Kelly Dunn, Esq.

Kelly Dunn, Rubicon Program’s Chief Operating Officer and Director of The Hawkins Center, has spent his entire legal career assisting disadvantaged individuals.  After graduating from Boalt Hall in 1982, Kelly spent four years representing consumers in “lemon law” claims against automobile manufacturers.

In 1987, the Hawkins Center founder recruited Kelly to help launch and implement the Hawkins Center’s core program – representing claimants with disabilities before the Social Security Administration.  During the past 20 years, Kelly has helped the Hawkins Center grow from a tiny agency to one providing legal services to over 500 individuals with legal barriers each year.

The Hawkins Center mission has always included a commitment to helping the most underserved individuals, a unique client population encumbered by poverty, unemployment, poor education, high rates of incarceration, and illness or impairment.  Over the past 20 years, Kelly has kept the Hawkins Center true to its mission, treating all clients with dignity and respect and setting the highest standard for representation.

Kelly has served as the Hawkins Center director since 1991.  In addition to his leadership in developing and implementing agency programs, supervising a staff, and acting as the Chief Operating Officer for Rubicon Programs, Kelly continues to occasionally represent clients in appeals before Social Security administrative law judges and in federal court.  In 2006, Kelly won an important case before the U.S. Court of Appeals’ Ninth Circuit, setting a precedent that has already helped Social Security claimants and will likely help countless more in the years to come.

Kelly is one of the unsung heroes of the San Francisco Bay Area legal community, quietly toiling away for the neediest clients, working long hours, and moving the Hawkins Center and Rubicon Programs forward.  When clients and others try to express their gratitude to Kelly, he graciously thanks them and moves on, eager to get back to his work.  In 2007, Kelly received an expression of thanks from the legal community and was honored by being named Pro Bono Attorney of the Year in Contra Costa County.