PUTTING A CORE VALUE INTO PRACTICE

In our inaugural edition of Perspectives for 2006, we provide a survey of practical pieces of legal guidance, with Ed Willig’s top ten list of business advice vying with Lori Lutzker’s summary of business litigation issues for top billing of “need to know” legal items. Valerie Menager and Julie Lanz also provide practical information regarding such widely different topics as exempt employees to choosing a guardian. Our theme of practicality continues in the article about our firm’s combining legal scholarship with hands on assistance to our community. Carr McClellan’s recent contributions to our community range from spending a work day at Shelter Network’s Haven Family House to donating 67 computer workstations to schools in Menlo Park and East Palo Alto. However, these more visible contributions do not overshadow the impact our lawyers make behind the scenes by working diligently as leaders of numerous nonprofit boards and governmental committees. All of our attorneys contribute their time and talent to our community’s charitable, civic, religious and professional organizations, and only some of our lawyers’ efforts are highlighted.

No one of our attorneys exemplifies our firm’s commitment to combining practical but exceptional legal services with commitment to community involvement more than Norm Book. This February 1st, Norm celebrated his 40th anniversary with our firm. Norm’s four-decade career has seen him guide clients through complex high profile transactions and lead community organizations such as SAMCEDA and the Hillsborough Schools Foundation. We congratulate Norm on the achievement of this milestone in his career and thank him for his contributions to our firm and our community. We also celebrated on February 11th the 25th anniversary of the launching of Mike McQuaid’s legal career. As head of our Creditors’ Rights and Bankruptcy Group, Mike has guided clients though the maze of ever-changing bankruptcy laws.

For more than 60 years our firm’s dedication to providing practical but exception legal advice and service to our community has been one of our core values. Whether our lawyers have been practicing 40, 25 or 2 years they demonstrate their individual dedication to this core value every day.