Diversity in the Legal Profession is being co-sponsored by the Center for Public Interest & Social Justice, APALSA, BLSA, BGLAd, La Raza, & MELSA. The panel discussion is being presented Thursday, October 25th from noon – 1:00 pm in Bannan Hall, room 127. Pizza will be provided.
The panel discussion features:
Elizabeth Birch
President, Birch & Company, former Director, Human Rights Campaign
After graduating from Santa Clara School of Law in 1985, Ms. Birch joined McCutchen, Doyle, Brown & Enersen (now Bingham McCutchen). In 1989, she joined Apple Computer, Inc. and eventually headed worldwide litigation for Apple. In 1995, Ms. Birch was recruited to head the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest LGBT advocacy organization. While director, HRC’s annual budget grew from about $6M to almost $30M. More recently, as President of Birch and Company, Ms. Birch has consulted to a variety of clients, from Fortune 500 companies to celebrities and public figures. Ms. Birch is also a partner in the firm of Fair Measures, Inc. based in California. She has received numerous awards for her pro bono work and civil rights advocacy.
Aileen F. Casanave
Senior Counsel, Sun Microsystems, Inc.
As the Lead Attorney for the Western Area Global Sales Team, Ms. Casanave has been at Sun for 8 years practicing in the areas of transactional law, Marketing, Strategic Alliances, IP, and Antitrust. Prior to Sun, Ms. Casanave was counsel at Lockheed Martin Missiles and Space where she worked for 17 years. She was a key member of the Hubble Space telescope team and participated in the negotiation and sale of satellites in several countries including Korea, Japan and Italy. She is heavily involved in diversity efforts at her former law school, USF, and at Sun.
Rodney Fong
Asst. Dean of Bar Exam Services, Golden Gate University School of Law
Dean Fong has directed the academic support programs at John F. Kennedy, Santa Clara and the University of San Francisco Schools of Law. He has served as Chair of the American Association of Law Schools Section on Academic Support Programs. Dean Fong was recently appointed by the Board of Governors to the State Bar’s Council on Access & Fairness where he chairs the College & Law School Committee. He has spoken extensively on increasing bar passage rates, diversity pipeline efforts nationally, statewide, and regionally, diversity in legal academia and the legal profession, and bridging inter-generational gaps.
Professor Margalynne Armstrong will be the facilitator.
