Annie T. Sahhar joined the office in February, 2012, and currently is counsel for the Economic Development Agency (EDA) of Riverside.  She provides advisory, transactional and litigation support for a wide and varied range of agencies included under the EDA umbrella, including the Housing Authority and Housing,  Economic Development and Marketing, Project Management, Foreign Trade, the County Libraries and Edward Dean Museum, Aviation and the five County Airports, Community Service Areas, Workforce Development and Desert Operations, including the County Fair.  Ms. Sahhar works closely with the Directors and staff of each department of EDA, drafting and approving contracts, leases, grant agreements, County Board of Supervisor agenda items and general advisory support to every level of EDA.  Currently, Ms. Sahhar also handles all aspects of litigation matters involving EDA, including appeals.

Immediately prior to joining the County, Ms. Sahhar was in private practice in Escondido, California, where she was an avid litigator in the areas of contract disputes, family, employment, personal injury, collections and international law  at the administrative, state and federal level.  Her legal talent and depth was demonstrated in successful jury and bench trials, where she obtained favorable verdicts in excess of one million dollars.  Fluent in both written and spoken Spanish, Ms. Sahhar also represented clients doing business in the country of Mexico. 

As a member of the Women’s Caucus of the Consumer Attorneys of California, Ms. Sahhar has lobbied in Sacramento for important changes in laws that benefits consumers and she has met with members of California’s Assembly and Senate.  Ms. Sahhar also volunteered time in her local community assisting clients without charge (Pro Bono).

Prior to private practice, Ms. Sahhar was a criminal prosecutor at the Office of the City Attorney, San Diego, where she conducted over 50 jury and bench trials and supervised more than 30 Deputy City Attorneys in trial practice and she gave educational seminars to local law enforcement and city and county agencies.

In addition to receiving several awards as Deputy of the Month, Ms. Sahhar was honored and commended by the Mayor of San Diego, the California District Attorneys Association, the San Diego City Council and Mothers Against Drunk Driving for her efforts as a prosecutor in drunk driving cases.  In 1990, she spearheaded a campaign to have scientific evidence of the Horizontal Gaze Nystagmus eye test admitted into evidence in drunk-driving prosecutions.  Although the technique had been used by law enforcement statewide for over 30 years, no prosecutor in California had ever successfully convinced a court to allow its use at trial to prove intoxication.  After successfully conducting an extensive evidentiary hearing involving internationally-known medical experts, Ms. Sahhar was victorious in convincing the court to admit the scientific evidence and she obtained a guilty verdict at trial, which was appealed.  Ms. Sahhar drafted an in-depth appellate brief and argued successfully before the 4 ^th District Court of Appeals, resulting in a published opinion binding on all courts in the State of California and which continues to provide precedential influence nationwide.

Attorney Sahhar is a 1985 graduate of Beloit College in Beloit Wisconsin, where she received a Bachelor of Arts in Comparative Literature.  Ms. Sahhar graduated from the University of San Diego School of Law in 1989.  She is also a graduate of the International and Comparative Law Program/Mexico of the University of San Diego School of Law and she attended an undergraduate semester at the Universidad de Las Americas in Puebla, Mexico.

Ms. Sahhar has been admitted to practice in all courts in the State of California and United States District Court for both the Southern and Central Districts and is an active member of the California State Bar and the North County Bar Association, as well as an active volunteer in her local community.