News

Every year at its Gala, BALIF honors individuals and organizations who work in the community to effect positive change for LGBT persons through its Community Service Award.  BALIF also recognizes the outstanding achievements of lawyers and organizations that have demonstrated a commitment to LGBT equality and that have significantly advanced those causes through their work in the law with its Legal Service Award.  Do you know an individual or organization deserving of either of this year's honors?  If so, please send your nomination to John Robert Unruh and Jamie Dupree at gala@balif.org.

We will celebrate the end of Prop 8 on the day we get good news from the U.S. Supreme Court - 5pm to 9pm, Castro & Market in San Francisco.

Click here for more details!

 

 

BALIF Members Therese Stewart, Sally Elkington, and Kelly Dermody, and BALIF Co-Chair Chelsea HaleyNelson will be featured in the October 2012 issue of Curve magazine. These four attorneys are celebrated as a "constellation of powerful lesbian attorneys" in an article entitled "Law of the Land," by Adam Brinklow. Below is a brief snippet of the article and a link to the full article with photos. BALIF is proud to count these four amazing women among our membership. Congratulations ladies!
Click here for the full article.

This year BALIF honored eleven Bay Area law students with scholarships to attend Lavender Law, the National LGBT Bar Association's annual conference, this year held in Washington D.C. Prior to the conference, students and attorneys gathered for a scholarship reception generously hosted by Orrick in downtown San Francisco.

(BALIF law students attending the 2012 Lavender Law Scholarship reception held at Orrick’s offices in San Francisco)

The size of the scholarship program this year was possible in large part because of a $5,000 donation from Novak Druce + Quigg LLC, an industry-leading intellectual property firm and long time supporter of BALIF. As a result, BALIF established the Novak Druce Scholarship to recognize one student who has a demonstrated an interest in IP law. We have profiled all of our exceptional honorees below, including Raymond Rollan, recipient of this year’s Novak Druce Scholarship.

	Raymond Rollan is an incoming 2L at the University of San Francisco School of Law. This past summer, he interned at the San Francisco District Attorney's Office and the Sonoma County Public Defender's Office. However, having worked as a paralegal at an Intellectual Property law firm, his primary interest is pursuing a rewarding legal career as a Trademark attorney. Raymond Rollan is the 2012 Novak Druce Scholar.
	Michael O'Rourke is a Bay Area native and 3L at Santa Clara University School of Law. He is interested in health care law and criminal law and currently works as a law clerk at the SF District Attorney Office. In the past, he has served as a law clerk for Judge Christopher R. Bowen and Judge Clare Maier in Contra Costa County.
	Adam Amir is a 1L at the UC Berkeley School of Law. Before law school, Adam was named a Truman Scholar and worked for two years as a policy analyst for Mayor Michael Bloomberg (I-NYC).
	Travis Wimsett is a rising 2L at the UC Berkeley School of Law. He currently serves as Programs Editor of the Berkeley Journal of International Law and is a member of the Berkeley Law Tax Clinic. He spent his 1L summer as a legal intern for The Clorox Company.
	Amanda Hamilton is a 2L at UC Hastings College of the Law. She is the Director of Communications for the Associated Students of UC Hastings and the Publicity Director for OUTLAW. This past summer, Amanda was a law clerk at the Hassell Law Group, a boutique personal injury law firm. At the same time, she was a research assistant at the UCSF/UC Hastings Consortium on Law, Science, and Health Policy, researched nursing home litigation.
	Elizabeth Dooley, Stanford Law School '13, served as Co-President of Stanford OutLaw last year. This summer she worked at Gibson Dunn in San Francisco, and she will be clerking for Judge Wardlaw on the 9th Circuit after graduating in May.
	Alex Hammonds, a 2L in the Honors Lawyering Program at Golden Gate University School of Law, is currently interning at the Public Administrator/Public Guardian of San Francisco. With this position he plans to pursue his passion for Trusts and Estate Planning.
	Phillip Wu, a 3L at the University of San Francisco, is interested in government and corporate law. Because of his interest in food and travel, he cofounded the Food & Law Society Club at USF. Taylor Cashwell, a 2L at UC Hastings, is the External Vice President of OutLaw. He was at Fenwick & West this summer and will return there for his 2L summer. He is interested in pursuing a tech start-up and venture capital practice.
	Lear-la Narvaez is a 3L at the University of San Francisco School of Law. For the past 10 years she has been, and continue to be, actively involved in the LGBT community. She started on of the first student-run LBGT organizations in South Orange County at Saddleback Community College. Today she continues a commitment to LGBT rights through her pursuit of a career in family law at USF.
	John Marks is a 2L at the University of San Francisco School of Law. This summer he studied Alternative Dispute Resolution and EU Human Rights Law at Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland and Comparative Law and EU Constitutional Law at Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic. These classes will allow him to pursue his interest in practicing Immigration Law after law school.

Join BALIF’s Gala Committee and play a part in throwing the most fabulous gay lawyer party in town!

BALIF’s Annual Gala will be on March 15, 2013 at the Bently Reserve. Between now and then we need a few creative, organized, and motivated BALIF members to join the Gala Committee to make it happen. The Gala serves two important functions – it is both a great night out on the town for our members and supporters, and it is the mechanism through which BALIF raises the majority of funds it uses to support its other activities, ranging from mentoring programs, amicus briefs, happy hours and other social events, community outreach, scholarships, and supporting gay and gay-friendly members of the judiciary.

Intrigued? Contact Gala Co-Chairs Jamie Dupree and John Robert Unruh at gala@balif.org for more information. We’d love to hear your ideas. And be sure to put March 15, 2013 on your calendar for the-can’t-be-missed BALIF Annual Gala!

Recipients and Donors to be Honored on August 21^st at Reception Hosted and Sponsored by Orrick LLP

Novak Druce + Quigg LLC an industry-leading intellectual property firm with strong ties to the Bay Area, recently jump-started the 2012 BALIF Lavender Law Scholarship Fund with a $5,000 donation. The scholarship program is dedicated to sending Bay Area law students to the National LGBT Bar Association’s annual conference and career fair. Lavender Law 2012 will be held in Washington D.C. between August 24 and 26. Thanks to the generous support of Novak Druce, BALIF will be able to sponsor at least six scholarship recipients to attend Lavender Law.  One student will receive special recognition as the Novak Druce Scholar. This scholarship will be awarded to a BALIF law student who has demonstrated an interest in intellectual property law.

Novak Druce + Quigg LLC is a firm at the forefront of intellectual property law with offices in Houston, San Francisco, Silicon Valley, Washington D.C., and West Palm Beach. Novak Druce was named to the 2012 National Law Journal’s Midsize Hot List and recently welcomed Executive Partner, Donald J. Quigg, a former Deputy Commissioner of the United States Patent and Trademark Office. In addition to an impressive legal portfolio, Novak Druce consistently contributes within its community. Novak Druce + Quigg LLP recently sponsored and hosted the GLINTA (an association of LGBT trademark professionals) Celebration at the International Trademark Association’s annual meeting in Washington D.C. In San Francisco, the firm is a Partner Level Sponsor of BALIF (the oldest and largest LGBT bar association in the world.)

The scholarship fund has received additional support from many BALIF attorneys:

Todd Norris
Bullivant Houser Bailey PC

Dennis Raglin
Sedgwick

Jamie Dupree
Futterman Dupree Dodd Croley Maier LLP

Laura Maechtlen
Seyfarth Shaw LLP

Nicolas Kacprowski
Kirkland & Ellis LLP

Peter Catalanotti
Manning & Kass, Ellrod, Ramirez, Trester LLP

Boone Callaway
Law Offices of Callaway & Wolf

Jane Kahn
Rosen, Bien, Galvan & Grunfeld LLP

BALIF continues its search for additional sponsors, all of whom will be honored at a very special reception being hosted and sponsored by Orrick on August 21^st. Information on how to become a sponsor is available at balif.org or by contacting the BALIF Board at lawstudentrep@balif.org

We won the prestigious State Bar of California Diversity Award in the bar association category. The award recognizes the outstanding efforts made by a bar association, law firm or an individual attorney in promoting diversity in the legal profession. Recent winners in the bar association category include the Alameda County Bar Association, Asian American Bar Association of the Greater Bay Area, and the Lesbian & Gay Lawyers of LA. More details about the award and a list of former winners can be found here.

BALIF submitted ten-pages of nomination materials to the State Bar summarizing all of the important work we’ve been doing over the past few years, including:

• Fought Prop. 8 through rallys, marches, fundraising, education, donations, and filing of Amicus Briefs.
  
• Exploded membership growth -- from 400 to 700 in the past two years.
  
• Launched the monumental BALIF “It Gets Better” Campaign to fight against the alarming rise in suicides among LGBT youth.
  
• Collaborated in the election of Judge Victoria Kolakowski and other efforts to promote diversity on the bench and in local political office.
  
• Jumpstarted the “Connections” LGBT mentorship program to included 40+ pairings.
  
• Raised $150,000+ at annual Gala to support BALIF’s various programs and scholarships.
  
• Donated thousands of dollars in scholarship money to law students engaged in public interest work.
  
• Increased community outreach and co-sponsorship of special events and volunteer projects with sister bar organizations and the Minority Bar Coalition.
  
• Created the “BALIF Stimulus Package” for non-working LGBT attorneys, consisting of free membership, internal job site, and networking events.
  
• Overhauled website to include an events calendar, internal job site, and searchable attorney profiles.
  
• Provided LGBT-related MCLE training for Bay Area legal professionals.
  

To see BALIF’s complete nomination materials, click below.
BALIF Nomination Form.pdf

Hello BALIF Members and Friends,

As you may know, BALIF joined the fight to challenge the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and filed our Amicus Brief in the Golinski 9th Circuit case this past Tuesday. For this week’s Co-Chair Statement, we celebrate the incredible men and women that made this effort happen…

BALIF’s effort was led by Board Member Nick Kacprowski. Nick is a litigation partner in Kirkland & Ellis LLP's SF office. His practice focuses primarily on complex commercial litigation. He has served as trial counsel in trials in both state and federal court and before arbitration panels.

BALIF Amicus Committee member Leah Nutting Leah reviewed multiple drafts and conducted research for the brief. Leah is a contract attorney at Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP’s SF office, where her practice includes patent litigation, antitrust litigation, and SEC investigations. Leah is also a member of the American Constitution Society's Bay Area Lawyer Chapter.

Board Member Peter Catalanotti led BALIF’s outreach efforts to our sister bar organizations. Pete specializes in professional indemnity insurance defense. From 2009 – 2011, Pete was named a "Super Lawyer Rising Star" by Law & Politics Magazine. As a result of Pete’s efforts, 11 other bar associations joined BALIF’s Amicus Brief, including Bar Association of San Francisco, Alameda County Bar Association, and Santa Clara County Bar Association.

The Amicus Brief was drafted by Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Kirkland ’s team consists of litigation partner Jason Parish (DC) and litigation associates Shireen Barday (NY) and Andrew Welz (DC). Jason, Shireen, and Andrew all share a strong commitment to pro bono work. Jason was a member of the Kirkland team that was honored in 2010 by the D.C. Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights with an Outstanding Achievement Award for work in fair housing. Summer associates Steve Hagenbuch ( University of Chicago ) and Jennifer Berman ( University of Pennsylvania ) provided invaluable assistance with research and drafting. And legal assistants Ken Sturek and Sarah Farley and secretary Carleigh McClelland supported the team in finalizing the brief and filing it with the Court.

BALIF’s Amicus Brief has two major sections. The Plaintiffs requested that we include the first section – a summary of the federal rights and benefits denied legally-married same sex couples. Those arguments were presented at length in the trial court, and were relied on in the lower court opinion, but Plaintiffs did not have the space to include the discussion in their brief given the strict word limits on appellate briefs. We were proud and honored that out of the 12 total amicus briefs filed, Plaintiffs trusted BALIF to draft such an important section and believed that BALIF was a strong enough voice that the Court would consider our discussion. The second section argues how DOMA harms the legal profession. This is a novel perspective that has not been briefed by the parties or other amici in this case or in the 1st Circuit DOMA case; and one that is likely to interest the Panel. BALIF's Amicus Brief is available here.

Please join us in congratulating and thanking the team that led BALIF’s amicus initiative.

On Lu and Chelsea HaleyNelson
BALIF Co-Chairs

On Tuesday, July 10, BALIF will be filing our Amicus Brief in Golinski v. OPM, which is currently on appeal in the Ninth Circuit.  Our effort is led by BALIF Board Member Nick Kacprowski and Amicus Committee member Leah Nutting.  The brief, drafted by Kirkland & Ellis LLP, argues that Section 3 of DOMA - which prohibits the federal government from recognizing same-sex couples' valid marriages - burdens legal professionals, their employers, and the legal profession as a whole.  Specifically, government employees are not able to access the same employment benefits as their straight counterparts because of DOMA.  These include health insurance, family and medical leave, and retirement benefits.  The financial burden placed on employers and employees by DOMA is estimated to cost between $2,000 and $2,500 per employee.  DOMA burdens the legal profession by limiting the ability of LGBT legal professionals to pursue the career of their choice, and limits the federal government's ability to compete with the private sector in recruiting and retaining qualified legal professionals. 

 

Ms. Golinski, a staff attorney employed by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in  San Francisco , was denied health insurance benefits for her same-sex spouse. In an Administrative Order, Chief Judge Alex Kozinski ruled that the denial of benefits violates the Ninth Circuit's employment policies prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation, but the federal Office of Personal Management ignored the Order, citing the enforcement of DOMA. In February 2012, U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White held DOMA unconstitutional.  In fact, the last four courts to consider the question have all found Section 3 of DOMA to be unconstitutional.

 

Board Member Peter Catalanotti is leading the effort to invite our sister bar organizations to join BALIF's Amicus Brief.  To date, ten have signed-on.  A copy of BALIF's Amicus Brief will be available on our website shortly. If your bar association is interested in joining BALIF's Amicus Brief, please contact Pete immediately at outreach@balif.org.  

 

Late on the eve of Independence Day, we learned that the DOJ asked the U.S. Supreme Court to consider Golinski.  This development demonstrates that everyone - including the government - desires to resolve this matter quickly.  DOMA's days are numbered, and we look forward to finally putting DOMA out of its (and our) misery.

Click here to read the brief.

Happy Pride!  What an amazing week and weekend celebrating the diversity, strength, promise and love of our community.  Thank you to everyone who joined us, yesterday, at the 4th Annual Jones Day Pride Breakfast.  We were honored to have California Senate Majority Leader, Ellen Corbett, join us this year. Senator Corbett shared some inspiring words with us before marching in the Pride Parade.  Thank you again to Jones Day Partner, Bob Mittelstaedt, and the entire Jones Day Pride Breakfast planning committee for organizing such a fun and family friendly event.