A Life-Changing Year for the San Francisco Legal Community

The Bar Association of San Francisco in 1993
by Karen D. Kadushin, 1993 BASF President

I was quite excited to begin 1993 as President of BASF, the third woman in over 100 years! I’d been fortunate to have had both of the first two, Joanne Garvey and Judy McKelvey, as mentors since law school. And I was thrilled to be working with our powerhouse Executive Director, Dru Ramey. What a team we would make, forming the Equality Committee and expanding the work of the Volunteer Legal Services Program.

We were making progress with all of my many plans until July 1st. I cannot remember how I heard there was something wrong. There was no radio or TV in our office suite and I don’t think we actually heard the gunshots.

We were on the third floor of Embarcadero One. I had the corner office with a window facing Sacramento Street and another looking across Battery Street to the Federal Reserve Bank. I was sitting at my desk. Nobody knew what was going on or what to expect. But shots had been heard and the police had been called and it was taking place in a law office two blocks away.

We all went down on our hands and knees under our desks; immediately and without a second thought. All of that grammar school training went into effect. Drop and Cover. Immediately. Nonsensical, given the two blocks between our offices and the gunshots, but immediately nonetheless. Was this a madman with a gun? Were we going to be killed because we were lawyers? Was this gunman on a rampage that would end with multiple bodies strewn all over the Financial District of San Francisco?

No one could answer those questions. Later we learned all about this man with a gun and a huge grudge against someone or something coming into the offices of Pettit and Martin. The story was never clear to me or the media. But by the time he had burst into the conference room shooting everyone in it (lawyers, clients and court reporter), and into several offices, hallways and down a flight of stairs, firing at any and every person he saw, he had shot fourteen people, killing eight of them.

As President of BASF, I attended eight funeral and memorial services the following week. I spoke into microphones shoved into my face, made radio or TV appearances, and gave quotes to local newspapers. In the months following the shootings I worked with Senator Dianne Feinstein’s office to draft and pass a ban on assault weapons. That bill became law but had a 10-year “sunset” clause and was not renewed.

The 101 California Street shootings changed everything about that year for me and for every other lawyer in San Francisco. Law firms re-configured their offices. Security personnel were hired and posted in building lobbies. Identification and passes were required to be allowed into elevators that had been re-programmed to stop only at specific floors. Pettit & Martin dissolved after members of the firm helped form Legal Community Against Violence, now merged with the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence.

It was a memorable year for me and for BASF, although not in a way we had planned or for which we had hoped.