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SAN
RAFAEL - The first thing Foley & Lardner partner Teveia R.
Barnes did before sitting down to be interviewed by Ramona Polk
was present the teenager with a business card because, Barnes
said, "that's what lawyers do."
"You turn
it around so that your name faces the person you're giving it
to," she instructed. "And you always look them in the eye."
This was
the preamble to a question-and-answer period between Barnes and
13-year-old Polk who, along with other soon-to-be high school
students from Marin City, are exploring myriad jobs held by
African-Americans in their community.
Barnes, a
partner in Foley's finance and financial institutions practice
in San Francisco, is founder, president and executive director
of Lawyers for One America. The 5-year-old organization is a
national nonprofit based in San Rafael that promotes diversity
in the legal community, serves the working poor and counsels
other nonprofits in business matters.
As part
of a summer project for the Marin City Network, four
African-American students - all of whom will be freshmen in the
Marin high schools this fall - visited Barnes's headquarters
Tuesday to interview her and her sister, Deputy Executive
Director Bonita F. Barnes.
The Marin
City Network, one of Lawyers for One America's pro bono clients,
conducts afterschool programs and provides career development
and support services to middle-school students and their
families.
The
students embarked on their career exploration Tuesday, and a
facet of the project entails collecting footage for a
documentary they're producing with the help of a professional
videographer.
"Where
were you when you were our age, and how did you get from there
to where you are today?" Polk asked, while 14-year-old Robert
Burton manned the video camera.
"I knew
pretty early that I wanted to be a lawyer," Barnes said.
"Teachers told me I should be a secretary, which is a fine
profession, but you don't get to talk as much."
Barnes
recalled how she was considered the "nerdy kid with thick
glasses" who was sought out by others to settle their disputes.
Growing up, there were very few female attorneys and people of
color in the legal community, she said. But she entered New York
University School of Law where 50 percent of the class was
women, "which was rare for that time."
Daaimah
Brown, 13, and Willie Smith, 14, looked on and prepared for
their interview with Bonita Barnes.
After the
interview, Polk said she was interested in a legal career
because she wanted to help innocent people.
"I don't
want to see kids grow up without their dad," said Polk, who will
enter Larkspur's Redwood High School in September. "I want to
help people get back their normal life."
Teveia
Barnes heads the organization's diversity center, which aims to
diversify all sectors of the legal community at all levels. On
several occasions, she's given talks about the profession to
curious students at middle and high schools in Marin City, an
unincorporated area of Marin County.
According
to the 2000 U.S. Census, Marin City is nearly 40 percent
African-American compared with just 3 percent in the rest of the
county.
"Generally the students are interested in how much money we make
more than anything else," Barnes said. "But we try to present
the whole gamut."
Lawyers
for One America was created following President Clinton's
summons of hundreds of the nation's leading attorneys to the
White House in 1999. In order to fight poverty and
discrimination, Clinton challenged attorneys to increase pro
bono legal services, mentor minority law students and assist
inner-city businesses and entrepreneurs.
According
to the organization's mission statement, it has aimed to
"promote greater racial and ethnic diversity in the legal
profession nationwide, so that our law schools, judicial systems
and lawyers more accurately reflect the communities they
serve."
"The
point was not to duplicate what was already being offered by
Legal Aid or the Volunteer Legal Service program, but to answer
the needy who were not being served," Barnes said. "And there's
a lot of them."
Barnes served as an associate general counsel and senior vice
president at Bank of America before joining Foley and was active
in the bank's diversity programs. Following tenure as executive
director of the San Francisco Bar Association from 2001-2003,
where she worked closely with the Homeless Advocacy Project in
the city's Mission District, Barnes added pro bono work to her
diversity advocacy activities.
"When I
left the bar, I really wanted to work with the working poor,"
Barnes said. "These are people who work for just a little
money."
Barnes
uses her legal acumen to provide civil legal counseling to
individuals and general commercial and business education to
microbusinesses and other nonprofit groups, including Performing
Stars, the Helen Vine Detox Center and Women Helping All Women.
Her husband Alan R. Sankin, vice president of international tax
at Oracle Corp., provides tax counseling.
Benjamin
R. Stewart is a staff consultant to the Marin City Community
Land Corp., a private nonprofit that owns land parcels in Marin
City.
Stewart
said Lawyers for One America, in conjunction with Foley
attorneys, recently provided the equivalent of more than $43,000
in pro bono work to Land Corp. in a lawsuit filed by the
California Housing Finance Agency.
Land
Corp. leased a parcel totaling six acres to a developer. The
200-plus low-income housing complex contained multi-million
dollar defects. During an ongoing dispute between Loan Corp. and
the developer, the land went into to default. The California
Housing Finance Agency sued for foreclosure and receivership of
the land.
"The [pro
bono attorneys] gave us the direction to reach our major
objective," Stewart said. "We were treated as if we were a
top-paying client."
Eight
months of litigation ended last month, resulting in Land Corp.
maintaining the multimillion-dollar property and ensured the
proceeds of the judgment went directly to correcting the
construction defects that led to the suit.
"Foley is
very supportive and committed to pro bono," Barnes said. "There
are several lawyers there who contribute to LFOA regularly as
well as our summer associates."
Barnes
named Morrison & Foerster; Hanson, Bridgett, Marcus, Vlahos &
Rudy; Farella Braun + Martel and other firms as supportive of
Lawyer's for One America's activities.
"I feel
like I'm doing what lawyers are supposed to do," Barnes said.
"At Foley, I have a sophisticated financial practice that keeps
me stimulated. The Foley side is where my mind is and LFOA is
where my heart is, so my head and my heart are in sync."
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