July 2014

Interesting News from the World of Estate Planning

Frank Sinatra Planned Well Frank Sinatra died in 1993. A corporation he controlled owned his most valuable asset — the right to his name and likeness. He was well aware of the bitterness between his second wife, Barbara, and his kids from a prior marriage to…

Legal Ethics Corner: Law Practice in the Cloud — Just Be Careful

The rent’s too high, we don’t have room for storage anymore, everyone is going paperless. Let’s move our practice into the cloud. Have you heard of this before? Perhaps you are already using the cloud. What is the cloud? Cloud computing is using the server of…

Summer in the City – Diversity Receptions

BASF kicked off its Annual Summer Diversity Receptions on June 20, with its Latino Partners and Associates Reception at Littler Mendelson. More than 100 guests attended including Judge Suzanne R. Bolanos, Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, Judge Miguel Marquez, and Judge Garrett L. Wong. Post by The Bar Association…

DLA Piper Hosts NATO Secretary General

BASF member Dean Fealk, a partner at DLA Piper in San Francisco, recently hosted NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen at a private roundtable discussion among business, civic and thought leaders focused on the intersection of geopolitics and global business.

LRIS Panel Attorney Happy to Remove Obstacles in His Clients’ Lives

In 1977 Taghi Astanehe got his law school degree from the National University of Iran. And in the following year, at the age of 24, he moved to the United States to attend University of San Francisco’s Master’s in Business…

Destination Law School: Helping to Widen the Diversity Pipeline One Student at a Time

Diversity Pipeline Programs Manager Nicole Britton-Snyder recently caught up with Harmon Jacob Handloff, a participant in BASF’s Destination Law School (DLS) program, who will attend UC Hastings College of the Law in the Fall. Handloff, who graduated from San Francisco State in 2013, spoke about his expectations for law school, what he hopes…

Theo Miller Talks About Unlocking the Doors of Opportunity

This month we are profiling Diversity Pipeline Programs Advisory Committee member Theodore Miller. As senior policy advisor for the City and County of San Francisco, Miller directs a cross-agency initiative to strengthen diversity and advance equity for disproportionately impacted communities of the city, with a particular focus on reversing the…

Summer Interns from Bay Area Law Schools Lend a Hand at JDC

This summer, four summer interns are working with the Justice & Diversity Center’s (JDC) Pro Bono Legal Services Program. Nathan Roselin, who attends Golden Gate University School of Law, is working with the Family Law Project. Maxine Choi attends University of San Francisco School of Law,…

Allen Matkins’ Relentless Defense of Elderly Tenant Keeps Her Housed

Three attorneys from Allen Matkins Leck Gamble Mallory & Natsis, a firm participating in the Justice & Diversity Center’s (JDC) Right to Civil Counsel program, took on full-scope representation for a low-income tenant in a landlord-tenant case and recently prevailed, allowing her to stay in her home. Thor McLaughlin, Mark Seifert and…

Volunteer Interpreter Gives Low-Income Clients Access to Pro Bono Legal Services

The Justice & Diversity Center (JDC) is pleased to recognize Paulina Castillo for her outstanding volunteer work with its Interpreter Project. JDC serves a linguistically diverse population, and volunteers like Castillo help ensure that low-income, monolingual clients have meaningful access to pro bono legal counsel. A licensed attorney in…

Former BASF President Appointed to California Court of Appeal

California Governor Brown recently announced the appointment of San Francisco Chief Deputy City Attorney Terry Stewart to serve as a justice on California’s Court of Appeal. The announcement was made at San Francisco’s LGBT Pride Festival in June. Stewart served as BASF President in 1999, where she…

Nixon Peabody Honored by ACLU for Probono Work for LGBT Students

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Southern California recently presented a team of Nixon Peabody attorneys with the 2014 LGBT Advocacy Award in recognition of their pro bono efforts. The Nixon Peabody team represented students in the Hesperia Unified School District, specifically the Sultana High School Gay-Straight…

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