DeborahWald
Founder
The Wald Law Group
Deborah H. Wald, Esq. is the founder and senior partner at Wald & Thorndal. Her work has evolved over the past 16 years from a part-time home-based LGBT family formation law practice, to a multi-disciplinary full service family law firm addressing the legal needs of all contemporary families. Ms. Wald's goal is to ensure that all individuals, families and children receive the highest quality legal protections available.
A teacher as well as a lawyer, Ms. Wald uniquely blends a practitioner's experience with national and historical perspectives. She is an adjunct professor at the University of San Francisco School of Law, where she teaches an upper level seminar entitled "Topics in Contemporary Family Law," covering a broad range of cutting-edge family law issues. Her law review article, “The Parentage Puzzle,” was published in the Journal of Gender, Social Policy and the Law in 2007; and a second article entitled “Integrated Approaches to Resolving Same-Sex Dissolutions” was published in Conflict Resolution Quarterly in 2009. She regularly provides trainings to attorneys and judges throughout northern California on the in’s and out’s of California parentage law.
BobbieWilson
Director
Howard Rice
Bobbie Wilson is a litigation director who has extensive experience in complex civil litigation
primarily in the areas of intellectual property and product liability.
Whether it involves BlackBerry, Bodyboard, DVD, medical or white board technology, Ms.
Wilson has successfully litigated in both federal and state court to protect her clients'
intellectual property. Her representation of clients has extended beyond the United States
and has taken her to courts in Sweden, Israel and the Republic of the Marshall Islands. Ms.
Wilson¿s representative intellectual property clients have included Research In Motion
Limited, Wham-O, Inc., Electronics for Imaging, Kaiser Permanente Medical Group, Wells
Fargo Bank, Adaptec, Inc., R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, Tanimura & Antle, Zowi.com,
Beverages & More!, Lawrence J. Chazen, Inc., Navis LLP and Regents of the University of
California.
Ms. Wilson recently stepped in to try the punitive damages phase of an employment case
where the jury had already awarded $11 million in compensatory damages against an
individual supervisor and his company. Representing the individual, Ms. Wilson was able to
convince the jury that substantial punitive damages were not warranted. The jury
returned a punitive damages verdict of $56 million against her client.
Ms. Wilson also represents companies in multi million and multi billion-dollar complex
consumer class actions. She has extensive experience challenging class certification and
winning class action lawsuits at the summary judgment stage. In addition, Ms. Wilson
helped lead Reynolds America to its first defense victory in California involving an
individual smoking case, where she tried complex medical issues specifically in the areas of
cardiology and pulmonology, Conley v. R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. and Phillip Morris Inc., No.
C-00-01740 SBA. She was also
DebKinney
DLK Law Group
Deb received her B.A. in Sociology from the University of California, Berkeley, and her J.D.
from the New College School of Law. She is a member of the California State Bar Trusts and
Estates Section and the Bar Association of San Francisco.
Deb serves on the Board of Directors at the Horizons Foundations and speaks regularly on current
issues affecting the LGBT community. Deb has been very active within the LGBT community,
volunteering with many local organizations and also she leads seminars regularly on estate
planning and legal rights for the LGBT community. She is a known resource for emerging issues
pertaining to the Domestic Partner Rights and Responsibilities Act, more commonly known as
AB205, and has lectured at many conferences including at Stanford University's Planned Giving
seminar, the Northern California Planned Giving Seminar, and the California Judges Annual
Conference.
Deb currently serves on the board of Horizons Foundation, a 25 year old LGBT community
foundation based in San Francisco and is serving as co-chair of the Planned Giving Committee.
Deb is a member of the Trust and Estate Section of the ABA, the California Bar Association, the
San Francisco Bar Association, Bay Area Lawyers for Individual Freedom and the Golden Gate
Business Association.
Frederick Hertz
Law Offices of Frederick Hertz
Frederick Hertz graduated from Boalt Hall in 1981, clerked with the Minnesota Supreme Court, and subsequently received a Master's Degree in Urban Geography from the University of California, Berkeley. Mr. Hertz currently practices real estate and non-traditional family law in Oakland, California, with a practice focusing on both the formation of property co-ownership agreements and the resolution of property and financial disputes between unmarried couples, both same-sex and opposite-sex. He provides both transaction and litigation counsel and also serves as a mediator and arbitrator in these states.
Mr. Hertz writes and speaks nationally on the laws affecting unmarried couples. He is the author of "Legal Affairs: Essential Advice for Same-Sex Couples" (Owl Books, 1998) and co-author of two Nolo Press Books: "A Legal Guide for Lesbian and Gay Couples" and "Living Together: A Legal Guide for Unmarried Couples." Mr. Hertz has appeared as a panelist for California COntinuing Education, Rutter Group, State Bar, and Bar Association of San Francisco programs. He has also appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show, the Today Show, All Things Considered and Talk of the Nation, and is often uoted in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Advocate, and other national publications.
ScottGraham
Editor-in-chief
The Recorder