Lawyer-turned-consultant Patti Perez has found the analytical skills she used in law and the creative skills she uses as a human resources consultant work well together. “As a lawyer, I felt stifled,” she says of the eight years she spent in litigation. “I found I can do both.”

Now when she is consulted by a large company having trouble with employees — or perhaps a group of employees having a problem with an employer — she can assess the legal ramifications and seek a practical solution.

“Because I speak Spanish,” she says, “I can also serve the underserved,” says Perez, who was born in El Salvador and grew up in South Central Los Angeles.

Perez is president and CEO of Puente International Consulting Inc. in La Mesa, a firm she founded in 2001. She is a graduate of UCLA and the UCLA School of Law.

Although not working as a litigator, Perez is active on the executive committee of the labor and employment law section of California State Bar Association. She is active in MANA as a mentor and speaker.

But, she says, “The biggest source of my extracurricular activity” has to do with her 7-year-old son Tony. She is a typical school and team mom.

A one-time literature major, Perez shares her love of reading by participating in read-ins each year. In conjunction with the San Diego Lawyers Club and La Raza Lawyers Association of San Diego, she reads to Central Elementary bilingual classes. In Jamul, where she lives, she volunteers as a bilingual reader at Jamul Primary School.