Giving Back

We look outward toward serving our communities and generating opportunity through volunteerism. Like the entities we serve, we are committed to public service, and we understand that legal decisions have impacts beyond the courtrooms and offices where they are made. 

Our core values reflect not just how we do business, but why—for the public good.  Meyers Nave maintains a firmwide policy and actively provides legal services pro bono as a way to make meaningful, significant contributions to the communities in which we work and live.  In order to encourage our attorneys to provide pro bono services, their work is counted as billable hours. The firm has an established Pro Bono Committee, which seeks to partner with nonprofit and community service organizations to provide much needed legal services.

Volunteer Legal Services

Meyers Nave's attorneys are actively involved in the Volunteer Legal Services Corporation (VLSC), a tax-exempt charitable organization and arm of the Alameda County Bar Association, supporting low-income Alameda County residents with essential legal advice. 

  • The firm’s initial engagement with the VLSC began with the Guardianship Clinic, which helps adults become legal guardians of  children they care for.  By becoming legal guardians, they can provide children with educational and medical services without the consent of an absent parent.  These guardianships also protect children from being taken from a stable environment and placed with unstable parents who cannot adequately care for them.

  • In 2010, Meyers Nave became a founding member of the VLSC’s Guardians of Justice campaign.  Along with other law firms in Alameda County, we support the VLSC to bridge the justice gap in our community.  The VLSC provides free direct legal assistance to Alameda County's low-income population by mobilizing volunteer attorneys to provide pro bono service. The goals of Guardians of Justice campaign are to:

    • Sustain and enhance programs including pro per assistance clinics and pro bono referrals;

    • Continue to serve over 700 existing low-income and poor clients, as well as, increase the number of free legal programs to serve more clients; and

    • Respond to emerging social issues that impact our community such as the current housing and foreclosure crisis.

  • Neli Palma, an associate in our eminent domain and inverse condemnation practice group, serves as a member of the VLSC's Board of Directors.

  • Mike Hughes, one of Meyers Nave’s labor and employment law attorneys, has represented pro bono clients in asylum proceedings and family-law matters. Mike is an active volunteer for the Volunteer Legal Services programs of both the Bar Association of San Francisco and the Alameda County Bar Association.

  • Jen Faught, an associate in our public law practice group, also participated in the VLSC’s free legal clinics at the Oakland Main Library.

McCullum Youth Court

Several years ago, a former principal was instrumental in introducing the firm to the beneficial work provided by the McCullum Youth Court (MYC).  We have continued in this tradition of involvement and participation with the MYC and currently, Oakland principal, Claudia Gorham, serves on the MYC Board of Directors.

The mission of the MYC is to enable all youth to realize more fully their potential by offering youth offenders a second chance through restorative justice, peer accountability, and empowering opportunities. McCullum Youth Court engages all youth -- especially those at risk for entering the juvenile justice system -- in expansive experiences related to law and justice with the aim of changing young lives and impacting communities towards a better present day. 

Based in Oakland, MYC was founded in 1994 to fill a gap in services for youth at risk for incarceration by providing early intervention and diverting first time youth offenders from the traditional juvenile justice system. Today, the agency reaches 3,000 youth and families each year, including 300 youth offenders. Using a peer justice model for youth offenders, and providing law and justice related experiential programming for middle and high school students, MYC is in a dynamic period of strategic growth. 

The firm has provided its office space in Oakland as well as office supplies and materials for MYC activities. In 2009, Claudia Gorham, Kimberly Drake, Samantha Zutler, Inga Lintvedt and Matthew Lavrinets participated in the MYC activities.           

The Living Room

Members of Meyers Nave’s Santa Rosa Office have supported and provided pro bono legal services to The Living Room for several years. The Living Room is a nonprofit organization that serves homeless and at-risk women and their children in the Sonoma County area by providing food, clothing and support services. The organization seeks to improve the quality of life in all areas of the human experience -- mind, body, and spirit -- for this at-risk population.  Associate attorney, Nancy Thorington, and legal secretary, Lois Hopkins, serve as board members. In addition, Nancy volunteered almost 50 hours last year.  

Davis Street Family Resource Center

In 2009, Steve Meyers and Robin Donoghue provided pro bono services to the Davis Street Family Youth Center (DSFRC) in San Leandro. The mission of the DSFRC is to assist low-income residents of the Eden area and its surrounding communities to help improve their quality of life through short and long-term assistance. 

Other Pro Bono Legal Services

Samantha Zutler, a labor and employment attorney in the firm’s Oakland Office, stays active in her community by providing pro bono legal services to La Cocina, a small business incubator located in San Francisco. 

A Principal in our San Francisco Office, Richard Pio Roda, provides pro bono services related to public contracts to The San Francisco Child Abuse Prevention Center and the Ella Hill Hutch Community Center in San Francisco in labor and employment matters. 

Charitable Donations

Below is a list of other non-profit organizations the firm supports or has assisted in past.

  • Alameda Free Library Foundation

  • Alameda County Community Food Bank

  • Associated Community Action Program of Alameda County

  • Bay Planning Foundation

  • Calexico Community Action Council

  • California Association of Geologic Hazard Abatement Districts

  • California Urban Water Agencies

  • Catholic Healthcare West

  • Central Valley Clean Water Association

  • Chabot Space & Science Center Foundation

  • Children's Community Center, Inc.

  • Childrens’ Network of Solano County

  • East Bay Zoological Society

  • Fire District Association of California

  • Friends of the San Leandro Creek

  • Holiday Toy Drives organized by police and fire department in various communities

  • Human Resources Council

  • Los Angeles Regional Foodbank

  • Thurgood Marshall Early Head Start

  • United Filipinos of Alameda

  • US-China Peoples Friendship Association

  • Wardrobe for Opportunity

  • Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA)