Mahal Rufina Montoya

Mahal is a divorce and family law attorney with almost ten years of experience. She began her law practice in 2014, having spent the previous fourteen years as a law clerk, educator, and paralegal specialist for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Mahal was born in Vallejo, California. After a series of family tragedies Mahal enrolled herself in the tenth grade at Oakland Technical High School. She was legally emancipated as a minor the following spring. These childhood experiences inspired her to become an attorney and in her law practice, to work on family law issues.

Mahal received a full academic scholarship to study law at the University of Iowa after receiving her Bachelor of Arts degree in English from UC Berkeley. She was a graduate legal research assistant to Law Professor Adrien Wing with her work writing "Global Critical Race Feminism: An International Reader." As a woman of color, Mahal has personally experienced implicit and explicit sexism and racism in academia, in the workplace, and in life. Her civil rights practice was born from an instinct to survive and navigate the white male patriarchy that is America.