Firm

Diversity, Equality + Inclusion Committee

Farella is deeply committed to diversity and inclusion for all attorneys and staff. Everyone at the firm is respected and included irrespective of race, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, national origin, or disability. Our diversity and inclusiveness make us stronger as a firm and enable us to deliver superlative legal advice to our clients.

Farella recognizes that the number of women and diverse partners in law firms needs to improve and is committed to being part of the solution. We have been a leader in working towards greater diversity in our firm and the legal profession for decades. We created our first high school diversity pipeline program in 2007 and have given scholarships to diverse law students for over 20 years. We also partner with our clients on diversity initiatives. Throughout our history, we have supported the recruitment, retention, and advancement of women and diverse attorneys through innovative initiatives.

We achieved Midsize Mansfield Certification Plus status after completing a rigorous 18-month collaboration with Diversity Lab—from September 15, 2021 to March 14, 2023—to track, measure, and achieve diversity in leadership. The Certification “Plus” status indicates that a firm met the considerations and transparency requirements and successfully achieved 30% representation of historically underrepresented lawyers (defined to include women, lawyers from underrepresented racial/ethnic groups, LGBTQ+ lawyers, and lawyers with disabilities) in current leadership roles and pathway activities. Farella materially surpassed Certification and Certification “Plus” benchmarks.

Diversity, Equality + Inclusion Committee

Farella’s Diversity, Equality + Inclusion Committee is one of the largest committees at the firm and is truly a cross-section of the firm, including attorneys and staff, which reflects the intense commitment of all firm members towards diversity and inclusion. The Committee is focused on supporting and developing innovative initiatives to work towards greater diversity and inclusion of everyone working at the firm as well as in the greater legal community. It also is committed to promoting diversity and inclusion in recruiting, retaining, and advancing attorneys to partnership. The Committee has over 40 members and is chaired by Sarah GoodCarolina de Armas and Hilary Krase.

           

Women’s Leadership Committee

Farella’s Women’s Leadership Committee’s focus is to retain, develop and promote women attorneys at Farella, both within the firm and in the legal profession. To fulfill this mission, the Committee provides programming for women attorneys, promotes equal access to professional opportunities, and works on mentorship and inclusion for women attorneys at all levels. It also hosts events with clients to collaborate regarding advancement and equality for women in the legal profession. The Committee has 22 members and is chaired by Carolina de Armas.

          

Diversity Pipeline Program

Founded in 2007, Farella’s Diversity Pipeline Internship Program provides high school students from diverse and/or disadvantaged backgrounds with an opportunity to learn about the legal profession. The program combines work assignments at the law firm with a structured curriculum that introduces the interns to various practices of law, the numerous paths that a person can take to become a lawyer, and sessions on how to navigate the college application and financial aid processes. Through the hands-on six-week summer internship program, the interns develop practical skills and strategies to assist their pursuit of higher education and develop the confidence to consider, and think themselves capable of, going to law school and becoming a member of the legal community. We “open sourced” our Pipeline Program curriculum and have shared it with other law firms and corporate in-house departments.

Our Pipeline Program is extraordinarily successful: the majority of Pipeline alumni went on to four-year colleges and some went to law school and are now practicing attorneys. 

        

Diversity Scholarship Program

Farella’s Diversity Scholarship Program assists Bay Area diverse law students in pursuing their legal careers. Recipients are in their first year of law school and are selected based on academic and personal accomplishments and financial need. Since 2001, the firm has awarded $635,000 in scholarships to 92 first-year law students in the Bay Area. Our Scholarship Program is co-chaired by partner Don Sobelman and associate Jennifer Bentley.

Supported Organizations

Asian American Bar Association logo     National Center for Lesbian Rights Logo      VABAnc Logo     VABAnc Logo     VABAnc Logo

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Centro Legal de la Raza Logo     VABAnc Logo     

Firm Highlights

Publication

Employment Law Update for Nonprofits With Holly Sutton

Welcome to  EO Radio Show - Your Nonprofit Legal Resource . Charities, foundations, and their founders often request help addressing employment practices and compliance questions. In this episode, host Cynthia Rowland is joined by Holly...

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News

Scraping Battles: Meta Loses Legal Effort to Halt Harvesting of Personal Profiles

Alex Reese spoke to Matt Fleischer-Black of  Cybersecurity Law Report about the Meta v. Bright Data decision and its impact on U.S. scraping case law. Read the article here (paywall or trial).

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News

Farella Announces 2024 Leadership Council on Legal Diversity Pathfinders: Taylor Rottjakob and John Ugai

Farella Braun + Martel is proud to announce that senior associates  Taylor E. Rottjakob and John M. Ugai have been named 2024 Leadership Council on Legal Diversity (LCLD) Pathfinders. Pathfinders have been identified as...

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News

Lawdragon Names 7 Farella Lawyers Among “Leaders in Environmental Law”

Northern California legal powerhouse Farella Braun + Martel is pleased to announce that seven lawyers were selected to The Lawdragon Green 500: 2024 Leaders in Environmental Law . Farella lawyers selected for inclusion: Sarah...

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Publication

Achieving Compatibility Between Solar Project Developers and Mineral Estate Holders

By Dirk R. Mueller , Alyssa Netto , and Will Russ Texas and California lead the country in terms of solar energy generating capacity while also maintaining major oil and gas production operations, which...

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Publication

Nonprofit Basics: Unpacking Prudent Investments, PRIs and MRIs

Welcome to  EO Radio Show - Your Nonprofit Legal Resource . Episode 73 discusses frequently used terms in the nonprofit world pertaining to investment activities. Public charity and private foundation directors and officers need...

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Publication

Corporate Transparency Act: A Guide on Beneficial Ownership for Nonprofit Executives

The Corporate Transparency Act, enacted as part of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021, represents a significant shift in regulatory requirements for entities across the United States. This act, set to...

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Publication

California AI Proposal Rethinks Consumer Scope and Recordkeeping

The California Privacy Protection Agency will revisit its  draft  regulations for automated decision-making technology on March 8, including use of artificial intelligence to process personal information. Comment periods should be coming soon in 2024...

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News

Winston Liaw Named a Leadership Council on Legal Diversity Fellow

Northern California legal powerhouse Farella Braun + Martel is proud to announce that Winston Liaw has been named a Leadership Council on Legal Diversity (LCLD) Fellow for 2024. Winston joins a select group of...

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News

Brookfield Forecloses on 2,150-Unit Veritas Portfolio With Uncontested $464M Bid

Restructuring, insolvency, and creditors rights partner Gary Kaplan provided expert commentary in The Real Deal  article, "Brookfield forecloses on 2,150-unit Veritas portfolio with uncontested $464M bid." Read the full article  here  (subscription may be...

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