Firm History

Stephen E. Penner graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1971 with a Bachelor's Degree in Mechanical Engineering. After graduation, he served in the Vietnam War as a Gunnery Officer on the USS Turner Joy from 1971-1973. Upon his return stateside, Stephen completed his remaining two years of Naval Service in San Diego as First Division Officer on the USS Prairie and as Shore Patrol Officer for Long Beach Naval Station, and also instructed a course in Naval Gunfire Support for the Marines in Little Creek, Virginia. Upon completion of his Naval Duty in 1975, Stephen E. Penner attended California Western School of Law. After two vigorous years, Stephen graduated with a Juris Doctor Degree from Cal Western in 1977. He passed the Bar that same year and moved to Santa Barbara to open up his first law office on Carrillo Street.

From 1977-1980, Stephen built up his practice and expanded his client base by primarily working on Criminal Defense, Family Law, and Personal Injury cases. In 1980 Stephen moved to his current location at 1215 De La Vina Street. Stephen began to expand his practice to include Estate Planning and Trust & Probate Litigation, as well as Civil Litigation, Real Estate, Business, and Product Liability claims.

Having represented over 8,000 clients in the Tri-Counties area, Penner & Purves offers abundant legal expertise. For 45 years, the firm has been dedicated to servicing the community by offering personal representation with a commitment to professional integrity. Penner & Purves offers representation that is result oriented, reasonably priced, and efficiently executed.

Meet Our Legal Team

attorney 

J.A.A. Purves

Greetings. My name is J.A.A. Purves and I decided to become a Personal Family Lawyer® after the experience of working in many different law offices and studying the history of the legal profession. Over the last hundred years, there have been momentous changes in the practice of law, many of which have increasingly formed lawyers’ roles as specialized hyper-advocates who engage in conflict, win or lose, while billing by the hour. This transformation de-emphasized a lawyer’s more traditional role as counselor who assisted clients in creating structures and planning designed to prevent future conflicts and avoid the excessive costs of litigation.

As someone who enjoys the role of advocate, I still practice limited and carefully selected litigation cases in the courts. But I’ve now become a Personal Family Lawyer® because I have resolved to focus the majority of my work upon bringing back the old role of counselor to the profession of law. A good lawyer ought to help and counsel clients to avoid future conflicts, not to create more conflict that clients are then required to pay by the hour to resolve. Any family’s wealth preservation is far more likely to grow and be passed down as a legacy to future generations by wise and informed deliberative process, not by needlessly disputing in the courts. Any good business practice thrives best on cooperation and honesty, creating, rather than destroying, mutually reciprocal relationships. I can tell you that I take great pleasure in helping clients and their families establish plans that protect them and that establish a foundation from which to preserve and pass down their most important assets (human, intellectual, financial, and spiritual) to the younger generations.

As to background, I graduated after taking my exams early in my last year of law school at George Mason University School of Law in 2006 just before I was deployed for a year in a gun truck platoon in Iraq, serving with my brothers- and sisters-in-arms in the United States Army. My military experience only reinforced my conviction that, while it is good to always be prepared for a fight, it is far far better to work towards peaceable resolution, planning, and preparedness. Anyone who can establish structures for the resolution of future problems and for the preservation of valuable resources is doing much needed good work in the world.

Since graduating from law school, I have spent time volunteering for political campaigns, participating in City Council legal research projects, preparing a Constitutional Law college textbook, and working with a grassroots lobby firm in Washington, D.C. After returning from my tour of duty in Iraq, I moved back to California and worked over six years in both criminal and civil practice in Stanislaus County, including assisting at trials and preparing appellate briefs for the California Court of Appeal and the California Supreme Court. Since then I have worked for over an additional seven years in Santa Barbara in Estate Planning and Family Law, and I have now chosen to concentrate on Trusts and Estates along with Trust & Family Law dispute resolution. Towards this end, I am also currently working to become a Certified Specialist with the California State Bar in Estate Planning, Trust, & Probate Law.

On a personal note, as a student of classical philosophy I am currently in the middle of researching and writing two books: one describing the history of ideas regarding the legitimacy of law, and another exploring the intellectual foundations of political philosophy. My leisure hours consist of basking in the light of my wife’s smile and laughter, reading long books (Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, Aquinas, Shakespeare, Dr. Johnson), and drinking Single Malt Scotch. Other pleasures include pipe tobacco, the sea and ships, Johann Sebastian Bach, early mornings, Opera, Ballet, Symphonies, Index Funds, approximating the Stock Market average, and bagpipes.

Education

PEPPERDINE CARUSO SCHOOL OF LAW, J.D Candidate, August 2023-May 2026

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SANTA BARBARA, B.A., Philosophy, 2021

Legal Assistant

Megan Illgner

Megan joined our law firm team in July of 2023 while right in the middle of taking classes to obtain her Paralegal certification with University of California, Santa Barbara. Megan prides herself in her empathetic customer service and approach to helping our attorneys and our clients be on the same page at all times. She is also a stickler for grammar with experience as an English language instructor in Japan, a skill sorely needed in the legal profession.

In her free time, Megan also works as a professional seamstress on the side, specializing in apparel design while taking on a variety of sewing projects for private clients and for prototypes for items to be manufactured.

Education

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SANTA BARBARA, Paralegal Program

UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS, B.A., Fine Arts - Visual Communication, 2009

Legal Assistant

Frances Mullen

Frances has been with our law firm since September of 2023. She brings her skills as a problem-solver and academic researcher to bear on her work at our firm. Frances frequently assists clients in getting all their financial paperwork organized for purposes of estate planning, trust administration, or family law cases.

Frances is native to Santa Barbara, and she is also an equestrian with experience working both at Houghton University Equestrian Center in Houghton, New York, and at Hearts Therapeutic Equestrian Center in Santa Barbara.

Education

HOUGHTON UNIVERSITY, Double Major B.A., History, Political Science, 2023