After time in private practice, he served as director of a Legal Aid Society of San Mateo County office in East Palo Alto, California. In 1969, he became assistant dean at Stanford Law School, where he started the minority recruiting program and helped diversify the student body. He also assisted in creating Stanford's clinical program. During this time, he also was a consultant to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, Office of Economic Opportunity, Carnegie Corporation, and Ford Foundation. In 1977, he left Stanford to start a law firm which specialized in civil rights, civil liberties and other issues of constitutional law. He also was a law professor at Golden Gate University.