ERA’s Student Leadership Board is comprised of 20 high school-aged girls who receive ongoing mentorship from ERA staff attorneys on civic engagement, the legislative process, as well as receiving support and counsel to pursue a career in law. Currently, the Student Leadership Board is assisting ERA with enforcement of Title IX in San Francisco Unified School District. You can buy a Youth Power Ticket securely at events.equalrights.org or call us at 415-575-2388.

With just $175, you will help change the life of a young woman!

Jenny Yang

Congratulations to Cohen Milstein partner Jenny Yang, whose appointment as a commissioner to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission was approved by Congress on April 25.

Yang is a partner at Cohen Milstein, where she worked along-side ERA to challenge sex discrimination against retail workers in Dukes v. Wal-Mart Stores.

“Given Jenny’s long dedication to ensuring equal opportunity for all workers and her highly regarded legal skills, we are confident she will continue to serve the law and the country well in this new role,” said ERA Executive Director Noreen Farrell.

Ten years later, Parker’s in the San Francisco Daily Journal for her move from Arnold & Porter, where she was an intellectual property partner, to Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California, where she’ll serve as chief legal counsel. You can read ERA’s announcement of the move here.

According to the Daily Journal, Parker will focus on access to services following the passage of Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

Beth has had an esteemed career of lawyering and dedicated pro bono and public interest service.  She is the newly appointed Chief Legal Counsel of Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California.  PPAC provides legal, legislative, policy and regulatory services to the eight California affiliates, which combined operate 100 health centers and serve more than one million patients annually.  PPAC is also working to ensure that the seven million uninsured Californians will receive primary and reproductive health services, including abortion, under the Affordable Care Act.  Prior to that Beth was a partner and complex civil litigator at Arnold & Porter LLP in San Francisco.  She specialized in intellectual property, complex commercial, constitutional, and civil rights matters and spent a significant part of her practice on pro bono matters.  In 2004, she led the trial team in Planned Parenthood’s successful challenge to the first federal attempt to criminalize abortion since Roe v. Wade.  She has represented Planned Parenthood’s Bay Area affiliates for more than 25 years in a wide variety of matters, many involving access to clinics in Northern California.  Between 1997-2000 she left private practice to work as the Director of Program & Litigation at ERA.

Beth graduated magna cum laude from Yale University and received her law degree from Harvard Law School. She serves as a Mediator and Early Neutral Evaluator for the United States District Court of the Northern District of California.  She currently serves on the national board of CORO Center for Civic Leadership, having previously chaired the Board of CORO, Northern California. Beth is a former director of the San Francisco Bar Association, Association of Business Trial Lawyers, Yale University Dwight Hall, Planned Parenthood Alameda/San Francisco and Planned Parenthood Golden Gate.  She was a founder and Board Chair of the San Francisco Women Lawyers’ Alliance and the Women’s Leadership Alliance. Beth will be married thirty years this spring, and has two children.  In her spare time, she loves to travel to less visited countries and photograph markets.

Our heartfelt thanks to Beth Parker.  We are honored to have her as part of ERA’s Community.

Prior to his appointment, Talamantes served as co-counsel with ERA in the sex harassment and retaliation case Bojorquez v. ABM Janitorial. A San Francisco jury awarded plaintiff Maria Bojorquez $812,000 after finding her employer had ordered her to stop complaining about being raped by her supervisor.