Tony Serra

Tony Serra
Serra in 2018
Born
Joseph Tony Serra

(1934-12-30) December 30, 1934
Alameda County, California, U.S.
EducationStanford University (BA)
University of California, Berkeley (JD)
OccupationAttorney
PartnerMary Edna Dineen
Children5

Joseph Tony Serra (born December 30, 1934) is an American retired criminal defense and civil rights attorney, political activist, and tax resister from San Francisco.

Early life and education

A San Francisco native, Serra was raised in the Outer Sunset district. His father, Anthony Serra, was a Spanish immigrant from Mallorca who worked in a jelly bean factory, and his mother, Gladys (Fineberg) Serra was a Russian Jewish immigrant from Odessa; she died by suicide in 1977.[1][2]

Serra earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Philosophy from Stanford University and a Juris Doctor degree from Boalt Hall at the University of California, Berkeley. While in law school, Serra was a contributor to the California Law Review.

Career

In 1970, Serra successfully defended Black Panther leader Huey Newton in a murder trial.

In 1983, Serra won an acquittal for Chol Soo Lee, a Korean American immigrant in San Francisco who had been convicted of murder in 1973, and sentenced to life imprisonment.

He has also represented individuals from groups such as White Panthers, Hells Angels, Good Earth, and New World Liberation Front (NWLF). Some of these individuals include Brownie Mary, Dennis Peron, Patrick "Hooty" Croy, Ellie Nesler, and Symbionese Liberation Army member Sara Jane Olson.[3]

Courtroom sketch of Serra

In 1988 his California license to practice law was suspended for one month and he was placed on five years of probation following an earlier tax-related conviction.[4]

In 2002, Serra was sanctioned by the State Bar of California for disclosing the addresses and phone numbers of two police witnesses in a court document for Sara Jane Olson’s Los Angeles bombing plot trial.[5]

In 2003, Serra was awarded the Trial Lawyer of the Year award by the organization Trial Lawyers for Public Justice for his successful litigation of Judi Bari against the FBI.[6]

In 2004, Serra won an acquittal during a retrial on murder charges for co-defendant Rick Tabish in the death of casino mogul Ted Binion.[7]

In 2006, Serra's license to practice law in California was suspended for one year, and he was placed on a probationary period for two years, connected to his failure to pay income taxes.[8]

In 2015, he defended Chinatown crime boss Raymond "Shrimp Boy" Chow.[9]

In July 2025, after 63 years of law practice, Serra retired at 90 years of age[10] and, on July 1, 2026, his license to practice law in California was suspended and he was placed on involuntary inactive status, including for failure to pay bar fees and noncompliance with continuing education requirements.[4]

A biography of Serra, Lust for Justice: The Radical Life and Law of J. Tony Serra, written by courtroom artist Paulette Frankl and with a foreword by criminal defense attorney Gerry Spence, was released in October 2010.[11]

Tax resistance

Serra has been in trouble with the law several times for failure to pay income taxes. He refused to pay taxes in protest of the War in Iraq based on his conviction that the Bush administration was leading the country in the wrong direction and that he would, therefore, not contribute any money to fund what he saw as Bush's corrupt politics. On July 29, 2005, he was sentenced to 10 months in federal prison, to be served at Lompoc, California, and ordered to pay $100,000 in restitution for a misdemeanor conviction of willful failure to pay taxes.[12]

In 2006, Ephraim Margolin and Douglas L. Rappaport represented Serra against the State Bar of California when he faced action for failing to file a tax return. His license to practice law in California was suspended for one year, and he was placed on a probationary period for two years.[13] Serra was released from the federal camp in February 2007, reporting immediately to a San Francisco halfway house. He was released from federal custody, and the halfway house, on March 13, 2007, after finishing his sentence.[14] Along with three other attorneys, Serra filed a class-action lawsuit seeking minimum wages for himself and for other inmates, citing slave wages as unconstitutional.[15]

Personal life and family

Serra has taken a vow of poverty and is known for living a frugal lifestyle and driving a run-down car.[16] He does not have a cell phone, a bank account, or a credit card.[17] In a disciplinary hearing before the State Bar of California, Serra stated, "I took an informal vow of poverty. I vowed that I would never take profit from the practice of law, that I would not buy anything new, that I would recycle everything, that I would own no properties - no stocks or bonds, no images of prosperity. I still drive an old junk of a car. I still barely make the rent each month; I have accumulated nothing by way of savings, and I live from hand to mouth."[18]

Serra has five children with Mary Edna Dineen.[19][20]

Serra has two younger brothers including the late Richard Serra, a prominent sculptor.[21] Richard paid for the college educations of Serra's five children.[22]

The 1989 film True Believer was loosely based on the 1982–83 retrial of Chol Soo Lee. The film's main character, Eddie Dodd, played by James Woods, is based on Serra.[23] Serra said at the time of the film's release that he was unconcerned with the great difference between his actual unchanged countercultural commitments and the misleading portrait of his screen character as a cynical burned-out Sixties casualty. [24] The film inspired a spin-off series, Eddie Dodd, which ran for six episodes in 1991 on ABC; Dodd was played by Treat Williams.[25]

High-profile cases

References

  1. ↑ Talbot, David (June 24, 1990). "The Ballad of Hooty Croy : 'True Believer' Attorney Tony Serra Fights His Own Version of the Indian Wars--in a Courtroom". LA Times. Retrieved January 14, 2025.
  2. ↑ Whiting, Sam (July 23, 2014). "Tony Serra a tireless courtroom 'Verbal Warrior'". SFGATE. Retrieved November 20, 2021.
  3. ↑ O'Neill, Ann W. (May 11, 2000). "Olson's Latest Lawyer No Stranger to Fame. - Trial: Radical J. Tony Serra calls himself a 'true believer.' Others say he's the nation's best trial attorney". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved October 12, 2018.
  4. 1 2 "Attorney Profile J Tony Serra #32639". apps.calbar.ca.gov. State Bar of California. Retrieved August 14, 2026.
  5. ↑ Edds, Kimberly (January 25, 2002). "Ex-Olson Lawyer Serra Sanctioned for Releasing Information on Police". metnews.com. Metropolitan News-Enterprise. Retrieved August 14, 2026.
  6. ↑ "Fourteen Lawyers in Two Exceptional Cases Win 2003 Trial Lawyer of the Year Award: Two California Trial Teams Share Award for Civil Rights Victory in Estate of Judi Bari and Marianas Sweatshop Settlement Protecting Workers' Rights". Trial Lawyers for Public Justice. July 28, 2003. Archived from the original on July 25, 2008. Retrieved July 29, 2012.
  7. ↑ Puit, Glenn (November 24, 2004). "News: Binion Trial Verdict: Reversal of fortunes". Las Vegas Review-Journal. Retrieved July 29, 2012.
  8. ↑ "Tony Serra loses his license for not paying income taxes". archive.calbar.ca.gov. California Bar Journal. June 2006. Retrieved August 14, 2026.
  9. ↑ Weil, Elizabeth (October 13, 2015). "Shrimp Boy's Day in Court". New York Times Magazine. Retrieved November 20, 2021.
  10. ↑ "Well-known SF criminal defense attorney Tony Serra retires at 90: his life and legacy". ktvu.com. KTVU. July 25, 2025. Retrieved August 14, 2026.
  11. ↑ Lust for Justice: The Radical Life & Law of J. Tony Serra, released October 22, 2010
  12. ↑ Attorney Tony Serra sentenced to prison, San Francisco Chronicle, July 29, 2005
  13. ↑ "Calbar.ca.gov" (PDF). Calbar. Retrieved January 27, 2020.
  14. ↑ "Inmate Locator". www.bop.gov. Retrieved April 11, 2019.
  15. ↑ Defense Lawyer Serra Sues Over His Prison Pay, The Recorder, March 22, 2007
  16. ↑ KTVU.com, "Attorney Tony Serra Guilty Of Failing To Pay Taxes," April 5, 2005 Archived October 7, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
  17. ↑ Weil, Elizabeth (October 13, 2015). "Shrimp Boy's Day in Court". New York Times Magazine. Retrieved November 20, 2021.
  18. ↑ "Attorney Licensee Profile: J Tony Serra #32639, License Status: Active". State Bar of California. Retrieved October 13, 2018.
  19. ↑ Whiting, Sam (July 23, 2014). "Tony Serra a tireless courtroom 'Verbal Warrior'". SFGATE. Retrieved November 20, 2021.
  20. ↑ Chow, Robert (May 3, 1989). "Counterculture's Warrior Lawyer : J. Tony Serra's Specialty Is Outlaws, and He's Made His Reputation Defending Them". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved October 12, 2018.
  21. ↑ "San Francisco Magazine, "The Believer Behind Bars," November 2006".
  22. ↑ Thompson, Tony (April 2, 2006). "Idealist hippie lawyer can't beat the taxman". The Guardian. Retrieved November 20, 2021.
  23. ↑ Chow, Robert (May 3, 1989). "Counterculture's Warrior Lawyer : J. Tony Serra's Specialty Is Outlaws, and He's Made His Reputation Defending Them". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved October 12, 2018.
  24. ↑ Kurt Jacobsen, "Yippie to Yuppie". The Guardian. 1 June 1989.
  25. ↑ Tucker, Ken (March 22, 1991). "Eddie Dodd (review)". Entertainment Weekly.
  26. ↑ Ruggiero, Angela (August 13, 2018). "'Refreshed and excited,' Ghost Ship defense attorneys say they look forward to trial". East Bay Times. Retrieved October 13, 2018.
  27. ↑ Zamora, Jim Herron (May 17, 2002). "Last words in Earth First trial: Closing arguments present widely different realities". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved October 13, 2018.
  28. ↑ Elizabeth Weil (October 13, 2015). "Shrimp Boy's Day in Court What happened when one of San Francisco's most notorious underworld bosses tried to go clean". The New York Times Magazine. Retrieved October 14, 2015. For Serra, representing Shrimp Boy is an honor and a privilege. This is the type of case that any politically inclined lawyer — this is your holy grail, he said. This is a government-created crime.
  29. ↑ Cavanaugh, Andrea (March 19, 2002). "Christie pleads guilty, is freed: Hells Angel leader won't serve more time behind bars". Ventura County Star. Retrieved October 13, 2018.
  30. ↑ "Santa Clara: Fired SiPort engineer found guilty of first degree murder in slaying of three bosses". March 8, 2013.
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