Attorney Michael Attanasio and his wife, KUSI news anchor Susan Lennon, qualify as a San Diego power couple.

As a partner with Luce, Forward, Hamilton & Scripps, 37-year-old Attanasio specializes in high-profile business litigation and white-collar crime. Recent cases include successfully representing multiple clients in connection with the Enron/Arthur Andersen investigation and representing a U.S. Border Patrol agent for alleged civil rights violations resulting in a not guilty verdict in one hour.

“I love the law because I’ve always enjoyed debating and it appealed to my competitive instincts,” says Attanasio, who was the CIF San Diego County Soccer Player of the Year in 1983 while at Grossmont High School. “I wanted to be a prosecutor because public service is important to me and it was also exciting and rewarding to investigate and prosecute the bad guys.”

After attending Princeton University and Stanford Law School, Attanasio worked as a prosecutor with the U.S. Department of Justice, criminal division and public integrity section in Washington, D.C. There he received many awards, such as the Directors Award for Litigation in 1996, and lectured at a St. Petersburg conference for Russian law enforcement personnel.

He met Lennon in Houston while she covered a trial he was involved in. “We started dating and after a month she had to pull herself off the trial,” he says.

Three years ago, Attanasio joined Luce, Forward for a change of pace. “I felt I had started repeating myself,” he says. “I wanted to try something new. I like defense work because it’s about solving a client’s problem. Sometimes the solution is aggressive litigation and other times it’s negotiation.”

He and Lennon have a 14-month-old son, which means Attanasio is trying to find a balance between work and family. But that desire to help others remains. “I like helping companies and people achieve effective results through the law,” he says. “That's what I like about my job.”

— Patricia Morris Buckley