Bacilio Mendez II

Bacilio Mendez II joined Bledsoe in 2022 after serving as Assistant Regional Counsel in the San Francisco Region of the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) Office of General Counsel and Special Assistant United States Attorney for the Department of Justice (DOJ). While at SSA/DOJ Bacilio was honored with a National Exemplary Contribution or Service Award presented by the Deputy General Counsel of SSA. He is also the former Associate Director of the Blockchain Law for Social Good Center. Bacilio was admitted to the California State Bar in 2021 and is an Honors JD/MBA/Dual LLM graduate of the Golden Gate University (GGU) School of Law, Edward S. Ageno School of Business, and Bruce F. Braden School of Taxation.

While a student at GGU, Bacilio was the Founding Editor-In-Chief of the GGU Tax & Estate Planning Review, Founding Online Editor of the GGU Race, Gender, Sexuality, & Social Justice Law Journal, Submissions & Web Editor of the GGU Environmental Law Journal, and Web Editor of the GGU Law Review. Bacilio received several awards during his law school career, including: the University Service Award for Service and Contribution to the Academy; the Paul S. Jordan Award for Service and Contribution to the Law School; Academic Excellence Award in Family Law; Witkin Award in Honors Client Representation in Landlord-Tenant Disputes; CALI Awards in Practical Legal Writing and Professional Responsibility; A+ Distinctions in Honors Client Representation, Honors Lawyering Skills, and the American College of Trial Lawyers & NYC Bar National Moot Court Competition; and the Joseph R. & June B. Rensch Endowed Scholarship for academic achievement and business leadership. Bacilio was also inducted into the GGU Pro Bono Honors Society and was a semi-finalist in the American Bar Association’s Annual Law Student Tax Challenge. As an Honors Apprentice with the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office, Bacilio successfully second chaired the prosecution of Binh Thai Luc for the Lei family quintuple homicide in Ingleside. He also served as a Law & Policy Fellow at the California Reinvestment Coalition, and as a Judicial Law Clerk in the Chambers of the Hon. Fed. Mag. Judge Maria-Elena James (ret.).

Before law school, Bacilio was the Director of Information and Compliance at Benjamin Madison Wealth Advisors. He also earned a Master of Library and Information Science from Pratt Institute’s School of Information. While at Pratt, Bacilio served the Kings County (Brooklyn) Supreme Court, of the New York State Unified Court System, as the Nathan R. Sobel Law Library Fellow stationed at the Open Access Law Library of Brooklyn. Upon graduation, Bacilio was inducted into Beta Phi Mu the International Library & Information Studies Honor Society. He was also named the National Lawyers Guild (NLG) Legal Worker of the Year and served as an NLG W. Haywood Burns Memorial Fellow for Social & Economic Justice focusing on data visualization of the NYPD Stop & Frisk Data Set. Bacilio was also proud to serve as Law & Technology Fellow with LeGaL – The LGBT Bar Association of Greater New York and to receive the Mergent, Inc. Outstanding Achievement Award in web design bestowed by the New York Chapter of the Special Libraries Association. Other notable graduate experiences included internships with the Law Library of Congress, the Dag Hammarskjöld Library of the United Nations, the Columbia University Libraries’ Copyright Advisory Office, and Spike Lee’s 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks.

Bacilio also holds a Bachelor of Arts in Modern Dance from Oberlin College where he was a Ronald E. McNair Post-Baccalaureate Fellow and is a member of both the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists and the Actors’ Equity Association.

In his spare time Bacilio enjoys travelling with his husband, volunteering as a handyman and friendly visitor for Bay Area elders with Openhouse SF, assisting GLIDE’s Street Outreach Team in connecting homeless neighbors to social and medical services, and serving meals with Tenderloin Tessie Holiday Dinners.