appeal. Contract, business tort, real property and landlord-tenant matters.
Business & Commercial Law
Counsel for the businesses that run the Inland Empire: trucking and logistics along the I-10 and I-15, restaurants, liquor stores and owner-operated companies. Formation, contracts, ABC licensing and disputes.
Family Law
Dissolution and legal separation, child custody and visitation, child and spousal support, and post-judgment modifications, handled with a clear eye on what litigation costs a family that still has to co-parent afterwards.
Before law school, he wrote plays
Lee Gale took an English degree at UCLA, then a Master of Fine Arts in playwriting at USC, and only then went to Southwestern Law School, through S.C.A.L.E., at the time the only two-year ABA-accredited law program in the country.
It is an odd route to a criminal courtroom. It also turns out to be a useful one.
A trial is twelve strangers deciding which version of events they can live with. Evidence wins cases, but only once somebody has arranged it into something a jury can follow.
Founding Attorney
Structure, sequence, what a listener already believes when you start talking: a playwright thinks about these for a living. So does a trial lawyer, whether or not they would put it that way. The opening statement, the order of witnesses, the sentencing memorandum that has to make a judge see a person instead of a file number. All of it is the same craft in a different room.
How the firm works
A small practice, run deliberately. Here is what that means day to day.
You talk to the attorney
Not an intake coordinator, not a case manager, not a different associate each time. The lawyer you meet at the consultation is the lawyer who reads the discovery, negotiates with the prosecutor or opposing counsel, and stands up in court. In a practice this size that is not a marketing promise. It is simply how the work gets done.
You get the unflattering assessment too
Some cases are winnable at trial. Some are best resolved early, quietly, on terms you can live with. Some claims are worth less than the cost of pursuing them, and you deserve to hear that before you spend the money. You will be told which of those you are looking at, in plain English, at the first meeting.
The cost is set out in writing before work begins
Flat fees where the scope is genuinely predictable, hourly where it is not, and a written agreement either way. If the matter turns and the scope changes, you hear about it when it happens rather than on an invoice three weeks later.
Preparation is the strategy
Most of what decides a case happens before anyone walks into a courtroom. Reading every page of the discovery, finding the report that contradicts the other report, filing the motion that narrows what the jury is allowed to hear. It is unglamorous, and it is where matters are actually won.
Nineteen years spent defending individuals and advising the institutions on the other side
Alongside the defense practice, Mr. Gale has advised public entities, including nearly all of the major school districts in California, on personnel matters, public contracts, public works construction and general administrative law.
It is a genuinely different vantage point. You learn how an institution decides what to pursue, where its own paperwork is weakest, what its counsel is worried about, and which arguments land with the people who authorize a settlement. Clients on the individual side of a case get the benefit of that.
Courts this firm appears in
Based on Fairway View Place, minutes from the West Valley courthouse, and regularly in the desert and Riverside courts.
- Rancho Cucamonga District (West Valley) Courthouse
- San Bernardino Justice Center
- Fontana Courthouse
- Victorville Courthouse
- Joshua Tree Courthouse
- Riverside Hall of Justice
- Southwest Justice Center
- Pomona Courthouse South
- U.S. District Court, Central District of California
The measure of the work
Most of this firm’s matters end quietly, which is usually the point. Occasionally a client says so publicly.
“I hired Lee Gale to defend myself and my business in a civil matter and he did an amazing job. Case was resolved in less than two months.”Verified client reviewPosted to Avvo, March 2020
Prior results do not guarantee or predict a similar outcome. Every matter is decided on its own facts, its own evidence and its own court.
Straight answers, before you call
An initial consultation is $150 for the first thirty minutes or $225 for the first hour, held at the firm’s Rancho Cucamonga office or by phone or video. It is a working session rather than a sales call. You bring the paperwork you have, and you leave with a clear reading of the charge or claim, the realistic range of outcomes, and what the next ninety days look like. If the matter proceeds, fee arrangements are set out in writing before any work begins.
Primarily the San Bernardino County Superior Court: the Rancho Cucamonga (West Valley) District on Haven Avenue, the San Bernardino Justice Center, and the Fontana, Victorville and Joshua Tree courthouses. The firm also appears throughout the Riverside County Superior Court, including the Hall of Justice in Riverside and the Southwest Justice Center in Murrieta, and in Los Angeles County at Pomona. It is admitted to the United States District Court for the Central District of California.
Three things. First, stop talking about the case. Not to officers, not to the other people involved, not on recorded jail calls, and not on social media. Second, write down everything you remember while it is fresh: times, names, what was said, who else was present. Third, note your arraignment date and call the office. Arraignment moves quickly in San Bernardino County, and the window before it is when the most useful work gets done.
Public defenders in this region are, as a group, capable trial lawyers, and the honest answer is that many clients are well served by them. What a private practice changes is caseload and access: fewer matters at once, more hours on yours, and a lawyer who answers the phone. Mr. Gale spent years on the other side of that equation as conflict-panel counsel for the Victorville court, so the comparison is not theoretical. Come in, describe the case, and you will get a straight assessment of whether retaining counsel is worth it for your situation.
Yes, and deliberately so. The practice divides roughly evenly between criminal defense and civil litigation, with a business and commercial practice serving Inland Empire logistics companies, restaurants, liquor stores and owner-operated businesses, plus family law. Those areas overlap more often than people expect. A criminal charge can put a professional license or an ABC permit at risk, and a business dispute can carry criminal exposure. Having both under one roof means neither gets missed.
The office is at 9333 Fairway View Place, Suite 101, Rancho Cucamonga, CA 91730, minutes from the West Valley courthouse. Office hours are Monday - Friday, 9:00 am - 5:30 pm, with evening and weekend appointments by arrangement. Consultations can be held by phone or video where that is easier, and the firm appears in courts across San Bernardino, Riverside and Los Angeles counties, including the high desert and the Coachella Valley.
Tell me what happened. I’ll tell you where you stand.
A consultation is a real working session. You leave knowing the charge or claim you face, the realistic range of outcomes, and what the next ninety days look like. $150 for the first thirty minutes, $225 for the first hour.
9333 Fairway View Pl #101, Rancho Cucamonga, CA 91730 ยท Monday - Friday, 9:00 am - 5:30 pm