It's election time! We have a fabulous and diverse group of candidates seeking election or re-election to the BALIF Board of Directors this year.

BALIF's bylaws require gender parity on the Board, with equal numbers of positions allocated to Directors who identify as male or female, and additional positions allocated to those who identify as gender non-conforming. This year, BALIF members will elect four male Directors, three female Directors, and two law student Directors (one male and one female). No one has elected to run in a gender non-conforming category.

This year's candidates are:

Denise Bergin

Felicia Medina

Meaghan Zore

Pete Catalanotti

Nick Clements

Dustin Helmer

Brandon Lawrence

On Lu

Mike Riess

Dmitri Pikman

Law student candidates:

Midori Hirai

Mona Hosseiny

Joseph Rocha

Dalton Rodriguez

Read their candidate statements here. Elections will be online from April 10 to 5:00 p.m. on April 24, and ballots will be sent by email to all current BALIF members. If you do not receive your ballot by April 11, please contact balif@balif.org.

You can also vote in person at BALIF's annual General Membership Meeting on Thursday, April 24 at the Sausage Factory from 6 - 8:30 p.m. The in-person voting will end at 7 p.m., and election results will be announced at the end of the General Membership Meeting.

Good luck to all the candidates, and see you on April 24!

Equality California is proud to honor two City and County of San Francisco officials, Barbara Garcia and Hon. Dennis Herrera, at the 2014 San Francisco Equality Awards, on Saturday, April 12. City Attorney Dennis Herrera will receive the Vanguard Award for his leadership throughout the legal campaign to restore the freedom to marry in California. San Francisco Director of Health Barbara Garcia will receive the Leadership Award for her work in making San Francisco one of the best cities in America for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people to receive care.  With a cocktail reception starting at 6 p.m., and an after-party with DJ Rockaway, this is a great opportunity to meet and mingle with the stars of the movement for full equality for LGBT Californians in a fun, relaxed setting.

The Palace Hotel, 2 New Montgomery St., San Francisco, CA 94105.

Saturday, April 12, 2014:  6 p.m. Cocktail Reception, 7 p.m. Dinner, 9 p.m. After-party

Speakers:  The Honorable Allison M. Danner (Superior Court Judge, Santa Clara County), Theodore Borromeo (Assistant General Counsel, Employment and Benefits Law, McKesson Corporation),

David J. Tsai (Counsel, Perkins Coie LLP), and Yolanda Jackson (Interim Executive Director and Diversity Director, The Bar Association of San Francisco)

This event is co-sponsored with the Bar Association of San Francisco's LGBT Equality Committee & International Human Rights Committee.

Alameda County Family Law Association presents Introduction to Legal (and Other) Issues Relating to Transgender Children

Presented by Ilona Turner, Esq.

Attorney Ilona Turner has been the Legal Director at Transgender Law Center since January 2012.  Prior to that time, she was a staff attorney at the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR), where her work frequently focused on issues affecting transgender clients, and lobbyist for Equality California, where she helped to shepherd groundbreaking legislation that prohibited housing and employment discrimination against transgender people in California.

Tuesday April 22, 2014

Alameda Superior Court, Department 5

1225 Fallon Street, Oakland, CA

12:15 pm to 1:15 pm

MCLE credit in Elimination of Bias will be provided

Join Lambda Legal for a fun networking evening in support of Lambda's impact litigation, public policy and education work. Help Lambda protect and expand the rights of LGBT people and people with HIV - marriage equality, youth and senior issues, health care, employment, housing, benefits and beyond. From Alaska to Alabama. Lambda has been there fighting for the last 41 years.

Friday, April 25, 2014

Cocktails 6-7:30

Dinner and Program 7-9:00

Soiree Lounge 9-11:00 with DJ Christopher B and Velocity Circus

For more about the event or if interested in participating as an event sponsor, please contact Jennifer Bing at jennifer@bing-sf.com or call (415) 800-8127.

The Office of the Independent Administrator (OIA) is seeking qualified individuals who want to join its pool of possible arbitrators. There is no fee to do so and the OIA receives no money from the neutral arbitrators.

The OIA administers the arbitration system between Kaiser Permanente Health Plan, Inc., and its six million members in California. We administer about 650 cases a year and have approximately 275 neutral arbitrators on the panel. The panels are divided by region; Northern California, Southern California, and San Diego. The parties select their neutral arbitrator by striking and ranking 12 randomly generated names supplied by the OIA, or by jointly selecting any neutral arbitrator upon whom they can agree.   Neutrals set their own fees and are paid by the parties.

Among other requirements, neutral arbitrators must either be lawyers with either ten years of substantial litigation and/or arbitration experience; retired state or federal judges; or lawyers with specifically designed arbitration training.   Medical malpractice experience is not required. You must agree to follow the OIA Rules and ensure that the deadlines set forth in the Rules are met.

If interested, please go to the OIA at www.oia-kaiserarb.com. You may complete the application on line. You may also obtain copies by emailing oia@oia-kaiserarb.com or by calling 213-637-9847. The qualifications and a copy of the application are attached.

The National LGBT Bar Association is now accepting submissions for the Student Leadership Award, the Michael Greenberg Writing Competition and the International Association of LGBT Judges Writing Competition

Student Leadership Award

The National LGBT Bar Association's Student Leadership Award is the organization's highest honor for law students. The award will recognize a law student who has demonstrated leadership within their school and in the surrounding community, especially in the area of LGBT equality.

Michael Greenberg Student Writing Competition

Established in memory of Michael Greenberg, a former National LGBT Bar Association board member and Philadelphia attorney who died in 1996 from complications with AIDS, this exciting competition is dedicated to encouraging and recognizing outstanding law student scholarship on the legal issues affecting lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) persons.

International Association of LGBT Judges Student Writing Competition

The International Association of LGBT Judges sponsors a writing competition for all law students attending the 2014 Lavender Law Conference & Career Fair. This is an exciting opportunity for law students who wish to pursue their career as a member of the United States judiciary.

Timeline

All three student awards will follow the same final submission date of Friday, May 16, 2014 at 5:00pm ET. Late entries will not be considered. Students are able to enter all competitions, but only if they turn in different works for each submission.

Click here for full competition details. Should you have any questions, please send them to info@LGBTbar.org.

BALIF's twitter feed is up and running.  Follow us to see BALIF news, event info, #ThrowbackThursday posts, and more.  Just click the Twitter button at the bottom of the newsletter or here.

BALIF members are experts in almost every legal specialization from antitrust to family law and we want to leverage our extensive media contacts list to raise the profiles of our experts. When a journalist needs an expert on securities law, prison law, employment law, or whatever your specialization is, she'll call you for that quote. 

If you want to be included in the BALIF Expert Directory,

please send a short email with the following to PR@balif.org:

Name, title and place of business

Fields and/or sub-fields you are an expert in (E.g., Employment and ERISA)

No more than 500 words on what makes you an expert: specific work experience, length of experience, published articles or books, and speaking appearances related to your topic.

Please reply only if you can truly be considered an expert in your field; general guidelines are at least 7-10 years of practice and/or additional qualifications that separate you from other attorneys.

Have a job or need one? Civil procedure question? Need a

referral? Have something important to ask ... or news to tell? Want to get to our members quickly? Join our Listserv!

BALIF members should have received our invitation to join our newly-created Listserv. You must proactively respond to the request in order to be added to our Listserv. If you didn't get a request, please let us know by emailing technology@balif.org or balif@balif.org.

We all love that section in our alumni newsletters that talks about who's doing what.

Well, we're introducing the BALIFBuzz to show-off all the great things that our members are doing.  BALIFBuzz will be appearing in the weekly BALIF newsletter.   

New job?

New client?

Promotion?

Court victory?

Significant settlement?

Baby on the way?

Recently married or engaged?

Speaking engagement?

Award, recognition, certification, or degree?  

Or anything else you're excited about...

Keep it to one or two lines.  Please send to membership@balif.org.

Can't wait to hear your great news!

Meaghan Zore 

BALIF Membership Chair

All job postings can be found here!  

BALIF membership must be current to view the job postings. Simply log into the BALIF website with your membership ID and password, and select the JOBS from the menu on the left.