About Rob
Rob Taboada combines interests in craft, the arts and the law. He studied English literature and studio art at Middlebury College, later earning an MFA in Wood and Furniture from California College of the Arts. He completed his legal education at the University of California College of the Law, San Francisco, moving from studio practice into a legal career that draws on both analytical and practical skills.
Taboada began his professional life outside the courtroom. In 2000 he founded Rob Taboada Furniture and Home, running a small design and fabrication business. The experience running a creative enterprise informed his subsequent legal work. It also provided a hands-on perspective on contracts, client relations and the practical implications of dispute resolution.
His early legal training included several clerkships and research positions. In 2013 he worked as a judicial extern at the Superior Court of California in Marin County and served as a research assistant in public health law for a professor at U.C. Hastings College of the Law. He spent 2014 as a law clerk for the California Department of Justice, Office of the Lawyer General and in 2015 he took a judicial externship for the Hon. Charles R. Breyer at the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
Taboada moved into private practice soon after. He joined Holland & Knight LLP in 2015 and later worked at Briscoe Ivester & Bazel LLP beginning in 2017. In 2018 he returned to the academic setting as an adjunct professor at U.C. Hastings College of the Law, teaching students while maintaining a practice. In 2020 he became a partner at Monchamp Meldrum LLP, where he continues to work.
He is admitted to practice in California and before the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California. His background spans public-sector work, appellate and trial court exposure, law teaching and running a small business. That mix gives him a different vantage point from colleagues who have followed a single path.
Colleagues and clients describe him as practical and clear in court papers and conferences. He combines craft-based training and art practice with lawyering that emphasizes problem solving and attention to detail. His current practice at Monchamp Meldrum LLP involves litigation and client counseling on a range of legal matters.
