Board Co-Chair, Angela Dalfen
Angela Dalfen has been on the Board of Pride Law Fund since February 2005. She is the Public Interest Adviser at Golden Gate University, where she develops pro bono opportunities and public interest programming for law students. Prior to joining Golden Gate University, she was a Staff Attorney at the National Employment Lawyers Association. Before moving to San Francisco, Ms. Dalfen worked as an attorney at Messing, Rudavsky & Weliky, P.C., a civil rights law firm in Boston, Massachusetts that represents plaintiffs in employment discrimination claims. She is a graduate of Northeastern University School of Law and McGill University.
Board Co-Chair, Michael Sporn
Michael H. Sporn moved from New York City to San Francisco California in 2003. Prior to his move, he sold his interest in a consulting/software company practicing in the area of Corporate Education where many of his clients included Benjamin Moore, BMW North America, JP Morgan Chase and Goldman Sachs. Additionally, he has been working in litigation support in San Francisco for the firm of U.S. Legal Support. Mr. Sporn is on the board of several San Francisco not for profits, including BALIF (the largest minority bar association in California, Pride Law Fund and ALRP (Aids Legal Referral Panel). Michael is also on the board of the Imagine Bus Project whose mission is to provide relief for inner city children through the use of Art and language. Prior board affiliations include GMHC (Gay Men’s Health Crisis), GLSEN (Teaching tolerance in schools) and the Human Rights Campaign. Michael is a graduate of St. Johns University where he received his degree in Marketing, Management and Philosophy.
Board Treasurer, Norman Carlin
Norman F. Carlin is a Partner at the law firm of Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP, where he practices environmental and land use law. He advises clients on environmental impact review for industrial, transportation and commercial development projects; compliance with regulatory requirements; and environmental aspects of business transactions. Prior to becoming an attorney, Mr. Carlin taught biology and entomology at Harvard University and authored the article on "Ants" in the 1993 edition of the World Book Encyclopedia. Mr. Carlin obtained his B.A., magna cum laude in 1979 at Bowdoin College, Ph.D. in Biology from Harvard University in 1986, and J.D., magna cum laude, from Harvard Law School in 1994. Mr. Carlin has been a member of Pride Law Fund since 1998 and has served as the Treasurer since 2000.
Board Secretary, Elizabeth Kristen
Elizabeth Kristen is a Staff Attorney at the Legal Aid Society-Employment Law Center. She represents workers who have experienced employment discrimination and speaks regularly to community groups about employment discrimination and leave laws. She has written articles on California’s new paid leave law and on other employment-related topics. Prior to becoming a Staff Attorney, Elizabeth was a Skadden Fellow at LAS-ELC. Her two year project aided low income workers with hidden disabilities. Elizabeth is a 2001 graduate of Boalt Hall School of Law who clerked for the Honorable James R. Browning on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. She has been a member of the Pride Law Fund Board since 2004.
Board Member, Kathryn Barry Bartow
Kathryn Bartow is an intellectual property litigation associate with Manatt Phelps & Phillips, LLP in Palo Alto, California. She handles complex litigation in copyright, trademark and trade dress infringement, dilution, unfair competition and false advertising cases. She received her J.D. from the University of California Berkeley, Boalt Hall in 2001, where she was Senior Notes and Comments Editor for the California Law Review and a staff member for the Berkeley Women's Law Journal. Ms. Bartow coauthored an article on the tort system in the Ohio State Law Journal and published a case note on sexual orientation discrimination in the Berkeley Women's Law Journal. She completed an internship in domestic violence law with Battered Women's Alternatives and a clerkship with the National Center for Lesbian Rights. Ms. Bartow received her B.A. in sociology from the University of California, Santa Barbara and she completed an M.A. in sociology at the Ohio State University. She is a member of the America Bar Association, the California Bar Association, and the Santa Clara County Bar Association. Ms. Bartow has been a member of the Pride Law Find since 2004.
Board Member, Stan Bissey
Stan Bissey is the Executive Director and CEO of the California Judges Association and the California Judges Foundation. CJA is the largest private professional association of active and retired bench officers in the country. Previously, Stan was the Assistant Executive Director at the San Francisco Medical Society – a county component of the California Medical Association and Membership Director for the National Employment Lawyers Association based in San Francisco. During 12 years living in Atlanta, Georgia, Stan worked for the Georgia Trial Lawyers Association as their membership and publications coordinator, the Georgia House of Representatives, the Georgia Conservancy – an environmental advocacy group and the Marietta Daily Journal and Neighbor Newspapers as Advertising Manager. Stan is a graduate of Idaho State University. He and his partner of 15 years, Adam Lovingood, an attorney with MTV networks, live in San Francisco and enjoy family, travel, food, wine, art and home.
Board Member, Daniel Brownstone
Daniel Brownstone is an attorney at Fenwick & West LLP's San Francisco, California office. With an emphasis on patent strategic counseling and prosecution, his practice also includes intellectual property due diligence and patent litigation. His background in computer science and economics gives him a unique perspective on patent strategy, and his practice emphasizes patent portfolio development based on identifying innovations that are economically strategic to the enterprise, as well as managing the creation of high-value patent assets. He received his law degree from Washington University in St. Louis and his undergraduate degree in Economics and Computer Science from Duke University. Prior to joining Fenwick & West LLP, he worked on the Constitutional Subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee, where he was an assistant to Sen. Russ Feingold. He is admitted to practice in California and before the USPTO. In addition to making numerous appearances before state and local patent bar organizations and in-house audiences, he is an adjunct professor at The University of California Hastings College of the Law. In his free time, he flies a Cessna 172.
Board Member, David Cover
David Cover is Senior Counsel for Chevron Corporation in San Ramon, CA in the Employment Law Practice Group of the Corporation Law Department. He received his B.A. and M.B.A. from the University of Kansas and his J.D. from the University of Denver. He is admitted to practice law in Colorado and California and before the United States Supreme Court.
Board Member, Chris Daley
Christopher Daley graduated from Boalt Hall School of Law in the spring of 2001. Upon graduation, he worked at the National Center for Lesbian Rights as Pride Law Fund's Tom Steel Fellow. While at NCLR, Mr. Daley created California's first direct services practice for transgender legal issues, the Transgender Law Project. In 2002, he was named an Echoing Green Fellow and became the Co-Director of the newly created Transgender Law Center. Since beginning his practice, he has provided legal assistance to hundreds of transgender clients, presented dozens of workshops and talks on transgender legal issues, participated in several public policy initiatives, written pamphlets and practice guides on transgender law, and assisted numerous attorneys in effectively representing transgender clients. In 2004, he was named to OUT Magazine’s OUT 100 list of lesbian and gay success stories for 2003. Mr. Daley has been a member of the Board of Directors for Pride Law Fund for one year.
Board Member, Mark Gorman
Mark Gorman is the Director of Mergers & Acquisitions for Cisco Systems, Inc. of San Jose, CA, where he has headed acquisition and investment related activities since 2003. Prior to joining Cisco, he was a partner in the New York and London offices of Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP. During eight years with Morgan Lewis, his practice focused on U.S. and international transactional matters, with a concentration in mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures and strategic investments. He previously served as assistant vice president and associate corporate counsel for The Continental Corporation, a New York Stock Exchange listed company, and as general counsel and secretary of Insurnet, Incorporated, a Continental subsidiary located in Emeryville, CA. His professional career began as an associate for five years in the New York office of Debevoise & Plimpton. He earned his JD from the University of Chicago Law School and his AB from Dartmouth College, and studied as an exchange student in the Masters in International Relations Program at the London School of Economics.
Board Member, Luna Han
Luna Han graduated from Brown University in 1997, after which she began pursuing a career in book publishing in editorial development. Currently she holds a position as senior acquisitions editor for a global scientific publisher. She also works as a volunteer for tutoring and mentoring young children and teens. Her extracurricular activities include hiking, biking, and multimedia arts, especially filmmaking. Among her film credits is a documentary selected for Frameline Film Festival profiling a queer Chicana woman who became chef/owner of a successful restaurant in Oakland. She is a producer with Berkeley Community Media and joined the Pride Law Fund board in 2008.
Board Member, David Lowe
David Lowe is a partner with the law firm of Rudy, Exelrod and Zieff, LLP, where he litigates individual and class action employment matters on behalf of employees. Mr. Lowe regularly speaks on employment law issues, including seminars sponsored by the Practicing Law Institute, the International Bar Association, Continuing Education of the Bar and other organizations. He has served as a contributing editor of the national Employment Discrimination Law treatise and has authored articles on stock options claims, whistle-blower claims under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and other employment law issues. Mr. Lowe is a member of the Labor and Employment Section of the State Bar of California, the EEO Committee of the American Bar Association, and the National Employment Lawyers Association and has served on the Board of Directors of the Berkeley Law Foundation (Chair, 1996-2000) and the Pride Law Fund (1999-present). He received his J.D. degree from the University of California at Berkeley (Boalt Hall) and B.A. degrees in English and Philosophy from Emory University, where he earned the University’s Humanitarian Award and was a member of Phi Beta Kappa.
Board Member, Jeffrey Spahn
Jeffrey Spahn graduated in May of 2004 from The University of San Francisco School of Law. He was admitted to the California Bar on Dec. 1, 2004. Mr. Spahn received his B.A. from Hamilton College in 1997, and his M.S. from Indiana University in 1997. He has also served as a board member for PRIDELAW, the USF student association. As a law student, he has clerked with the San Francisco City Attorney's Office, for SFUSD, for The Law Offices of Alma Soongi Beck, and for the Legal Aid Society-Employment Law Center. Mr. Spahn also founded and served as a board member for the USF Labor and Employment Law Student Association. He is currently a contract attorney and is pursuing a career in employment law.
Board Member, Sheryl Traum
Sheryl Traum is an A-V rated attorney and has been a civil litigation attorney for over 18 years, concentrating her efforts on complex business litigation, including contractual disputes, disputes arising out of large construction projects, real estate disputes, ADA issues, "toxic torts" (including mold cases), employment law and various types of products liability claims. After working at large firms for over 17 years, she started her own office, Law Offices of Sheryl Traum, in 2005, which is located in Oakland, California and serves clients all around the greater Bay Area and in Nevada. She has now expander her practice to include being an Arbitrator and Mediator, including being a panel member for American Arbitration Association. She received her undergraduate degree, Cum Laude, from Washington State University in 1984 while playing four years of Varsity Tennis and being the team captain for the last two years. She received her law degree from University of California, Hastings College of Law in 1988, and has taken extensive Mediator training at Pepperdine University and University of California at Berkeley. Ms. Traum has been on the Board of Directors for Pride Law fund for over 5 years, and is active in other local philanthropic organizations as well. Ms. Traum is admitted to practice law in both California and Nevada.
Board Member, Sherbeam Wright
Sherbeam Wright is a communications professional with fifteen years of experience developing strategic initiatives and driving communications programs for public and private enterprises. Industries include Internet, telecommunications, Web Analytics and non-profit health.
Ms. Wright spent more than seven years in the non-profit sector, serving as the Director of Communications for the American Lung Association of Santa Clara-San Benito Counties. As the Director, she was responsible for PR, advocacy, media relations and public affairs, among other services, for four years. She started her career providing community outreach services on behalf of the organization.
Sherbeam has developed and driven recognition and media programs, and supported the sales efforts of market-leading high tech companies such as Cable & Wireless, Exodus Communications and GlobalCenter, a Global Crossing company. She has extensive experience in Public and Media Relations, Customer Communications and Client Relationship development, and has worked with executives and middle management at enterprises such as NYMEX, Hallmark, WellPoint, Yahoo! and Merrill Lynch.
Specialties include Public Relations, Media Relations, Corporate Communications
Board Member, Jen-Mei Wu
Jen-Mei Wu is an organizer with CJWP and founder of Colorful Expressions, Inc., a company that provides Web development and IT services to non-profits and small businesses. She has worked with several non-profits as an organizer and consultant, including organizations that focus on health, education, low-income housing, and workers' rights. She is also on the board of the Bay Area Business Advisors' Consortium (BABAC). Jen-Mei has been a member of the Pride Law Fund board since 2006.
