Our Lifetime Members

Our Mission

San Francisco La Raza Lawyers Association (SFLRLA)’s is association that brings lawyers from all backgrounds together. SFLRLA membership is open to all people regardless of race, gender, sex, or sexual orientation. We are an inclusive bar association and we encourage everyone to become a member and to support us. We focus on and highlight issues that are impacting the Latino community in San Francisco and the legal community.

Bay Area Latino Lawyers Fund (BALLF) is the non-profit (501(c)(3) arm of the San Francisco La Raza Lawyers Association. BALLF’s mission is to make sure that every judge, lawyer, law student, and legal professional has an equal opportunity for success and career advancement. We want to help them before law school. during law school, and throughout their legal careers. We achieve this mission through programming and mentorship.

Our History

In 1971, Mario G. Obledo moved to San Francisco from San Antonio, Texas when the National Headquarters of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF) moved here. Mr. Obledo found it was almost impossible to find five Latino attorneys in one place. More Latino attorneys were needed, and the best way to increase the number of Latino attorneys was by recruiting and educating young people.

Mario Obledo, MALDEF’s general Counsel, Cruz Reynoso, the Executive Director the California Rural Legal Assistance at that time, and Luis Garcia, a lawyer in private practice in San Francisco, together founded La Raza Lawyers in 1971. The Association found its first home at the MALDEF offices. From there, our founders began to recruit attorneys from San Francisco, the Bay Area, the State of California, and across the nation. Within a few years the La Raza Lawyers Association had become a national organization. Today, the national organization is known as the National Hispanic Bar Association, headquartered in Washington, D. C.

In the 1980s, we created the Bay Area Latino Lawyers Fund, a non-profit organization, to advance the needs of the legal community through educational programs and provide scholarships to students.

Our Past Presidents