Attorney Profile

Lenore Rae Shefman
Attorney at Law

Lenore is originally from Texas. She is the granddaughter of Benjamin Shefman, attorney at law, and Lillian Shefman. Lenore grew up in Houston and Austin, Texas, mostly around pools. Her father taught her how to test the chemicals, clean, and scrub a pool and her mother taught her how to swim in a pool. As a child Lenore's hair was often green "the cholorine glow" from swimming everyday either for recreation or for swim team. The affinity for water lead her to the Coast Guard where she served for two years on a small boat crew in Sabine Pass, Texas-where the Sabine/Neches Rivers divide Texas and Louisiana. After the Coast Guard and while working on a social work degree in college, Lenore worked with some elderly folks in a geriatric rehabilitation facility providing physical mobility and exercise in... swimming pools. The exercise and mobility work with the elderly somehow lead her to manage swimming pools for the Hunter's Chase Homeowner's Association in Austin. By 1992, Lenore decided to cap all of this swimming pool experience off by becoming certified as a pool operator (CPO).

Lenore relocated to Northern California in 1997. She attended the University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law from 1997-2000. She was admitted to the California State Bar on December 4, 2000. Lenore was also admitted to the Northern District of California, Ninth Circuit, and in September 2006 was admitted to the Texas State Bar. By going to law school she thought she had left all of that pool business behind her; however, she went to work shortly after becoming a lawyer, for a lawyer in Walnut Creek, California named Paul Engler. Attorney Engler just so happened to represent Anthony and Sylvan Pools at one time and as a matter of fact, helped them create the very contracts that they use today. Mr. Engler also represented Diablo Valley Pools and many homeowners whose pools were splitting, cracking, lifting,shifting, pitting, and anything else you can think of that can go wrong with a pool, ( i.e. the coping, drainage, subsurface deficiencies, and the concrete) or decking that surrounded the swimming pool. Paul Engler was the best swimming pool construction attorney around. Since he wrote the swimming pool companies contracts he knew what they were all about, inside and out. Before Mr. Engler retired, he trained Lenore as a plaintiff's attorney and swimming pool construction defect attorney.

Lenore has other legal experience, for instance, she clerked for the Office of the State Public Defender working to preserve the rights of inmates alive on San Quentin's death row. As a clerk she contributed to several habeas corpus briefs and utilized her background in social work to develop a social history for a client at San Quentin. Whether as a social worker or lawyer, Lenore's work is compelled by a passion for creating change. As a young activist and social worker she challenged the Texas Legislature on social welfare reform laws that were having a disparate impact on teenage mothers attempting to remain in school. Lenore also fought back against discriminatory laws aimed at gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender individuals and groups. Today, Lenore's politics are key to her practice. She fights for the rights of those who are underrepresented in our society. Today Lenore works not only with plaintiffs who have their swimming pools sliding down hills, she also works with plaintiffs who have been injured or harmed by other's negligence (including those injured in swimming pools) and those accused of committing criminal acts. She also volunteers with Project Homeless Connect in San Francisco providing legal assistance to those who have been completely disenfranchised.

For six years, Lenore was outside general counsel for the largest medical marijuana dispensary business in California (perhaps the world-hard thing to measure) and other small businesses working on progressive issues throughout California and the Bay Area. Lenore has also provided small business legal solutions to Medical Cannabis Clinics, Restaurants, Auto-Body Paint and Repair Shops, Financial Lending Institutions, Motion Picture Equipment Dealers, and various others.

Lenore is a successful trial lawyer and has proven herself before several California juries. Lenore has taken on the two biggest names in swimming pools, Anthony/Sylvan and Swan Pools and succeeded against each of them at trial and/or arbitration. Lenore is an excellent public speaker -- confident and creative before a jury. Before building your pool, there are things you should know from swimming pool safety to swimming pool construction and maintenance. We hope our website helps you through some of those areas. If you need information or are considering putting a pool in your backyard contact the Shefman Law Group and talk to Lenore about your project.

For fun, Lenore enjoys endurance bicycle riding, swimming in rivers, lakes, and Barton Springs, salinated pools or pools that do not require toxic chemicals such as chlorine, snow and wakeboarding and life outdoors.

Press and Media Links:

AIDS Lifecycle 6:

http://www.sanfranciscosentinel.com/?p=2540

Volunteer Legal Services:
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http://www.cccba.org/prof/qmanMay2004.htm

Medical Marijuana:
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