Early in her career, Sherry Thompson left the San Diego deputy district attorney’s office to practice entertainment law. But she found real life more exciting than make-believe.

“I missed the black and white of criminal law,” she says, noting the difference between that and writing airtight entertainment contracts. Fortunately, she had taken a leave from her San Diego job, and was able to move back into the district attorney’s office.

Thompson earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Southern California, and then attended law school at the University of Arizona in Tucson. “I’d been in the desert for three years,” she says, so she applied for legal jobs along the California coast. The San Diego district attorney’s office had a job for her after she passed the bar exam.

Now Thompson is in the Superior Court Division assigned to mental health cases. Her job involves working with people who are convicted and sentenced to the Department of Mental Health. Thompson expects to work on mental health cases through May, when she will switch to prosecuting general felonies.

About her job, she says, “It’s awesome working as a prosecutor. It’s an honor.”

Thompson belongs to NAACP, the Lawyers Club and is a former president of the Earl B. Gilliam Bar Association. Through the bar, Thompson participates in a law school that provides classes in the community on subjects like contracts.

In addition, she is the district attorney’s office liaison to the Literacy Intervention Project. She educates those in the legal system about the project, a pilot program in California. People sentenced to the project by the court receive help obtaining a GED or high school diploma. If needed, literacy training is provided along with “wrap-around services” like classes in parenting and anger management.

“I encourage people to give back,” says Thompson, the mother of 14-year-old Chenelle Blair.

During the nine months she practiced entertainment law, Thompson prepared contracts and helped produce Angelic Entertainment’s first movie, “The Month of August,” filmed in San Diego. Although she’s happily back doing what she likes best, she retains a connection to the entertainment industry. Her mother, Aloma Wright, is on NBC’s “Scrubs,” and she also appears in “Deliver Us From Eva,” a movie with LL Cool J.

—Liz Swain