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Community

At Coblentz, Patch, Duffy & Bass LLP, we enthusiastically embrace our service and pro bono obligations. Our attorneys provide much needed legal services to the poor and address inequality through community involvement, in the process gaining valuable experience and fulfilling our duty as members of the bar.

The firm's pro bono efforts are led by an active pro bono committee of partners, associates and staff who are committed to supporting and encouraging pro bono efforts in all of the firm's practices.  (Click here for CPDB Legal Heroes of the Heart.)

CPDB is a proud signatory to the National Pro Bono Project and the Bar Association of San Francisco's Pledge in Support of Pro Bono Service. The firm pledges that we will give pro bono legal services equal to 3% of total billable hours per year. We track this time and fulfill this commitment.

Since our earliest days, CPDB has had a long and active history of pro bono service and community involvement. Our attorneys are involved with several organizations in the community that provide legal services to the less fortunate, including:

  • Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights
  • Legal Services for Entrepreneurs
  • BASF Volunteer Legal Services Program  
  • Bankruptcy Pro Bono Project
  • Constitutional Rights Foundation High School Mock Trial Program
  • California Lawyers for the Arts  
  • Legal Aid Society Employment Law Center
  • Legal Services for Children   
  • U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California ADR Program 
  • Life After Exoneration Program
  • Tax Aide and the AARP Foundation
  • Valley Pro Bono Project's Domestic Violence Limited Scope Representation Program
  • Asian Pacific Islander Legal Outreach

We are also proud to staff the Tuesday night clinic for the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights (LCCR) on a rotating basis with other committed law firms in San Francisco.  In 2010, LCCR honored corporate partner, Sara Finigan, with the James T. Caleshu Award for her extraordinary pro bono contributions to the LCCR’s Legal Services for Entrepreneurs Program (LSE).  Having first volunteered with the program nine years ago, Finigan has helped establish a variety of small businesses and has been critical in engaging other members of her firm to take on clients from the LSE program.

In 2009,  litigation partner, Fred Fields, was selected for the Keta Taylor Colby award in recognition of his pro bono work and his outstanding commitment to those in need.  Mr. Fields supervised ten debt collection cases for the Lawyers' Committee, six of which he handled directly, obtaining outstanding results. 

Our lawyers have successfully resolved pro bono cases that include:

  • An immigration case regarding a Togolese man denied asylum who was detained, and tortured by his government.  Because of ineffective counsel representation at the beginning of his case, CPDB had to reopen the initial immigration hearing and file an appeal before the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA).  The grant rate of motions before BIA is less than 3%.
  • An inmate's 1983 action against a correctional service guard for excessive force settled prior to trial.
  • An inmate confined to a wheelchair filed suit for excessive force against a guard who dumped him out of his chair and beat him.
  • A partition action to preserve the only medical office in the Bayview/Hunter's Point neighborhood.
  • A human trafficking case for two young women who were coerced into slave labor, abused and intimidated into silence and obedience, threatened with physical harm and deportation, and forced to live in illegal and substandard housing.
  • Tax Aide: Many of our tax attorneys staff seasonal clinics from early February to April 15. These clinics assist low-income taxpayers with the preparation of their income tax returns.
  • An action to obtain a permanent restraining order and temporary child custody and support for a victim of domestic violence.
  • An action to obtain insurance coverage for a man who was sued after running into two parked vehicles while driving to make a late payment on his auto insurance.

Our attorneys are also active in the nonprofit community. Our attorneys are on the boards of, or actively involved in several community groups, including, among others:

  • National Association of Women Judges
  • Women's Technology Cluster
  • Telegraph Hill Neighborhood Center
  • Good Samaritan Family Resource Center
  • St. Anthony's Foundation
  • Family House Inc.
  • OneCalifornia Bank, a community development bank
  • Immaculate Conception Academy
  • Operation Rainbow
  • Habitat for Humanity
  • St. Mary's Medical Center and Foundation
  • Juma Ventures

For the past ten years, we have annually sponsored and provided a series of seminars on legal and financial issues for local nonprofit corporations. Our lawyers also serve on the boards or PTAs of their children's schools, churches, and other civic institutions in the Bay Area.

In the broader community, CPDB is an active supporter of The Arc of San Francisco, an organization which provides job training, service, support and advocacy for individuals with developmental disabilities; we employ two Arc clients in the firm's Facilities Department. In 2007, the firm was honored with The Arc's prestigious Partnership Award, honoring businesses that are committed to advocating for The Arc and are involved in outreach.  Our staff and lawyers volunteer their time and support to programs such as Head Start, Food From The Bar, the Immaculate Conception Academy Work Internship Program, and the Coblentz ClassRoom - a project assisting a second grade classroom in the Tenderloin neighborhood with tutoring needs and supplies.