March / April 2007 - Sacramento County Bar Association

24
From Large Law Firms To Legal Aid -
John Davis And His Active “Retirement”
Hedescribes
himself as
retired and is strictly a
volunteer, but three days a week John
Davis can be found in his office at Legal
Services of Northern California (LSNC),
where he provides pro bono assistance
both to the program itself and
to its low income clients.
“It's just a hoot”, Davis says. “I
look forward to coming to the
office. It's been an uniquely pleasant
place to land after retirement.”
A self-described “workaholic”, Davis
is the go-to-it man for the variety of
transactional work that is needed at
LSNC. He is also the most upbeat
attorney you will likely ever meet
and serves as the cheerleader for all
of the staff at LSNC and the
Voluntary Legal Services Program.
A graduate of Stanford University
and Harvard Law School, Davis spent
most of his career doing primarily
transactional work for several large
law firms. He became familiar with
Legal Services of Northern California
through his work at the law firm of
Lillick & Charles and, later, Lewis,
D'Amato. While a partner at Lillick,
one of his clients, Lighthouse Marina,
was sued by then LSNC Staff
Attorney (now Assemblyman) David
Jones of the Woodland LSNC office.
He defended the case until Jones left
LSNC and Gary Smith (now the
Executive Director of LSNC) took
over the case. Jones and Davis were
good friends from their days on the
Board of Directors of Sacramento Mutual
Housing Board. Davis liked Smith right
away as well. A complex stipulated judgment
was worked out by Davis and Smith
in settlement of the case against
Lighthouse. Smith started inviting Davis
to LSNC events, such as Jones' retirement
party, and got him involved in cases and
fundraising on behalf of LSNC.
Davis tired of work in the large firm
environment and he retired in 2000. He
SACRAMENTO LAWYER ■ MARCH/APRIL 2007
immediately scheduled a lunch with Gary
Smith at LSNC and announced that he
wanted to volunteer at LSNC. One month
later, he showed up for LSNC's weekly
case review and, as a transactional attor-
John Davis and his wife, Christine Davis
ney, felt like a square peg in a round hole.
Still, Bill Kennedy, Managing Attorney for
the Sacramento office of LSNC, found
plenty of transactional work for Davis.
For the past six years, Davis has drafted
and reviewed leases for LSNC's offices
and for the nonprofit organizations that
LSNC assists as part of its community
development work. Davis drafted the
groundlease for the Cottage Housing
development at Mather for low-income
Retiring Minds
By Vicki Jacobs
residents. Davis is currently working on
leases to assist the Hmong community in
obtaining agricultural leases to support
their community. He helped LSNC with
the transactional work needed to complete
the purchase of its Redding office, as
well as the lease for the parking lot
that serves the Sacramento office. He
drafts and reviews settlement agreements.
He has assisted with corporate
formation for local nonprofits assisted
by LSNC. He works to assure that
LSNC is in compliance with the complex
regulations the Legal Services
Corporation. In short, he is the inhouse
business lawyer for LSNC.
Fortunately for LSNC, Davis plans
to continue to volunteer for a very
long time. He says that if you can fit
your expertise into the needs of a nonprofit,
it can be “very pleasant”. Life at
legal aid is quite different from a large
firm; Davis has no secretary and he
types his own documents. Still, he
likes focusing his efforts into one
place. He has seen retirees scatter
their impact into multiple places.
Davis likes being able to use his legal
skills, doesn't have to retrain himself,
and he can make a positive impact.
Davis has been married to his
wife, Christine Davis, for 25 years.
Christine earned her Ph.D. just about
the time of Davis' retirement. She has
a very active career as Chief of the
Speech Pathology Section in the
Department of Physical Medicine and
Rehabilitation at the UC Davis
Medical Center. While firmly committed
to his 3 day a week work at LSNC, Davis
makes time for his yoga classes and running
with his dalmatians. He has been an
active member in planning LSNC's annual
Valentine's Fun Run.
Vicki Jacobs is the Managing Attorney for the
Voluntary Legal Services Program and is very
grateful to John Davis for his support of
VLSP and its staff.