Busy S.F. corporate lawyer prizes his volunteer work
Harriet Chiang, Chronicle Legal Affairs Writer
Tuesday, May 27, 2003
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2003/0...
When Joshua Ridless was in high school, all he wanted to do after school was play lacrosse and hang out with his pals. But his father pushed him into spending his afternoons helping disadvantaged kids with math and science.
To his surprise, Ridless liked it.
"It was incredibly rewarding," he said, recalling how he was able to see beyond his cozy suburban Connecticut neighborhood. "Just being able to see kids learn with your help."
Today, Ridless, 32, is a San Francisco lawyer with a steady corporate practice, representing small and midsize firms in all types of transactions.
But he also makes time to help -- at no charge -- the Booker T. Washington Community Service Center, a group in San Francisco's Western Addition and the oldest African American nonprofit in the Bay Area.
He became one of the center's pro bono lawyers a few months ago through a San Francisco Bar Association program that hooks up business lawyers with nonprofit groups.
"I wanted to work for a nonprofit that I'm going to be involved with," he said from his office, which is in an elegant Victorian building just 12 blocks from the center. "I want to go to every board meeting."
Ridless is part of a generation of new lawyers that has placed a priority on giving back to the community, doing pro bono work at a time when nonprofit organizations are financially stretched thin.
When he was a student at Berkeley's Boalt Hall School of Law, Ridless recalled how the school encouraged students to help out poor and underprivileged people who would never be able to afford to hire them.
But Ridless had been doing pro bono work long before he got his license to practice law in 1997, assisting poor families in New York who were facing eviction.
His father, who was in the garment industry, was a straight-ticket Democrat who voted for
John F. Kennedy and Jimmy Carter, and opposed the Vietnam War; he was one of few liberals in a small, conservative town. He also was deeply committed to civil rights and instilled in his five sons a strong sense of community service. "You're very fortunate," he would say when nudging his children to do community work. "You should do this."
When he got accepted at UC Berkeley, Ridless remembered how excited his father was that his youngest son was heading to the heart of the Free Speech Movement.
After earning his law degree in 1997, Ridless spent a few years at a small firm before striking out on his own three years ago. Having inherited his father's business savvy and analytical mind, Ridless has built a steady practice representing technology companies, online marketing firms and hospitality enterprises.
In fact, the young attorney is busier than he was two years ago, fielding a surge of calls from businesses that can no longer afford the hefty rates of a senior partner at a big law firm. But he places just as high a priority on his work at the center, where he carries on the values of his father, who died three years ago.
"I look at my dad as my conscience," Ridless said. "I definitely hear his thoughts. I think he'd be ecstatic with what I'm doing now."
E-mail Harriet Chiang at hchiang@sfchronicle.com.
This article appeared on page A - 15 of the San Francisco Chronicle
For more information contact:
Joshua Ridless
(415) 614-2600
http://www.ridlesslaw.com
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Busy S.F. corporate lawyer prizes his volunteer work, San Francisco Chronicle, May 27, 2003:
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http://www.digmypage.com/san-francisco-business-commercial-law
VLSP Cycling Challenge:
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