The following are excerpts from Mary McNamara's remarks at her Dec. 16, 2021, installation as the 2022 president of the Bar Association of San Francisco and the Justice and Diversity Center.

“[In this third year of the pandemic,] our profession has emerged richer, more powerful and more removed from the lives of working people than ever. My single focus this coming year will be to ask each of you to do more. Far more, for our sisters and brothers in the community. Let’s make this a year of giving… We have 7,500 members rich in material and intellectual capital. We have an extraordinary pedigree. At 150 years old, we are one of the oldest bar associations in the nation, older than 25% of U.S. states of the union and older than the constitutions of many countries in the world.”

“In the 150 years since that beginning, we have risen to every challenge of the times. From our work in the civil rights era, to the AIDS epidemic, to the homelessness crisis, to now protecting consumers and helping immigrants. We are now a nationally-recognized voice for equal justice and opposition to discrimination in all its forms.” 

“My own story would not have been possible without the work of this great organization.”

“Because of the work of this bar association, including former Bar Association President and now Justice Terry Stewart (pictured right), in the Prop 8 trial, the Supreme Court ruled for marriage equality. The night of that ruling, [my wife], Susanne and I spilled into the streets with the thousands of others around us to celebrate the right simply to be together as new citizens in this country.”

“[My journey with BASF] started with the enlightened decision of my then law firm, Morrison and Foerster, to sign every one of its associates up to a membership in the Bar Association of San Francisco. It was in this way that I found myself defending tenants in unlawful detainer cases and predatory consumer practices cases before I even knew what I was doing. That taste of the courtroom changed what I wanted to do with my law degree.” 

“The simple act of saying to somebody who has never had anybody stick up for them in their lives, ‘I represent you,’ was something that I found profoundly moving. It began to dawn on me that I might even have a vocation.” 

“And the question for us now as members and as contributors is this: can we rise to the immense challenges of our era? I believe we can, but only if we do a great deal more to alleviate the suffering of our fellow human beings.” 

“What better professional gesture is there than to reinvest just a tiny bit of our prosperity and our time into the community that sustains all of us?”