Shakti Vadgama was born and raised in Los Angeles County and earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). After graduating from UCLA, Mr. Vadgama attended California Western School of Law in San Diego. In law school, Mr. Vadgama developed a strong passion for advocating on behalf of individuals against entities that are in a position of power. Mr. Vadgama’s first experience with criminal law came when he worked for the Chilean Ministry of Justice while studying and working abroad after his first year of law school in Santiago, Chile. In this position, he researched and briefed his supervising attorney on the United States use of the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) and whether Chile should implement such system. Furthermore, Mr. Vadgama worked as a judicial extern in the criminal division of the San Diego Superior Court East County Division. As a judicial extern, Mr. Vadgama prepared bench memoranda for multiple judges on cases ranging from misdemeanors to serious felonies, providing his recommendation on how each case should be determined when applying the facts to the applicable law. This experience provided Mr. Vadgama a unique insight and understanding on how the judiciary and the criminal courts operate. Mr. Vadgama also interned at a criminal defense firm, where he worked on various criminal cases and advocated on behalf of individuals serving life sentences at parole hearings. He helped and witnessed his supervising attorney win a parole hearing for an individual who successfully used the prison system to rehabilitate himself and change his life around after serving twenty-five years for second degree murder. This moment left a profound impact on Mr. Vadgama and made him realize that a career as a criminal defense attorney was his true calling.