Firm News | Dolan Law Firm

Supreme Court Upholds the ICWA as Constitutional

Today, the United States Supreme Court stood for what is just for Indian Country as the ICWA (Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978) was upheld by a 7-2 vote. The ICWA recently came under attack in Haaland v. Brackeen (2023), a case brought by the states of Texas, Louisiana, and Indiana, as well as a number of individual claimants, seeking to establish the ICWA as unconstitutional.

The ICWA is a 45-year-old federal law that protects the well-being and best interests of Native children, their families and their communities. The ICWA prevents the arbitrary removal of Native children from their homes by public and private agencies. The ICWA recognizes Native families and tribal communities as the dominant authority for determining how to protect their own children. Recognized by child welfare experts as the gold standard in child welfare practice, the ICWA has for decades helped tens of thousands of Native children and families remain intact, as well as find fairness and healing in state child welfare systems. The ICWA was established in response to the United States government’s long historic campaign of destruction and erasure of Native peoples and communities, which in part, included the forceful removal of Native children from their homes and placement in non-Native homes without consent or justification. This win recognizes the importance of preserving the culture, communities and existence of Native peoples.

Every May we take extra time to celebrate Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AA and NHPI) Heritage Month by shining a light on AA and NHPI experiences and paying tribute to the generations of AA and NHPI who have enriched America’s history and are instrumental in its future success. Although today marks the last day of AA and NHPI’s heritage month, we continue to learn and celebrate the light and love in our diverse AA and NHPI communities. We must also unite to expand our understanding of racism and xenophobia to be true allies. We continue to stand up against violence and rhetoric against Asians, Asian-Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders. When we are honest about the past, we can begin to heal from the wounds of hate and in doing so, make a better future together.

Some recommended influential Asian American and Pacific Islander Authors: Cathy Park Hong “Minor Feelings,” Ocean Vuong “On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous,” Amy Tan “The Joy Luck Club,” Viet Thanh Nguyen “They Sympathizer,” Jhumpa Lahiri “The Interpreter of Maladies.”

https://www.pbs.org/articles/10-must-read-aapi-authors/

https://www.nps.gov/subjects/aapiheritage/people.htm

Mabel Lee was a suffragist who mobilized the Chinese community in America to support women’s right to vote leading up to the 19th Amendment to the Constitution that gave many women in the US the right to vote. She was also the first Chinese woman to earn a PhD in economics from Columbia University.

Tye Leung was a civil rights and community activist born in San Francisco’s Chinatown in 1887.

Wilhelmina Kekelaokalaninui Widemann was born in 1861 at Lihue, Kauai in the Kingdom of Hawaii, she was a suffragist.

Larry Itliong was a Filipino American labor organizer and civil rights activist. He played a central role in the founding of the United Farm Workers (UFW) union.

Ruth Tanbara was a pioneering Japanese American community leader in St. Paul, Minnesota. Tanbara was a community leader in St. Paul, Minnesota, who assisted with Japanese American resettlement during and after World War II.

Hong Yen Chang was reportedly the first Chinese immigrant licensed to practice law in the United States. Though admitted to the New York State Bar, he was denied admission to the California State Bar in 1890.

The daughter of Indian and Jamaican immigrants, Kamala Harris is the current vice president of the United States. In addition to being the first woman to hold this office and the highest-ranking female government official in U.S. history, she is also the first Asian American or African American to fill the role.

Last month, Attorneys Chris Dolan and Megan Irish published an article highlighting the concerning frequency of cars crashing into convenience stores. These storefront crashes are a known risk to stores and they can prevent them by installing bollards. This week, Christopher B. Dolan had the opportunity to discuss a case (Sisemore v. 7-Eleven) along with Robert Reiter, founder of Storefront Safety Council, highlighting the importance of storefront safety and how bollards can be extremely effective in preventing injuries or even death at convenience stores.

See the exclusive interview with Inside Edition here:

About The Case (Sisemore v. 7-Eleven):

On approximately May 31, 2019, Ms. Sisemore made a routine stop to get gas at a 7-Eleven station. The machine card reader at the pump would not read her card so she went in to pay. Unaware of what was going to happen, while she was paying for gas at the counter, a car crashed through the door and hit her while she was inside the 7-Eleven.

The city of San Francisco added street barriers along five blocks of Capp St from 18^th to 22^nd 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:

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)

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.

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.

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

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.

Congratulations to the lawyers at Dolan Law Firm, PC for being selected in the 29^th 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.

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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.