Five things you need to do: 1) Find a law firm which handles the issues you are dealing with. 2) Look at credentials. 3) Meet with the firm in person. 4) Ask to see evidence of similar cases and the results. 5) Be comfortable with the interview or go somewhere else.
We are pleased to announce we have hired Christopher Garrett as an Associate Attorney with our firm. A graduate of Columbia Law School New York, Chris did his undergraduate work at Willamette University, Oregon. Chris brings a wealth of litigation experience to the firm.
Amazed and gratified to see all the legal community volunteers who assisted in the 31st Annual Contra Costa County High School Mock Trial. Many of our local Judges and Commissioners, our District Attorney, many Deputy DA’s and Deputy Public Defenders, and enumerable private practice lawyers, provided assistance. I was thoroughly impressed with the performance of the High School participants.
Matt Guichard spent last Friday, March 9th, at his High School, St. Joseph Notre Dame in Alameda. The occasion was the annual Career Day for class juniors. He gave a talk on his International legal experience in Salzburg, Austria and Odense, Denmark. He then spoke of his time as a deputy DA in Contra Costa County. After that he discussed his experience at Ropers Majeski in San Francisco and as Managing Director of their Sacramento Office. And finally his adventure for the past 15 years or so at Guichard, Teng & Portello. What a fun day it was! Lots of students are interested in the law. Matt’s talk was very well received by the students and he looks forward to participating again next year.
A long-awaited change in immigration law for U.S. citizens married to undocumented immigrants is on its way. On January 6, 2012, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced on the Federal Register its plan to reduce the time that U.S. citizens are separated from their spouses and children while those family members go through the process of becoming legal residents. Currently, undocumented spouses and sons and daughters of U.S. citizens who have accrued a certain period of unlawful presence in the United States and have to leave the country as part of the legal immigration process, are barred from returning to their U.S. families for as long as 3 or 10 years. However, they can receive a waiver to allow them to return to their families by showing that their U.S. citizen family member would face extreme hardship as … Continue reading
Goodness! After years of begging for jury verdicts for my column, I have finally found out how to get people’s attention: Report that someone has moved and taken a new job. I think the strategy will be to say: “John Doe has just joined a new firm and has been nominated for ABODA, so if you want me to talk about you, send a jury verdict”. I am certain that will work. I cannot tell you the number of calls and messages I have recently received, complaining that I didn’t post some announcement in Bar Soap. I am thinking of telling my partners I have no time to contribute to firm business, as I must run down rumors of law firm changes in our local legal community. I am sure they will understand. (I am smiling as I write this, … Continue reading
It has been a while, so where to start? How about a solution for the Occupy Movement? Lots of vacant office space in the East Bay due to law firm break-ups. Simply move the folks in and voilá! In fact, 1331 N. California Boulevard in Walnut Creek is particularly in need of some occupation. The positive news is the announcement of new firms in our midst. It is always cause for celebration when lawyers get together to form a new venture among themselves. Remember the excitement and anticipation? George Cabot, formerly of Morgan Miller Blair (MMB) formed a new boutique firm entitledPremierCounsel, LLP. Greg Allio and Steve Gasser have joined George as partners. The principal office will be in San Francisco, with an “Auxiliary” office in Lafayette. The new firm will focus on corporate, securities, taxation and M&A transactions. Another important MMB spin-off is Brown, … Continue reading
Feeling a bit confused and confounded with this new column? So, let’s see: It’s a bit gossip, some facts about people on the move, some jury verdicts, some court verdicts, some interesting settlements and perhaps some not so interesting comments from me. Do I have that right? And when I have enough jury verdict reports, I will get one of those columns to you. Not sure if you saw the mention in our local newspaper of two local Bar Association members; Nadia Costa and Joshua Safran. Though the Habeas Project, they took on representation of a wrongfully incarcerated women. Their work, documented in the film “Crime After Crime”, was presented at the San Francisco International Film Festival. Happy to see another one of our own, Mark Ericsson was named a Super Lawyer. For those of you who have been nominated as a Super Lawyer in … Continue reading