The Queen's Bench Foundation is the charitable sister organization of the Queen's Bench Bar Association. Founded in 1974 by eight Queen's Bench members remembered as the "Great Eight," the Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that carries the association's mission into research, education, and community service — from its landmark victim-centered rape research of the 1970s to today's charitable and educational programs. The Foundation Board welcomes your questions at the addresses below, or through the association office at admin@queensbench.org.
Officers
Elisha Jussen Cooke
Attorney, Cooperative Restraining Order Clinic, San Francisco
Elisha Jussen Cooke has built her career in nonprofit legal services. As an attorney at the Cooperative Restraining Order Clinic, a San Francisco nonprofit providing free legal help to survivors, she represents survivors of domestic violence, stalking, and sexual assault at no cost to them, and she leads the clinic's Marsy Project.
Her service reaches beyond her caseload: she has helped lead trauma-informed, survivor-centered trainings for the legal community, conducted research on gender-based violence as a fellow at Haramaya University in Ethiopia, and served early in her career in the King County Prosecuting Attorney's Special Assault Unit and the Alameda County District Attorney's Domestic Violence Unit.
She served as Queen's Bench President in 2025 and co-chairs the association's Domestic Violence Committee. She earned her J.D. from the University of Washington School of Law.
Honors: Queen's Bench Service Award (2021).
Juliane Smith
Founding Attorney, Wordsmith Law, San Francisco
Juliane Smith's service to the community began before she was a lawyer. In law school she counseled local nonprofit boards on formation, governance, and charitable compliance through the University of Virginia's Nonprofit Clinic, and she served in the Virginia Attorney General's Office as a Robert F. Kennedy Public Service Fellow — experience in nonprofit stewardship she now brings to the Foundation as its Treasurer.
She has volunteered with free legal-answers clinics for people who cannot afford counsel and as a judge for law student oral arguments, and since 2025 she has served the public and the profession on the State Bar of California's Committee of Bar Examiners, appointed by the Supreme Court of California. Within Queen's Bench, she serves as Treasurer and co-chairs the Amicus Briefs Committee and the annual Gala.
She is the founding attorney of Wordsmith Law in San Francisco and earned her J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law and her B.A., summa cum laude, from George Mason University.
Honors: Appointed to the State Bar of California's Committee of Bar Examiners (2025–2029).
Directors
Alexandra Sepolen
Associate Attorney, Stross Wess Cutcher & Levin LLP, San Mateo
Alexandra Sepolen's community service has centered for more than a decade on reproductive justice, economic empowerment, and health access for women, children, and families. As an undergraduate at Brown, she volunteered as a sexual and reproductive health peer advisor, bringing speakers and community partners to campus for workshops on reproductive justice, and she went on to found Health Equity for Black Lives, a New York City coalition confronting health inequities facing Black communities through grassroots organizing, policy reform, and partnerships with local clinics and hospitals.
That commitment carried into her legal career. As a law student she advised women and entrepreneurs of color building startups and small businesses through Santa Clara University's entrepreneurship law clinics, and as an attorney she has volunteered with the AIDS Legal Referral Panel, assisting clients before the Office of Administrative Hearings, and has helped Spanish-speaking clients with asylum applications, eviction defense, health insurance enrollment, and other civil matters.
Within Queen's Bench, she chairs the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging Committee, co-chairs the Mentorship Committee, and serves as the association's Second Vice President. A family law associate at Stross Wess Cutcher & Levin LLP, she holds a J.D. from Santa Clara University School of Law, an M.P.H. from Columbia University, and an A.B. from Brown University.
Honors: Minority Bar Coalition Unity Award (2025); Queen's Bench Rookie Award (2022); American Law Institute Leadership & Scholarship Award (2021).
Andrea Russi
Deputy County Counsel, Contra Costa County Counsel's Office
Andrea Russi has devoted most of her career to public service. For nearly eight years she was a federal prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney's Office in Los Angeles, where she focused on child exploitation cases, argued more than twenty appeals before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, and led monthly moot courts to prepare fellow prosecutors for argument. She continues in public service today as an appellate attorney in the Contra Costa County Counsel's Office.
Between those chapters she led the Berkeley Center for Criminal Justice at UC Berkeley School of Law, serving as its Associate Director and then Executive Director and guiding the center's research and policy work on criminal justice. A dedicated teacher of the next generation of advocates, she has taught appellate advocacy, advanced legal writing, and criminal procedure as a lecturer at Berkeley Law and USC Gould School of Law, and she is a frequent speaker on panels addressing diversity and gender issues in the profession. She served on the Queen's Bench Board of Directors in 2024 before joining the Foundation board.
Earlier she practiced at Latham & Watkins, served as Senior Counsel at the appellate firm Horvitz & Levy, and clerked for Judge William D. Keller of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California and Judge David R. Thompson of the Ninth Circuit. She was Editor-in-Chief of the UCLA Law Review and earned her J.D. from UCLA School of Law and her B.A. from UC Berkeley.
Jaime Touchstone
Partner, Futterman Dupree Dodd Croley Maier LLP, San Francisco
Jaime Touchstone has spent two decades advancing the rights of women and girls in the Bay Area and beyond. She serves on the board of directors and executive committee of IANGEL, the International Action Network for Gender Equity & Law, which connects pro bono legal talent with the cause of gender equity locally, nationally, and internationally.
Through the Bar Association of San Francisco she has been a leader in the Women's Impact Network and was integral in proposing and planning BASF's inaugural Board Balance Conference, which trains and encourages women to serve on for-profit and nonprofit boards. She previously served on the Board of Directors of the San Francisco Barristers Club, where she helped create its Pro Bono Resource Guides connecting Bay Area lawyers with volunteer opportunities.
A past President of both Queen's Bench (2015) and the Queen's Bench Foundation (2016), she practices employment and complex commercial litigation as a partner at Futterman Dupree Dodd Croley Maier LLP and earned her J.D. from the University of San Francisco School of Law.
Honors: Bar Association of San Francisco Barrister of the Year (2009).
Carol Salvagione
Partner & Certified Family Law Specialist, Hedani, Choy, Spalding & Salvagione, LLP, San Francisco
Carol Salvagione's community service centers on the wellbeing of young people, particularly those touched by the justice system. She serves as a Commissioner on the San Francisco Juvenile Justice Commission, which oversees the administration of juvenile justice and the conditions of youth in the City's care.
A trained mediator and collaborative practitioner, she has devoted much of her professional service to making family disputes less adversarial for the families and children who live through them, as a Fellow of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers and a member of the International Academy of Collaborative Professionals and Collaborative Practice San Francisco. She chaired the Bar Association of San Francisco's Family Law Section and is a longtime member of California Women Lawyers.
A past President of both Queen's Bench (2004) and the Queen's Bench Foundation (2005), she served on the association's board from 2001–2004 and 2015–2017. A Certified Family Law Specialist, she is a partner at Hedani, Choy, Spalding & Salvagione, LLP and earned her J.D. from McGeorge School of Law.
Honors: Fellow, American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers.
Kara Wild
Partner, Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith LLP, Walnut Creek
Kara Wild pairs a busy litigation practice with hands-on volunteer service. She has taken on pro bono eviction-defense work for tenants facing the loss of their homes and has given her time to community governance through service on a homeowners association board of directors.
A past President of both Queen's Bench (2024) and the Queen's Bench Foundation (2025), she also served as the association's First Vice President and has been a steady supporter of its programming and annual Gala. She continues that leadership through her service on the Foundation board.
She is a partner in the Walnut Creek office of Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith LLP, where she practices construction and general liability litigation.
Honors: Northern California Super Lawyers (2025).
Clarissa Kang
Director, Trucker Huss, APC, San Francisco
Clarissa Kang's service to the profession has long emphasized opening doors. In 2015 the Minority Bar Coalition honored her with its Unity Award for promoting diversity and inclusion in the legal profession, and she has been a longtime leader in bar and professional organizations, including as a Co-Chair of the American Bar Association Employee Benefits Committee's 2024 Midwinter Meeting.
Her Queen's Bench roots run deep: she has served the association over many years as a board member and officer, and she continues that commitment as a Director of the Foundation.
A Director at the San Francisco employee benefits firm Trucker Huss, APC, she is a Fellow of the American College of Employee Benefits Counsel, among the highest recognitions for an ERISA attorney. She earned her A.B. from Harvard University and her J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law.
Honors: Minority Bar Coalition Unity Award (2015); Fellow, American College of Employee Benefits Counsel.
Support the Foundation
The Queen's Bench Foundation is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization, and contributions are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law. Gifts sustain the Foundation's charitable, educational, and community service work — the same tradition of service reflected in the board members above. To make a donation, explore a sponsorship, or volunteer with a Foundation project, write to admin@queensbench.org.
Biographies are drawn from members' firm, employer, and public professional profiles and from information provided by the members, with an emphasis on charitable and community service, and are current as of July 2026. Titles, affiliations, and honors are subject to change; corrections may be sent to admin@queensbench.org.