American Bar Association President-Elect Linda Klein appointed Teresa Renaker to a third one-year term on the ABA Commission on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity. The SOGI mission is to promote full and equal participation in the legal profession by persons of differing sexual orientations and gender identities.

Margo Hasselman and Teresa Renaker will speak at the National Employment Lawyers Association 2016 Annual Convention in Los Angeles, June 22-25. Margo will speak on a panel on “Deferred Compensation Issues In Negotiating Severance Agreements” and Teresa will moderate and speak on a panel on “Advocating For The Rights of LGBT Employees.”

The California State Teachers Retirement System has reversed its denial of a 75 percent survivor pension benefit to Renaker Hasselman’s client, the widow of a CalSTRS retiree. The couple, who had been together for 32 years, married following the Supreme Court’s Perry decision, which restored same-sex marriage in California. Unfortunately, the retiree spouse died shortly after. The retirement system initially denied a survivor benefit based on the failure to satisfy a waiting period between the status change and the death, but reversed the denial based on the couple’s prior registered domestic partnership.