Sharonrose Cannistraci
Attorney
Areas of Focus
Construction, Real Estate and Business Litigation
Church and Religious Non-Profits
Human Services Industry Defense
Education
Juris Doctorate, Santa Clara University School of Law, 1985
Bachelor of Arts in Literature with Distinction, Minor in Communications, San Jose State University, 1981
About
Sharonrose has been legal counsel to businesses, realtors, owners, contractors, medical groups, individuals, and religious non-profits for over 25 years. She has recently joined the firm as Of Counsel. She has successfully represented her clients in state and federal courts and a wide variety of disputes and legal matters. Before joining the firm, Sharonrose managed a legal team in her own law firm for the last 20 years in a variety of real estate, construction, business, mortgage lender, church, personal injury, products liability, and other matters. She has been first chair in over 50 jury and court trials and numerous binding arbitration cases.
Her most recent success was to represent five churches to obtain emergency injunctive relief from the U.S. Supreme Court to reopen all houses of worship in Silicon Valley closed by the state and county throughout the Covid-19 pandemic. She is passionate about protecting the legal rights of churches and has unique insight into the internal affairs of religious organizations due to her personal and risk management background. Her father is the founding pastor of a church with campuses in California, Arizona, and Nevada. Her representative church clients include denominational and non-denominational religious non-profits. Her church litigation cases include child abuse, negligent supervision of minors, church splits, hostile takeovers, defamation, trustee and clergy malfeasance, mergers, constructions, real estate, and pastoral selection and succession. For over a decade she hosted www.protectthechurch.org, a legal resource for ministry leaders. She holds a Church Risk Management Certificate from Cambridge University, UK.
Sharonrose resides in the hills above the Town of Los Gatos and works at Sim’s downtown Los Gatos offices. In her free time she loves to travel, snow ski, and explore California’s coast. She has served on several local non-profits, including Chair of the Women Lawyers Section of Santa Clara County Bar Association, CASA (Community Against Substance Abuse) Under 21 Club, Los Gatos Youth Theater, and she was vocal director for local school musicals. Her three daughters are proud alumni of UC Santa Cruz, UC Santa Barbara, and Brown University.