Barry Rose started the firm that grew to become Rose Joneson Vargas, PC in 1994. In 1996, Jennifer Joneson joined the firm. In 1999, David Vargas joined the firm. All of the attorneys in Rose Joneson Vargas are American lawyers who initially moved to American Samoa to work for the American Samoa Government. Barry Rose initially worked at the Attorney General's office and spent about 6 years with the Public Defender's office. Jennifer Joneson spent about 4 1/2 years as an Assistant Attorney General and Director of the AG's Consumer Protection Bureau. David Vargas spent about 3 years as an Assistant Public Defender before joining the firm. All RJV attorneys had experience in private practice before moving to Samoa. Our experience with the American Samoa Government has given us broad practical knowledge about the manner in which the Territory's government is administered.

We are a full service law firm. We have developed a core base of business clients that include major banks, insurance companies, construction companies, retailers, and service providers in the Territory. We also serve the community by providing traditional general practice assistance by handling family law matters, criminal cases, providing transactional advice, performing collections, handling real estate transactions, etc. We do not handle cases disputing chiefly "matai" titles or traditional communal land disputes.

We currently practice law in the District and High Courts of American Samoa. You can obtain background information about the courts and legal community in American Samoa by visiting the American Samoa Bar Association's website at www.asbar.org or click here.

Although none of our attorneys are Samoan, most of us have Samoans in our immediate families. In addition, all of our staff are Samoan. We do not like to consider ourselves as "ex-pats" living in Samoa, but rather consider ourselves to be integrated members of the community.