Natasha "Natasha" Ventsko
BALI Director
Natalia@acbanet.org
Natalia “Natasha” Ventsko is a licensed California and Louisiana attorney. Her legal experience started at the Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana (JJPL) where she represented juveniles in secure care facilities state-wide. Additionally, while at JJPL Natasha worked on impact litigation strategies which included various matters ranging juvenile life without parole to barriers accessing education/school to prison-pipeline disputes.
In 2018 Natasha joined the Bay Area Legal Incubators (BALI) as a participant to widen her scope to tax and mediation. While at BALI, Natasha launched a tax practice and takes immense pride in her ability to empower her clients to address their tax matters. Natasha’s motto is “I will not just talk tax at you- I will talk tax with you!” Natasha also uses her practice as a vehicle to collaborate with other attorneys and community organizations to lend her skillset to address social inequities that she is deeply passionate about. Most recently she has collaborated with other
stakeholders on supporting survivors of forced sterilizations access reparations. As the director of BALI, Natasha looks forward to leveraging her experience to support BALI’s participants launch and sustain successful practices that provide affordable and accessible legal services.Natasha’s credentials include an LL.M in Taxation from the University of San Francisco (2018), Master of Social Work from Southern University of New Orleans (2013), Juris doctorate from Loyola College of Law (2009), and Bachelor of Social Work from San Jose State University (2006). Natasha is also a certified mediator.
.
Carlos Jimenez
BALI Coordinator
charlie@acbanet.org
Carlos is the rock behind the magic at BALI. He manages the administrative side of BALI - coordinating trainings and legal technology presentations, ensuring our members are supported in onboarding and contributing to the community, and generally helping to run the ship.
BALI Brain Trust
Our Brain Trust is composed of esteemed experienced attorneys with expertise in substantive law and/or business development that contribute to the BALI community by hosting monthly coaching groups and advising the development of programs.
Cynthia Chandler
Senior Associate District Attorney and Policy Chief, Alameda County District Attorney's Office (and Founding Director of BALI). Cynthia Chandler is an acclaimed attorney, change agent, and social entrepreneur with demonstrated success tackling some of the most pressing social issues of our time. Her innovations include launching the first organization advancing the rights of HIV+ women in prison; creating the compassionate release process and statutory structure in California and nationally allowing for the safe release from prison of terminally ill and incapacitated people; co-founding the Eviction Defense Center in Oakland, CA; and co-founding Critical Resistance and Justice Now, early prison abolitionist organizations influencing the Black Lives Matter network. She has an extensive record of coaching to success BIPOC nonprofit and corporate founders and regularly is brought in as a change manager for organizations seeking significant reorganization, growth, or culture shift. She runs monthly BALI coaching groups on branding and delegation.
Geri Green
Mediator, ADR Services. Geri Green, Esq. is a full-time mediator and discovery referee. She has successfully mediated and presided over nearly 1,000 disputes in the areas of Personal Injury, Medical Malpractice, Business, Employment, Real Estate, Landlord-Tenant, Insurance Coverage, Civil Rights & Disability Rights, Police Misconduct, Probate, and Elder Abuse. Geri runs a monthly BALI Alternative Dispute Resolution coaching group.
R. Terese May
Founder and Principal, Covington May Law P.C. and Family Wealth Manager. R. Terese May, is a licensed attorney with the California State Bar. She earned a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration (Finance) from California State University East Bay and a Juris Doctor from the Loyola University Chicago School of Law. She holds the Charter Financial Consultant® (ChFC®) designation from the American College of Financial Services and is a member of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), holding Series 7, Series 63, and Series 65 licenses, among others. Becoming an attorney was not a casual decision for Terese. After two decades of helping client’s amass wealth, her only professional frustration was the inability to protect their autonomy, as they aged. It was disheartening to watch how easily a client’s wishes could be completely unacknowledged, even in moments of clarity, once it was evident they had entered a state of decline. Terese runs BALI's Trust and Estates Study Group.
John Moore
Founder and Principal, Law Office of John Douglas Moore. John Moore is a legal stragegist with over 40 years of experience in civil litigation and wills and trust litigation. He also enjoys helping small businesses grow the next step to medium-size and has brought this passion to his work supporting BALI law business founders grow their firms. In addition to his litigation work, John has special expertise in recycling and discard management, and he has been at the forefront of the recycling and sustainability movement internationally. John runs BALI's Civil Litigation Study Group and provides litigation coaching to the community.
Cynthia Tyler
Founder and Principal, Law Office of Cinthya Tyler. Cynthia Tyler is BALI attorney with over 8 years of experience in immigration law, including removal defense and asylum. She focuses her practice primarily on cases for immigrant youth and families. She also enjoys working with other attorneys to navigate their cases and come up with strategies to win. Cynthia provides coaching in immigration law and small business development.
JenEece Phillips
Founder and Principal, E-Justice Project, APC. Ms. Phillips is a California licensed attorney. Ms. Phillips earned her law degree from American Heritage University of Southern California, School of Law.
She established her legal careerinterning for California Rural Legal Assistance (CRLA), an organization committed to the fight for justice and individual rights. At CRLA, Ms. Phillips participated in civil rights legal advocacy, which included litigating school to prison pipeline matters, and working with the Housing Authority of the County of Kern to establish a legally compliant Language Access Plan.
After her time at CRL, Ms. Phillips went to work as an attorney for one of California’s largest plaintiff side labor and employment law firms - zealously advocating for the rights of employees. Ms. Phillips has represented hundreds of clients in claims ranging from wage and hour issues, wrongful termination and retaliation, sexual harassment, discrimination, FMLA/ADA violations, and other employment related disputes.
Most recently, Ms. Phillips launched her own labor and employment law firm, E-Justice Project, APC in 2020. EJP is committed to providing advocacy for California workers, particularly those within the justice gap.
Collaborative Partners
BALI is a project of the Alameda County Bar Association in collaboration with 5 California law schools and our county law library. Our sponsoring law schools sponsor a limited number of alumni annually to participate in BALI. If your alma matter sponsors BALI membership, please complete a BALI application and contact your BALI school representative provided for more information on their sponsorship selection criteria.
Alameda County Bar Association
Berkeley Law, University of California, Berkeley
Associate Director for Public Interest Programs Lucy Benz-Rogers
Concord Law
Associate Dean of Experiential Learning, KelleyMauerman
Golden Gate University School of Law
Associate Dean of Career Services FaizaShirazi
Hastings School of Law
Director of Employer Relations, Fairuz Abdullah OR Assistant Dean of the Career Development Office
Amy Kimmel
University of San Francisco School of Law
Adjunct Professor and Interim Director, Office of CareerServices Karren Shorofsky
Alameda County Law Library
BALI │ Bay Area Legal Incubator User Agreement. By using or registering for the services provided by Bay Area Legal Incubator (hereinafter BALI), I acknowledge and agree to the following: I understand that by submitting a query to BALI through this website, phone number, email, or any other mode of communication for legal help, NO attorney-client relationship is being created. I will not send BALI or any of its community attorneys any confidential information or documents. I understand that BALI is not a law firm; it is a community for individual, California attorneys. I further understand that each individual attorney operates her or his own, distinct and independent legal practice, and that BALI itself does not provide legal representation or advice. It is my responsibility to inquire with individual attorneys in the BALI community regarding possible representation, and individual attorneys will be individually responsible for evaluating whether or not they as individuals are able to provide me with legal representation. A legal relationship between myself and a BALI community attorney does NOT exist until and unless an individual attorney is specifically retained in an agreement signed by both myself and the attorney to provide legal services. I acknowledge that with submitting any and all queries through this website or receiving a referral through this website, no legal representation relationship exists in any way between myself and BALI and/or any of its sponsors, partners, or attorneys in its community. I understand that my submitting a query to any individual BALI community attorney does not in any way guarantee or ensure that I will receive legal advice from or retain one of the attorneys in BALI’s community. I understand that I should continue to seek legal advice and representation regardless of whether I am contacted by an attorney in the BALI community to ensure that I do not miss any deadlines or suffer any consequence for not having legal representation. I understand that if I have been injured or harmed, I may have cause to file a lawsuit, and that if I have been served legal papers I may be required to file an answer or other legal paperwork to protect my rights and assert my position. There are strict time limits for filing lawsuits and legal paperwork. If I miss a deadline, I may be permanently barred from bringing a case in court or from asserting my position or rights in court. I understand and acknowledge that the materials provided on this website and in BALI’s social media content, including but not limited to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+, are for informational purposes only and are not guaranteed to be correct, complete, or current and should not be relied on as legal advice. Any testimonials or endorsements contained on this website and in BALI’s social media content does not constitute a guarantee, warranty, or prediction regarding the outcome of my legal matter. Every case is different and my case or claim may not bring results similar to those described in this website or in BALI’s social media. I should consult a lawyer if I need help with legal matters. No attorney-client relationship is or can be established by reviewing information on BALI’s website, social media, or by communicating with BALI by email or through social media messaging. I understand that through this website and BALI’s social media, it links to content on other websites. BALI is not responsible for the content of other websites to which they link, and the content of those websites is not guaranteed to be correct. Complete. Or current and should not be relied on as legal advice.