Daily Journal Praises Herrera for Putting ‘San Francisco on the Leading Edge of Progressive City Attorney Offices in the State, if Not the Nation’
City Attorney Dennis Herrera and his chief deputy, Therese M. Stewart, were named among California’s “Top 100 Lawyers” in today’s statewide “EXTRA” supplement of the Daily Journal, the state’s largest-circulation legal publication with daily editions published in both Los Angeles and San Francisco. Reflecting votes from some 1,500 members of the nearly 150,000 active members of the state bar, the publication observed of this year’s honors that “no issue captured the community more than gay marriage.”
The “Top 100 Lawyers” sampled voter comments for the each of the winners, heaping particular praise on Herrera in quoting: “He has put San Francisco on the leading edge of progressive city attorney offices in the state, if not the nation.”
The report also made note of Herrera’s political courage in embracing the fight for marriage equality, filing the first government litigation in American history to challenge the constitutionality of marriage laws that discriminate against gay and lesbian couples: “He probably ruined any chance of being elected attorney general when he let the mayor marry same-sex couples in San Francisco. But the decision put him out front on a national debate unlikely to end soon. The former maritime lawyer also wrung $43 million out of a North Carolina energy company that failed to complete a San Francisco school project, proving his wide impact.”
Also named to this year’s “Top 100 Lawyers” was Chief Deputy City Attorney Terry Stewart, a former president of the Bar Association of San Francisco whom Herrera recruited from her senior partnership at a prestigious downtown law firm to become the city’s highest-ranking LGBT legal official.
Of Stewart, the Daily Journal wrote: “The former litigation partner at Howard, Rice, Nemerovski, Canady, Falk & Rabkin is the standout advocate in the city’s legal attempts to allow same-sex marriages,” adding, “She managed to lower the political temperature and raise real issues.”
To learn more about the San Francisco City Attorney’s Office, visit https://www.sfgov.org/city_attorney.