The Justice & Diversity Center (JDC) is honored to recognize the incredible contributions of CJ Kingsley, who has been volunteering with JDC since 1981!

In particular, she has been a dedicated volunteer with JDC’s Legal Advice and Referral Clinic (LARC), a free community walk-in clinic that takes place twice a month on Saturdays.

At LARC, Kingsley provides brief legal advice to our low-income community members and is often the first to arrive and the last to leave. Throughout her time volunteering for LARC, she has helped countless numbers of clients, including a particularly rewarding experience when she helped a homeless individual navigate the legal system to gain access to her family’s trust. Although the client originally seemed to lack the mental capacity to initiate the process on her own, with Kingsley’s guidance and advice the client was able to figure it out and assert her legal rights.

Kingsley notes that while working with low-income clients, some of whom have mental health issues, can be challenging at times what balances that challenge is seeing clients light up when they realize they have agency over their own lives.

Many LARC clients come in feeling powerless but leave knowing that there are positive steps they can take to overcome even their most difficult obstacles.

Kingsley, who practices estate planning law, was originally born in St. Louis, Missouri and moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in 1971. She has enjoyed living in the Bay Area and appreciates the progressive culture here. When Kingsley is not working or volunteering, she spends her time building ceramic pieces, playing billiards, camping, reading, and going for walks.

To learn more about the Legal Advice and Referral Clinic and how to volunteer, visit www.sfbar.org/probono or email JDC’s volunteer coordinator at probono@sfbar.org.