Betsy Buchalter Adler, of the San Francisco law firm of Silk Adler & Colvin, serves as the Foundation’s outside general counsel, advising the Foundation on issues of organization, governance, grantmaking, and the conduct of philanthropy.  Ms. Adler received her B.A. in 1971 from the University of California (Santa Cruz) and her J.D. in 1982 from Boalt Hall School of Law, University of California (Berkeley).

Ms. Adler's practice focuses on grantmaking charities, including family, company, and community foundations; charitable governance issues; and international philanthropy. She serves on the IRS Advisory Committee for Tax-Exempt and Governmental Entities and the advisory boards of the National Center for Philanthropy and Law at New York University and the International Center for Not-for-Profit Law.

A past chair of the Exempt Organizations Committee of the ABA Tax Section, Ms. Adler has also taught the law of nonprofit organizations at Boalt Hall. She is the author of The Rules of the Road: A Guide to the Law of Charities in the United States (Council on Foundations, 1999; second edition forthcoming in 2007) and lectures frequently on legal issues of interest to nonprofit organizations and their board members.