San Francisco, July 1, 2012 – Rosen, Bien & Galvan, LLP has changed its name to Rosen Bien Galvan & Grunfeld LLP in recognition of the significant contributions that partner Gay Crosthwait Grunfeld has made to the firm.
Gay, who joined the firm in 2005 and became a partner in 2008, focuses her practice on complex civil litigation, with an emphasis on civil rights, employment, business, and attorneys’ fees cases. She has 19 years of experience practicing before trial and appellate courts at both the state and federal levels, and was named one of the Top 75 Women Litigators in California for 2011 by the Daily Journal.
“Gay is a top flight litigator with a proven record of success in a wide variety of areas. She is an accomplished employment lawyer, and has recently achieved significant victories for her clients,” said Michael Bien, Managing Partner of RBGG. “Gay is a great partner – an inspiration to her colleagues and a mentor to our junior lawyers,” added founding partner Sanford Jay Rosen. “I’m very proud of all she has accomplished and very pleased to have her name added to the firm masthead.”
Gay recently concluded a settlement of a voting rights case with the City of Compton on behalf of Latino voters that will result in district elections for city council for the first time in the city’s history. She has also played a key role in some of the most significant civil rights class action cases on behalf of prisoners and parolees pending in California – helping to secure the rights of all juvenile parolees in California to fair parole revocation hearings and ensuring that prisoners with disabilities in county jails in California receive reasonable accommodations and have access to a workable grievance procedure when their needs are not being accommodated.
“I am so honored to join Sandy, Mike and Ernie as a name partner at this amazing firm and share in the groundbreaking public interest work that is at the core of our practice,” said Gay. “During the many years away from the practice of law I spent raising my children, I never imagined I would have the opportunity to pursue civil rights litigation at the highest level. This is a dream come true.”
“Gay is a powerful agent for positive change in the profession and in our firm,” noted partner Ernest Galvan. She serves as a member of the Judiciary Committee of the Bar Association of San Francisco and is Past President and Board Member of the San Francisco Women Lawyers Alliance. She is also a member of the Board of Directors of Equal Rights Advocates. Gay received the 1995 Fay Stender Award from California Women Lawyers for her work in establishing children’s waiting rooms in San Francisco Bay Area courthouses.
Gay received a J.D. in 1984 from Columbia Law School where she was the Articles Editor of the Columbia Law Review and a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar. She received a B.A. in Philosophy in 1981 from Wellesley College where she graduated Phi Beta Kappa and with highest honors. After completing law school, she clerked for the Honorable Jack Weinstein, Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, and then started her career as an associate with the firm of Altshuler Berzon in San Francisco.
Rosen, Bien & Asaro was founded in 1990 by Sanford Jay Rosen, Michael Bien, and Andrea Asaro. Ernest Galvan joined the firm in 1998 as an associate and became a partner in 2006. After Ms. Asaro left the firm to join the Office of the State Public Defender, the firm changed its name to Rosen, Bien & Galvan. The firm, which has 17 lawyers, has a unique practice blending public interest and private sector litigation. Rosen Bien Galvan & Grunfeld represents individuals and companies in complex trial and appellate litigation in state & federal courts.