Joel K. Liberson

Mr. Liberson is a former partner at Gordon & Rees in San Francisco and has practiced as a litigator and appellate attorney since 1993. His appellate experience includes civil and criminal appeals before both the federal and California state appellate courts.

Mr. Liberson attended Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, where he graduated second in his evening class in 1992. Mr. Liberson was a member of the Order of the Coif, Law Review, and the recipient of a Dean’s Academic Scholarship.

Upon completion of his legal studies, Mr. Liberson served as a law clerk for the Honorable Arthur Alarcon of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Thereafter, he was employed as an associate with the international law firm Sidley & Austin. He joined Gordon & Rees in the fall of 2001, and was named a partner in 2004.

Mr. Liberson began his professional career as a Certified Public Accountant after graduating Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Illinois in 1984. He has previous accounting experience as a Big Eight accountancy firm as well as the private sector. Subsequently, Mr. Liberson worked in the financial services industry as a stockbroker and consultant.

Among his more noteworthy appellate matters, Mr. Liberson was a member of the legal team that obtained reversal of a death sentence before the California Supreme Court (In re Brown (1998) 17 Cal.4th 873).  Mr. Liberson was also counsel of record on behalf of the Regents of the University of California in a recent case impacting the California higher education system (Wong v. Regents of the University of California (2005) 410 F.3rd. 1052).

Mr. Liberson is currently co-chair of the San Francisco Bar Association’s Pro Bono Committee and a member of the California State Bar Standing Committee on the Delivery of Legal Services.