Capitol Weekly’s Top 100: Dave Sapp

No. 6 Dave Sapp

If suing the Trump administration was currency California wouldn’t have a budget deficit. When Gavin Newsom needs legal advice in his efforts to counter The Donald, he turns for guidance to his in-house lawyer, Legal Secretary Dave Sapp. Sapp oversees any litigation the governor or the state is involved in, but it isn’t just overseeing legal squabbles with D.C. where Sapp proves his worth – it is anything where Newsom needs to speak in lawyer to someone to get his point across. And we all know that is a lot. More than that, Sapp crafts legal guidance for executive branch agencies and helps Newsom with the legal implications of state legislation. He also oversees potential pardons, commutations and parole decisions. Think that last one is no big deal? Perhaps you’ve heard of the Menendez brothers. Sapp has degrees from Duke University and Stanford Law School. He has been with the governor’s office since 2019, and previous to that was an in-house lawyer for the California Department of Education and the ACLU of Southern California.