All About Noreen
by Jennifer Brown Shaw

Noreen Skelly, an attorney with the Air Resources Board who practices both employment and environmental law, is one of the most enthusiastic and active members of the Bar Council. Noreen, who was appointed to serve the remainder of Levin's term on the Council in September 1999, is also on the boards of the Voluntary Legal Services Program ("VLSP") and the Barrister's Club of Sacramento.

A member of the Sacramento County Bar Association since 1996, Noreen has acted as the Chair of the Events Committee and was instrumental in organizing the SCBA's annual Mardi Gras/Moonlight Madness Celebrations for the past several years. Noreen's talents don't stop there, however.

A few years ago, the Bar needed to quickly and effectively advertise its upcoming Schaber Luncheon. Due to a snafu, it was too late for mailing invitations, and Noreen graciously volunteered to create an e-mail list for all SCBA members from the Bar's directory. An easy task, you say? Well, with the help of six pints of Ben and Jerry's ice cream (two pints of Triple Carmel Chunk, two pints of Entanglemints, and two pints of Coffee Heath Bar Crunch), Noreen was able to complete the task in record time. And, the event was sold out!

Noreen was born in San Francisco, California to fresh-off-the-boat Irish parents. She lived in San Francisco and Santa Rosa until she left for college at U.C. Davis. While at U.C. Davis, Noreen studied Art History. After graduation, Noreen accepted a fellowship to the University of London to pursue a Ph.D. in Fifteenth Century Italian Architecture. Noree's studies focused specifically on the architecture in Florence, Italy. Her favorite buildings in Florence include the Churches of San Lorenzo and Santa Croce.

Unfortunately, the market for architectural historians, which could never be called robust, was simply non-existent at the time and Noreen decided to take another path. After some deliberation, she enrolled in law school at McGeorge School of Law. During law school, Noreen knew she wanted to focus her practice on civil litigation and interned at the Department of Corrections for the incomparable Melissa Meith.

After graduation, Noreen joined Hansen, Boyd, Culhane & Watson, where she worked in the business litigation section with Hartley Hansen and Lorraine Pavlovich. During her second year of practice, Noreen had the opportunity to join the Employment Development Department ("EDD") as staff counsel. While at the EDD, Noreen practiced employment, contract, and administrative law.
A litigator at heart, Noreen loves evidence. During one of her State Personnel Board Administrative hearings, Noreen objected to the employee's offer of evidence as "nonverbal hearsay." The Administrative Law Judge, a bit perplexed, overruled Noreen's objection with some exasperation. Unwilling to concede what was to her such an obvious point, Noreen contacted her evidence professor to confirm her analysis. Taking a moment to ponder the issue, Professor David Miller told Noreen she was indeed correct, but then asked her, "Don't you think you were being a bit obscure?" Noreen retorted, "It wasn't too obscure for you to teach it!"

Needless to say, Noreen spares no effort in the representation of her clients and has generously taken the same approach with her activities for the Sacramento Legal community. In addition to her Bar Council and other SCBA activities, Noreen regularly devotes her evenings to assisting low-income clients at the VLSP Debt Collection Clinic and has also been an MCLE provider for VLSP.

Noreen is an outstanding example of the ideal Bar Council member. Always willing to do her share (and more!), Noreen is a model for others to follow.