Douglas H. Ridley

Practicing Law since 1998, Attorney Doug Ridley handles serious criminal defense cases including major felonies, DUI, juvenile crimes, and financial crimes in Ventura County, Santa Barbara County, Los Angeles County, and many other California courthouses.

Doug began his career as a prosecutor in the Ventura County Deputy District Attorney’s office in 1999. He worked as a case file reviewing deputy, making decisions on thousands of cases, learning what cases need to be prosecuted and how the District Attorney’s office evaluates case filing decisions. He worked in several units in the DA’s office including felony, narcotics, gangs, and the Special Victims Unit focusing on high profile sex crimes cases.

Doug left the Ventura County District Attorney’s office in the end of 2004, and began work in private practice. In 2011, he started his own criminal defense firm, focusing 100% on criminal cases in state courts in California. In the community, Doug demonstrated his expertise and leadership by being a featured legal expert on ABC Eyewitness News and training with Eloqui, a public speaking and communications company.

Doug is an adjunct professor at Pepperdine Law School, having taught Advanced Criminal Trial Preparation and Settlement as well as Police Practices. Doug regularly is asked to be a featured speaker for business groups and bar associations and currently serves as the President of the Ventura County Criminal Defense Bar Association as well as being the criminal defense representative for the San Fernando Valley Bar Association’s Bench Bar Committee.

Doug also has a passion for protecting clients who have mental health issues and get swept up in the criminal court process. Doug is a sponsor for NAMI, the National Association for Mental Illness and serves on the Ventura County Mental Health Diversion Advisory Workgroup as the private criminal defense representative.