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Shareholder
Areas of Practice
Ms. Mellard is the chair of the firm's Professional
Liability Practice Group and a member of the Employment
Law Practice Group.
Professional Qualifications
Ms. Mellard has been a litigator for over 20 years,
and has handled a wide variety of civil litigation
matters arising out of claims against attorneys
and employers. Representative cases in professional
liability include: defense of a large Silicon
Valley law firm in a malpractice action arising
out of an underlying trade secret lawsuit; defense
of a large Northern California law firm in a malpractice
action arising out of the settlement of a worker's
compensation claim and third party lawsuit; defense
of a large San Francisco firm in lawsuit filed by non-clients
arising out of the settlement of an underlying
matter; defense of a legal malpractice action arising out of advice regarding environmental investigation of commercial property; and defense of a Bay Area firm in a malicious
prosecution case arising out of an underlying
legal malpractice claim. Representative cases
in the employment area include: defense of discrimination
and wage and hour claims, including a class action.
In addition to litigation, Ms. Mellard counsels
law firms and lawyers on ethics and conflict issues; represents
law firms in disqualification motions; and represents
attorneys in State Bar investigations.
Ms. Mellard has argued matters before the California
Court of Appeal and the and U.S. Court of Appeals
for the Ninth Circuit and also has experience
with contractual arbitration as well as various
alternative dispute resolution processes. She
is a member of the Litigation and Employment Sections
of the California Bar Association and the Law
Practice Management Section of the ABA. Ms. Mellard was appointed to the State Bar Committee on Professional Responsibility and Conduct (COPRAC) in 2005 and has been appointed as Vice Chair of COPRAC for 2007-2008.
Education
J.D., University of California
at Berkeley, School of Law (Boalt Hall),
1982
B.A., University of California,
Santa Barbara, 1971
With highest honors, Phi Beta Kappa, Mortar Board
Bar Admissions
California - 1982
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Practices
Professional Liability
Employment
Publications and Speaking Engagement
Recent Developments Affecting the Law of Lawyers, State Bar Annual Convention (Anaheim - September 2007)
Overview of State Bar - Disciplinary System - Reporting and Responding Dos and Don'ts, Women Lawyers of Alameda County (July 2007)
Hot Topics - Update on Conflicts
and Ethical Walls; Update on the Attorney-Client
Privilege; Ethical Problems with Outside Counsel
Guidelines, CLE International, Los Angeles
and San Francisco (January 2007)
Ethics Update 2006 - Recent Developments
in the Law of Lawyering and Proposed New Rules,
CEB seminar in Sacramento (November 2006)
and San Francisco (December 2006)
Other People's Money - An
Overview of Client Trust Accounting, State Bar Annual Conference in Monterey -
October 2006
Ethical Issues Arising from Intellectual
Property Issues in Business Transactions 2006, PLI, May 2, 2006
Attorney-Client Privilege and Attorney
Work Product Doctrine, Lorman Education
Services, August 2005
Issues in Ethics - Recent Developments
in the Attorney-Client Privilege, the Duty of
Confidentiality and the Elimination of Substance
Abuse in the Profession, Queen's
Bench, January 2005
Ethics - A Survey of Key Rules Governing
Attorneys and Related Issues, BASF, Family
Law Section, October 2004
The Attorney-Client Privilege and Ethics, Lorman Educational Services, August 2004
Contact
Robert Dollar Building, 10th Floor
311 California Street
San Francisco, CA 94104
Phone: 415.956.2828
Fax: 415.956.6457
smellard@rjo.com
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