BASF Member Honored with State Bar Award Barg Coffin Lewis & Trapp attorney David M. Metres has been selected by the State Bar of California’s Real Property Law Section as one of five recipients of its “Morning Star” award –…
Mintz Levin Joins BASF as Newest Leaders Circle Firm
The 2014 membership year has started off on a high-note as BASF’s Leader Circle program (formerly Sponsor Firm) has added its second newest member. BASF is very excited to announce that Mintz Levin Cohn Ferris Glovsky & Popeo PC has…
Legal Ethics Corner: When Turning Over a Client’s File, Don’t Forget to Include Electronic Data
One of the most difficult things is to lose a client. Sometimes it is for the best. However, when you lose a client and the attorney-client relationship ends, your obligations to the client do not end. See Formal Opinion 1992-127…
Legal Writing Tip: Boost the Drama; Keep Sentences Short
To boost drama or emotion in briefs, client letters and other writing, pepper your narrative with short sentences. Easy to read, short sentences focus readers’ attention, helping them retain information. Part style, part literary technique, short sentences control your reader’s…
Hire a Law Academy Intern; Change a Life
The Justice & Diversity Center’s Law Academy program encourages and increases career opportunities for underserved and ethnically diverse students in Balboa High School in San Francisco. Creative and inspiring curriculum is built into several core classes where junior and senior…
Setting Effective Goals to Improve Your Legal Practice
Now that 2014 is well under way, imagine how your practice can improve by effective goal setting strategies. Often, when we set goals for ourselves, our expectations or old behaviors sabotage our results. What if goals are created in a way…
Attorneys Honored at Gideon v. Wainwright Anniversary Reception
2013 marked the 50th Anniversary of Gideon v. Wainwright and on December 10, hundreds gathered to recognize the work of criminal defense lawyers in San Francisco – those on BASF’s indigent defense conflicts panel and those in the Public Defender’s…
Longtime JDC Volunteer Jeffry Bernstein Dedicates Pro Bono Work to Low-Income Taxpayers
The Justice & Diversity Center (JDC) is pleased to recognize Coblentz, Patch, Duffy & Bass Partner Jeffry Bernstein as our volunteer of the month for his work with JDC’s Low Income Taxpayer Clinic (LITC). Bernstein has volunteered with JDC since…
Sausage Factory
Two things that should not be viewed are the making of law and sausage, or so the saying goes. My trip to the Conference of California Bar Associations (CCBA) proved one-half of that old saw wrong. As a new member…
Child Support Arrears May Add Up to Felony Time? You Betcha, Levi!
The Palin family is never far from the headlines and now it is Bristol Palin’s turn. In November, it was reported that her baby daddy, Levi Johnston, had filed for joint custody of the couple’s child, Tripp. Palin responded by…
BASF’s First Working Mother President, Stephanie Skaff, Announces “It Starts With a Day Initiative” and Legal Help for Veterans
Farella Braun + Martel Partner Stephanie P. Skaff was installed in December as BASF’s 101st president at the Annual Membership Luncheon. It was there that she announced her “It Starts With a Day” 2014 volunteer initiative. The goal of…
Federal Judge Invalidates Oklahoma Constitutional Ban on Same-Sex Marriage
On January 14, 2014, a federal judge in Tulsa ruled that a voter-approved 2004 constitutional ban on recognition of same-sex marriage in Oklahoma “must give way to individual constitutional rights.” In a 68 page ruling , U.S. District Judge Terrence…