JUNE 19, 2026 - SAN FRANCISCO, CA - Periodically, our committees publish opinion pieces and articles related to various holidays, local programs, and initiatives of relevance to Queen’s Bench Bar Association. Our Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (“DEIB”) chair Alexandra Sepolen shares reflections on Juneteenth and the holiday’s ties to the Bay Area and the legal profession.

Since June 19, 2021, Juneteenth National Independence Day has been recognized as a federal holiday. As we enter the fifth year of the holiday’s recognition, our committee is reminded that Juneteenth is both a celebration and a charge. While it celebrates the end of slavery in the United States, it also serves as a sobering reminder that justice is not self-executing. Rights written on paper do not enforce themselves, and freedom declared is not always freedom delivered. For lawyers, judges, and legal professionals, that distinction is not symbolic. It is central to our work.

 

Background and History

On June 19, 1865, Union Major General Gordon Granger issued General Order No. 3 in Galveston, Texas, informing the people of Texas that enslaved people were free. The date became known as Juneteenth, one of the oldest commemorations of the end of slavery in the United States. 

However, this announcement followed over two years of delay. President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, but emancipation depended on military victory, enforcement, and constitutional change. The Thirteenth Amendment was later passed by Congress on January 31, 1865, and ratified on December 6, 1865, formally abolishing slavery in the United States, except as punishment for crime where a person has been duly convicted.  

Juneteenth marks more than delayed news. It marks the failings associated with delayed enforcement, exposing the gap between legal promise and lived reality. To this day, that gap remains one of the defining concerns of the legal profession.

 

Bay Area’s Connection to Juneteenth

Juneteenth’s connection to the Bay Area is not incidental. It came here through migration. During the Second Great Migration, Black families left Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Mississippi, and other parts of the South through “liberty trains” in search of safety, work, dignity, and opportunity. The Bay Area became a major destination during World War II, when shipyards and defense industries transformed the region. According to the National Park Service, the Bay Area’s African American population rose from fewer than 20,000 in 1940 to more than 60,000 in 1945, with shipbuilding jobs serving as the primary driver of that migration.  

Migrants did not arrive empty-handed. They brought family recipes, church traditions, mutual aid networks, music, political consciousness, and memories of  emancipation delayed, rights denied, and freedom celebrated anyway. Movement to the Bay Area was not solely economic; it was relocation motivated by a desire for freedom.

For me, this history is personal. As a Louisiana Creole woman with family roots in Texas, Juneteenth is not an abstract federal holiday. It carries generations of family history and a broader story of Black families who moved west seeking safety, work, dignity, and a future. Families like mine brought Southern history with them. They brought food, language, faith, music, family networks, and a deep understanding that enduring and surviving in the face of uncertainty, violence, and conflict is an act of resistance.

When Black Southerners migrated west, they did not leave their history behind. They carried it here and helped build the Bay Area. San Francisco’s Juneteenth history particularly reflects that migration directly. In 1945, Wesley Johnson, a native Texan and San Francisco State alumnus, created what became one of the longest continuously running Juneteenth celebrations in the United States. He announced the celebration by riding a white stallion through the Fillmore District and inviting people to gather at his nightclub.  

That image is unforgettable: a Texan in San Francisco, riding through Fillmore with a call to action. the community together to remember freedom. It captures the Bay Area’s Juneteenth story in one scene. Juneteenth traveled from Galveston to San Francisco through Black families, workers, entrepreneurs, veterans, artists, church members, and community leaders. It took root in Fillmore, in Oakland, in Richmond, in Bayview-Hunters Point, and across the East Bay.

Bay Area Black history is also ingrained in Bay Area legal history. During World War II, Black workers helped build the wartime economy, but they did so while confronting segregation, employment discrimination, unsafe working conditions, housing exclusion, and unequal treatment under law. In 1944, an explosion at the Port Chicago Naval Magazine in Contra Costa County, now known as the Port Chicago disaster, killed 320 people. Many of those killed were Black sailors assigned to dangerous ammunition-loading work. After the disaster, Black sailors who refused to return to unsafe conditions were prosecuted. Fifty were convicted of mutiny. Decades later, on July 17, 2024, and shortly before Juneteenth, the Secretary of the Navy exonerated 256 defendants from the 1944 Port Chicago courts-martial after a review found significant legal errors, including improper joint trials and denial of a meaningful right to counsel.  

That is a Bay Area Juneteenth lesson in its starkest form: legal systems can perpetuate injustice, and legal advocacy can help correct it, but sometimes only after generations of harm.

 

How Juneteenth Informs Legal Practice

Juneteenth is deeply relevant to practicing law in the Bay Area. The holiday reminds us to examine whether our systems deliver what they promise and to act to correct course when it does not. It asks whether a right exists only in theory, or whether people can actually use it.

In criminal law, that question appears in challenges to racially biased policing, charging, conviction, and sentencing. California Penal Code section 745, also known as the California Racial Justice Act, provides that the state may not seek or obtain a conviction, or seek, obtain, or impose a sentence, on the basis of race, ethnicity, or national origin. It also allows courts to consider evidence including statistical evidence, aggregate data, expert testimony, and evidence of systemic and institutional bias, and provides that a defendant need not prove intentional discrimination.  

However, Juneteenth is not relevant only to criminal law. It is relevant to every practice area where the difference between formal rights and lived access matters.

• In housing, we evaluate whether families can remain in their communities. 
  
• In labor and employment law, we challenge whether a promise for work is real or performative. 
  
• In education, we consider whether children have equal access to safety, resources, and support. 
  
• In probate and estate planning, we evaluate whether families can protect and transfer generational wealth. 
  
• In immigration, it asks whether legal status and family unity are treated with humanity. 
  
• In family law, it asks whether clients can meaningfully obtain custody, support, and property orders without fear of violence.
  

As a family law attorney, this conceptualization in my practice is especially concrete. Freedom and equality are not abstractions for our clients navigating custody disputes, domestic violence, economic control, and support. A client’s ability to be heard may depend on whether they have counsel, whether they can afford filing fees, whether they have transportation, whether they are believed, whether trauma is understood, and whether the system recognizes the full context of their life. Juneteenth reminds us that legal rights mean little without access, enforcement, and dignity.

 

Impact on the Profession

Juneteenth also challenges the profession internally. The State Bar of California reported that Black adults are roughly 6 percent of California’s population but only 3.5 percent of California attorneys. People of color are 63 percent of the state’s adult population but only 36 percent of California’s active attorneys.  

The state’s justice gap is equally sobering. The State Bar’s 2024 Justice Gap Study found that Californians’ civil legal needs remain widespread and unmet, and that the supply of attorneys available to serve individual legal needs is insufficient to meet demand.  

Representation within the profession is not cosmetic. It affects trust, credibility, mentorship, judicial pipelines, client counseling, issue-spotting, and the public’s belief that the legal system belongs to everyone.

 

Calls to Action

For Queen’s Bench, Juneteenth also invites reflection on our own institutional history. Queen’s Bench Bar Association of the San Francisco Bay Area was formed in 1921 by women lawyers who were frustrated by resistance to their participation in the local bar association. Its history is rooted in the refusal to accept exclusion as normal.  An organization born from challenging exclusion has a particular obligation to recognize exclusion in all its forms. Gender equity cannot be separated from racial equity. The experiences of Black women lawyers, judges, litigants, students, clients, and community members must be centered and not treated as an afterthought to broader diversity work.

Our ethical obligations point in the same direction. California Rule of Professional Conduct 8.4.1 prohibits lawyers from unlawful harassment, discrimination, and retaliation in representing clients, refusing or terminating representation, and in law firm operations. But compliance is the floor. Juneteenth asks for more than compliance: it demands that community leaders, including our profession, practice courageously, confront institutional memory, and actively repair damage done.

For Bay Area lawyers, honoring Juneteenth can be practical. It can mean taking on pro bono work that expands access to housing, safety, benefits, family stability, and economic security. It can mean mentoring Black law students and young lawyers. It can mean supporting affinity bar associations and community organizations already doing important work related to racial justice and access to community resources. It can even mean something as simple as evaluating who receives opportunities in your firm, who gets credit for trial or hearing wins, who is interrupted in court, which witnesses we presume are credible, who is promoted, and who is missing from the room when decisions are made.

It can also mean learning local history well enough to understand that today’s legal problems are a product of institutional memory and history predating all of us. The Bay Area’s history of Black migration, labor, culture, displacement, resilience, and advocacy is interwoven into the fabric of the legal landscape we practice in every day.

Juneteenth is a day of joy, memory, and professional accountability. It reminds us that the law can announce freedom and still fail to deliver it. It reminds us that courts can ratify injustice and later be asked to repair it. It reminds us that communities carry memory long after institutions move on. As we move forward, let Juneteenth serve as reminder of our commitment to seizing the moment to advocate for ourselves and others, correct wrongs, and approach the work we do with dignity, empathy, and compassion for others.

All views expressed by the author and committee are their own and are not representative of the views of any firms or employers. None of the information in this article should be construed as legal advice.

The DEIB Committee is one of over ten active Queen’s Bench committees dedicated to promoting equality and opportunity for all. If you are interested in DEIB programming and initiatives, please contact deib@queensbench.org.

FEBRUARY 8, 2026 - NAPA, CA - Queen's Bench Second Vice President Alexandra Sepolen recently attended the 2026 Bay Area Women Lawyers' Network (BAWLN) Annual Retreat in Napa, joining women attorneys, judges, neutrals, and legal leaders from across Northern California for a weekend focused on leadership, professional development, wellness, and advancement of women in the legal profession.

The retreat featured a diverse lineup of MCLE programming addressing topics ranging from judicial independence and legal ethics to rainmaking, leadership development, civility, implicit bias, and the evolving role of artificial intelligence in legal practice. Attendees heard from distinguished jurists, law firm leaders, bar association representatives, and ADR professionals who shared insights drawn from decades of experience in the legal community.

Highlights included discussions on women in leadership roles, strategies for building successful practices, the importance of professional resilience, and navigating challenges unique to women in the legal profession. A panel of Bay Area legal trailblazers reflected on lessons learned throughout their careers, while judicial officers explored the role of professional responsibility and the preservation of judicial independence in today's legal environment.

The retreat also provided valuable opportunities for networking and relationship-building among attorneys from a wide range of practice areas and organizations throughout the Bay Area. Through both formal programming and informal gatherings, participants exchanged ideas, strengthened professional connections, and discussed ways to support and elevate women within the legal profession.

Reflecting on the experience, Sepolen noted that one of the retreat's greatest strengths was the opportunity to learn from accomplished women leaders across different sectors of the legal profession. "It was inspiring to hear candid conversations about leadership, resilience, and the challenges women continue to navigate in the legal profession," said Sepolen. "The retreat reinforced the importance of building strong professional networks, mentoring the next generation of attorneys, and creating spaces where women can openly share their experiences and strategies for success."

BAWLN serves as a collaborative network of women lawyers' organizations throughout the Bay Area and works to promote mentorship, leadership, professional development, and community among women attorneys. The annual retreat remains one of the organization's signature events, bringing together legal professionals committed to advancing excellence, inclusion, and leadership throughout the profession.

Queen's Bench was proud to be represented at the retreat and looks forward to continuing its collaboration with women lawyers' organizations throughout the Bay Area.

Queen’s Bench was proud to stand alongside community partners, advocates, and concerned San Franciscans at Monday’s rally calling for accountability for the reported abuse of women incarcerated in the San Francisco County Jail. Our presence reflects Queen’s Bench’s longstanding mission to promote equality, justice, and the full protection of legal rights for all women—including those whose voices are too often marginalized or silenced.

At the rally, speakers uplifted the experiences of incarcerated women, demanded transparency, and called for the suspension and removal of the deputies involved pending a full, independent investigation. Queen’s Bench members joined this collective call, affirming that dignity, bodily autonomy, and safety do not end at the jailhouse door.

We are grateful to our members who showed up, amplified the message, and continue to advocate for the rights and safety of all women in our community.

SAN FRANCISCO, CA - October 23, 2025 - The Queen’s Bench Bar Association hosted its inaugural annual Gala on October 8, 2025 at the picturesque Palace Hotel in San Francisco, California, celebrating both local judges and Queen’s Bench leadership in one memorable night.

Titled A Celebration of Leadership and Legacy, the Gala combined the Past Presidents’ and Judges’ Dinners into one elegant event celebrating and honoring the legacy passed down by the bar association's prior leaders and the inspiration drawn from the judges who serve our community. The evening also highlighted several Queen's Bench programs, including scholarship recipients, annual Merit Award honorees, and both a live and silent auction benefiting the Queen's Bench Foundation.

Attendees included neutrals and staff from our Premier Underwriter, Signature Resolution, as well as from our Supporting Underwriters: ADR Services, Inc., Feller Law Group, and Stross Wess Cutcher & Levin LLP. Our Gala sponsors also helped make the evening possible: Counsel Table Sponsor Trucker Huss; Sidebar Sponsors Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani, Horvitz & Levy, and Peiffer Wolf Carr Kane Conway & Wise; and Clerkship Sponsors the Law Offices of Lisa A. Villasenor, 2024 President Kara Wild, and the San Mateo County Bar Association Women Lawyers’ Section. We also extend our appreciation to our Past Presidents Circle contributors: Hon. Ina Levin Gyemant (Ret.), 1979 President; Hon. Adrienne Jacobs Miller (Ret.), 1987 President; Eliza Rodrigues, 2003 President; Kelly Robbins, 2008 President; and Kimiko Akiya, 2023 President.

After a cocktail reception, Queen’s Bench First Vice President and Gala Committee Vice-Chair Sara Craig opened the Gala dinner with welcome remarks, recognizing our sponsors as well as the judges, past presidents, and neutrals in attendance. In recognizing the work of Queen’s Bench past leadership, Sara emphasized “what connects us all: a shared belief in justice, equality, and the power of community.”

This year’s Keynote Speaker was Hon. Victoria Kolakowski, Judge of the Superior Court of Alameda County, who became the first openly transgender trial court judge when she was elected in 2010. Judge Kolakowski gave inspiring, and at times sobering, remarks about her experiences in the legal profession and the importance of protecting people of all gender identities.

Following the keynote, Sara presented the 2025 Queen’s Bench Merit Awards. The Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to Hon. Charlene Padovani Kiesselbach (Ret.), 1986 President; the Service Award to Hon. Dorothy Chou Proudfoot of the San Francisco Rent Board; and the Rookie Award to Veena Bansal.

After the Merit Award recipients were recognized, Queen’s Bench President Elisha Jussen-Cooke presented the Past President’s Hat to 2024 Past President Kara Wild. 

Kara then introduced the Scholarships Committee members in attendance, Hon. Adrienne Jacobs Miller (Ret.), 1987 President and Hon. Ina Levin Gyemant (Ret.). Judge Miller presented the 2025 Agnes O’Brien Scholarship Recipients, Kasen Evans and Esbeidy Gutierrez, both members of the University of San Francisco School of Law Class of 2027. Judge Gyemant presented the 2025 Mildred W. Levin Scholarship Recipient, Jaqueline Mejía-Cuéllar, a 2025 graduate of UC Law San Francisco.

The night concluded with an animated live auction supporting the Queen’s Bench Foundation, conducted by Queen’s Bench Secretary and Gala Committee Co-Chair Juliane Smith. Live auction items included a night at the SF Symphony with Judge Gyemant; a tour and private tasting for four at Raymond Vineyards in Napa, with a magnum bottle of 2004 Raymond St. Helena Cabernet Sauvignon; and two tickets to a San Francisco Ballet 2026 Repertory Season performance. The Gala also featured a silent auction with a variety of items, from wine tastings to garden memberships, generously bid on by attendees.

SAN FRANCISCO, CA - July 24, 2025 - See below from the LinkedIn page of Hersh Family Law Practice, P.C.:

"We're proud to announce that Holly Schaitberger (Queen's Bench 2018 Past President) has been admitted as a Fellow of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers (AAML), an honor reserved for the nation's top family law practitioners. We are pleased that Holly's years of experience, sharp legal mind, and deep commitment to excellence have been recognized and rewarded."

Queen's Bench is thrilled to congratulate Schaitberger for her admission into AAML!

SAN FRANCISCO, CA - July 13, 2025 - Queen's Bench Bar Association formally announces that our 2025 Keynote Address will be given by Alameda County Superior Court Judge Victoria Kolakowski at the Queen's Bench Gala on October 8, 2025, in San Francisco, California.

Each year, Queen's Bench hosts an annual keynote address at our penultimate event of the calendar year, inviting our members and local community to learn from and engage with prominent attorneys, legislators, and legal scholars in the United States on contemporary topics and issues of special concern related to the mission, history, and/or goals of Queen's Bench Bar Association. Prior keynote speakers include legal scholar Mary Ziegler, the Honorable Lucy Koh of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, former California Supreme Court Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye, and the late United States Senator Dianne Feinstein.

Judge Victoria Kolakowski became the first openly transgender trial court judge when she was elected in 2010 in Alameda County. She became the first openly transgender administrative law judge (ALJ) in 2006.

Before becoming a trial court judge, she was an attorney for twenty-one years in Louisiana and California, serving as a sole practitioner, attorney in a small patent boutique firm, patent & licensing counsel for a publicly traded company, patent & general counsel of a different publicly traded company, senior state government utility regulatory attorney, and ALJ for two different California agencies: the California Department of Insurance and California Public Utilities Commission.

She is passionate about ensuring and expanding access to justice, particularly for those with limited resources.  She serves on the Judicial Council of California’s Advisory Committee on Providing Access and Fairness and is the California Council of Churches' appointee to the California Access to Justice Commission.

Judge Kolakowski is a former president of the International Association of LGBTQ+ Judges (2015-2017). She has spoken widely on LGBT issues, especially transgender legal issues, to audiences in the U.S. and around the world, addressing audiences either in person or virtually in eight U.S. states, the District of Columbia, and nine other countries (Brazil, Canada, Colombia, England, France, India, Ireland, Israel, and Poland), often through the U.S. State Department’s U.S. Speakers Program.

She is a leading educator for the judiciary and the legal community on transgender issues. An adjunct professor at the University of San Francisco School of Law, she will teach her class, “Equality and Religious Freedom,” for the third time next spring. This seminar examines the intersection of religious freedom and equality rights, a topic on which she has been published by both the American Bar Association and USF Law Review.

Judge Kolakowski is especially proud to have been honored as a “Pioneer in the Law” by the California Women Lawyers in 2014 and to have been named the 2019 California Legislative Women's Caucus' “Woman of the Year - 18th Assembly District.”

She received the American Bar Association’s Stonewall Award in 2025.

Judge Kolakowski is completing a two-year term as Co-Director of District 14 (California/Nevada) for the National Association of Women Judges, for which she chaired the LGBTQ+ Committee, Committee on Fairness and Access, and Diversity &  Inclusion Committee.

Before becoming a judge, she co-authored the City of Berkeley’s public domestic partnership registry ordinance, was a founding officer ofEquality California (formerly California Alliance for Pride and Equality), was on the board of the Bay Area Lawyers for Individual Freedom(SF Bay Area’s LGBT Bar Association) and served as co-chair of the board of the Transgender Law Center

Queen's Bench extends sincere appreciation to Judge Kolakowski and the 2025 Gala Committee co-chairs, Sara Craig and Juliane Smith, for organizing this year's Keynote Address.

SAN FRANCISCO, CA - July 13, 2025 - This press release was prepared by 2025 President, Elisha Jussen Cooke.

Queen’s Bench Bar Association is proud to support two important advocacy efforts led by the Family Violence Appellate Project (FVAP) to strengthen legal protections for survivors of domestic violence.

First, Queen’s Bench signed on to FVAP’s letter supporting a proposed amendment to Rule 7.3 of the California Rules of Professional Conduct, which would prohibit attorneys from soliciting respondents in domestic violence restraining order (DVRO) cases before they have been served. Survivors often face the greatest risk of harm immediately after leaving an abusive relationship. Pre-service solicitation of restraining order respondents has led to service evasion and to survivors abandoning their restraining order requests because of a respondent’s coercion or intimidation—all of which compromise survivor safety and access to courts. The proposed amendment aligns with established public policy and ensures survivor safety is prioritized without compromising due process for respondents.

Queen’s Bench also joined FVAP in requesting publication of the appellate decision in D.V. v. Mohamed M.—an important and precedent-worthy case affirming a trial court’s issuance of a DVRO, dismissal of contempt charges, and award of sole custody to the survivor. The decision addresses several novel and underdeveloped areas of law, including:

• The standard for contempt charges for purported violations of a Temporary Restraining Order in the Domestic Violence Restraining Order (DVRO) context
• The statutory defense of coercion under Penal Code § 236.24(a)
• Use of expert testimony in DVRO cases 
• Admissibility of secretly recorded conversations under Penal Code § 633.6
• Recognition of immigration-related abuse as domestic violence

Together, these efforts reflect FVAP’s and Queen’s Bench’s shared commitment to advancing gender equity, improving access to justice, and building a trauma-informed legal system that empower survivors and protect their rights.

To learn more about FVAP’s work, visit www.fvaplaw.org.

SAN FRANCISCO, CA - July 2, 2025

This press release is published on behalf of 2025 President, Elisha Jussen Cooke. 

Queen’s Bench is proud to congratulate board members Catherine Reagan, Alexandra Sepolen, and Linda Anderson on being named 2025 Super Lawyers Rising Stars in Northern California!

This distinction is awarded to just 2.5% of early-career attorneys through a rigorous selection process that includes peer nominations, independent research, and attorney evaluations. It’s a testament to their excellence in practice, commitment to justice, and leadership in the legal community.

For more than a century, Queen’s Bench has championed the advancement of women in law and promoted equality, professional excellence, and community service. We’re honored to have these three outstanding attorneys carry that legacy forward through their work on our board and in the wider legal community.

Congratulations, Rising Stars!

SAN FRANCISCO, CA - July 8, 2025 - On July 8, 2025, the Queen's Bench Board of Directors met for its monthly Board meeting to review and discuss various Queen's Bench initiatives.

The Board unanimously voted to rebrand the Employment/Work-Life Balance Committee as the Wellness Committee. The committee provides information and hosts events related to balancing a legal career with personal and/or family obligations. Historically, the committee supports programs and initiatives covering topics such as family or medical leave, parental leave, resources for remote work, retirement planning, childcare, workplace accommodations, and mental health and wellness.

The rebranding of this committee coincides with recent recommendations at the statewide and national level to promote the well-being of legal professionals. Recent initatives include the the State Bar of California's Lawyer Assistance Program and MCLE promoting wellness as a critical component of attorney competence. The change also aligns with recent publications by the California Lawyers Association and the American Bar Association.

The Board also unanimously voted to welcome two new co-chairs: Kara Wild and Alexandra Sepolen.

• Kara Wild is our Immediate Past President and current President of the Queen's Bench Foundation. Wild has maintained a strong, long-standing presence in Queen's Bench leadership for several years, supporting various initiatives and projects that support the well-being of members and the Greater Bay Area community.

• Alexandra Sepolen sits on the Board of Directors, participating in various Queen's Bench programs since her time as a law student. Prior to practicing law, Sepolen worked in public health and served on various task forces related to attorney and law student wellness.

Members interested in joining the Wellness Committee may email Catherine Reagan, our Membership Chair, at membership@queensbench.org, or the Wellness Chairs directly at wellness@queensbench.org.

SAN JOSE, CA - June 27, 2025 - On June 26, 2025, members of Queen's Bench leadership hosted South Bay members at the Littlest Little Italy in San Jose for a fun afternoon and evening of networking at our South Bay Summer Mixer. The event marks the return of our summer mixers after a programming hiatus in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Board members Alexandra Sepolen and Stephanie Smeekens and Civil and Judicial Appointments Committee Co-Chair Veena Bansal welcomed attendees, including new members and representatives from the bar association's Supporting Underwriter, ADR Services, Inc..

Attendees discussed several important topics as a larger group, including recent developments in judicial appointments throughout the Bay Area, including Santa Clara County Superior Court, the history of Queen's Bench and its Foundation, and opportunities to join committees and attend upcoming events such as the Queen's Bench Gala.

The event also served as a successful business development opportunity, enabling attorneys working in family law and immigration law, as well as in-house and in IP/entertainment, to build business contacts. Law students also attended the event, gaining exposure to new practice areas and useful feedback for their summer internship programs.

Queen's Bench Bar Association looks forward to continuing our Summer Mixer series, including an East Bay Summer Mixer that is tentatively scheduled for August 2025.