Jill E. McInerney

This perspective in the Daily Journal by Jill McInerney champions Governor Gavin Newsom’s delivery on his campaign promise to invest in California’s children and families in the Budget Act of 2020. With the overwhelming support of the legislature, Governor Newsom increased the state’s commitment for dependency counsel by $20 million and identified another $34 million on federal funding. As Ms. McInerney states, “The work to revive and rebuild this important statewide (and statutorily mandated) Program providing representation to children and families, decimated after years of financial neglect, may now begin.”

Eight members of The Bar Association of San Francisco (BASF) were honored at its Annual Membership Luncheon with awards for their dedication to the organization in 2016. Jill McInerney was recognized with an Award of Merit for being a well-respected leader and tireless advocate for due process, quality legal representation, and full funding statewide for court-appointed counsel for indigent parents and children served by Dependency Courts.

San Francisco Superior Court is charged with ensuring that indigent parents facing allegations of abuse or neglect, and minor children who may have been harmed, receive the highest-quality representation from court-appointed counsel. Since the 1970s, attorneys from the The Bar Association of San Francisco’s Dependency Representation Program (DRP) have been appointed by the court from panels administrated by the bar association’s Lawyer Referral and Information Service. BASF scrutinizes dependency attorney-applicant references and credentials. Qualified representation at the trial level actually saves considerable money in the long run for it avoids ineffective assistance of counsel claims and the expense of wrongful convictions.