RBGG’s Gay Grunfeld was honored by Equal Rights Advocates (ERA), as a 2016 Gender Jusice Honoree at ERA’s annual luncheon on June 8. A post on the ERA website (reproduced in full below) summarizes Gay’s many contributions to the organization and to the cause of gender justice. Equal Rights Advocates is a national civil rights organization dedicated to protecting and expanding economic and educational access and opportunities for women and girls.
Gay Grunfeld, 2016 Gender Justice Honoree
Equal Rights Advocates recognizes long-time supporter and board member Gay Grunfeld as a 2016 Gender Justice Honoree. This award is given each year to civil rights champions whose support has made ERA stronger. A leader and strategic partner to ERA for many years, Gay has contributed invaluably to our work.
For over two decades, Gay Grunfeld has championed ERA’s mission and work as a supporter, board member, and civil rights leader. As Vice Chair of ERA’s Board, Gay has been a strategic partner and leader in promoting ERA’s gender justice initiatives. She is also a highly skilled and acclaimed attorney. Gay is a partner of Rosen Bien Galvan & Grunfeld LLP in San Francisco, where she practices complex civil litigation, with an emphasis on employment, civil rights and business disputes. Her many legal wins include constitutional and statutory challenges to California’s prison/ parole systems, the city of Compton’s at-large voting structure, and a facially discriminatory gender-based statute.
Gay, who left the law for several years to care for her young children, returned to practice and went on to be named to the Daily Journal‘s Top Women Attorneys list and to receive two California Lawyer Attorney of the Year awards. She received the Fay Stender Award from California Women Lawyers for her work in establishing children’s waiting rooms in San Francisco Bay Area courthouses. Gay is past president and board member of the San Francisco Women Lawyers Alliance.
“I came to ERA and stuck because the fight for gender equity comes naturally to me,” says Gay. “When I was a girl growing up in Waco, Texas in the 1960’s and 70’s, there were no sports teams for girls at school. I fought to be allowed to wear pants to class and to serve as an acolyte at church, neither of which girls were allowed to do. I never dreamed I would grow up to serve on the Board of an organization that regularly files and wins lawsuits to advance equality for women and girls.”