Attorney fights the odds to fight for others

Upper-right hook and a round-about kick, Brian Hennessy, a litigator for Perkins Coie in Menlo Park, has taken all those shots fighting to survive, fighting to succeed, fighting for his life — and fighting for others.

Hennessy, 29, of Menlo Park, grew up in the gang-riddled neighborhoods of Gilroy. His father was a railroad worker and his mother was a Mexican immigrant. His parents divorced and Brian moved in with his mother.

"It was tough to have a mom who wasn’t well versed in English, living in a neighborhood filled with gangs and having bill collectors come to our door,” said Hennessy. "We were ignorant, living in the dark and we had no means to fight back.”

Hennessy saw lawyers as people who fought for those who couldn’t fight for themselves.

Hennessy’s rough environment didn’t hinder his education, as his father pushed him to succeed in school. For most kids who grew up in Gilroy, attending Bellarmine College Preparatory School in San Jose was out of the question, and not because they weren’t smart enough to attend, but because the transportation wasn’t feasible. Luckily for Hennessy, his father helped finish the Caltrain commercial line between San Jose and Gilroy, literally laying the tracks for Hennessy to attend Bellarmine.

Hennessy had to fight to succeed at Bellarmine. He worked part-time and work-study to pay tuition, but receiving good grades wasn’t an issue for him.

"I was a closet nerd. In Gilroy, the smart kids were the kids that were made fun of, but at Bellarmine, I was able to flourish in the encouraging environment,” said Hennessy.

Hennessy finished his undergraduate degree from Santa Clara University in three years and moved on to their law school. While at Santa Clara, Hennessy joined the boxing team to keep up with his natural fighter mentality, and met his best friend Dodge Ackerman. Ackerman was diagnosed with cancer at 21.

"I watched the strongest man that I knew receive chemotherapy and die, "said Hennessy, who was diagnosed with lymphoma based on an intuition not too much later. Hennessy felt as if something was changing in his life and stuck with his intuition that he had cancer, until the fifth doctor confirmed that he had stage one lymphoma.

"I stripped down to my plain white T-shirt because it’s what I wore every day when I was fighting to survive in Gilroy,” said Hennessy; he now had to fight for his life.

During this fight, Hennessy searched for his soul.

"They say that when a desire in a person reaches a certain point, their soul guides them to find out who they are,” said Hennessy. "I found that my life was going to be a life of sacrifice.” During Hennessy’s fight against cancer, he felt alive because that’s when he started to help people. Hennessy started speaking at schools in East Palo Alto and became a mentor. Hennessy conceived the idea of his volunteer-run nonprofit organization, "Council of Goodness,” while he was mentoring.

"I wanted something to continue on, and that’s why I’m creating this movement — a movement of goodness,” said Hennessy.

The council is in its first years, and has 10 families and eighth graders from San Jose and San Francisco. These students and families had to commit to three vows. The first vow is to complete 100 hours of service for every year the student is in high school, and 50 hours for every year the student is in college. The second vow is to take on a mentee. The final vow is to complete the cycle by either paying back or fundraising the equivalent amount they received for financial aid to their mentee.

In every-day life, Hennessy represents companies.

"I use my position as a lawyer to further the movement by using my resources,” said Hennessy.

At 26, Hennessy took Santana Row, a multi-million dollar publicly-traded company, to court and handled the opening and closing statement, rebuttal and the major witnesses. From the revenue he earned from this trial, and many others, he has donated a substantial amount to the "Council of Goodness.”

After many years of fighting to survive, to succeed and for his life, Hennessy is now fulfilling his intuition of who lawyers are-people who fight for those, who can’t fight for themselves.