For decades, Brooke Oliver has stood at the intersection of justice, art, and activism, earning her place as a respected figure in the LGBTQ+ community. A trailblazing attorney with a global reputation, Oliver has wielded trademark, copyright, and nonprofit law as tools for cultural and social empowerment, protecting the icons of activism and the creative legacies of artists, queer organizations, and marginalized communities.
Oliver is perhaps best known in the LGBTQ+ community as General Counsel to Dykes on Bikes®, where she successfully secured and defended the group’s trademark up to and through the United States Supreme Court, transforming a name once considered “too offensive” into a legally protected symbol of queer pride and visibility. She is also known by her sacred title: Saint Brooke of the Patent Leather Legal Briefs, bestowed by The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence for service to the community. Separately, she is trademark and nonprofit counsel for the Sisters. She served for 15 years as General Counsel to San Francisco Pride, helping shape the largest and most visible LGBTQ+ celebration in the country.
Beyond her legal service in queer circles, Oliver is a cultural force across multiple communities. She is a co-founder of San Francisco’s Latino Cultural District, a model for other cultural districts in San Francisco, and currently serves on the Board of Directors of Acción Latina, the nonprofit publisher of El Tecolote. Her legal service to the farmworker movement, and her fierce defense of artistic expression, including in landmark Visual Artists’ Rights Act cases, has earned accolades. She championed the publicity rights of music legends’ estates, created the legal architecture for Burning Man to gain nonprofit status, and protected Black Panther trademarks.
Oliver’s lifelong commitment has been recognized with the Cesar E. Chávez Legacy Award, the Teddy Witherington Award for Outstanding Service to the LGBTQ+ Movement, and Certificates of Honor from the City and County of San Francisco and the State Legislature for her leadership and advocacy.
With every case she argues, trademark she defends, or community she uplifts, Brooke Oliver proves that justice can be an art, and activism a legacy. She is available through her firm Procopio, an AmLaw 200 Firm recognized for its diversity, to help artists, companies, and nonprofits protect their trademarks and copyrights, and to assist with the entire nonprofit lifecycle.
https://www.procopio.com/people/brooke-oliver
Published on June 26, 2025
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