Salle Seaman Soladay

April 16, 1935 - July 23, 2018

Salle Seaman Soladay, mother, grandmother, activist, attorney and writer passed away Monday, July 23, 2018 at the age of 83 after battling renal cancer. Born April 16, 1935 to Lebanese parents Jay Seaman and Lila Waheed. Salle’s grandfather, Kaiser Waheed, was a shoemaker and a poet, who had studied with famed Lebanese poet, Kahlil Gibran.

Salle and her two younger brothers, Jabreen and Keith, spent their childhoods in California’s San Joaquin Valley as their parents were able to leave their early jobs as cobblers and build thriving businesses in retail clothing, real estate and agricultural. Salle was a promising classical pianist in her teen years, then entered the University of California at Berkeley in 1953. There, she met her husband James Richard Soladay, a Cal graduate student.

In 1956, Salle had her first brush with the political advocacy that would later define her legal career, and which landed her on the front page of the San Francisco Examiner. During a House Un-American Activities hearing in San Francisco, Salle was so moved by a witness’s impassioned rebuke of the repressive McCarthy-era interrogation that she spontaneously rose to her feet and applauded loudly. She was subsequently escorted out of the hearing by a Federal marshal.

Salle graduated from UC Berkeley in 1958, visibly pregnant with her oldest child, Rebecca, and went on to become one of just a handful of women in her UC Hastings Law School graduating class of 1965. She was admitted to the California State Bar 1967, after the birth of sons Mark James, and Jay Joshua George.

An outspoken female attorney in a male dominated profession, Salle maintained a dynamic private legal practice throughout the ‘70s and ‘80s. She represented individuals who were victims of discrimination and institutional racism, including an early transsexual medical malpractice case and a death penalty appeal for a man with intellectual disabilities. She initiated federal civil rights lawsuits against the California prison system to remedy dangerous work conditions and unconstitutional and cruel prison conditions, particularly the use of solitary confinement. A self-professed radical, Salle worked in the Bay Area Black Power and prison justice movements. She took on cases that were considered impossible, battling forces that were larger and better funded than she.

Salle mentored and influenced many law students, encouraging them in future careers in public service. She embraced a collaborative team which included law students, investigators, expert witnesses and other attorneys who worked in a semi-improv manner which encouraged creative thinking to solve complex legal cases where the odds were narrow and the stakes high. Throughout it all, Salle maintained a joie de vivre. After moving her practice to a cavernous San Francisco waterfront warehouse, she would hold regular gatherings with clients, attorneys, artists, writers, family to talk politics, strategize and listen to jazz musicians in the great acoustical space that doubled as her office.

Salle’s life also sustained considerable unhappiness including divorce, the death of a son, and a death threat against her that drove her underground for some time. She spent the later years of her life in quieter pursuits; enjoying the company of her grandchildren, immersing herself in politics, and writing. One of her last smiles came as a grandson joked with her that Trump had been impeached and replaced by Noam Chomsky as president, and that Palestine was free.

Soladay is survived by her brother Keith Seaman, her daughter Rebecca Soladay Kennerly, son Jay Soladay, and four grandchildren, Nicholas Kennerly, James Kennerly, Tai Lila Soladay and Molly Soladay.

A memorial for Salle Seaman Soladay will be held on August 18th, 2018 at 4pm – The Log Cabin at 20 Veteran’s Place, San Anselmo, CA. Please contact Jay Soladay or Liora Sher with questions about the memorial or to RSVP. (415) 272-8062

In lieu of flowers, please send donations in Salle’s honor to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) www.aclu.org/donate.