Meet the City Attorney

Molly Stump has served Palo Alto as City Attorney since April 2011. She is the chief lawyer to the Palo Alto City Council and City Manager and leads a 12-person full-service legal team with a $4 million annual budget. While at Palo Alto, Ms. Stump has served in leadership roles at the League of California Cities, and as an adjunct professor at Santa Clara University School of Law.

Before coming to Palo Alto, Ms. Stump served in multiple leadership roles in the San Francisco City Attorney’s Office over a 15 year period, including General Counsel for the San Francisco International Airport, chief counsel to the San Francisco Chief of Police and Police Commission, transition counsel to then-Mayor Gavin Newsom, and counsel to the Board of Supervisors on complex legislation. Ms. Stump began her municipal law career litigating employment cases and advising human resources managers.

Ms. Stump received her J.D. from UC Berkeley Law, where she was a member of the California Law Review and graduated Order of the Coif. She served as a law clerk to U.S. District Court Judge Marilyn Hall Patel. Ms. Stump received her B.A. in Government Studies from Pomona College in Claremont, California. She has two adult daughters and enjoys novels, backpacking, and growing vegetables.