Weekly Newsletter        |        May 22 , 2018
In This Issue
BALIF/FBANC Spring Diversity Mixer
this THURSDAY!!

On behalf of Bay Area Lawyers for Individual Freedom (BALIF), in collaboration with the Filipino American Bar Association of Northern California (FBANC), we would like to invite the MBC and all of its members to the BALIF/FBANC Spring Diversity Mixer. 
 
At BALIF and FBANC, we want to celebrate and bring together the diverse legal workers and attorneys in the LGBTQ community.  Many of us in the LGBTQ community hold complex identities that may not be well represented in the mainstream whether because of our race, gender, religion, gender identity or sexual orientation.  Whenever possible, it is important for us to reflect on that diversity and provide support to others within our community who may be different than us.  To that end, we are hosting a happy hour on:
 
Thursday, May 24th 


BALIF Members Celebrate 10 year Anniversary of In re 
Marriage Cases with NCLR 

The Ins and Outs of 
Voter Rights and Registration

Most people do not realize that California has one of the lowest voter registration rates of any state in the country. Minorities are less likely to be registered to vote and turn out to vote in elections, but being the population majority in California now, could have a big impact in state politics. The legal community has a special obligation to help community members participate in the political process.

This panel will address the critical impact that voter registration can have on our democracy, as well as, voting rights history, ongoing voter participation disparities in California, and recent legislative changes that attempt to address those disparities.

Eligible for 1 HR MCLE Credit

About the Speakers:
Laura Brill is a founding partner of the litigation and appellate boutique Kendall Brill & Kelly LLP in Los Angeles. A former law clerk to the Honorable Ruth Bader Ginsburg, her practice focuses on media, entertainment, complex commercial, and regulatory disputes, as well as constitutional litigation and appeals. Ms. Brill also publishes and speaks widely about voting rights, the First Amendment, and other legal issues. She publishes a monthly newsletter on voter registration and has been a guest lecturer at Georgetown, Stanford, UCLA, UC Irvine, USC, and Yale.

Voter rights presentation by Asian Americans Advancing Justice - Asian Law Caucus

Co-Sponsored by:
AABA
Asian Americans Advancing Justice - Asian Law Caucus
Bay Area Lawyers for Individual Freedom


BALIF Foundation Fellowship Awarded to Alex Thomas
The BALIF Foundation is pleased to announce that its $2,500 summer fellowship has been awarded to Alex Thomson, who is finishing up as a 1L at Berkeley Law.   At Berkeley, Alex serves as a Co-Director of the Name and Gender Change Workshop, where Alex works with clients to obtain court-ordered name and change changes.  Alex is also the Programming Chair of Queer Caucus, the LGBTQ Berkeley Law student organization. This summer Alex will be a law clerk at the NCLR, and will be working on several cases including challenging the ban on transgender people in the military, requiring a school district to respect a transgender student's gender, and securing access to gender affirming care for a prisoner while in custody.  Before law school, Alex worked in Development at Combined Jewish Philanthropies, the Jewish Federation of Boston, and served on the Finance Committee for Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign. 
 
Congratulations Alex!

BALIF IS PROUD TO SUPPORT SB 990
In late 2017, BALIF's CCBA Committee debated a resolution at the CA Conference of Bar Associations (CCBA) Conference of Delegates that provides for equal access to rehabilitative and other programming opportunities to LGBTQI and other prisoners at high risk for sexual assault placed in solitary confinement for their own protection. The resolution overwhelmingly passed.  That portion of the resolution has now been included in current legislation being considered by the CA legislature: SB 990.  SB 990 will help ensure that the dignity of transgender people is honored in incarceration settings and that LGBTQI people and others at high risk of sexual assault and harassment have an equal opportunity to access rehabilitative, educational and work programs. SB 990 will also require that people entering jails and prison be given an opportunity to specify their preferred first name, gender identity, gender pronoun, and honorific (e.g., Mr., Ms, Mx.) and will require all facility staff to use the designated name, pronoun and honorific when addressing the person. SB 990 will further require that people housed outside of the general population for their own safety be provided equal access to rehabilitative, religious and educational programs.
 
We are very proud to support SB 990 and submitted our Letter of Support to Senator Wiener on April 2, 2018. You can view that letter here. We are also proud to have ensured the support of CCBA's lobbying staff as this bill moves through the legislature.

The AIDS Legal Referral Panel FREE Spring 2018 MCLE Training Programs 

To RSVP
Email:  mcle@alrp.org or
Call: 415-701-1200 ext. 303


Disability Rights in the Workplace - Reasonable Accommodations and Medical Privacy 
Sponsored by the State Bar's Labor & Employment Law Section 
* Tuesday, May 22nd, 5:30pm - 7:00pm 
* Presented by Noah D. Lebowitz, Esq. - Duckworth Peters Lebowitz Olivier LLP 

Long Term Disability/Veterans Benefits Training 
* Thursday, June 14th, 5:30pm - 7:00pm 
* Presented by John Unruh, Esq. - Unruh Law 

Negotiating for Tenant Attorneys: How To Do Right for San Francisco Tenants 
* Monday, June 25th, 5:30pm - 7:00pm 
* Presented by Deepa Varma, Esq. - San Francisco Tenants Union 

Location: 
BASF
301 Battery Street, 3rd Floor
San Francisco, CA

2018 Bay Area Women Attorneys Mixer

2018 Arturo Gonzalez Summer 
Law Student Fellowships

Giving to the BALIF Foundation
 

Please consider making a tax deductible donation to the BALIF Foundation.  The Foundation recently launched and is working to assist BALIF in bringing LGBT judges to the bench and supporting scholarships, stipends and fellowships for law students and attorneys working in the LGBTQ community.  You can donate here.  In the four years ahead, we believe the Foundation's work will be critical in helping to protect our community.

And the Foundation is looking for Founding Circle members through the end of 2018 - pledge and pay as little as $1,000 to always be listed as a Founding Circle member of the BALIF Foundation.

For more information about the BALIF Foundation or how to get involved, contact Jamie Dupree jdupree@fddcm.com.  
BALIF & The BALIF Foundation

BALIF is the Bay Area's LGBT Bar Association, which is a 501(c)(6) nonprofit, which can engage in political activity.  Its Board members are elected by the BALIF membership and chair various committees of the BALIF bar association.
 
The BALIF Foundation is BALIF's charitable arm.  Donations to the BALIF Foundation are tax deductible because it is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit.  The BALIF Foundation is dedicated to increasing the number of LGBT judges on the bench through educational programming, supporting LGBT community organizations, and providing scholarships, summer stipends, and fellowships for LGBT  law students and young attorneys seeking to help the LGBT community through legal work.  It gave its inaugural summer fellowship for the summer of 2017.

Job Postings Now on BALIF Website
Looking for a job or a law school internship?  As a BALIF member you get access to all job postings.  Click here to see the opportunities, or log into the   BALIF website with your membership ID and password, and select JOBS on the menu on the left.
May 24 -   BALIF/FBANC Spring Diversity Mixer
Our 2018-2019 Sponsors
Partner Level

Mofo
 
Counsel Level



Fenwick
HB Logo

  
Kilpatrick

Seyfarth


Advocate Level

A.L. Nella & Co, CPA
Freeman Mathis & Gary, LLP
Latham & Watkins LLP
Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP
Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP
O'Melveny & Myers LLP
Pacific Gas & Electric
Perkins Coie LLP
Sanford Heisler Kimpel, LLP
Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP
Shook Hardy & Bacon LLP
Sidley Austin LLP
Tycko & Zavareei LLP
Uber
White & Case LLP
Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati


Benefactor Level

AT&T
Baker Botts LLP
Bonora Rountree, Trial Consulting & Research
Callaway & Wolf
Clarence Dyer & Cohn LLP / Swanson & McNamara LLP
Cooley LLP
Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy, LLP
Danko Meredith
Epiq Global
Farella Braun + Martel LLP
Futterman Dupree Dodd Croley Maier LLP
Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP
Golden Gate University
Helbraun Law Firm
Jackson Lewis P.C.
JAMS
Kirkland & Ellis LLP
Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, LLP
Minnis & Smallets
Perkins Coie LLP
Pritzker Levine LLP
Reed Smith LLP
Robert Half Legal
Roeca Haas Montes De Oca LLP
Sally Morin Professional Law Corporation
San Francisco City Attorney's Office
San Francisco District Attorney's Office
Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP
Troutman Sanders
Venable
Veritext
Vinson & Elkins LLP


Individual Sponsors

Joanna Barron - ADR Services, Inc.
C. Todd Norris - Bullivant Houser Bailey P.C.
Michael Colantuono - Colantuono, Highsmith & Whatley, PC
Gordon Atkinson - Gluck Daniel, LLP
Peter Borkon - Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP
Frederick Hertz - Law Offices of Frederick Hertz
John E. Hill - Law Offices of John E. Hill P.C.
Kelly McCown - McCown & Evans
Jahan Sagafi - Outten & Golden LLP
Saya Wallace - Paul Hastings LLP
Teresa Renaker - Renaker Hasselman Scott LLP
Peter Pierce - Richards, Watson & Gershon
Debra Schoenberg - Schoenberg Family Law
Bao M. Vu - Stoel Rives LLP
John Robert Unruh - Unruh Law, P.C.

BALIF Board of Directors
Sarah Davis & Annick Persinger
  
Jamie Dupree
Secretary 

Jeff Kosbie
Treasurer
Lindsey Rosellini
  Programming Co-Chair

Dustin Helmer
Judiciary Chair

Tyler Alexander
Gala Co-Chair

Austin Phillips

Sam Potts
Jennifer Orthwein

Follow BALIF

youtube
 
BALIF Foundation


BALIF Foundation
 Board of Directors
Jamie Dupree, Chair
  
Shay Gilmore

Chelsea HaleyNelson, Secretary

Laura Maechtlen

Nina Paul

Linda Scaparotti

David Tsai

John Unruh, Treasurer

BALIF | | info@balif.org | http://www.balif.org
P.O. Box 193383
San Francisco, CA 94119