Since Michael Gates (’08) was elected as Huntington Beach City Attorney in 2014, the nearly lifetime Huntington Beach resident has focused on improving the office’s quality of work, shortening its turn-around time, and improving services provided to the community. That’s why the Chapman University Dale E. Fowler School of Law alumnus recently spearheaded the addition of a new and somewhat unique position for the city: a Community Prosecutor.

This month, Huntington Beach becomes the second city in Orange County with a dedicated prosecutor to handle misdemeanor crimes locally rather than outsourcing them to the Orange County District Attorney’s Office. Gates proposed the position last year and received the support of both the District Attorney and the City Council.

The new prosecutor will meet with Gates and members of law enforcement on a regular basis to determine which cases will be prosecuted by the city and which will be sent to the DA. Gates said he anticipates the City Attorney’s Office will handle approximately 1,500 a year.

“Every member of the community wants the best public safety and most efficient law enforcement possible,” he said. “In my position as City Attorney, I realized there was room for my office to do more for the police department and therefore help create better public safety.”

This same dedication to bettering his community is what motivated Gates to run for City Attorney in the first place. While working as a partner for a local law firm that often represented the County of Orange and the Orange County Sherriff’s Department, he began to see serious issues in the City Attorney’s Office in Huntington Beach that he knew he could fix. In response, he decided to spend the next two years preparing to run for the position.

“As a resident, I thought that some issues seemed pretty serious,” Gates said. “I knew, having experienced similar situations representing the county and sheriff’s department, that I could handle them.”

His election also satisfied his strong desire to make an impact in the greater community. Gates entered law school after building a successful career in software development because he wanted to find a more meaningful career.

“A paycheck is nice, but I wanted to come home every day knowing I was helping other people,” he said.

As a nontraditional student, Gates said he entered law school planning to take advantage of as many opportunities as possible. Knowing that his role as a father to five kids would make him an unlikely candidate for the top one percent of his class, he built his resume while in law school by taking on as many internships, externships, and extracurricular opportunities as possible.

“In retrospect, the academic rigor was good, because it set me up to pass the bar the first time and get into my career right away,” he said. “The Chapman faculty was terrific, and I was exposed to areas — such as criminal law, moot court, and mock trial — that really informed my career.”