JP Sherry is the General Counsel for the four colleges of the Los Rios Community College District in Sacramento, California and the governmental relations coordinator for the District. Mr. Sherry graduated from the University of California at Santa Barbara with a degree in Physics and graduated from the Santa Clara University School of Law. Mr. Sherry clerked for the Honorable Thomas Tang of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. After his clerkship, Mr. Sherry spent nine years as a litigator at the Sacramento law firm of McDonough, Holland and Allen specializing in business and public entity litigation. Mr. Sherry returned to the public sector where he worked as an appellate attorney for the Honorable Justice Ronald Robie at the California Court of Appeal for the Third Appellate District, before joining the District as its General Counsel in 2006.
Mr. Sherry regularly volunteers at the Sacramento Superior Court as a Small Claims Judge and for the United States District Court for the Eastern District of California in their Voluntary Dispute Resolution Program. Mr. Sherry has been married to Claudia Sherry for 26 years and they have two boys: Tim who is currently enrolled in Drexel University’s Medical School and Tom who is a freshman at the University of California at Merced. JP has been a NACUA member since 2006 and has served on the Committee on Program for the Annual Conference, Committee on Board Operations, Committee on Strategic Planning, the Task Force on the Review of the Annual Conference, and the Committee on Membership and Member Services (which he chaired and vice chaired). JP was elected as an at-large member of the NACUA Board of Directors from 2012-2015.
His colleagues noted his always-effusive and welcoming personality and impressive dedication to his colleagues in the practice of higher education law. In addition, JP models NACUA’s core values of civility, collegiality and inclusiveness, all with an amazing sense of humor.
NACUA is pleased to recognize JP Sherry as a recipient of this year’s First Decade Award for his outstanding service to the Association and to the practice of higher education law during his first ten years of membership.