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THE S E L I F T I F O R P N NO
THE MARIN LAWYER September 2026 Lead Editor: Emily Harrington Creative Director: Aariel Nigam
2026 Officers President: Thomas M. McInerney President-Elect: Neusha N. Ghaedi Treasurer: Robyn B. Christo Secretary: Nestor Schnasse Past President: Kristine Fowler Cirby 5 Year Past President: Thomas S. Brown Board of Directors 2026 Ingrid L. Carbone Marisa R. Chaves Christine O'Hanlon Roni D. Pomerantz Marrianne S. Taleghani 2027 Sarah B. Anker Paul Burglin Emily Harrington R. Wesley Pratt Adrea S. Tencer 2028 Cole A. Benbow Laura E. McMahon Brett K. Rhodes Dennis E. Simmons Nicole L. Tiger Interim Executive Director Kerry Enright Executive Director Jen Cesario The Marin Lawyer is published by The Marin County Bar Association 101 Lucas Valley Road, Suite 326 San Rafael, CA 94903 (415) 499-1314 info@marinbar.org marinbar.org
© 2026 All Rights Reserved.
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CONTENTS 4 | Editor’s Introduction EMILY HARRINGTON 6 | 2026 President’s Message: A Call to Serve — And a Warm Welcome THOMAS M. MCINERNEY 9 | Non-Profit Spotlight: Make It Home – A NonProfit Organization THOMAS BROWN
26 | Volunteer Spotlight: Jim Snipes, Volunteer with Marin CASA RONI POMERANTZ 30 | Nonprofit Risk Management: Practical Lessons for Counsel DENIS KENNY 35 | Director's Profile: Thomas McInerney, President THOMAS BROWN
12 | Non-Profit Spolight: Legal Services for Children: When Crisis Comes for a Child COLE BENBOW 15 | Non-Profit Spotlight: Interview with Laura McMahon, Executive Director of Legal Aid of Marin EMILY HARRINGTON 20 | Non-Profit Spotlight: Marin Community Foundation THOMAS BROWN
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EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION Emily Harrington This issue of The Marin Lawyer focuses on nonprofits: the organizations doing the hard and important work in Marin County that our neighbors genuinely need. Most of us went to law school because we wanted to help people. This issue is a reminder that the opportunities to do exactly that are close to home. This issue sheds light on some of the difficult situations that our Marin community members find themselves in: Families in Marin are sleeping on the floors of apartments they just qualified for. Tenants are losing their homes with almost no notice. Children are showing up in court without a single adult on their side. Immigrants are facing legal proceedings they do not understand, at a moment when the federal landscape is shifting under their feet. The nonprofits profiled in this issue are the ones showing up for these people, and many of them depend on lawyers to do it: whether as counsel, board members, volunteers, or as donors.
We profile Make It Home, a Novato-based furniture bank founded by Carolyn Flannery. Make It Home furnishes complete homes (whether it is beds, dishes, towels, or can openers) for people moving out of homelessness, domestic violence, and foster care. They serve more than 700 households a year, and as Carolyn puts it, when a family goes into a furnished home rather than an empty one, the rate of returning to homelessness drops from roughly 20 percent to 5 percent. We also feature Legal Services for Children, one of the first children’s law offices in the country, which has been pairing attorneys with social workers since 1975 to represent more than 1,000 young people a year in immigration, foster care, and education matters. As Executive Director Cathy Sakimura puts it: “When a child needs a lawyer, it’s already a crisis.”
We also sat down with Laura McMahon, Executive Director of Legal Aid of Marin, who talks about Legal Aid of Marin’s four-pronged approach to services—direct representation, impact litigation, community education, and policy advocacy—and the immigration program LAM created last year because the need simply could not wait. We also hear from Adam Bink at Marin Community Foundation, which is powered by nearly 600 donor families and granted more than $300 million last fiscal year alone. His conversation covers everything from the Buck Trust’s remarkable origin story to MCF’s Food on Every Table Fund, which launched when federal foodbenefit cuts hit Marin. We also feature an interview with Jim Snipes, a volunteer with Marin’s Court-Appointed Special
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Advocate (“CASA”) program. Jim discusses how CASA provides counsel to juveniles in the justice system and foster system, ensuring that children’s interests are represented in court. He also shares some heartwarming stories about the enrichment activities he has helped make possible for his juvenile clients. Jim says that volunteering with CASA has been incredibly fulfilling and is ever more important in today’s political climate. Finally, Denis Kenny of Scherer Smith & Kenny, LLP offers a nuts-and-bolts guide to nonprofit risk management. His message is one that bears repeating: the time to build relationships with employment counsel, investigators, forensic accountants, and your insurance broker is before the phone rings with bad news, not after. If you have nonclient clients, the practice pointers Denis offers are an important read. Lastly, we feature a Director’s Profile on MCBA President Tom McInerney, who discusses his career as an employment litigator, his background and work in politics, and his commitment to volunteering and giving back, including his service to Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area, the BASF Justice & Diversity Center, and Cedars of Marin. Taken together, these pieces give a real sense of how much nonprofit work is happening in and around Marin, and how many openings there are for lawyers to be part of it. We hope you enjoy this issue and feel called to get involved in this important work in our community.
UPCOMING EVENTS
THIRSTY THURSDAY Thursday, October 1st 5:00 PM-6:30 PM General Membership Social Perry’s, Novato
FAMILY LAW SECTION MEETING Tuesday, October 6th 12:00 PM-1:00 PM New Rules for the Statement of Decision Process presented by the Family Law Section of MCBA Virtual
ESTATE PLANNING, TRUST AND PROBATE & PROBATE LITIGATION SECTIONS MEETING Thursday, October 15th 12:00 PM-1:00 PM The Undiscovered Country: Discovery Practice in Trust & Estate Litigation Virtual
ANNUAL JUDGES’ LUNCHEON Wednesday, October 28th 12:00 PM-1:15 PM
Emily B. Harrington is a senior associate in the San Francisco office of Ogletree Deakins. She represents employers in a broad range of labor and employment matters, with a practice focused on advice and counsel, workplace investigations, and employment litigation. Emily serves on the Board of Directors of the MCBA.
Honoring the Marin County Superior Court Judges and Commissioners Embassy Suites, San Rafael
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2026 PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE A Call to Serve — and a Warm Welcome Thomas M. McInerney As I write this column for the Marin Lawyer, I find myself reflecting on what makes the Marin County Bar Association such a vital institution — not just for the legal profession in Marin County, but for the broader community we serve. The answer, quite simply, is people. The MCBA thrives because of the lawyers who step forward and give their time, their energy, and their expertise as volunteers. If you have ever thought about getting more involved with the MCBA, I want to encourage you to take that step. Volunteering with the bar association is one of the most rewarding ways to give back — both to your community and to the profession that has given all of us so much. Whether you serve on a committee, help plan an event, mentor a newer attorney, or lend your perspective to our board, your contribution makes a real difference in how our organization operates and in the quality of services we provide to our members and the public. We are always looking for volunteers of all ages and from all areas of practice. One of the things I am most proud of at the MCBA is our commitment to ensuring that the lawyers who oversee and advise on our operations reflect the diversity of our profession. Whether you are a seasoned litigator, a young transactional attorney just starting out, a solo practitioner, or part of a larger firm — there is a place for you here. A diverse group of practitioners brings a broader range of perspectives, and those perspectives make our association stronger, more innovative, and more responsive to the needs of all our members. I encourage you to reach out and let us know how you would like to get involved. Of course, behind every successful volunteer organization is a dedicated professional staff, and
one of the key functions of the MCBA’s Board of Directors is to oversee and hire the excellent staff who keep our operations running day to day. This past year, we experienced a transition in our Executive Director role, and we were ably helped through this process by the skilled hands of our interim E.D., Kerry Enright. Kerry and her company, Articulate Integrity, also led our successful recruitment process for a permanent replacement. I am thrilled to share that, after a careful search process, the Board of Directors has hired Jen Cesario as our new Executive Director.
Jen Cesario Jen brings a remarkable combination of skills to the role. She is a lawyer by training, having earned her Juris Doctor from San Francisco School of Law, which gives her an innate understanding of the legal profession and the needs of our members. Beyond her legal education, Jen has built an impressive career in nonprofit leadership, with over twenty years of
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experience in development, fundraising, and organizational management. She has served in senior development roles at organizations deeply connected to the Bay Area legal community, including Bay Area Legal Aid, where she spent fourteen years cultivating partnerships with the region’s leading law firms and securing major gifts, and California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation, where she doubled the organizational budget and expanded staffing significantly over five years. Most recently, at Creative Growth Art Center, Jen nearly tripled contributed revenue and delivered the highest fundraising result in the organization's fifty-year history. Jen has exceptional experience in event planning and execution, membership program development, and building the kind of strategic partnerships that will help the MCBA continue to grow. She comes highly recommended by those with whom she has worked, and having had the opportunity to get to know her through the hiring process, I can tell you that her enthusiasm for this role is genuine and contagious. She is excited to be starting her new position in September 2026, and we on the board are equally excited to welcome her to the MCBA family.
All of our members will have an opportunity to meet Jen at upcoming MCBA events. I especially encourage you to join us at our annual Judge’s Lunch at the Embassy Suites San Rafael on Wednesday, October 28, at 11:30 a.m. It is always one of the highlights of our calendar, and this year it will be a wonderful chance to welcome Jen and to reconnect with your colleagues on the bench and the bar. Members can register here. I look forward to seeing you there — and to seeing even more of you step up as volunteers. The MCBA belongs to all of us, and it is at its best when all of us are involved. Thomas (Tom) McInerney has extensive employment litigation experience in complex litigation matters, with an emphasis on class actions, multi-plaintiff cases, and trade secret and other complex business disputes. He has tried to verdict several cases in both state and federal courts, and represents clients in a wide-range of fields, including technology, financial services, insurance, construction, energy/utility, healthcare, transportation and logistics, and personal services. Tom also is a board member of the Marin County Bar Association. For eight years Tom served as an elected official in Marin County, including two terms as Mayor of the Town of San Anselmo, as a board member of the Transportation Authority of Marin, and as chair of both the Central Marin Police Authority Council and the Ross Valley Fire Board.
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NON-PROFIT SPOTLIGHT Make It Home – A Non-Profit Organization Thomas Brown The Marin Lawyer recently corresponded with Carolyn Flannery, CEO and Founder of Make It Home, a non-profit furniture bank organization based right here in Novato. Carolyn founded Make It Home in 2020, after a successful career as an interior designer. The following profile highlights Make It Home’s efforts to provide meaningful and much-needed services to individuals and families in transition from homelessness to stability in Marin County. Please describe your organization and its mission. Make It Home furnishes complete homes with beds, a dining table, dishes, towels, and items down to the can opener, for people moving out of homelessness, domestic violence, and foster care into a place of their own. We're based in Novato and serve 700+ households a year across the Bay Area from an 11,000-squarefoot warehouse we own. The premise is simple: an empty apartment with a key isn't a home yet. A family sleeping on the floor of a unit they finally qualify for is still, in every way that matters, starting from nothing. We meet people where they are with no barriers, no wait list, and no cost to the family. I came to this after 25 years as an interior designer and antiques dealer, watching perfectly good furniture leave beautiful homes headed for the landfill while families down the road had bare rooms. Make It Home closes that gap. What work or successes of your organization are you most proud of? Opening our permanent warehouse! We held the ribbon-cutting in early 2026 after years of operating without a stable home of our own. The irony was never lost on us that an organization built around the idea of home spent a long time without one. But the result I hold onto is a number: when someone leaves a shelter or a crisis situation and goes into a furnished rather than an empty home, the rate of returning to homelessness drops from about 20% to 5%. A dining table and a made bed are not decoration. They're the difference between housing that holds and housing that doesn't. I'm also proud of Re*New, which takes discarded furniture and people rebuilding their lives and puts them to work together, reupholstering pieces that would have gone to the dump into things a family will keep for years. What challenges are currently facing your organization? Demand is outpacing our space. We're serving 700+ households a year and growing, and our warehouse is full. We’re actively looking at an expansion to make room. The second challenge is the one behind that one: funding the gap between what it costs to furnish a home and what we can raise to do it. Furniture poverty is largely invisible. People understand a family needs housing; fewer picture that same family sitting on the floor of an empty unit with nowhere to put a plate. Part of our job is making that gap visible so we can fund closing it.
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What is one thing that people don’t know about your organization that would surprise them? Most people meet us as a furniture charity and don't realize how much of our impact is environmental. Americans send roughly 12 million tons of furniture to landfill every year. We intercept a share of that, taking good, usable pieces, and route them into homes instead. A single donated sofa does quadruple duty: it keeps waste out of the ground, furnishes a home for someone who has nothing, creates work for someone rebuilding their life through Re*New, AND it avoids the purchase of something made of new materials. The other surprise is the math. It costs us around $1900 per person to furnish a home, compared with the roughly $30,000 a year our region spends per person experiencing homelessness. Furnishing a home is one of the least expensive, most durable interventions there is. How can individuals or businesses contribute to your organization or its mission? There are three ways for anyone: your stuff, your time, and your money. Donate quality furniture and household goods you no longer need because that's the raw material of everything we do. Volunteer in the warehouse and on installs. And give, or shop The Shop, where resale proceeds fund the furniture bank directly. Businesses can go further by sponsoring a program, hosting a corporate volunteer day, or contributing goods and services in kind. Our annual gala, Salvage & Style, is September 26 at Peacock Gap in San Rafael, and sponsorship is open now. For some of your attorneys out there, keeping Make It Home in mind when you're guiding clients through their own estate and charitable-giving decisions is fabulously helpful. The simplest next step for any of it is visiting our website at makeithomebayarea.org. Are there any legal challenges or issues you have dealt with recently? Mostly the ordinary but constant work of a growing nonprofit: governance and fiduciary duty at the board level, charitable compliance, employment questions now that we're at 13 staff plus a workforcetraining program, and the real estate and contract issues that come with expanding our footprint and partnering with affordable-housing developers. Looking ahead, California's shift toward extended producer responsibility for textiles under SB 707 will reshape how end-of-life furniture and soft goods are handled, and we'd rather help build that framework than react to it. Are there any issues unique to Marin County that challenge your organization? Marin is one of the wealthiest counties in the country, and that creates a particular blind spot. Housing insecurity, domestic violence, and young people aging out of foster care all exist here, but they're easier to overlook against the backdrop of affluence. The cost of living compounds it: a family can secure subsidized housing and still have nothing left to furnish it. The county's wealth also sharpens the waste problem we were founded to address. A lot of good furniture leaves a lot of nice homes here, and "away" usually means the landfill. And space is its own Marin problem: warehouse square footage is scarce and expensive, which is exactly the constraint we're working to solve as we grow. Contact Information: carolyn@makeithomebayarea.org www.makeithomebayarea.org (415) 578-3205 x100 @makeithomebayarea
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NON-PROFIT SPOTLIGHT Legal Services for Children: When Crisis Comes for a Child Cole Benbow The 14-year-old girl from El Salvador had never been away from home, but Carolina* knew she had to run. The 40-year-old gang member who wanted to marry her had made his threats clear: join him willingly, or watch her siblings suffer the consequences. So Carolina left in the darkness, beginning a journey that would take her through the Texas desert, to an Ohio detention center, and eventually to the offices of Legal Services for Children (“LSC”) in San Francisco. Founded in 1975 as one of the country's first children’s law offices, LSC operates on a simple but profound principle articulated by Executive Director Cathy Sakimura: “When a child needs a lawyer, it’s already a crisis.” The organization serves over 1,000 youth annually, 98% of whom are children of color, with 60% speaking languages other than English as their primary tongue.
Carolina’s Journey to Safety At 14, Carolina fled gang threats in El Salvador, traveling alone to the U.S., where she was detained and placed in deportation proceedings. LSC’s attorney/ social worker team helped her secure a guardianship with her San Francisco cousin, enrolled her in high school and health care, arranged trauma therapy, and successfully obtained Special Immigrant Juvenile Status. After two years of comprehensive support, Carolina achieved legal permanent residence and now has the stable foundation she needs to thrive academically and personally.
Legal Services for Children provides free representation to children and youth who require legal assistance to stabilize their lives and realize their full potential. Through a holistic team approach utilizing legal advocacy and social work services, our goal is to empower clients and actively involve them in the critical decisions that impact their lives. LSC uses this model to achieve safety and stability at home, educational success, and freedom from detention and deportation for our clients.
The Weight of Complexity LSC’s holistic approach distinguishes it from other legal aid organizations. Social workers and attorneys work together as a team and remain with a child throughout their case – for months or years. “We make this very deep investment in each one of our clients, where we work with them as they grow into adults,” Sakimura explains. This isn’t just legal representation; it’s comprehensive advocacy that addresses every aspect of a young person’s life. 1
The children who find their way to LSC come with challenging, poignant stories: typically, backgrounds of parental loss, sexual exploitation, and/or abuse. It’s why LSC’s compassionate, dedicated social workers help children not only begin to heal from trauma, but also help them navigate through often overwhelming tasks in their daily lives: accompanying youth to doctor appointments, guiding them through the DMV for a first driver’s license, or sitting in school
Carolina’s name and some details of her story have been changed to protect confidentiality.
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meetings to advocate for proper language access needs assessments. “If you don’t have an adult in your life, how do you figure that out?” asks Clinical Director Ron Gutierrez.
LSC’s successful model continues to be about empowering its clients by involving them in the decisions that impact their lives so they can heal and thrive.
LSC’s work spans three critical areas: securing safe homes through guardianship and dependency representation, defensive and affirmative immigration representation for undocumented youth, and education advocacy for youth referred for expulsion or targeted for suspension. The organization also serves unaccompanied immigrant children detained in or recently released from detention facilities, providing legal screenings, family reunification services, and/or deportation defense to youth whom are detained in the Bay Area or released from detention to sponsors in the region.
Volunteering with LSC As a Bay Area lawyer, you can make a difference for a young person by volunteering as a pro bono attorney with Legal Services for Children. LSC’s Pro Bono program supports its pro bono volunteers with: Training and mentorship: Most first-time pro bono attorneys do not have a background in LSC’s core areas of practice. LSC provides trainings, templates, and reference manuals on substantive law and best practices for working with young clients, as well as mentorship with our Pro Bono Director and opportunities to work on cases side-by-side with seasoned LSC social workers. Opportunities to volunteer individually or with a team: LSC works with individual attorneys and attorney teams, whether they are taking the case through their workplace or in their personal capacity. LSC’s malpractice insurance covers all volunteers. Flexibility to suit your schedule: LSC sends out periodic emails with case opportunities to Pro Bono Panel members. You can accept a case whenever it fits your schedule.
Perhaps most remarkably, LSC has not yet withdrawn from any case despite federal funding losses – an important achievement in an era when many organizations have been forced to abandon clients mid-process. In fact, LSC has intervened to assume representation of Bay Area youth whom had lost their previous representation due to funding cuts.
WITH LSC’S SUPPORT, YOUNG PEOPLE GO ON TO ACHIEVE THEIR DREAMS.
Supporting Young Lives in Crisis Legal Services for Children’s devoted social workers are the steady presence that many youth have never known. They accompany frightened teenagers to immigration hearings, advocate in school meetings for children with undiagnosed learning disabilities, help young people navigate health care systems without parental guidance, help them begin healing from trauma, and more.
The Many Ways to Support LSC Legal Services for Children lsc-sf.org | (415) 863-3762 870 Market St., Ste. 356 San Francisco, CA 94102 Contact Cathy Sakimura, Executive Director (415) 780-6333 | Cathy@lsc-sf.org Ways to Give Check: Mail to the address above DAF or Stock: Tax ID 51-0169463 Credit Card: lsc-sf.org/support-us/donate-now
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NON-PROFIT SPOTLIGHT Interview with Laura McMahon, Executive Director of Legal Aid of Marin Emily Harrington In the following interview, MCBA Board Member Emily Harrington spoke with Laura McMahon, the Executive Director of Legal Aid of Marin, who is also a MCBA Board Member, to learn more about the organization, its critical work in the Marin community, and ways in which readers can help advance the important work of Legal Aid of Marin. Please describe who you are, your organization, and its mission. I am Laura McMahon, Executive Director of Legal Aid of Marin (“LAM”). We are Marin’s preeminent Legal Aid organization and have been around since 1958. At LAM, our mission is to create an equitable Marin by empowering the community through legal representation, advocacy, and education. We envision an inclusive Marin with equal justice and opportunity for all. To accomplish our mission, we have four levers that make up our theory of change: The first is direct legal services, providing one-on-one representation to people. The second is impact litigation, representing groups of people. These larger-scale cases drive systemic change and deter future bad acts, supporting the entire community. The third is education and outreach, designed to make sure that people are aware of our services and those of our partners, understand their rights, and learn how to assert them. The fourth and final one is policy advocacy: advocating to policymakers and elected officials to change laws that Laura E. McMahon disproportionately affect the marginalized communities we serve. We represent hundreds of clients each year, and our work impacts thousands of marginalized Marin residents. LAM has four areas of practice. The first is housing law and homelessness prevention; we represent tenants in evictions and habitability cases. We also practice employment law; primarily wage claims and anti-discrimination matters. Our Marin Community Court program helps people who have overwhelming fines and fees that can snowball when people are experiencing instability by working with Marin Superior Court to waive these fines in exchange for restorative community service. We also launched our brand new immigration legal services program last year. This program addresses needs that arise organically from the communities we serve. Instead of LAM deciding what services we can to meet that need. We use the trends we see to inform what will eventually
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become our core services as the program rolls out. We conducted several focus groups around the county to listen to what’s happening to immigrants and determine what help we can offer. With funding and the way that legal aid organizations are structured, especially with grant funding, our organizations—to an extent— are restricted to offering a certain set of services. In housing, we’re focused on eviction defense, but there are a whole lot of other matters that arise in housing. So even though the services are responsive to the community’s need, it’s narrow. With immigration, our focus is more expansive. We feel that this model will make sure that LAM is addressing the stated needs of the communities we serve instead of guessing or thinking that we know what their needs are. We achieve all of this work with just 17 staff members, including six lawyers (four of whom are practicing). What challenges are currently facing your organization? The biggest challenge, and one that did not originate recently but has become more severe over time, is the scale of human suffering we are witnessing: people who are precarious in their immigration status or facing the loss of their immigration status; people in unsafe living conditions; people who aren’t being properly paid by their employer and are being taken advantage of; and people who are experiencing largescale systemic poverty and injustice. That’s really challenging because we’re a smaller organization; we’re not able to meet all the civil legal needs that people have. That doesn’t mean that they are not deserving of help, but it’s very difficult and expensive to provide free legal services. It’s a difficult time to exist in a space where people are losing access to benefits and protections that they once relied on. Last year, we had a total of 3,781 calls for service. We average anywhere from 230 to 400 calls per month. Those vary across subject areas. There are cases we can’t take because they are outside our service areas, but we are not able to help anywhere near that number of people. We opened 525 new cases in one year, and that does not include our existing cases. That impacts about 1,162 people. We did 235 outreach events, reaching an additional 1,436 people.
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Our staff is very diverse, and they also experience vicarious trauma by virtue of working with people who are experiencing suffering. In a time when resources are always limited, but especially right now, we’re seeing reductions in available funding sources. Everyone’s mission is critical to their belief in what a just society is, and there isn’t enough funding readily accessible. It’s always a challenge: how do you create organizational stability and do the work at the same time? For us, especially, deciding to launch an immigration program wasn’t because we received a large amount of money; it was out of need, knowing that immigrants in Marin deserve access to these services and that the current ecosystem of immigration legal services is insufficient to meet these needs. Not only are we seeing human suffering, but we are also seeing indifference to human suffering. We’re making the case for human dignity. We have a lot of support in this community, and it’s nice to know that people understand the value of our work. For us, another challenge is trying to get the message out about the impact of our work since we are so busy doing the work. What is one thing that people don’t know about your organization that would surprise them? Something that people may not know about LAM is that we are active in housing policy. For example, this year, Novato passed tenant protections. A large group of tenants were displaced and only had five days to move. The building was being held up by a hydraulic lift and had mold, so it was not safe. People lost their homes almost overnight. We partnered with North Marin Community Services in the wake of that to advocate for tenant protections that would prevent this kind of injustice from happening again. We advocated for relocation assistance and the ability to move back once renovations are complete. It was inspiring because tenant protections are very challenging to pass in Marin. There is a belief that tenant protections are unnecessary. One of the levers we try to pull in our theory of change is changing laws that impact renters, so they won’t be facing displacement and can stay in the community they call home. Some people believe that enhancing the rights of one group will decrease the rights of another. We believe that tenant protections benefit everyone, including the housing providers. Are there any issues unique to Marin County that challenge your organization? I think one of the big obstacles facing LAM and other legal aid organizations is that, unless you are personally impacted by the challenges we seek to address, it’s easier to overlook them rather than confront them. I also think that geographically, because of the history of redlining, Marin is really segregated. You could live in Mill Valley, a couple of miles from Marin City, and never see the conditions and lack of resources that people are forced to live with. I think that you have to have some sort of personal connection to suffering to truly understand it. That understanding leads people to decide to do something to reduce suffering.
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I grew up in a place similar to Marin in Westchester County, NY. I was really sheltered from issues that people were facing because I just wasn’t around a diversity of lived experience. Everyone I knew went to private school and college and had support structures pushing them toward opportunity and abundance. It wasn’t until I went to law school and started learning about issues like systemic poverty, oppression, mass incarceration, and just how pervasive racism is in our culture that I realized I couldn’t ignore these issues. I knew I wanted to address injustice in some way. Some people don’t feel that way or aren’t exposed to the reality of oppression. I don’t think that people are intentionally saying, “I don’t care;” it’s just that they don’t feel like it’s their responsibility to show up and demonstrate that they care. People get used to the status quo. In our country, we are used to seeing people living in the street. We shouldn’t be tolerating it. It’s very complex to solve something like the housing crisis; it’s a lot easier to look away and accept it as a fact of life. I choose not to look away. Our staff and the people who support LAM understand that we have a responsibility to help our neighbors. What work or successes of your organization are you most proud of? One recent example of a success I am proud of is our most recently resolved impact litigation, which was on behalf of rural ranch workers living in West Marin. The ranch workers were living in unsafe and dangerous housing for many years and paying incredibly expensive (and illegally collected) rent. Bringing this case on behalf of 30 clients was a massive undertaking for a small shop like ours. This work was only possible because of the courage of our clients who were willing to stand up and fight. It involved thousands of hours from us at LAM, as well as our partners at California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation, Cooley, and Foley & Lardner. We reached an outcome that showed our work is never about money—money can’t make suffering go away—but it certainly was an opportunity for our clients to have acknowledgement and accountability. Not only will they be compensated, but they also, through the Bolinas Community Land Trust and Marin County, moved into transitional housing and eventually will live in permanent affordable housing. We are really proud to be part of the solution. It’s not possible without the support of county government, elected officials, other nonprofits, funders, and the support of community members. How can individuals or businesses contribute to your organization or its mission? The best way to increase access to justice in your community is to donate to organizations that express your values. For people who want to make legal services available, the best way is to make donations that push our work forward. All our services are completely free. It takes millions of dollars to operate annually. There are also opportunities to volunteer. These include our Marin Community Court program, Unlawful Detainer work, and various other volunteer opportunities. Visit our website for more information.
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NON-PROFIT SPOTLIGHT Marin Community Foundation Thomas Brown Marin Lawyer had the opportunity to talk with Adam Bink, Chief Communications Officer for Marin Community Foundation, whose mission, resources, and broad donor participation provide much needed opportunities that support diverse and wide-ranging community organizations and individuals.
Please describe your organization and its mission. Marin Community Foundation is one of the largest community foundations in the United States. Powered by nearly 600 individuals and families, we granted more than $300 million to nonprofits in the last fiscal year alone. Our mission is to mobilize the power of community and resources of philanthropy to advance equity for people, places, and the planet — carried out by expert strategists laser-focused on approaches that will actually create the change Marin's communities tell us they want to see. We do this work through two complementary engines. The first is our discretionary grantmaking — anchored by the Buck Trust, and often co-funded by donors and community members who choose to invest alongside us — focused on the county's most acute challenges: affordable housing, environmental and climate resilience, and a strong community safety net. The second is our partnership with those nearly 600 individuals and families who hold donor-advised and other charitable funds with us, supported by a philanthropic services team that helps them make an impact wherever they choose — in Marin and far beyond, on the issues they care about most. Together, these two engines make MCF both a grantmaker and a philanthropic home: an institution where Marin's incredible wealth and generosity are organized and put to work. What work or successes of your organization are you most proud of? When federal disruptions to SNAP/CalFresh threatened food access for more than 15,000 Marin residents, we moved immediately — establishing the Food on Every Table Fund and seeding it with $500,000. Within days, our donors and community members had grown it past $1 million. Working closely with the County and local food partners — the SF-Marin Food Bank, ExtraFood, the Agricultural Institute of
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Marin, and more — we stabilized more than 3,500 residents through direct-assistance gift cards last fall, and this summer delivered $600 apiece, in physical or virtual form, to nearly 1,700 residents so families wouldn't face an abrupt loss of food assistance. Inside Philanthropy recently profiled the effort as a model of rapid community-foundation response. That speed rests on standing relationships: our community partnerships grantmaking deployed $30 million across Marin's nonprofit sector in 2024, and we continue to deepen that work through new investments and regular convenings of our grantee partners. We also look to the future. For example, as sea levels rise, coastal communities are grappling with increasing flood risks — and with a “Super El Niño” bearing down this winter, the need to get ahead of these risks has never been clearer. This summer, we awarded more than $1 million in pre-development grants to six Marin coastal restoration projects that will protect vulnerable neighborhoods and shorelines. Emergency response and generational infrastructure: we work to be good at both. What challenges are currently facing your organization? The defining challenge of this moment is the gap between federal retrenchment and local need. Roughly 40 percent of our community-partner grantees work in sectors significantly affected by recent federal policy and funding shifts — food security, health, immigration services, housing. No foundation, including one our size, can backfill government at scale. Our challenge is to be disciplined about what philanthropy does best: moving faster than public systems can, absorbing risk they can't, and convening and collaborating with our public-sector partners, nonprofits, and private funders around shared plans rather than duplicated effort. And where federal cuts tear systems down, we intend to help Marin build them back better — investing in grassroots, community-based strategies, because that is what drives lasting change. The second challenge is patient capital. Marin's hardest problems — including but not limited to housing affordability, wildfire risk, and sea level rise — operate on 10- to 30-year horizons, while crises arrive weekly. Holding long-term strategy steady while responding to each emergency is a discipline we practice every day. What is one thing that people don't know about your organization that would surprise them? For attorneys, it's this: Marin Community Foundation exists because of one of the most consequential trust cases in American law. When Beryl Buck left her estate for the benefit of Marin County and its value grew far beyond what anyone anticipated, litigation followed. The dispute became the Buck Trust case, still taught in trusts and estates courses as a leading modern cy pres decision — and it ended with the court declining to redirect her gift and instead creating a new institution to honor her intent: Marin Community Foundation. Next year, we turn 40. The trust Mrs. Buck left has grown to more than $1 billion — within a foundation that today administers $4.3 billion in assets — and it distributes nearly $30 million annually to priorities championed by Marin community members. Donor intent isn't an abstraction for us; it is our founding DNA. Every attorney who has ever drafted a charitable instrument will understand why we take stewardship of a donor's wishes as seriously as we do.
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How can individuals or businesses contribute to your organization or its mission? The most common path is a donor-advised fund. Nearly 600 Marin individuals and families hold funds with us, and for many of them, a DAF is a modern alternative to a private foundation. We deliver what a private foundation promises with far less cost and administrative burden: no separate entity to form, staff, and maintain; no annual filings; and access to a philanthropic advising team that knows Marin's nonprofit landscape intimately. We accept complex assets including cryptocurrency and pre-IPO stock, and help clients make a difference not just through grants, but impact investments and loans as well. Our Give on the Go app is the first custom mobile app from a community foundation, with security and compliance built in. For clients with existing private foundations, we can also serve as a complement or, in some cases, a successor. Beyond DAFs, donors work with us through legacy and estate gifts, field-of-interest and designated funds, and pooled efforts like the Food on Every Table matching campaign, which lets a gift of any size ride alongside institutional grantmaking. For attorneys advising clients on charitable planning, our team is a resource, not a competitor: we regularly work alongside estate counsel and wealth advisors to structure gifts that honor a client's intent — a subject on which, as noted above, we know a thing or two. And that door is open for your own giving as well: many of our fund holders came to us first as professional advisors who saw how the model worked and decided it was right for their own families.
Are there any legal challenges or issues you have dealt with recently? Two legal issues shape our recent work. The first is the January 2025 Point Reyes National Seashore settlement between three environmental groups and the National Park Service, which resolved years of litigation over ranching in the park and closed 12 ranches by early 2026 — with other ranches, such as Martinelli Ranch, also closing after county inspections exposed substandard and unsafe housing conditions. MCF was not a party, but the settlement's human consequences landed squarely in our community: these ranches have housed dozens of service workers and family members — nearly all Latino and low-income, with roots in West Marin going back generations — who stood to lose their longtime homes and, in many cases, their livelihoods. When litigation ends, the community work begins. Working with state, county, and local leaders, MCF has raised more than $4 million from our donors — alongside our own grant dollars — to support the Community Land Trust Association of West Marin (CLAM), the West Marin Fund, and other partners in developing 40 affordable interim homes for the affected families, all of which we hope to bring online within the coming year. And the work is moving at a speed our field rarely sees: in the Bay Area, new affordable housing routinely takes five to ten years to go from concept to keys. This July — roughly six months after construction began — we joined our partners to cut the ribbon on the first 14 of those homes in Point Reyes Station, now housing about 30 of our neighbors, with more to come.
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The second is the shifting federal legal and regulatory environment for the charitable sector, from new statutory provisions affecting nonprofits and public benefit programs to ongoing regulatory attention to donor-advised funds. We monitor these developments closely with counsel and through national peers, and we see part of our role as helping Marin's donors and nonprofits navigate them with confidence. Are there any issues unique to Marin County that challenge your organization? Marin's defining tension is proximity: one of the wealthiest counties in America is also among the most segregated in California. Some of its most affluent towns sit minutes from communities of far more modest means, such as the Canal neighborhood of San Rafael. That juxtaposition shapes everything we do — and it makes Marin a place where well-directed philanthropy produces visible results. Two issues play an outsized role in Marin. The first is housing: the county's affordability crisis threatens valued members of our community — the teachers, caregivers, and agricultural workers who keep Marin functioning. That is why we partner with communities to build and preserve affordable housing, prevent homelessness, and help make Marin a place people can call home. The second is climate exposure: sea level rise and coastal flooding, wildfire and wildfire smoke, and rising temperatures all threaten Marin's quality of life and environment. This past January's king-tide flooding gave us a preview of what's coming on sea level rise alone, and Super El Niño is a looming threat — though our work here long predates the headlines. We're incubating a shared vision of climate resilience for all in Marin, and providing tailored grant support to projects that demonstrate collaboration, equity, and scalable potential across sea level rise and flooding, wildfire, and clean energy resilience. These problems cannot be solved by any single institution, which is precisely why a community foundation exists — to help bring everyone together.
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THE MARKETPLACE OUTSIDE COUNSEL AT UNIVERSITY Meridian University is seeking a California-licensed attorney experienced in civil litigation to support the Legal Affairs Team on an outside counsel basis. This is a remote position. This would include one or more of the following types of assignments: Legal research Drafting motions and other filings Discovery-related tasks Hearing preparation Interfacing with in-house, outside, and opposing counsel Applications can be sent to robgall@meridianuniversity.edu
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MCBA LEADERSHIP CIRCLE
Peter Kleinbrodt Freitas Law Firm Terrel J. Mason, Esq. Law Offices of Terrel J. Mason Thomas M. McInerney Ogletree Deakins Hamilton Tatum “Tate” Holt Bay Area Disability PAGE 25
VOLUNTEER SPOTLIGHT Jim Snipes, Volunteer with Marin CASA Roni Pomerantz Tell us about yourself and your legal career. I am a dinosaur in the legal profession, having spent my entire career — 35 years — at one law firm. As a corporate lawyer at Covington & Burling, I focused on transactional work in the biopharmaceutical sector, representing pharmaceutical companies as well as early-stage biotech companies. I started my career in the Washington, DC office, spent two years on a lawyer exchange in Tokyo, led the corporate practice in the London office, and came west in 1999 to open the firm’s first domestic branch office in San Francisco. Later on, I became involved in firm management, overseeing the Firm’s offices in Asia. Part of what attracted me to law practice, and to Covington in particular, was the opportunity to do pro bono work. My pro bono clients included a nonprofit pharmaceutical company, a Marin City-based tutoring and mentoring nonprofit, and Homeward Bound, the leading homeless services provider in Marin. Tell us about your decision to volunteer for Marin CASA and what prompted that decision. On approaching retirement, I researched various local James C. Snipes nonprofits to find a good match between my interests and a compelling mission. When I attended a presentation about the Court-Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) program, I was stunned to learn the number of children in the foster care system in the Bay Area and the high percentage who end up homeless a few years after aging out of foster care. I felt drawn to these kids who have been dealt such a tough hand in life. Serving as a CASA is not strictly a legal role, but legal experience and skills are certainly helpful. The different elements of the CASA’s role — advocating on behalf of a child or youth who has been removed from their family, ensuring that the system is working in their best interest, and mentoring- really appealed to me. Tell us about Marin CASA and the community it serves. The CASA program is national in scope. However, it is administered on a county-by-county basis through nonprofits that work in conjunction with, and under the authority of, the juvenile courts. Our local organization, Marin CASA, is a lightly staffed agency funded largely by governmental grants and private donations. It recruits volunteers, provides them with more than 30 hours of formal training, and then provides excellent ongoing supervision and continuing education. Marin CASA staff liaise with the Marin Juvenile Court as well as the county agency responsible for overseeing the foster care system in Marin.
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Even in a county as affluent as Marin, a number of children are removed from their families each year, typically for abuse or neglect arising from parental substance abuse, mental health issues, or domestic violence. As of the start of this year, there were 78 children and youth in the foster care system in Marin. Currently, Marin CASA has 69 active volunteer advocates supporting 57 children and youth. How long have you been volunteering for Marin CASA? What does your work consist of? This is my eighth year serving as a CASA volunteer. Across that period, I have worked with five youth, four of them teenage boys. Several have been involved in the juvenile justice system as well as the foster care system. My time with these youth has ranged from six months to more than four years. One key role of the CASA is to meet with their assigned child or youth on a weekly or biweekly basis to check in, do something fun, and provide a consistent, caring adult presence. This is especially important for kids who are living in an institutional setting rather than with a resource family. A number of the professionals on the youth’s support team — their social worker, their legal counsel — typically see them once a month. The CASA’s more frequent contact allows for a trusting relationship to develop. Another key role of the CASA is to prepare a report to the Court in advance of every hearing in the case. The purpose of these reports is to share the CASA’s perspective on what’s going well for the child and what is not, and to provide recommendations to the Court based on the best interest of the child. We are fortunate in Marin to have had excellent Juvenile Court judges who carefully review these reports. CASAs are regularly given the opportunity to speak at hearings. Another important role of the CASA is to stay in touch with other members of the child’s support team — teachers, therapists, social workers, biological parents, resource families, staff at the residential facility where the youth is living — in order to spot issues as they arise and work to address them. The CASA can play a valuable role in sharing information and encouraging coordination among different players. Tell us some highlights of your volunteer work. Here are a couple of highlights. My first case involved a child who entered the foster care system because of domestic violence at home. Among the services to be provided to the parents under the case plan was couples therapy. However, the responsible agency recommended termination of case services for the parents before the couples therapy had begun. The child’s mother had not had direct contact with the father since the domestic violence incident, due to a restraining order. The mother told me that couples therapy was the only way she would be able to reengage with the father and accomplish the goal of family reunification. I was able to bring this to the Court’s attention and the Court reinstated the plan for couples therapy and modified the restraining order accordingly.
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In another case, I was working with a teenage foster youth whose dream was to go snowboarding in Tahoe. That seemed completely impossible, as he was living in a short-term residential treatment facility which had neither the funding nor the staff to make it happen. But, with the support of the Marin Foster Care Association and Marin CASA, we got him outfitted with gear and arranged lift passes and lessons. He and I drove up to Tahoe, some of the best bonding time we ever had. He had a ball snowboarding — plenty sore but beaming ear-to-ear as we drove home. He talks about that trip every time we get together. It doesn’t get any better than that. Share some challenges of volunteering. Working with children/youth in the foster care system can be a roller coaster ride. Most kids in Marin have terrific support from their families and are, to some extent, insulated from the worst consequences of poor choices. But for many kids in foster care, they are one bad decision away from a downward spiral. The foster care system itself can be maddening at times. It is often bureaucratic with little flexibility. Many of the families caught up in the system face logistical problems in dealing with it: lack of transport; challenges in language proficiency; difficulty in taking leave from work to attend hearings and appointments; and anxiety about the judicial system. CASAs can help with some of these issues, but many are not easily resolved.
Does your legal career influence your work as a volunteer? Of course. Our training to write and speak persuasively, organize resources on behalf of clients, and understand systems and intervene effectively where there are gaps has been critical to my work as a CASA. At the same time, the opportunity to build rapport with young people and mentor them develops muscles that lawyering often does not. What advice do you have for attorneys thinking about volunteer work? I would strongly encourage everyone to consider volunteering. The work is incredibly fulfilling, and ever more vital as governmental support shrinks for those most in need. As a CASA, I’m constantly reminded that any of us could have been born into the situation in which these foster kids find themselves — through no fault of their own. What’s the best way for someone to get involved with Marin CASA? The Marin CASA website (www.marincasa.org) describes the process for becoming a CASA volunteer. The first step is to attend an information session, which is typically offered a few times a year. Registration can be done online through the website.
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Nonprofit Risk Management: Practical Lessons for Counsel Denis Kenny Nonprofit organizations often operate with lean staffing, significant volunteer involvement, and governing boards comprised of dedicated community members rather than professional risk managers. As a result, when allegations of fraud, misconduct, harassment, threats, financial irregularities, or governance failures arise, organizations can find themselves facing substantial legal and operational risks with limited internal resources to address them. For attorneys advising nonprofit clients, effective risk management frequently begins long before a dispute results in litigation. Below are some effective risk management tools and suggestions. Investigate Early and Preserve Evidence One of the most common mistakes nonprofit leaders make is treating a potentially serious issue as an internal personnel dispute or community disagreement rather than a legal and governance matter. When allegations of financial misconduct, harassment, threats, embezzlement, self-dealing, or other wrongdoing arise, counsel should encourage clients to: Preserve relevant records and communications; Suspend routine document destruction practices; Identify witnesses and collect information promptly; Maintain confidentiality to the extent possible; and Conduct an appropriate internal or independent investigation. Early fact gathering often determines whether a matter remains manageable or develops into a regulatory, employment, or litigation problem.
Use Available Resources Many nonprofit boards are unaware of the resources available to assist them during a crisis. Depending on the circumstances, counsel should consider directing clients to: Their insurance carrier and coverage counsel; Independent investigators; Employment counsel; Forensic accountants or auditors; Law enforcement agencies; Cybersecurity professionals; Risk management consultants; and The California Attorney General's Registry of Charities and Fundraisers. Engaging the appropriate professionals early can significantly reduce both legal exposure and reputational damage. Build a Team of Trusted Advisors Before a Crisis Occurs One of the most valuable investments a nonprofit can make is developing relationships with knowledgeable advisors before problems arise. Nonprofits routinely encounter a wide range of legal, financial, employment, governance, fundraising, regulatory, and operational issues, many of which involve specialized rules that differ significantly from those applicable to for-profit businesses.
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Attorneys advising nonprofit clients should encourage boards and executive leadership to assemble a trusted team of professionals who understand the nonprofit sector and can provide guidance when issues emerge. At a minimum, that team should generally include: Business and nonprofit counsel familiar with governance, contracts, fundraising, and regulatory compliance; Employment counsel experienced with wageand-hour issues, volunteer classification, workplace investigations, and employee relations; A certified public accountant with significant nonprofit experience, including tax-exempt organizations, charitable reporting requirements, and restricted-fund accounting; A trusted insurance broker who understands the nonprofit sector and can help evaluate risk exposure and available coverage.
Importantly, nonprofit accounting and tax compliance is its own area of specialization. Not every CPA who works with small businesses is familiar with the unique issues presented by taxexempt entities, including Form 990 reporting, charitable contribution substantiation requirements, grant restrictions, unrelated business income, and state charitable registration obligations. Similarly, insurance needs often extend far beyond basic general liability coverage. As organizations grow, they should periodically evaluate whether specialized coverage or
consulting expertise is warranted. Depending on the organization's activities, this may include: Workers' compensation coverage and related workplace-safety guidance; Employment Practices Liability Insurance (EPLI) to address employee and volunteerrelated claims; Cybersecurity consultants and cyber-liability insurance to address data breaches, ransomware attacks, and privacy concerns; Directors and Officers (D&O) coverage to protect board members and officers from claims arising out of governance decisions; and Specialty advisors for fundraising, event operations, regulatory compliance, or technology-related risks. A recurring lesson for nonprofit boards is that problems are often less expensive to prevent than cure. Organizations that establish relationships with qualified subject-matter experts before a crisis occurs are generally better positioned to identify risks early, respond appropriately, and fulfill their mission while minimizing legal and financial exposure. Do Not Underestimate the Risk of Inaction Nonprofit leaders often focus on the potential liability associated with taking action while giving insufficient attention to the risks of doing nothing. Whether the concern involves suspected fraud, threats to staff or volunteers, conflicts of interest, or participant safety issues, boards should evaluate not only the consequences of intervention but also the foreseeable harm that could result from failing to act. In many situations, a carefully documented decision made in good faith to protect people, organizational assets, and the nonprofit's mission will be far easier to defend than a failure to respond to known risks.
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Volunteers and Worker Classification Risks Many nonprofits depend heavily on volunteers, but attorneys should regularly remind clients that labeling someone a "volunteer" does not automatically make it so. This is particularly true where an individual: Performs regular operational functions; Is subject to substantial supervision and control; Receives compensation, stipends, housing, or significant benefits; or Performs work similar to that performed by paid personnel. There may be a risk that the individual could later contend that they were actually an employee. Misclassification claims can expose organizations to liability for unpaid wages, overtime, meal and rest break violations, payroll taxes, workers' compensation issues, and related penalties. Attorneys should encourage periodic reviews of volunteer programs and ensure that volunteer roles are structured consistently with applicable state and federal law. Strengthen Governance Before Problems Arise The most effective risk-management tool available to a nonprofit is often strong governance. Attorneys can add significant value by helping organizations: Adopt and follow written policies; Maintain clear reporting channels; Implement conflict-of-interest procedures; Train board members on fiduciary duties; Establish whistleblower protections; and Conduct periodic compliance reviews.
Organizations that invest in governance before a crisis occurs are generally better positioned to respond effectively when problems arise. Practice Pointers for Attorneys When advising nonprofit clients: 1. Encourage early reporting of concerns. 2. Preserve documents and gather facts quickly. 3. Consider whether outside investigators or experts are needed. 4. Evaluate both the risks of action and the risks of inaction. 5. Review volunteer programs for potential classification issues. 6. Help boards document decisions and their rationale. 7. Focus on protecting the organization's mission, people, and assets. Strong governance, prompt investigation, and thoughtful risk management remain the best tools available to nonprofit organizations navigating internal misconduct and other organizational challenges.
Denis Kenny is a founding partner at Scherer Smith & Kenny LLP. Denis is an experienced civil litigator specializing in employment litigation and counseling for employers and employees alike. As part of his practice, he speaks to groups and provides frequent updates to clients on developments in the ever-changing employment law arena. Denis also represents companies and individuals in a wide variety of business matters, ranging from personal injury to trade secrets disputes. He regularly represents clients in state and federal court and has appeared before administrative forums such as the California Labor Commission and Office of Administrative Hearings on employment and other litigation matters. Before joining Scherer Smith & Kenny LLP, Denis served as a deputy attorney general in the Employment Rights and Administration Division of the California Attorney General’s Office. Before that, Denis worked as an associate in the San Francisco Office of the Sedgwick law firm.
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NETWORKING Build relationships with fellow attorneys and other professionals. EDUCATION In collaboration with our sections, we offer many CLE programs, covering topical and timely issues. COMMUNITY OUTREACH MCBA, with The Marin County Law Library, offers free legal consultations through our Lawyers in the Library program. SUPPORT and RECOGNITION MCBA supports financially disadvantaged students pursuing a law school degree and all high schools participating in Mock Trial. INFORMATIVE MCBA’s website and monthly Marin Lawyer newsletter deliver updates on events, court notices, timely legal articles, and legal community news. LEADERSHIP MCBA membership provides access to an exclusive community of attorneys and other legal professionals. Explore your leadership potential through board and committee involvement. AUTO-RENEWAL Renewal is even easier with our auto-renewal service. MEMBERSHIP PERKS Special offers from select partners. THE MARIN LAWYER An Official Publication of the Marin County Bar Association
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DIRECTOR’S PROFILE Thomas McInerney, President Thomas Brown Every publication of The Marin Lawyer features a profile on a current Director of the Marin County Bar Association. This month, I had the honor and pleasure of interviewing Tom McInerney, a good friend and fellow Board member, who is serving as the President of the MCBA this year. We hope you enjoy the interview and the opportunity to learn a little more about our organization’s president. What is your practice area? I represent employers in employment disputes. I generally handle employment litigation matters, meaning I rarely get involved in collective bargaining or disputes over collective bargaining agreements, but rather represent employers when they’re sued in court or arbitration. Do you have a particular emphasis? I am a litigator, and I handle single-plaintiff and class/collective actions for employers. As my career has progressed, I’ve taken on larger and more complex matters, which include wage and hour/PAGA matters, disputes over unfair competition and restrictive covenants, and cases asserting violations of various state and federal statutes including Title VII, the Fair Employment and Housing Act, the California Family Rights Act, the Fair Labor Standards Act, and the California Labor Code.
Thomas M. McInerney Why did you decide to become a lawyer? It became apparent early on that my hoped-for career as an Olympic swimmer or major league baseball player was not to be. I’ve always loved American politics, and dreamed of working for the next Robert Kennedy as a political organizer and strategist. After college, I pursued this for a few years, working on the presidential campaigns of Gary Hart and Michael Dukakis. I learned soon enough that making a living in that field can be as difficult as being an Olympic swimmer or major league ballplayer, so I needed a steadier job that would let me pursue my passions. My dad was a very well-respected lawyer in the East Bay, so I decided to follow in his footsteps. Why do you live in Marin? I’m from the East Bay, and my wife Julie is from the Peninsula, so we thought Marin was a good “middle ground”— close enough for our parents to babysit and visit, but not too close. I’ve also always loved Mt. Tam and Pt. Reyes. So, while living in the city when our daughter was born, we started looking around the Bay Area, and found a charming house in the sleepy town of San Anselmo.
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What do you love to do when you’re not busy practicing law? I’m still involved politically, generally helping progressive candidates I like raise money for their campaigns. I’ve been fortunate enough to attend and/or be a delegate to five national Democratic Conventions and to several state party conventions. I also had the great fortune of serving as a Biden elector to the 2020 Electoral College and for eight years on the San Anselmo Town Council (twice as mayor). I also volunteer my time as a board member for other organizations that mean a lot to me, including the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area, the BASF TOM MCINERNEY & HIS THEN LAW STUDENT SON JOE Justice & Diversity Center, and Cedars of Marin, AT THE 2024 DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION which supports developmentally disabled adults. I’m a big fan of the Giants (struggling with that this year) and of Bruce Springsteen. I’ve seen the Boss dozens of times, and earlier this year I saw him for the second time at Madison Square Garden with college buddies. Tell us about your family. My wife Julie is a retired lawyer and a wonderful mom and wife. She was a partner at a large San Francisco law firm, and then worked for many years in-house with PG&E. My daughter Molly graduated from St. Ignatius College Prep and the University of Michigan, and now lives in Brooklyn, where she works as a consultant in digital marketing. My son Joe also graduated from SI, and then from the University of Wisconsin in 2021. Following that graduation, he worked for a couple years as the executive assistant for Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers before attending Northwestern Pritzker School of Law, graduating this past May. He took the CA Bar Exam in July 2026 and will be starting this month as a first-year associate with Paul Weiss in San Francisco. Our black lab Bear is super chill and loving, although he’s also known for being a bit lazy. If you could pursue any other career besides law, what would it be and why? I think serving as either a campaign advisor or in government. I can’t think of anything more noble than serving the public or helping good people get elected to public office. Why did you join MCBA? I was recruited by a friend to assist with the program committee several years ago, and thought this was a good opportunity to “give back” to my local community. I’ve been very active in the city, but this gives me a chance to interact and engage with those closer to home. If you had to pick a single highlight of your career, what would it be? That’s easy—I helped open the San Francisco office of Ogletree Deakins in 2008. Few in Northern California had heard of the firm, and we grew it from 2 lawyers to what we have today is very large, productive, and profitable office with a great group of colleagues.
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ExecutiveOfficers Board of Officers
Thomas M. McInerney President Ogletree Deakins
Neusha Ghaedi President-Elect DeMartini, Walker, & Ghaedi LLP
Robyn B. Christo Treasurer Epstein Holtzapple Christo LLP
Nestor R. Schnasse Secretary Schnasse Law
Kristine Fowler Cirby Past President Law Office of Kristine Fowler Cirby
Thomas S. Brown 5-Year Past President SSL Law Firm LLP
Kerry Enright Interim Executive Director Marin County Bar Association
Jen Cesario Executive Director Marin County Bar Association
MCBA LEADERSHIP OPPORTUNITIES! JOIN a Committee CHAIR a Section SERVE on the Board Contact Kerry Enright for more information
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Marisa R. Chaves 2026 Director Hanson Crawford Crum Family Law Group
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Christine O‘Hanlon 2026 Director Marin County Public Defender’s Office
Roni D. Pomerantz 2026 Director California Department of Justice
Marrianne S. Taleghani 2026 Director Compass
Ingrid L. Carbone 2026 Director Carbone Family Law
Adrea Tencer 2027 Director ADZ Law, LLP
Sarah B. Anker 2027 Director County of Marin
R. Wesley Pratt 2027 Director County of Marin
Emily Harrington 2027 Director Ogletree Deakins
Paul Burglin 2027 Director Burglin Law Office, P.C.
Cole A. Benbow 2028 Director Hanson Bridgett LLP
Laura E. McMahon 2028 Director Legal Aid of Marin
Brett K. Rhodes 2028 Director County of Marin
Dennis E. Simmons 2028 Director The Simmons Law Firm
Nicole L. Tiger 2028 Director Ragghianti Freitas LLP
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To involve, encourage, and support Bar Association members, to serve as a liaison to the Marin County Courts, to educate the community and enhance access to legal services. MISSION STATEMENT
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