Synthia Gunzel joined the office in 2007 to primarily represent the County and Districts on real property transactions and issues. She has provided advisory and transactional services, in real estate law as it pertains to public agencies, for County development impact fee programs and various County ordinances, service contracts and service as general counsel to County Fire Department. Synthia has drafted many County ordinances and amendments, including the regulation of volunteer fire companies, the establishment of the volunteer reserve firefighter program and the prohibition of solicitation on county property ordinances.

 

Synthia has played an integral role in major real property acquisitions for County purposes and for road right of way purposes, most notably the purchase of the Downtown Law Building and right of way acquisitions for the State Route 79 (Winchester Road) Road Widening Project.

 

Before joining the office, Ms. Gunzel was a public service attorney for Inland Counties Legal Services (ICLS) representing qualified clients and domestic violence victims in their family law actions. She had clerked for ICLS while waiting for her bar exam results in 1992. In 1993-1994, Synthia worked as a project attorney for the law firm of Condy & Pereira in Santa Ana, representing individuals and businesses in general civil matters.

 

Synthia has been a scoring attorney volunteer for the Riverside County Mock Trial Program. For many years, she has participated in various board and committee leadership positions for local school booster clubs and organizations.

 

Synthia Gunzel received her J.D. from Western State University, College of Law, Fullerton where she earned American Jurisprudence Awards. In 1987, she earned a B.S. in Business Administration from the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles. While at USC, she played clarinet in the Trojan Marching Band and became a member of the Alpha Kappa Psi Professional Business Fraternity.