Bijal M. Patel - City Attorney

Ms. Bijal Patel was appointed as City Attorney by the Tracy City Council on April 25, 2022. 

She came to the City of Tracy from the Oakland City Attorney's Office, where she served since 2017 in the Real Estate and Land Use & Planning units. In her role with the City of Oakland, she served as Special Counsel in the City of Oakland’s City Attorney’s Office. 

There, she was Oakland’s lead counsel for the Howard Terminal Project at the Port of Oakland, co-counsel for the Oakland-Alameda County Joint Powers Authority, and served as an advisor on other complex City projects. Prior to that, Ms. Patel served as Counsel in the Real Estate and Land Use Practice Groups at Lubin Olson & Niewiadomski LLP in San Francisco, specializing in transactional real estate and land use matters, with a focus on public/private partnerships, project development, land use entitlements, affordable housing, and eminent domain.

She spent seven years as Deputy Director of Property Development and Management for the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority, where she oversaw the Authority’s acquisition of hundreds of properties in the Silicon Valley for its various transportation projects, including the federally funded BART Silicon Valley Project, as well as the formation and implementation of the Authority's Joint Development Program. She also served as Deputy City Attorney for the City and County of San Francisco, on the Port of San Francisco Team, for six years.  A former tax accountant with Deloitte & Touche LLP, Ms. Patel began her legal career as a land use associate in the San Francisco office of Baker & McKenzie LLP.

Ms. Patel earned her law degree and a master’s degree in City Planning from UC Berkeley. She also holds a bachelor’s degree in Accounting and Speech from Houston Baptist University. Afflicted with wanderlust, Ms. Patel has traveled to over 50 countries. While in graduate school, she served as a Fulbright Scholar in Peru from 1995-1996.  She also served as a Ford Foundation Scholar in Costa Rica in the Summer of 1993, where she had the rare privilege of working directly with the former Nobel Peace Prize winner and President, Oscar Arias. She also served on the City of San Ramon Planning Commission. 

Kamalpreet Gill - Deputy City Attorney