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San Francisco Fire Department Concerned About Street Barriers

The city of San Francisco added street barriers along five blocks of Capp St from 18th to 22nd to deter alleged prostitution. This action may violate local statues and city fire codes. The fire department is worried about lack of access that could delay emergency response times.

In an interview with ABC news, Chris Dolan said:

“The fire code specifies the type of access that fire trucks need to have for public safety. The vehicle code allows local governments to put limitations on traffic movement based on crime. So both of these have an effect. They need to be balanced.”

“A public process including consultation with the fire department and other safety forces,” should be held in a public hearing. Dolan said “Many of the residents may have unique needs, for example, a resident may be disabled and may need access to their garage.”

Local city and emergency department need to come together to balance the needs of the community.

See full ABC News story here:

 

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Honoring Annie Virginia Stephens Coker and Martha Malone Louis

As we culminate Black History Month, we would like to honor two trailblazing black female attorneys that contributed to the history of the legal practice in the State of California: 

Annie Virginia Stephens Coker (1903-1986)

Annie Virginia Stephens Coker was born in Oakland, California. She attended public schools in Oakland. She received her bachelor’s degree in 1924, as well as her law degree from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1929. Coker became the first black female attorney in the State of  California when she passed the California State Bar in 1929. Unfortunately, the doors of most law firms in California were not open to black attorneys in the early 1930’s.  As such, Coker moved to Alexandria, Virginia, where she maintained a private law practice. Coker eventually returned to California and worked for the State Office of Legislative Counsel in Sacramento.

Schiesl, M. (2015, May 06). Annie Virginia Stephens Coker (1903-1986). BlackPast.org.

 

Martha Malone Louis (1912-1991)

Detroit Free Press, P. 2, Aug. 3, 1991.

Born in Palestine, Anderson, Texas. Louis  was the first black woman to practice law in the state of California. According to the California State Bar, Louis was admitted to practice law in 1943. Louis  made a name and a place for herself in a white man’s world as a criminal defense attorney. “She was a tigress in the courtroom,” Sherman Smith, a then retired Los Angeles judge said in November of 1990. Louis became widely known when she married famous boxer Joe Louis.

 

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Supporting Charles Houston Bar Association

February is #BlackHistoryMonth, a time to acknowledge and celebrate the contributions and achievements of African Americans, despite the history of racism and oppression in our country, and the ongoing and urgent battle against it. The Dolan Firm is honored to spotlight and support the Charles Houston Bar Association (“CHBA”).

About Charles Houston Bar Association:

The CHBA was founded in 1955 and named in honor of the legendary civil rights attorney, Charles Hamilton Houston. Commonly referred to as “The Man That Killed Jim Crow”, Houston was the first black student to be elected to the editorial board of the Harvard Law review in 1919. Houston became the first general counsel for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and formulated the foundational legal arguments challenging the “separate but equal” doctrine nearly two decades before Brown v. Board of Education was decided before the Supreme Court.

In December 2022, the Dolan Law Firm was excited to attend CHBA’s 67th Annual Gala and Awards Ceremony, where our firm was honored with a Millennium Sponsor Award. Part of the Dolan Law Firm’s sponsorship funds went directly to a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion scholarship recipient. The Dolan Law Firm is excited to play an ongoing role in helping advance the mission of CHBA.  We encourage everyone in our legal community to explore the possibility of supporting this incredible organization and highlighting its many accomplishments.

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Daily Journal – Top 100 Lawyers in California – Chris Dolan

The Daily Journal selected Christopher B. Dolan to the 2022 list of Top 100 Lawyers in California

 

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Pinay Powerhouse Conference 5

The Dolan Law Firm PC’s DE&I Committee is proud to support Pinay Powerhouse Conference 5 as a Platinum Sponsor and contribute to the Filipino Bar Association of Northern California’s Scholarship. Thank you to the Filipino Lawyers of Washington and the Pinay Powerhouse Collective for putting on an incredible conference in Seattle. 

About Pinay Powerhouse

Pinay Powerhouse is a women’s collective focused on empowering Pinay attorneys, future attorneys, and legal professionals as leaders in the law.  Pinay Powerhouse puts on programs and events to support its mission, including an annual conference that has been held in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Waikiki, and Seattle. The Dolan Law Firm is proud to have sponsored this conference every year since its inception.

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29th edition of The Best Lawyers in America and 3rd edition of Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch in America

Congratulations to the lawyers at Dolan Law Firm, PC for being selected in the 29th edition of The Best Lawyers in America® and the third edition of Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch in America™. This year’s results were determined using more than 12.2 million confidential evaluations by top attorneys. It is exclusively these attorneys who selected this year’s honorees, which makes recognition in Best Lawyers a true reflection of talent in the industry. Ones to Watch adopts this same peer-review methodology.

What is Best Lawyers?

Best Lawyers is the oldest and most respected peer-review publication company in the legal profession.
Recognition by Best Lawyers is widely regarded by both clients and legal professionals as a significant honor, conferred on a lawyer by their peers. For more than four decades, their publications have earned the respect of the profession, the media and the public as the most reliable, unbiased source of legal referrals anywhere.

Their lists of outstanding lawyers are compiled by conducting exhaustive peer review surveys in which tens of thousands of leading lawyers confidentially evaluate their professional peers. If the votes for a lawyer are positive enough for recognition by Best Lawyers, that lawyer must maintain those votes in subsequent polls to remain in each edition. Lawyers are not permitted to pay any fee to participate in or be recognized by Best Lawyers.

Again, we congratulate our selectees for being recognized and striving to get to the point where they are today.

***

 
Christopher B. Dolan
Emile A. Davis
Kimberly Levy
Megan Irish
Allison Stone
Vanessa C. Deniston
Cristina Garcia
Taylor French
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Continuing Sponsor of Pinay Powerhouse

Pinay Powerhouse is back and Dolan Law Firm continues to be a proud sponsor! Our Senior Associate Attorney and DE&I Director Mari Bandoma Callado is a Pinay Powerhouse founder along with 4 other Filipina attorneys who all envisioned a women’s conference empowering more Filipina attorneys and aspiring attorneys as leaders in the law. 

The fifth annual Pinay Powerhouse conference (Dare to Reign) returns in-person hosted by #SistersInLaw Filipino Lawyers of Washington (FLOW) in Seattle. To register, click here.

History

 

Here are some pictures of Dolan Law Firm supporting Pinay Powerhouse from the previous years:

PINAY POWERHOUSE I (photo credit: Jamie Juni)

PINAY POWERHOUSE II (photo credit: Jamie Juni)

PINAY POWERHOUSE III (photo credit: Philmund Lee)

PINAY POWERHOUSE IV

PINAY POWERHOUSE V

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Continuing Sponsor of Los Angeles Trial Lawyers’ Charities

We are excited to return as a sponsor for the Los Angeles Trial Lawyers’ Charities (LATLC) Summer Soirée this Saturday August 13.

To register, click here

Here are some photos of our support from the previous years:

 

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Celebrating National Breastfeeding Month

Written By Mari Bandoma Callado

August is National Breastfeeding Month (and includes World Breastfeeding Week – August 1 to 7). This month is dedicated to promoting advocacy and protection of breastfeeding to ensure that all families have the support they need and the opportunity to breastfeed.

With all the obstacles that breastfeeding parents who return to work have to overcome, it’s not surprising that while the American Association of Pediatrics recommends breastfeeding parents to exclusively nurse their infants for the first six months, with the continuation of breastfeeding for 1 year or longer as mutually desired by parent and infant, the California Department of Public Health reported that in 2016, 94% of mothers began breastfeeding but only 24.8% were exclusively breastfeeding at six months.

Lactation Accommodation in the Workplace

Under the California Labor Code, lactating employees in California are entitled to a reasonable amount of break time to express breastmilk – this includes time to pump, time to get and put away the pump, as well as time to travel to and from the employee’s workstation.  If possible, the break must run concurrently with any break time already provided to the employee. 

Employers may, but do not have to, pay employees for lactation breaks that take longer than regular paid break time. So if an employee usually receives a 10-minute paid break, and it takes the employee 20 minutes to pump, the employer does not need to pay the employee for the last ten minutes.  However, reasonable travel time to and from the lactation space is not considered break time and should be paid. 

The Labor Code also requires employers to provide adequate space to express milk in private (not a bathroom) that is in close proximity to the employee’s work area and be used only for lactation purposes while an employee expresses milk.  It must also include a surface to place a breast pump and personal items, a place to sit, access to electricity, a sink with running water, and a refrigerator or cooler for storing breast milk.  The space must also be clean and free of hazardous materials.

If you have questions bout your lactation accommodations in the workplace, or if you have questions about your employment rights,  contact our employment attorneys.

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Celebrating the 32nd Anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) with Dolan Law Firm

By: Mari Bandoma Callado, Eric St. John & the Dolan Law Firm DE&I Committee

32 years ago, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was signed into law, making it unlawful for private employers, state/local governments, employment agencies, labor organizations, and labor-management committees to discriminate against qualified individuals with disabilities. Under the ADA, employers with fifteen or more employees cannot discriminate against qualified individuals with disabilities.

A person with a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits a major life activity is “disabled” and protected by the ADA. Major life activities are basic functions and may include: seeing, sleeping, learning, hearing, breathing, thinking, speaking, concentrating, reproduction, performing manual tasks, walking, interacting with others, sexual relations, caring for oneself, standing, reading, and working. It also includes bodily functions, such as normal cell growth, or the functioning of the respiratory, circulatory, cardiovascular, endocrine, immune, and digestive systems.

Disability discrimination occurs when an employee is treated differently at work because of their disability, perceived disability, or association with a disabled person. The ADA makes it unlawful to discriminate in all employment practices such as recruitment, pay, hiring, firing, promotion, job assignments, training, leave, lay-off, benefits, and all other employment-related activities.

The History of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)

began far before July 26, 1990 when people with disabilities began to challenge the social barriers that excluded them from their communities, and when parents of children with disabilities began to fight against the exclusion and segregation of their children. It is important to recognize the uphill fight that generations past have endured to secure the rights for people with disabilities.

The ADA is one of America’s most comprehensive pieces of civil rights legislation that prohibits discrimination and guarantees that people with disabilities have the same opportunities as everyone else to participate in the mainstream of American life — to enjoy employment opportunities, to purchase goods and services, and to participate in State and local government programs and services.

Olmstead v. L.C.

The landmark decision in Olmstead v L.C. was one of the first uses of the ADA to protect individuals unnecessarily held in a psychiatric unit. Two women (L.C. and E.W.) with mental disabilities were confined in a psychiatric ward for years prior to this decision.

In 1992, L.C. was voluntarily admitted to Georgia Regional Hospital at Atlanta (GRH), where she was confined for treatment in a psychiatric unit. By May 1993, her psychiatric condition had stabilized, and L.C.’s treatment team at GRH agreed that her needs could be met appropriately in one of the community-based programs the State supported. Despite this evaluation, L.C. remained institutionalized until February 1996, when the State finally placed her in a community-based treatment program, 3 years after doctors said her needs could be met outside of the psychiatric unit.

E.W. was voluntarily admitted to GRH in February 1995; like L.C., E.W. was confined for treatment in a psychiatric unit. In March 1995, GRH sought to discharge E.W. to a homeless shelter, but abandoned that plan. By 1996, E.W.’s treating psychiatrist concluded that she could be treated appropriately in a community-based setting. She nonetheless remained institutionalized until a few months after the District Court issued a judgment in the Olmstead v. L.C. case in 1997.

Both E.W. and L.C. were held for years of their life, even after doctors had suggested community based settings for treatment. The only reason they were allowed to re-enter their communities was because they successfully brought a lawsuit under the ADA to protect their rights against discrimination.

The two woman brought suit under Title II of the ADA arguing that unnecessary institutional segregation constitutes discrimination. The U.S. Supreme Court found that the unjustified segregation of people with disabilities is a form of unlawful discrimination under the ADA and both E.W. and L.C. were able to finally be released from their psychiatric units in 1996 and 1997.

Following the landmark decision, individuals with disabilities can demand they be provided with services for their disability in the most integrated setting appropriate to their needs.

The Court held that states are required to provide community-based services for people with disabilities who would otherwise be entitled to institutional services when:

  • (a) such placement is appropriate;

  • (b) the affected person does not oppose such treatment; and

  • (c) the placement can be reasonably accommodated, considering the resources available to the state and the needs of other individuals with disabilities.

Individuals with disabilities have the right to dictate their life and treatment. Being institutionalized for mental disabilities is common in America. Following Olmstead v. L.C. many individuals have avoided unnecessary institutionalization and are now receiving services in their own communities.

Individuals with disabilities now have greater control over their community-based care and services. Individuals’ needs are met by providing reasonable accommodations in their communities, and not by moving to a more restrictive setting.

The stories of L.C. and E.W. are stories of bravery and courage. Thanks to their fight many Americans today do not have to face institutionalization by the State. Unfortunately though, institutionalization still occurs and individuals with disabilities are still discriminated against. We highlight this case and these individual’s stories to remind us all that the fight must continue and change is not made in one day. There is no place for discrimination in our society and it takes each and every one of us to make the changes necessary for everyone to have their rights upheld and protected.

To be protected by the ADA, an employee must disclose their disability to at least one person who represents the employer, such as a supervisor or human resource person. While the employee does not have to share every detail about their disability, they do need to provide enough information to show that they have a “disability” under the law and that they need accommodation. 

If you believe that you have been discriminated against and/or harassed because of your disability, perceived disability and/or association with someone with a disability, contact our disability discrimination lawyers today.

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Recent Posts

  • Eye Drops Causing Blindness Recalled By FDA
  • San Francisco Fire Department Concerned About Street Barriers
  • Cars Crash into Convenient Stores, Too Often.
  • Honoring Annie Virginia Stephens Coker and Martha Malone Louis
  • Supporting Charles Houston Bar Association
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