I grew up with seven brothers and sisters in Salt Lake City. I started at Brigham Young University in 1992, then served in the California Ventura Mission from 1993 to 1995. Returning to BYU, I married Cirila Kamm in 1997 and graduated with a philosophy degree in 1998. We then moved to New York City, where I attended Columbia Law School and Cirila finished her degree at CUNY-Hunter College. I completed my JD in 2001, briefly worked for a New York law firm, then took a two-year clerkship with Chief Judge Judith Kaye of the New York Court of Appeals. Our son Soren was born in the fall of 2001. In 2003 we moved to Oakland, California, where our daughter Mia was born. I now work for a law firm in San Francisco and we attend the Oakland Ninth Branch.