WOMEN LAWYERS OF ALAMEDA COUNTY 2018 JUDGES’ DINNER
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2018 Scott’s Seafood, Jack London Square, Oakland
Keynote Speaker: Marina Park CEO, Girl Scouts of Northern California
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WOMEN LAWYERS OF ALAMEDA COUNTY 2018 JUDGES DINNER
Pillsbury proudly supports the Women Lawyers of Alameda County.
Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP Four Embarcadero Center, 22nd Floor San Francisco, CA 94111 | +1.415.983.1000 WOMEN LAWYERS OF ALAMEDA COUNTY 2018 JUDGES DINNER
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Congratulations to tonight’s honoree, Pillsbury’s former Managing Partner, Marina Park.
Austin • Beijing • Hong Kong • Houston • London • Los Angeles • Miami • Nashville New York • Northern Virginia • Palm Beach • Sacramento • San Diego • San Diego North County San Francisco • Shanghai • Silicon Valley • Taipei • Tokyo • Washington, DC 3
WOMEN LAWYERS OF ALAMEDA COUNTY 2018 JUDGES DINNER
WE WELCOME OUR FELLOW BAR ASSOCIATION CO-SPONSORS... Charles Houston Bar Association American Constitution Society East Bay La Raza Lawyers Association Asian American Bar Association’s Women’s Committee Alameda County Bar Association California Women Lawyers
proudly sponsors
WLAC’s Annual Judges’ Dinner Congratulations to our partner, Gina Boer, 2019 WLAC Board President. We are proud of your accomplishments and pleased to sponsor the 2018 WLAC dinner. We take great pleasure in supporting the women lawyers of Alameda County who tirelessly dedicate themselves to the pursuit of empowerment, community and justice. 1939 Harrison Street, Suite 800 Oakland CA 94612 www.htalaw.com 510-763-2324
WOMEN LAWYERS OF ALAMEDA COUNTY 2018 JUDGES DINNER
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WOMEN LAWYERS OF ALAMEDA COUNTY ~ A VOICE FOR WOMEN IN THE LAW SINCE 1980~ 2018 BOARD OF DIRECTORS OFFICERS Gina Boer & Mary Cain-Simon, Co-Acting Presidents Suzanne Nero, Secretary Maggie Calonge, Treasurer
DIRECTORS Sharon Alkire Heather Chang Mika Domingo Emily Doskow Sylvia Harris Leslie F. Levy Esperanza McConn Heather Melton Maria Morga Dorothy Chou Proudfoot Yunah Rha
JUDICIAL LIAISONS ALAMEDA COUNTY SUPERIOR COURT JUDGES Honorable Tara M. Desautels Honorable Barbara Dickinson
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WOMEN LAWYERS OF ALAMEDA COUNTY 2018 JUDGES DINNER
2018 PROGRAM OF EVENTS Reception and Networking Welcoming Remarks Suzanne Nero, Dinner Co-Chair MARGARET A. GANNON LEGAL EDUCATION STIPEND Mika Domingo, 2012 Recipient Alexis DeBose, 2018 Recipient MAG STIPEND FUNDRAISER WOMAN LAWYER OF DISTINCTION Traci Feit Love, Esq., President & Executive Director, Lawyers For Good Government WOMAN JURIST OF DISTINCTION Honorable Donna Ryu, United States Magistrate Judge, Northern District of California NEW APPELLATE COURT JUSTICE Honorable Alison Tucher NEW ALAMEDA COUNTY JUDGES Honorable Barbara Dickinson Honorable Amy Sekany Honorable Jenna Whitman Recognition of ALAMEDA COUNTY COMMISSIONERS Nikki Clark, Toni Mims-Cochran, Boydine Hall, Tamiza Hockenhull, Bentrish Satarzadeh
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KEYNOTE SPEAKER MARINA PARK CEO, Girl Scouts of Northern California Walking the Tightrope: The Challenges of Inclusivity Introduced by Roxane Polidora, Managing Partner of Pillsbury’s San Francisco Office
WLAC/RHODA AND JUDGE STUART HING SCHOLARSHIP Janani Ramachandran, Inaugural Recipient MEMBERSHIP VOTE ON 2019 WLAC BOARD OF DIRECTORS Officers
Gina Boer, President Dorothy Chou Proudfoot, Co-Vice President Suzanne Nero, Co-Vice President Maggie Calonge, Treasurer Heather Melton, Secretary
Directors
Sharon Alkire Mary Cain-Simon Heather Chang Mika Domingo Emily Doskow Sylvia Harris Leslie F. Levy Heather Melton Maria Morga Dorothy Chou Proudfoot
Installation of 2019 Board CLOSING REMARKS Gina Boer, Incoming President
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WOMEN LAWYERS OF ALAMEDA COUNTY 2018 JUDGES DINNER
WOMEN LAWYERS OF ALAMEDA COUNTY 2018 JUDGES DINNER
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BIOGRAPHIES KEYNOTE SPEAKER MARINA PARK
Walking the Tightrope: The Challenges of Inclusivity Marina Park is the former managing partner of Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP who now serves as the CEO of Girl Scouts of Northern California. Ms. Park spent 25 years in private practice and became one of the first women (together with Pillsbury’s Chair, Mary Cranston) to lead one of the country’s 100 largest law firms. During her 8 years as managing partner, Ms. Park negotiated and implemented two of the largest law firm mergers in the United States and established a diversity program that earned top rankings from Working Mother. In 2007, Ms. Park set aside the practice of law for a new journey as CEO of the Girl Scouts of Northern California. The San Francisco Business Times has honored her 5 times with the Most Influential Women in Business Award and in 2015 recognized her as Most Admired CEO.
WOMAN JURIST OF DISTINCTION HON. DONNA M. RYU
United States Magistrate Judge, Northern District of California United States Magistrate Judge Donna M. Ryu was appointed in March of 2010 to the United States District Court, Northern District of California. Judge Ryu began her career as a commercial litigator at a large law firm before joining an Oakland firm specializing in class actions. She later founded her own small firm. Prior to joining the Court, Judge Ryu served as a Clinical Professor of Law at UC Hastings College of Law and Golden Gate University Law School. She was honored as a California Lawyer of the Year in Employment Law and has been the recipient of the NAPABA Trailblazer Award, the Asian American Bar Association’s Joe Morozumi Award for Exceptional Legal Advocacy, and the Rutter Award for Excellence in Teaching.
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TRACI FEIT LOVE
Woman Lawyer of Distinction Traci Feit Love is the founder of Lawyers for Good Government (L4GG) and the L4GG Foundation, nonprofit organizations created to harness the energy of more than 125,000 lawyers and legal activists who joined together to fight for democratic values and human rights in the wake of the 2016 election. The organization’s mission is to protect and strengthen democratic institutions, resist abuse of power and corruption, and defend the rights of all those who suffer in the absence of “good government.” Ms. Feit Love is a 2004 graduate of Harvard Law who previously practiced commercial litigation at DLA Piper and served as a strategic consultant to law firms and solo practitioners.
Welcome
Women Lawyers OF
Alameda County!
CEB is honored to be your Partner in Practice. Join us! For 70 years, CEB has provided California’s legal community with affordable, authoritative, up-to-date publications, and resources— by and for California judges and lawyers. CEB’s OnLAW is the most authoritative source for California legal analysis and procedural guidance online. Visit ceb.com/why-onlaw for more information. - Kelly Lake, Executive Director 11
WOMEN LAWYERS OF ALAMEDA COUNTY 2018 JUDGES DINNER
WOMEN LAWYERS OF ALAMEDA COUNTY 2018 JUDGES DINNER
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Donahue Fitzgerald LLP is Proud to Sponsor the Women Lawyers of Alameda County’s
Annual Judges’ Dinner We Join WLAC in Celebration of Magistrate Judge for the Northern District of California
Hon. Donna Ryu & Founder of Lawyers for Good Government
Traci Feit Love SINCE 1883, YOUR PARTNER WITH EXPERTISE ALL AROUND THE BAY
Trusts + Estates
Franchising + Distribution
Employment
Construction
Real Estate
Immigration
Business + Corporate
Music + Entertainment
Intellectual Property
Legal Cannabis
Litigation
Bankruptcy
Tax
Nonprofit
d o n a h u e. c o m
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Oakland | Walnut WOMEN LAWYERS OF ALAMEDA COUNTY 2018 Creek JUDGES| Larkspur DINNER
INCOMING JURISTS HONORABLE ALISON TUCHER
The Commission on Judicial Appointments unanimously confirmed Alison M. Tucher as an Associate Justice of the California Court of Appeal, First Appellate District, Division Four, on August 23, 2018. Before joining the Court of Appeal, Justice Tucher had served as a judge on the Alameda County Superior Court since 2013. Justice Tucher attended Williams College, graduating with a B.A. in economics and winning a scholarship to study at Cambridge University, where she received a B.A./M.A. in Engineering. Justice Tucher earned a J.D. from Stanford University in 1992. After law school, Justice Tucher worked as a law clerk for Justice David A. Souter on the United States Supreme Court and Judge William A. Norris on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. She then spent three years trying criminal cases in Santa Clara County Superior Court as a Deputy District Attorney. In 1998, Justice Tucher joined Morrison & Foerster LLP in San Francisco, where she practiced law until her appointment to the bench. Justice Tucher served, and continues serving, on the boards of the Association of Business Trial Lawyers and the Alameda County Bar Association’s Volunteer Legal Services Corporation.
HONORABLE BARBARA DICKINSON
Judge Barbara Dickinson was appointed by Governor Jerry Brown to the Alameda County Superior Court and sworn in November 2017. Judge Dickinson has a law degree from the UC Hastings College of the Law, and a B.A. from George Washington University. Judge Dickinson has served as an assistant public defender at the Alameda County Public Defender’s Office since 2013, where she was a deputy public defender from 1989 to 2013. While at the Public Defender’s office, Judge Dickinson served on the in-house training team conducting ADR trainings for international attorneys and judges. She has worked extensively in the juvenile justice system, recently focusing on collaborative courts which treat mentally ill juvenile offenders. Prior to her appointment, Judge Dickinson served as WLAC’s President for both 2016 and 2017. Immediately following her swearing in she began her judicial career in a criminal assignment in the Fremont Hall of Justice.
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HONORABLE AMY L. SEKANY
Judge Amy L. Sekany was sworn in as a Judge on the Alameda County Superior Court in March 2018. Judge Sekany had served as the Alameda County Superior Court’s family law facilitator and managing attorney of Self-Help Services since 2016. She was the managing attorney for the Eviction Defense Center in Oakland from 2014 to 2016 and from 2005 to 2009. Judge Sekany was an associate at Wylie, McBride, Platten and Renner from 2009 to 2014, where she was a law clerk from 1999 to 2001. She was a crisis counselor and case manager at the Tri Valley Haven domestic violence shelter from 2001 to 2004. Judge Sekany served as an assistant state’s attorney at the Lake County State’s Attorney’s Office in Illinois from 1998 to 1999 and as an assistant public defender at the Lake County Public Defender’s Office from 1997 to 1998. She earned a Juris Doctor degree from Valparaiso University School of Law and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Millikin University.
HONORABLE JENNA M. WHITMAN
Our newest jurist, Judge Jenna M. Whitman, was sworn in on July 6, 2018. Judge Whitman had been a court appellate attorney at the First District Court of Appeal since 2017. She served as a research attorney at the Alameda County Superior Court from 2007 to 2017. Earlier in her career, she was an associate at Lieff, Cabraser, Heimann and Bernstein LLP from 2005 to 2007 and at Howard, Rice, Nemerovski, Canady, Falk and Rabkin from 2001 to 2004. She earned a Juris Doctor degree from the Georgetown University Law Center and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Yale College.
STIPEND AND SCHOLARSHIP RECIPIENTS 2018 Margaret A. Gannon Legal Eduacation Stipend Recipients Alexis DeBose Lisa Pinelli Faride Perez-Aucar Mia Akers WLAC/Rhoda and Judge Stuart Hing Scholarship Recipient Janani Ramachandran
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WOMEN LAWYERS OF ALAMEDA COUNTY 2018 JUDGES DINNER
WALKUP MELODIA KELLY & SCHOENBERGER Is honored to sponsor
Women Lawyers of Alameda County Annual Judges’ Dinner and
Woman Jurist of Distinction Judge Donna Ryu Woman Lawyer of Distinction Honoree Traci Feit Love
________________________ For six decades, the Walkup Law Office has been synonymous with courtroom excellence, record settlements, and satisfied clients. The diversity of our practice includes individual, class and mass tort claims. From drug and device litigation to truck and auto collisions; from dangerous highways to internet privacy; from medical and obstetrical negligence to Kaiser Plan arbitrations; from MUNI railway negligence to premises liability, our success is unmatched.
________________________ 650 California Street San Francisco, CA 94108 (415) 981-7210 www.WalkupLawOffice.com
Winning for the Plaintiff Since 1959 WOMEN LAWYERS OF ALAMEDA COUNTY 2018 JUDGES DINNER
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BOIES SCHILLER FLEXNER
We congratulate the Women Lawyers of Alameda County for their dedication to public service and the highest ideals of the practice of law.
BOIES SCHILLER FLEXNER LLP 1999 Harrison Street, Suite 900 Oakland, CA 94612 510 874 1000 www.bsfllp.com 17
WOMEN LAWYERS OF ALAMEDA COUNTY 2018 JUDGES DINNER
STANDING WITH YOU
Boxer & Gerson, LLP, stands in solidarity with the increasing numbers of women who continue to transform the legal field, who founded and sustain the WLAC, and with honored speaker and fellow attorney Marina Park, leading the Girl Scouts of Northern California into a new world of opportunity.
BEST
The Rotunda Building Downtown Oakland (510) 835-8870 www.boxerlaw.com Also in San Francisco, Concord and Santa Rosa
WOMEN LAWYERS OF ALAMEDA COUNTY 2018 JUDGES DINNER
Workers’ Compensation Personal Injury Social Security Disability
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Hausfeld is proud to support the Women Lawyers of Alameda County
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WOMEN LAWYERS OF ALAMEDA COUNTY 2018 JUDGES DINNER
ACUÑA ❖ REGLI
❖ Estate Planning ❖ Administration ❖ Conservatorship ❖ Inheritance Litigation
ACUÑA ❖ REGLI, LLP, is proud to sponsor Women Lawyers of Alameda County’s 2018 WLAC Judges’ Dinner Congratulations to This Year’s Honorees
Honorable Donna Ryu Jurist of Distinction
Traci Feit Love
Founder, Lawyers for Good Government Lawyer of Distinction
Our practice is strictly limited to estate and succession planning, probate and trust administration, conservatorship and special needs planning, and inheritance litigation
Offices in Pleasant Hill, Fairfield, and Oakland, California (925) 906-1880 www.acunaregli.com
The Clorox Company is a proud sponsor of Women Lawyers of Alameda County (WLAC). We make everyday life better, every day.
WOMEN LAWYERS OF ALAMEDA COUNTY 2018 JUDGES DINNER
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WOMEN LAWYERS OF ALAMEDA COUNTY PAST PRESIDENTS Ellen J. Beilock Kathleen Courts Priscilla Camp Cynthia Podren Frances S. Kaminer Juliet L. Gee Rachel Ginsburg Susan Narita Gillian M. Ross Katherine A. Montgomery Alice Chin Hon. Sandra (Schweitzer) McLean
Priscilla Camp Lise Pearlman Deborah Chase Cherri N. Allison Carole Raimondi Margaret A. Gannon Toni Mims-Cochran Mala Sahai Brenda Aguilar-Guerrero Hon. Barbara Dickinson Bentrish Satarzadeh immediate past president
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THANK YOU Thank you all for joining just this evening in recognizing and honoring local women in the legal profession. We are especially grateful to the following for their much-appreciated sponsorship and support: DIAMOND SPONSOR
PLATINUM SPONSOR
GOLD SPONSORS
SILVER SPONSORS
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WOMEN LAWYERS OF ALAMEDA COUNTY 2018 JUDGES DINNER
Don’t forget to renew your membership for 2019 tonight at the Dinner or at wlaconline.org!
WOMEN LAWYERS OF ALAMEDA COUNTY 2018 JUDGES’ DINNER SEE YOU NEXT YEAR!
WOMEN LAWYERS OF ALAMEDA COUNTY 2018 JUDGES DINNER
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