The Justice & Diversity Center (JDC) of The Bar Association of San Francisco (BASF) celebrated its most outstanding volunteers at its annual Volunteer Celebration on May 12. Chief Justice of California Tani G. Cantil-Sakauye was on hand to present awards.

More than 200 people attended the event, held at the Louis B. Mayer Lounge at UC University of California College of Law, San Francisco. JDC honored volunteers of its Legal Services and Diversity Educational programs. Guest of honor Chief Justice of California Tani G. Cantil-Sakauye provided inspirational remarks at the awards ceremony and greeted awardees. JDC Board President Timothy Moppin, Kaufman Dolowich Voluck, also made remarks and congratulated awardees.

JDC honored the top 15 percent of the volunteers in its Pro Bono Legal Services Program, Homeless Advocacy Project and Diversity Educational Programs with Outstanding Volunteer in Public Service Certificates.

Coblentz recipients honored with Outstanding Volunteer in Public Service Certificates were Jeff Bernstein, Bejan Fanibanda, Fred Fields, Mark Hejinian, Stephen Lanctot, David Mehretu, Misti Schmidt, Katharine Van Dusen and Clifford Yin.

Read more from JDC here.

Partners Jon Bass and Tim Crudo are quoted in “What New Litigators Can Do To Win Their First Trial,” Law360
April 29, 2015

Law360, New York – “Litigating your first case is terrifying. Are you prepared? Will the judge and jury take you seriously? Will you ask the right questions? Will your witnesses do well on the stand? Will you win?” Jon Bass and Tim Crudo offer their advice:

Jon Bass: “Be scared, but don’t be intimidated. Your opponent may have tried a few cases, but that doesn’t mean she has the better side of this one. Be open about your inexperience, rather than trying to conceal it. The judge is your friend in your first trial, so accept her helping hand with grace. And simplify your case as much as possible, or more so. A good case will benefit from being stripped down to its core. Layers of complexity won’t improve a bad one, and you’ll have made your job harder than it needs to be.”

Tim Crudo: “Two words: short and simple. That goes for opening, direct and cross-exams, and closing. Even — and especially — for long trials, distill your documents and witnesses to what is essential and use those to drive home your (short and simple) theory of the case. Evidence is a two-edged sword, and a good trial lawyer will know how to turn yours against you. And at some point you lose a jury if you keep hitting it over the head with the same point. So figure out what you really need and cut out the rest. Less really is more.”

Coblentz is named to BTI Consulting Group’s report, BTI Brand Elite 2015: Client Perceptions of the Best-Branded Law Firms.

Based on corporate counsel feedback, Coblentz is known for standing out for its client recommendations, earning a place on BTI’s Honor Roll of Most Recommended Firms. BTI develops the report based on in-depth interviews with 648 corporate counsel at the world’s largest and most influential companies. BTI Brand Elite 2015 only includes law firms with the definitive imprint on corporate counsel in key factors clients rely on to differentiate law firms.