San Francisco School of the Arts, a public high school in San Francisco, won the San Francisco City Mock Trial Championship after three preliminary rounds of competition and a very close, hard-fought final round against Balboa High School.  The students have been preparing for the competition since October of 2010.  Coblentz attorneys Clifford Yin and Eleanor Hicks, along with staff member Raz Yekrang and a number of dedicated attorney-coaches from other firms, have provided hours of coaching and guidance.  Yin has been coaching high school students in the mock trial program for over sixteen years.  The team will now move on to the State Championship which takes place at the end of March, in Riverside.  Many students said that competing as a member of the team was one of the best experiences of their lives.

As part of this diversity pipeline program sponsored by the Bar Association of San Francisco and the Constitutional Rights Foundation, students serve as attorneys and witnesses in a simulated criminal trial.  Students prepare opening and closing statements, conduct direct and cross-examinations, and make and respond to objections.  This year’s trial included a pre-trial motion to exclude one of the criminal charges on the basis that the applicable statute violated the First Amendment of the United States Constitution.

Clifford Yin specializes in complex commercial litigation, with an emphasis on real estate litigation. Eleanor Hicks practices general corporate and securities law.

Danna Kozerski was among the top Bay Area real estate leaders whose market predictions for 2011 appeared in The Registry’s January 2011 issue.

Click here to view the article.

Coblentz is listed as one of the top three Best Trusts & Estates Firms in The Recorder’s “The Best of 2010.”  Click here to view PDF.

Paul Escobosa and Eleanor Hicks advised Treadwell & Rollo in its acquisition by Langan Engineering & Environmental Services in deal that closed on November 1, 2010.

Treadwell & Rollo is a consulting firm that specializes in environmental, geotechnical and earthquake related engineering solutions. Coblentz and Treadwell & Rollo have shared many client projects over a 25-year span such as AT&T Ballpark, Mission Bay, Presidio of San Francisco and many others.

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 10, 2010 – Coblentz, Patch, Duffy & Bass LLP Partner Pamela Duffy has been selected as the 2011 San Francisco Land Use & Zoning Lawyer of the Year by Best Lawyers, the oldest and most respected peer-reviewed publication in the legal profession.  This is the second consecutive year Duffy has received the “Lawyer of the Year” honor, which is awarded to a single lawyer in 16 high-profile legal specialties.  She has been recognized by Best Lawyers since 1995.

Duffy’s practice is focused on commercial real estate, land use and development, with a special emphasis on large public and private entity transactions.  She has played an active role in some of the Bay Area’s largest development projects and real estate transactions, including the San Francisco Giants’ AT&T Park, the 300-acre Mission Bay development project and the Public Health Services Hospital conversion to a LEED-certified residential community.  Currently, she acts as lead counsel for the proposed new San Francisco 49ers Stadium, the 150-acre smart growth Napa Pipe project, and The Exploratorium’s move to Piers 15-17.  One of the only Bay Area women to be a name partner at a major law firm, Duffy also has been honored by the San Francisco Business Times as one of the “Most Influential Women in Bay Area Business” for the past six years.

“We continue to believe – as we have believed for more than 25 years – that recognition by one’s peers is the most meaningful form of praise in the profession,” said Steven Naifeh, President of Best Lawyers.  “We would like to congratulate Pam Duffy on being selected as the ‘San Francisco Best Lawyers Land Use & Zoning Lawyer of the Year’ for 2011.”

Duffy earned her J.D., cum laude, from Loyola Law School, Los Angeles (1978) and her undergraduate degree, with honors, from California State University, Los Angeles (1970).

Coblentz congratulates our clients Ammunition LLC, Eleven Inc. and Mekanism Inc. for being selected as three of the San Francisco Business Times 100 Fastest-Growing Private Companies in the Bay Area.  The Fast 100 spotlights the Bay Area’s most interesting, promising companies representing the best of the entrepreneurial spark and drive long associated with the Bay Area.

Coblentz is pleased to be a sponsor of the San Francisco Business Times 19th Annual Fast 100 Awards Presentation.

Tay Via was quoted in the October 10, 2010 issue of The Registry regarding the new California Environmental Quality Act guidelines recently adopted by the Bay Area Air Quality Management District and how they impact development projects.  The new air quality standards make urban development harder and the process more complex.

Click here to view the article from The Registry, October 2010.

Best Lawyers, one of the oldest and most respected peer-review publications in the legal profession, named eleven Coblentz attorneys as Best Lawyers in 2011:  the late William Coblentz, Jonathan Bass, Jeffry Bernstein, Pamela Duffy, Philip Feldman, Frederick Fields, William Hutton, James Mitchell, Harry O’Brien, Cynthia Rowland and Tay Via.

Many of the Coblentz attorneys have been on the Best Lawyers list for over 15 years. This year’s national list is based on more than 3.1 million individual evaluations. The inclusions are strictly based on peer review, and fewer than 3 percent of practicing attorneys in the U.S. are included on the final list. Best Lawyers remains the gold standard of reliability and integrity in lawyer ratings.

In 2010, three Coblentz partners (Pamela S. Duffy, the late William K. Coblentz, and William T. Hutton) were selected as San Francisco’s Best Lawyers of the Year in Real Estate, Land Use & Zoning, and Tax, respectively.

SAN FRANCISCO, October 4, 2010 – Coblentz, Patch, Duffy & Bass LLP has been recognized as one of the nation’s top law firms in the 2010 Best Law Firm list, published in print and online by U.S. News & World Report. The firm received five prestigious “Tier 1” rankings in the highly competitive San Francisco Metropolitan law firm category.

Coblentz was recognized as a San Francisco Metropolitan “Tier 1” firm in the areas of Corporate Law, Environmental Law, Land Use & Zoning Law, Non-Profit/Charities Law, and Tax Law. The Tax Law practice was further recognized with a national ranking.  The firm also received recognition in the rankings for its Real Estate Law and Trusts & Estates Law practices.

“This is a wonderful recognition to be included in the inaugural publication of U.S. News and World Report’s Best Law Firms among a collection of such prestigious national firms,” noted Danna Kozerski, managing partner at Coblentz, Patch, Duffy & Bass LLP.  “We are proud of this honor and greatly appreciate that our peers and clients have shown us such confidence and support.”

The Best Law Firms, a joint effort between U.S. News & World Report and Best Lawyers, surveyed and ranked nearly 9,000 firms in 81 national practice areas and 171 metropolitan practice areas. Research was based on feedback and interviews from thousands of law firm clients, lawyers and administrators. Individual firm diversity and pro bono efforts were also considered.

To be eligible for a Metropolitan ranking, a firm had to have at least one lawyer listed in Best Lawyers. In 2010, Best Lawyers awarded San Francisco Lawyer of the Year honors to the late William K. Coblentz for Land Use & Zoning Lawyer of the Year, Pamela S. Duffy for Real Estate Lawyer of the Year, and William T. Hutton for Tax Lawyer of the Year. These Coblentz, Patch, Duffy & Bass attorneys received three of the sixteen Lawyers of the Year honors awarded by Best Lawyers, more than any other law firm in San Francisco.

The Best Law Firm list will appear in the October issue of U.S. News & World Report. Complete rankings for Coblentz, Patch, Duffy & Bass are available on the U.S.News & World Report web site at bestlawfirms.usnews.com.

Paul Tauber served as legal counsel for Think Finance, Inc. in securing its $90 million credit facility from Victory Park Capital Advisors.

Think Finance, Inc., a developer of next-generation financial products, will use the line of credit to fund expansion of its existing product lines and to support the development and growth of new products.

“We are excited about securing this additional source of funding enabling us to expand our innovative financial solutions for a growing market of consumers unbanked or underbanked,” said Think Finance CEO Ken Rees.  “Consumer response to our products have been tremendous and we’ve grown by over 50% this year and expect that growth to continue in 2011.”