Amy Ackerman

ABOUT

Amy Ackerman is a partner at the firm. Her experience includes municipal government law, public health, juvenile dependency and appellate law. She currently serves as town attorney for the Town of Corte Madera and district counsel for Marin Sanitary District No. 2. She serves on the Executive Committee of the Public Law Section of the California Lawyers Association and on the Brown Act Committee of the League of California Cities.

Amy was a senior deputy city attorney for 16 years with the City and County of San Francisco. She served as the first director of training for the City Attorney’s Office and developed a comprehensive training program for Deputy City Attorneys addressing all aspects of local government law. She wrote handbooks on public meeting and public records laws, contracts and drafting legislation for use by attorneys and officials. She also served as the coordinator for legal advice on the Brown Act, Public Records Act and the City’s Sunshine Ordinance for the City Attorney’s Office and delivered the annual open government training for all city officials. Representative cases include Gillespie v. San Francisco Public Library Commission (1998) 67 Cal.App.4th 1165, holding that the Library could properly hold a closed session to nominate candidates for City Librarian and serving as amicus on behalf of fifty cities in City of San Jose v. Superior Court (1999) 74 Cal.App.4th 1008, holding that the City of San Jose could protect the identity of citizens making complaints regarding municipal airport noise.

Amy served as legal counsel to the San Francisco County Transportation Authority, whose governing body is the Board of Supervisors. She also served as general counsel, litigating at both the trial and appellate level and drafting legislation, to a wide variety of City departments and agencies, including the Arts Commission, Department of Children, Youth and Their Families, Department of Human Services, First Five Commission, Film Commission, Juvenile Probation Department, Office of Citizens’ Complaints of the San Francisco Police Department, Office of Labor Standards Enforcement, Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice, Rent Board, San Francisco Unified School District and Youth Commission. In addition, she drafted amicus briefs on behalf of the League of California Cities and the California State Association of Counties.

After leaving the City Attorney’s Office, Amy was a consultant to the National Policy and Legal Analysis Network to Prevent Childhood Obesity founded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

She worked with communities around the country to enact policy solutions to address chronic health issues. Her work included drafting model legislation and agreements addressing land use, complete streets, healthy housing, code enforcement, shared use of government resources and promoting healthy food. In addition, she represented the counties of Del Norte, Napa, San Francisco and Sonoma in the California Court of Appeal on human services matters.

REPRESENTATIVE EXPERIENCE

Town of Corte Madera. Amy currently serves as town counsel.
Marin Sanitary District No. 2. Amy serves as district counsel.

PRESENTATIONS AND PUBLICATIONS

The RPLG Public Law Fellowship Program: Training future lawyers in local government law, Los Angeles Daily Journal, March 2026.
Digital Accessibility Requirements for Public Agencies, California Lawyers Association, Inaugural Public Law Conference, March 19, 2026.
SB 707 Implementation Issues, California Lawyers Association, Inaugural Public Law Conference, March 19, 2026.
Dos and Don’ts of Quasi-Judicial Proceedings, California Lawyers Association, Inaugural Public Law Conference, March 19, 2026.
Public Records Request for California State University (CSU) Auxiliaries, Auxiliary Organizations Associations, Annual Conference, January 13, 2025.
Common Brown Act and Public Records Act Issues for Human Resource and Labor Professionals, California Public Employers Labor Relations Association, Annual Training Conference, November 20, 2025.
Transparency is Action: Navigating the Brown Act, Bagley-Keene Act, and Public Records Act in California, California Lawyers Association, Public Law 101 Conference, September 26, 2025.
Common Brown Act and Public Records Act Issues, California Public Employers Labor Relations Association, Annual Training Conference, November 14, 2024.
New and Continuing Labor Relations Challenges Sparks, California Public Employers Labor Relations Association, Annual Training Conference, November 15, 2024.
Who Does What and Why: Establishing Good Governance, California Special Districts Association, Annual Conference, September 10, 2024.
Hate-Bombing and Poetry Recitations: Handling Disruptive Public Comment, League of California Cities, Annual Conference, October 16, 2024.
Who Does What and Why: Establishing Good Governance, California Special Districts Association, Annual Conference, September 10, 2024.
How to Stay Out of Trouble-Avoiding Council Chaos, League of California Cities, Annual Conference, September 7, 2022.
What Special Districts Need to Know About the California Public Records Act, CaliforniaSpecial Districts Association, February 8, 2022.
Fair Process Hearings, League of California Cities, City Attorney Conference, October 23,2020.
Reducing the Density and Number of Tobacco Retailers: Policy Solutions and Legal Issues, co-author, Nicotine and Tobacco Research, July 2016.
Buy Healthy, Buy Local: An Analysis of Potential Legal Challenges to State and Local Government Local Purchase Preferences, The Urban Lawyer, The National Journal on State and Local Government Law, Fall 2011.
Turning the U.N. Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) into a City Law, United Nations Comm.
The Good Government Guide, An Overview of the Laws Governing Public Officials, Part One: Serving on a Board or Commission and Part Three: Overview of Public Records and Public Meetings Laws; an annual City-wide guide to sunshine laws for San Francisco officials, attorneys and employees.

PRESS & AWARDS

Phi Beta Kappa
California County Counsels’ Litigation Award for preparing an amicus brief on behalf of the California State Association of Counties in Elisa B. v. Superior Court (2005) 37 Cal.4th 108.