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The youngest of four girls, with the oldest being 13 years her senior, Tina Fryar spent most of her formative years in Mira Mesa. While she was in elementary school, her father, a Department of Defense employee, moved the family to Long Island for three years, and then again from San Diego to Guam during her Junior year of high school.
That untimely move was key to Tina's future, presenting her with a senior year experience that led her to the courtroom. As a member of her school's Mock Trial Team, she competed against other teams in the area and wound up progressing to the national competition held in Oregon.
"After the competition, our attorney coach took the Mock Trial Team to UCLA to tour the school and attend seminars held specifically for our team to discuss the competition we'd just been involved with and how it related to the law school and law practice experience. It was then that I realized I wanted to practice law," Tina said.
Following graduation from high school in Guam, "I was ready to get back home to California," recalls Tina. So she enrolled at UC Riverside and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Administrative Studies in 1994.
At California Western School of Law, Tina won awards and assumed leadership positions, serving as Vice President, and subsequently, President, of the Student Bar Association. Today she continues her involvement as an alum in a number of ways, including with the school's student support activities. Tina also manages to extend her civic duties to other organizations in San Diego. She is the past Vice President and President of the Pan Asian Lawyers of San Diego, the past Vice President of Membership for International Visitors Council of San Diego and a past board member of the Earl B. Gilliam Bar Association as well as a past member of its judicial evaluation committee.
When Tina is not mentoring some of San Diego's future lawyers or furthering her affiliations in the community, she can be found rollerblading with her seven-year-old niece, reading a John Grisham novel, or visiting her parents who are now retired and living in Sun City.
In 2000 Tina joined the Higgs Fletcher & Mack team because of the Firm's reputation in the community and because, she said, "Higgs offered me the opportunity to run my own cases from start to finish and to get extensive litigation and trial experience very quickly."
The opportunity came in the form of a case in which her Catholic upbringing predisposed her to align with the other side. In the separation of church and state case, she had to set aside her personal viewpoint and take the completely opposite position in order to defend the client, the San Diego Unified School District.
A pastor and his church had filed suit against the school district for disallowing the posting and distribution of flyers offering helpful seminars for teens with troubling issues in the wake of the then recent local school shootings. The school district's decision to disallow posting and distribution of the flyers was based on its conclusion that allowing such activities would amount to an endorsement of religion.
"On a personal level, I felt that the seminars dealing with anger, relationships, and communication would be enormously helpful to teens. After all, what in the world is wrong with a community organization trying to help kids, and ultimately, the wider community?" she reasoned. "On a professional level, I felt that the school district, as a public entity, had a legitimate responsibility and legal duty to ensure it did not create the impression it was endorsing a particular church or religious faith."
And while the case is now resolving, it is but one of many remarkable cases Tina Fryar will ultimately litigate in what is sure to be a promising career as an attorney with Higgs Fletcher & Mack.
Higgs Fletcher & Mack has been serving the needs of San Diego businesses and residents since 1939, and offers a full range of legal services in both transactional and litigation matters. The Firm is committed to integrity, thoroughness, and care in striving to achieve outstanding results for clients.
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