CWL News

It is with profound sadness that we announce the passing of the Honorable Dana Senit Henry, a beloved mother, superior court judge, and distinguished public servant, who left us on February 10, 2025.

Dana was a woman of immense compassion, intelligence, and humor, qualities she carried throughout her life, both on and off the bench.

A Los Angeles native, Dana served on the Los Angeles Superior Court from 1983 to 1992. Dana’s legal career began with the California Department of Transportation, where she was instrumental in projects to promote gender and race-neutral policies. After which she worked as a Deputy City Attorney and practiced environmental class action law. As a judge, she became known for her expertise in family law, as well as her work resolving complex and high-profile civil and criminal cases.

Dana’s legacy of service extended beyond the courtroom. She was an advocate for fairness, equality, and justice, and these values were evident in her work as well as personal life. As a proud Democrat, Dana was passionate about gender and racial equality, serving in leadership roles with the California Women Lawyers Association and the National

Association of Women Judges, among many other organizations. Her contributions to society were honored with multiple awards, including the National Humanitarian Award from the American-Israel Fellowship Society.

Outside of her professional accomplishments, Dana had a deep love for the outdoors and sports. She enjoyed competitive horseback riding, water and snow skiing, hiking, tennis, and traveling the world, which brought her a sense of freedom and joy. Dana was a devoted animal lover, particularly fond of her dogs, who were a source of companionship and comfort. Her kindness, sharp wit, and warmth made a lasting impact on everyone she met.

Dana is survived by her daughter, Julia Henry, son Justin Henry, and three beautiful grandchildren, Jayden Steinberg, Ish Henry, and Rogue Henry, whom she cherished, along with a host of friends, colleagues, and loved ones who were touched by her generosity, intellect, and kindness. Her memory will live on in the hearts of all who knew her.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to Doctors Without Borders, a cause that was dear to Dana’s heart. You can make a one-time donation in her memory here.

A celebration of life will take place on Monday, May 12, 2025 at the Sagebrush Cantina in Calabasas, California.

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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.

Prior to her appointment, Judge Santos sat as a Commissioner hearing child support matters with the Department of Child Support Services. 

Judge Santos began her career as a police dispatcher with the Concord Police Department and the University of California, Berkeley, Police Department, followed by becoming a police officer with the Concord Police Department for several years. 
She left the Concord Police Department to become prosecutor in Contra Costa County for eleven years. 

Judge Santos then opened her own practice as a family law practitioner for five years, before she returned to the courts as a Commissioner and then Judge of the Superior Court. 

Judge Santos attended Solano Community College, then transferred to the University of California, Berkeley, obtaining her Bachelor of Arts degrees in Sociology and Ethnic Studies. She completed her formal education at the University of California, Hastings
College of the Law. 
Judge Santos is married with four children.


LISTEN TO VOLUME 13

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  

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.

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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 Douglas moved to San Francisco in 2013 because her mom lives there, and her brothers lives in Daly City.

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.

Judge Kolakowski is also passionate about ensuring and expanding access to justice, particularly for those with limited resources.  She serves on the Judicial Council of California’s Advisory Committee on Providing Access and Fairness, and is the California Council of Churches' appointee to the California Commission on Access to Justice.

She has been a leader in educating the judiciary on transgender issues.

She is also a frequent speaker on LGBT issues, internationally, nationally and locally. For example, Judge Kolakowski conducted a series of four videoconferences in June, 2017 with LGBT and allied civil rights leaders hosted at U.S. consulates in India - at the request of the U.S. Dept. of State.

Judge Kolakowski is a former President of the International Association of LGBT Judges, and of the Earl Warren American Inn of Court chapter in Alameda County.

Judge Kolakowski was an attorney for twenty-one years in Louisiana and California, serving as a sole practitioner, attorney in a small firm, as general counsel for a publicly traded company, as a senior government utility regulatory attorney, and as an administrative law judge for two different California agencies.

Since coming out publicly in 1989, she has been a leader in numerous local, state and national LGBT legal, political and spiritual organizations. Her many accomplishments include co-authoring Berkeley, California's domestic partner public registration ordinance in 1991 and co-chairing the board of directors of the Transgender Law Center, an organization focused on the well-being and protection of transgender individuals.

She has received numerous awards, including the Pioneer in the Law Award from California Women Lawyers in 2014 and the Distinguished Service Award from the Alameda County Bar Association in 2015. She was a community grand marshal for San Francisco Pride in 2011, and marched with BALIF, the local LGBT Bar Association.

Judge Kolakowski is being honored by the California State Assembly in March as the 2019 Woman of the Year for the 18th Assembly District. 

She lives in Oakland with her wife Cynthia Laird, their Pembroke Welsh Corgi Darby, and cat Espresso.

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Suzette Z. Torres is Vice President/Regional Counsel of North American Title Company, Inc.’s (“North American Title”). She provides legal and escrow advisory support to North American Title’s branches throughout the Western Region which includes California, Nevada, Utah, and Arizona. Her duties include handling compliance and employment issues, providing underwriting guidance, and advising on commercial transactions. Prior to joining North American, Ms. Torres worked for another national underwriter,
first as VP/Trial Counsel, and later transitioned to VP/Underwriting Counsel. When she was in private practice, she rose up to partnership at her firm (Bardellini, Straw, Cavin & Bupp LLP) and became the only minority, female, equity partner.

Her practice included resolving title and escrow claims, negotiating business disputes, managing contract negotiations, trials and handling several adversary proceedings in bankruptcy. Suzette served as the District 4 Governor of the California Women's Lawyer's Association (the largest women's bar association statewide) and was the Chair of the In House Counsel Network. She is an active member and former Co-Chair of the In-House Committee of the Asian American Bar Association of the Greater Bay Area, a member of the Filipino Bar Association-Northern California, and a member of the San Francisco and East Bay Chapters of CREW (Commercial Real Estate Women).  She has been rated AV Preeminent® by her peers, the highest rating given by Martindale-Hubble®,
and was selected as an honoree for the 2018 National Women in Law (Collaborative Leadership Category).

LISTEN HERE: VOLUME 9

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 Tara Flanagan serves as a Judge of the Superior Court of California in the County of Alameda. 

Judge Flanagan earned a Bachelor of Science degree from California State University, Northridge and earned her law degree from Southwestern Law School in 1998. 
Before going to law school, Judge Flanagan lived in England pursuing her
rugby career. She was selected to the US Women's Rugby National Team. She and her teammates went on to win the Women's Rugby World Cup in 1991. The USA Eagles followed their impressive 1991 victory with a second-place finish in the 1994 World Cup.
Judge Flanagan is a member of the USA Rugby Hall of Fame. 

As her rugby career came to a close, Judge Flanagan enrolled in Law School. Attending law school at night while working full time, she distinguished herself at Southwestern, becoming class president and named to the Moot Court Honors Program,
where she later served on the Honors Board of Directors.

After graduation, Judge Flanagan’s law career started at a large litigation firm in Orange County; from there, she joined the Los Angeles District Attorney's office where she served as Deputy District Attorney. During her first year at the D.A.'s
office, her hard work and skill earned her recognition and honors as an "Outstanding Domestic Violence Prosecutor."

In 2004, Judge Flanagan began practicing family law. As a legal aid attorney, she represented domestic violence survivors and their children. She fought for restraining orders and financial support to ensure that the victims had the security
to move forward with their lives. Later, Judge Flanagan was the managing Attorney of the Self-Help Center of the Superior Court, and Family Law Facilitator. She later opened her own practice and continued to protect victims of domestic violence.

In 2012 Judge Flanagan won election for a seat on the Alameda County Court. Her seat was challenged in 2018 and she won that election as well.  Since joining the bench, she has continued to be an active voice in our community, serving on
various boards and volunteering her time.

LISTEN HERE: VOLUME 7
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