News

Hello BALIF Members and Friends,

We hope you're as excited as we are about BALIF's 33rd Annual Dinner and Awards Gala - "Simply Fabulous!"

But we also need your help....

BALIF is more than just fabulous happy hours and networking receptions. The money we raise is channeled to significant work in our community, such as law student scholarships, job search assistance and LGBT recruiting, mentoring programs, free CLE classes, Amicus briefs on LGBT issues, and so much more.

Please consider having your firm or organization sponsor BALIF. Sponsorships begin at $1,500. At that level, you get five tickets to the Gala, and some wonderful publicity for your firm, including ¼ page ad and priority recognition in the Gala program. Your firm will also be named as a sponsor in the BALIF newsletter and on the BALIF website for the entire year. And you of course receive an ecstatic "thank you" from our LGBT legal community. Sponsors at higher levels receive even more Gala tickets and additional benefits.

The ad deadline to make the Gala program is Feb. 15 (with a drop-dead date of Feb. 22). To become a BALIF sponsor, or for more information, please contact Gala Co-Chair Jamie Dupree at JDupree@fddcm.com.

As always, we look forward to seeing you soon...

On Lu & Chelsea HaleyNelson
BALIF Co-Chairs

Hello BALIF Members and Friends,

Happy post- Superbowl weekend! No matter who you were cheering for in this game, we can all walk away proud that the winning team has such a strong, vocal Marriage Equality advocate as Baltimore Ravens' linebacker, Brendon Ayanbadejo. "People from all walks of life, including gay and lesbian couples, want their children to be in stable homes and protected under the law. That's why I support marriage for gay and lesbian couples who want to make a lifetime commitment to each other." Thank you, Brendon.

We want you to join us, today, Tuesday, February 5th, at the Lookout for our monthly Happy Hour with a twist - Plus One. This time we are encouraging you to bring someone new. One of BALIF's more ambitious goals is increasing our membership to 1K because the more members we have, the stronger our voice as an organization! We have challenged you, our BALIF members, to refer your friends, colleagues, family members, etc, in the legal field who are LGBT to join BALIF. The person who refers the most new members (10 or more) will receive 4 Gala VIP tickets! Click here for details! Let the competition begin!

Speaking of BALIF's 33rd Annual Dinner and Awards Gala--Simply Fabulous - it is time to start planning your outfits and making sure that you or your firm have your sponsorship finalized. Annual sponsorships include complementary tickets to Gala, BALIF's largest annual event with more than 600 attendees, including lawyers, judges, lawmakers, legal professionals, students, and in-house counsel. Don't miss it! To become a sponsor, or for more information, please contact Jamie Dupree, our Gala Co-Chair at JDupree@fddcm.com.

See you soon,

Chelsea HaleyNelson & On Lu
BALIF Co-Chairs

BALIF's OUTreach Committee is looking for a BALIF member or two to act as its liaison to the SFPD Chief's LGBT Community Advisory Forum. More info can be found here (http://www.facebook.com/SanFranciscoLgbtForum/info). This task would require attending a monthly meeting and reporting back to BALIF. If interested, please email outreach@balif.org Thank you!

Message from BALIF Co-Chairs

Hello BALIF Members and Friends,

We've launched our BALIF 1K Membership Contest for those of you with a competitive streak!

Between now and March 8, we're asking for your help to introduce BALIF to your legal professional colleagues. The BALIF legal eagle that refers the most number of people (new members, former members, law students) to join BALIF wins four (4) VIP Admission Tickets to BALIF's 33rd Annual Dinner and Awards Gala - the Simply Fabulous! Event on March 15.

Rules and details follow in the column below. Get that competitive spirit going, BALIF, and bring it on!

We look forward to seeing you soon!

Chelsea HaleyNelson & On Lu
BALIF Co-Chairs

What a year so far for BALIF! On Thursday, January 10, 2013 BALIF mixed, mingled and celebrated with our newest members at the "Class of 2012" event at Sens restaurant.

New members are what keep BALIF growing, fresh and what keeps the BALIF network strong - so thank you and welcome! We also want to thank Esquire Deposition Solutions for generously sponsoring the event!

This past Thursday,January 10, 2013 Judge Tara Flanagan took the oath of office to become an Alameda County Superior Court Judge, the 5th openly LGBT person on the Alameda Court. Her induction ceremony at Mills College, which highlighted Tara's varied and impressive career, was not only beautiful and inspiring, but extremely moving. BALIF congratulates Judge Flanagan on her induction to the bench. We are so very proud of her and glad to have been able to share in this important moment in her career.

 

Looking back on 2012, I'm astonished what our current Board has accomplished over the past eight months; here's our Top 10...

1. Won the 2012 State Bar Diversity Award (for fighting Prop. 8, "It Gets Better" videos, Connections mentoring program, exploding membership, stimulus package, etc.)
2. Filed an Amicus Brief in the Golinski case, and invited 11 sister bar associations to sign-on.
3. Welcomed back 30-years of BALIF alumni with our first-ever "Homecoming".
4. Endorsed Tara Flanagan's campaign to be become the second out lesbian elected judge in the East Bay (and LGBT Judge #37 of the 1,678 judges in CA).
5. Raised $8K+ in scholarship money, and created the Novak Druce IP student scholarship to send 11 students to the LavLaw Conference in Washington D.C.
6. Helped over a dozen BALIF members secure jobs despite the harsh legal climate.
7. Launched BALIF's Community Volunteer Initiative at the National AIDS Memorial Grove.
8. Presented BALIF's first ever Corporate Counsel Awards to Andrew Vu and Hilary Ware at our swankin' holiday party.
9. Jump-started our Connections Mentoring Program with a "speed-mentoring" event that matched 40+ pairs of mentors and mentees.
10. Added 170 new members in 2012, on our way to our two-year goal of "BALIF 1K" in two years.

Feel free to share this list the next time you're asked "what does BALIF do?" And we're barely getting started, folks - wait until you see what we're planning for 2013...