By Jennifer K. Morita

November 19, 2025

Anh Phoong ‘05 (Criminal Justice) can’t get far on the Sacramento State campus without students stopping to take selfies with her.

And for good reason.

Located up and down the state, her eye-catching billboards with the hard-to-forget slogan “Something wrong? Call Anh Phoong,” have made her the most talked-about attorney in California, if not the most recognizable.

This Sac State alum, Center High graduate, and mom of three young children who started her personal injury law practice in her spare bedroom now has offices in Sacramento, the Bay Area, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas.

But while Phoong leveraged her billboard celebrity status to grow her business, she’s never forgotten her humble roots as the youngest daughter of immigrants from Vietnam. 

Over the years, Phoong has put her weight and support behind local non-profit organizations such as Miracle University, GiGi’s Playhouse, Mothers Against Drunk Driving, and the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

Recently, Phoong Law and the Sacramento Kings announced a new jersey patch partnership to support women in Sacramento. A portion of the proceeds from jersey sales during the 2025-26 NBA season will go toward Single Mom Strong, Inc. to help single moms and their children, as well as My Sister’s House, which provides services to women and children impacted by domestic violence, sexual assault, and human trafficking.

University Communications sat down with Phoong to talk about her time at Sac State, how she overcame obstacles to achieve her dreams, and more. (Interview edited for length.)

 

Made at Sac State: Why did you pursue a career in law?

Anh Phoong: When I was at Sac State I started off as a business major, and it really was kind of the easy way out. It was something I knew I could do. I stumbled upon criminal justice as a general education course that I had to fulfill. And after taking that one course, I knew that I wanted a career in the justice system.

 

Made at Sac State: How did personal injury cases become your specialty?

Anh Phoong : I went to law school wanting to be a public defender. I worked at the (Solano County Public Defender’s) office and interned there for six years while I was going to law school. When I passed the bar, I thought I was going to work for the public defender's office. But at that time, they had a budget cut, and there was no backup plan for me. I didn't know what to do. I was scrambling.

Personal injury law came to me by chance, not so much by choice. I was involved in a car accident in my last year of law school … The insurance company kept calling me, they kept hounding me, they kept trying to push money at me. I knew they were taking advantage of me because I was young, and I didn't have an attorney. So sure enough, because I was juggling school work and taking the bar, I ended up settling that case for basically nothing.

I had a friend who had a personal injury practice. I worked with him for a little bit and really decided that personal injury was something that I could see myself doing, because I was still advocating for people. We're still helping people fight for their rights, just in a different way. And it still made me feel really good about being a strong advocate for people in need.

 

Made at Sac State:  Your catchy billboards and slogan are all over, not just California, but social media as well. How has it changed your law practice and your life?

Anh Phoong: Being known in the community for the billboards, and the advertising and, “Something wrong? Call Anh Phoong,” has been an amazing journey.

We started advertising in 2016, so it's almost been 10 years. But when I first started off as a solo practitioner, before all the billboards, and TV and sponsorships, it was just a law office helping people in the community who were involved in car accidents. That hasn't changed.

Obviously, we're on a bigger scale now. We started the law office in our spare bedroom. Now we have, I think, 90 employees over several offices in California and Nevada. It hasn't changed the heart of what I believe in, and who I am as a person, and what I want to do for the community.

 

Made at Sac State: You’ve been open about the fact that getting into law school wasn't easy for you. Could you tell us a little bit about that? I think students would be inspired to hear how you overcame those obstacles.

Anh Phoong: Getting into law school definitely was not easy for me. I was never the smartest person. I think I graduated at Sac State with a little bit above 3.0 grade point average. So I did okay, but I wasn't the 4.0 student.

When I did decide I was going to law school, I knew I had to take the LSATs, and I knew that was going to be hard, but I didn't put as much into it as I really should have. So when I took the LSAT the first time, I basically bombed it. I scored so low, it really limited my options in terms of which law schools that I could apply to … at that point, I didn't care what school I went to. I just wanted to go to law school. I just wanted to become a lawyer.

When I met with the dean at Lincoln Law School … he told me, if I wanted to go to law school, if I was really serious about it, I would take the LSAT again, and that I would have to score 25% higher to meet their bare minimum. That's how bad my score was. And I honestly thought that it was over. I walked out crying.

But by the end of the weekend, I realized that I wasn't going to give up. And so I really put a lot of effort into studying, bought the books, and took the courses that I needed to take to do well on the LSAT. And I scored 27% higher.

It just goes to show you, I was not good at standardized testing. I wasn't good at multiple choice, because that's all the LSAT was. But I worked hard, and I knew that I was going to be successful in law school because I knew that becoming a lawyer is what I was meant to do and who I was meant to be. And so I became a valedictorian of my class.

 

Made at Sac State: Can you tell us a little bit about how you give back to the community and some of your nonprofit work?

Anh Phoong: Giving back to the community is something that I'm so deeply passionate about because of my upbringing. Being a family of immigrants, who came to America in 1978 with nothing but the shirts on my parents’ back … No English, no money, but with the help of our community, they rallied for us.

I was actually born here in America, but my older brother and older sister did come here when they were very young. We struggled as a family, and it was because good people, our neighbors, church members, just saw that a family needed help, and they came through. 

I grew up very poor. We were on Medi Cal food stamps. When you have that upbringing, you look at life a little bit differently. I've always been very grateful. I've always known where I've come from. I've always known the struggles that my parents had gone through to provide a good future, to give their children the chance of the American Dream.

And so being involved in the community always goes back to that, just knowing what we went through.

I probably get about 20 to 30 emails a month from people and organizations asking me to sponsor events, galas, or help them with their soccer team. And I'm really proud to say that we try to fulfill as many of those requests as we can.

 

Made at Sac State: So why Sac State? Why did you choose Sac State to go to school?

Anh Phoong: I'll give you the honest truth. I didn't know where else to go. My parents were very traditional and wanted me home, living in Sacramento, and so Sac State was the school.

I knew I had to go to college, so I went to (American River College) and Sac State made sense. It was home. At that young age, I wasn't really ready to be independent, so it was a nice balance of having a school in my backyard and still going home to my parents.

 

Made at Sac State: Do you have a favorite memory of being a student here at Sac State?

Anh Phoong: One of my favorite memories is just spending time in the Union with my friends. I remember we would laugh … We were supposed to be studying, and we did. The friends that I made at Sac State are still like my nearest and dearest friends now. When I think about Sac State and favorite memories, it's those relationships and friendships that I made and just the bond that we had.

We were all young, struggling, not really knowing what was out there for us, but hopeful and struggling together. 

 

Made at Sac State: Do you think your time here helped you find your path and help you figure out what you were going to do? 

Anh Phoong: I started off as a business major not because that's what I wanted. It was just something I felt that was safe. I wasn't passionate about it.

I had no idea what I really wanted. I was so young. I knew I had to go to school, because I knew that in the end, something great would come out of it, and I knew it would make my parents happy.

It wasn't until the last two years of my time at Sac State, when I grew a little bit older that I had to ask myself the hard question: Okay Anh, you're having fun, but what do you really want to do with your life? 

Taking the criminal justice course, it just hit home for me. It really was the first time in my life that I felt like I had a calling. It felt like this was what I was meant to do. Sac State has absolutely shaped, you know, who I am, where I am, my future, my career, and everything that's led me to where I am right now. 

Made at Sac State: What advice would you give to students who are questioning themselves?

Ahn Phoong: It's okay to not know exactly what lies ahead. It's okay to have those feelings. Listen to your heart, and really try to find out what it is that makes you smile, and something that you're passionate about.

Work hard, because you don't have to be the smartest. I'm not the smartest, but I work hard for something that I want.