Tips for adapting your case to the judges’ and justices’ perspective While attorneys advocate, judges search for the right result. Here are three techniques for persuading judges by aiding them in their truth-seeking mission. First, channel your audience’s inner ‘scientist.’ Organizational…
The Labor and Employment Law Section Annual Conference: February 25-26, 2021
When I started my career in labor over fourteen years ago at the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), I frequently heard about the Bar Association of San Francisco’s (BASF) Labor and Employment Law Section’s Annual Conference at Yosemite from my…
Are You Working on a Project That You Could Have Given to Your Paralegal?
The primary job of a paralegal is to lighten the workload of their attorney. Your paralegal can be an invaluable asset to your practice if you are using their skills correctly. You can have them review and organize client files,…
Pandemic Arbitration
I try jury trials. I also try arbitrations. Unfortunately, anyone expecting to talk to a jury this year is likely out of luck. Although a small number of social-distanced jury trials were attempted in 2020, for the most part they were…
Data Breach: Breaking Down a Lawyer’s Ethical Duties to Inquire and Disclose
Your laptop or smartphone containing client confidences is lost or stolen. Or, you learn that the public Wi-Fi that you accessed yesterday without using a Virtual Private Network (VPN) was a fake internet portal set up by hackers. Even worse,…
Give It Away Now: Billionaire Went Broke Intentionally
He’s the “ultimate example of giving while living,” says Bill Gates, himself no slouch when it comes to charitable donations. Chuck Feeney pioneered luxury on the cheap with his Duty-Free Shoppers stores in airports all around the world. Decades of…
TV’s Wyatt Earp Fought Off a Mob of Unclaimed Heirs
Hugh O’Brian channeled his straight-shooting Old West lawman elsewhere once he became famous as TV’s Wyatt Earp. Inspired by an encounter with the humanitarian Albert Schweitzer, the actor created a youth leadership organization that remains one of America’s most prominent.…
Perseverance in the Face of Challenges: Paralegal Section Proves They Are a Force To be Reckoned With
The year 2020 has come and gone. We started the year declaring optimistically that 2020 would be the year of ‘perfect vision.’ But between a global pandemic and an exhausting presidential race, the optimism became an afterthought as we were…
Family Court Welcomes New Judges in 2021
The San Francisco Unified Family Court (UFC) is thrilled to welcome two new judges: Judge-elect Maria Evangelista Lopez Judge-elect Maria Evangelista Lopez will join UFC in January 2021 and replace Judge Sharon Reardon in Department 403. Since 2003, Evangelista Lopez…
Family Law Moving Forward
Let me wish you a Happy New Year 2021 and thank you for electing me Chair of the Bar Association of San Francisco’s (BASF) Family Law Section. Many are glad to see 2020 come to a close. The year proved…
Last Chance to Prevent Property Tax Reassessment for the Kids
Effective February 16, 2021, most parent-child gifts of real estate will be subject to reassessment thanks to Proposition 19. Subject to limitations, only the parent’s principal residence or farm will be excluded from reassessment if (and that’s a big if!)…
Can You Handle the Truth?
Attorneys must be honest for the justice system to work and for the system to have any credibility to the general public. To that end, attorneys had a duty of candor under the old California Rules of Professional Conduct (CRPC)…