For further information, contact:  Ana M. Storey, President, 916.930.9020 or [email protected] or Mika Domingo, President-Elect, 925.891.5006 or [email protected]

For further information, contact: Ana M. Storey, President, 916.930.9020 or [email protected]

For immediate release May 3, 2022

Kelly Dermody is Managing Partner of the San Francisco office and chair of the employment practice group at Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, LLP.  Kelly represents employees and consumers in class, collective, and #metoo actions.

Kelly is a leader in non-profit organizations devoted to serving the public interest, improving access to justice, and ensuring that the rights of historically disenfranchised persons are protected.

In 2012, Kelly served as President of the Bar Association of San Francisco. She has been inducted as a Fellow in the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers and has served on the governing Council of the ABA Labor and Employment Law Section. 

In 2016, Kelly was named a “Giant Slayer” by The Recorder legal press. Kelly has been named as a 2019 recipient of the Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement Award by the American Bar Association.

Kelly is a graduate of Harvard College and Berkeley Law School.

LISTEN TO VOLUME 14
With Hosts:  Summer C. Selleck and Ariel B. Lee
Sound Editing and Recording: Gilbert Leung
Music: Jonathan M. C. Jordan
Recording At:  Alameda County District Attorney Office 

Anita Santos is a Judge of the Superior Court, Contra Costa County. She was appointed by Governor Brown in December 2014 and is currently assigned to felony criminal trials.

Neda A. Mansoorian is a co-founder of and the managing partner at Oleander Law Partners LLP. Located in Los Gatos, California, she provides crisis management services for her individual and corporate clients in Santa Clara County, Silicon Valley and other parts of the San Francisco Bay Area. Admitted to practice before all California state courts, Ms. Mansoorian is also admitted to practice before the U.S. District Courts for the Northern and Eastern Districts of California.

Ms. Mansoorian uses her extensive background and experience in litigation, business, mediation, and negotiations to provide advice and counsel to clients who are risking the loss of their reputation and standing when they are facing a crisis in their personal or business lives. The types of matters that she has handled in this regard have involved business disputes, embezzlement, wrongful termination, extortion, high-profile divorces and workplace harassment. She has counted among her clients chief executive officers, public companies and public officials. The manner in which she has handled what are often sensitive issues has earned her the respect of her colleagues, as evidenced by her receipt of an AV Preeminent peer review rating through Martindale-Hubbell every year since 2014. Ms. Mansoorian has also been named to the Silicon Valley Business Journal's annual 40 Under 40 list.

Prior to founding Oleander Law Partners LLP in October 2016, Ms. Mansoorian was a partner and the chief legal officer at a well-known San Jose law firm. While she was there, she represented many high-profile clients and helped to resolve their disputes both in the courtroom and at the negotiating table. A fellow in both the American Bar Foundation and the Litigation Counsel of America, Ms. Mansoorian holds a Bachelor of Arts in political science from the University of California, Berkeley, and a Juris Doctor from Santa Clara University School of Law.

LISTEN TO VOLUME 12:

With Hosts: 
Summer C. Selleck
Ariel B. Lee

Sound Editing and Recording: Gilbert Leung

Music: Jonathan M. C. Jordan


Recording At: Alameda County District Attorney Office 

Judge Douglas was appointed to the Contra Costa Superior Court by Governor Jerry Brown in July 2014 and joined the bench that August after concluding her last murder trial as a San Francisco prosecutor. She had previously served as a deputy district attorney in the Contra Costa County District Attorney's Office from 2000 to 2013.

Judge Douglas grew up in Redwood City, went to undergraduate school in Missouri. Judge Douglas landed a job at the Contra Costa District Attorney's Office right out of law school. She built a reputation as a diligent prosecutor, popular among her colleagues, opposing lawyers and judges. Serving as a member of her office's domestic violence unit, Judge Douglas tried her first murder charge when the victim of an assault later died. It was the first of many homicide victories for the young DA.

Judge Victoria Kolakowski became the first and only openly transgender trial judge in the United States when she was elected to the Alameda County Superior Court in November 2010.  

As a judge, she has served in both civil and criminal trial assignments. She recently completed a year as the Supervising Judge of the Collaborative Courts, with subject matter oversight over all of the treatment courts (drug, behavioral health, veterans’, etc.) in Alameda County.