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Legal Pad | LA 
California legal scene carries regional legal news, headlines and information.
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Pom vs. Welch opens in CA
Posted on September 02, 2010Opening statements began yesterday in a trial pitting Pom Wonderful LLC against juice-making giant Welch Foods Inc. over the marketing of their pomegranate juice products. Attorney Todd Theodora, senior attorney at Theodora Oringher Miller & Richman and representing Pom Wonderful,...
Judge rules for - and against - changes in election statements
Posted on September 02, 2010Orange County Superior Court Judge Kim Dunning in Santa Ana ruled Wednesday that revisions must be made to two political statements that will be printed in the Capistrano Unified School District's official election materials this fall. Candidate John Alpay cannot...
Ogletree Deakins adds two shareholders in O.C. office
Posted on September 02, 2010Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart, P.C. welcomes two new shareholders to the firm?s Orange County office. Andrew J. Jaramillo and Michael J. Sexton are both employment litigators and formerly with Payne & Fears LLP in the firm?s Irvine office....
Suit against Facebook claims exploitation of minors for commercial gain
Posted on September 01, 2010A class action was filed on August 26 against Facebook Inc. in Los Angeles County. The suit alleges that the social networking site illegally uses the names and likenesses of minors in California for advertising and other commercial purposes. Anthony...
Mandel joins McGuireWoods in L.A.
Posted on September 01, 2010McGuireWoods LLP announced that Michael Mandel has joined the firm?s Los Angeles office as a partner with the Labor and Employment group, where he will counsel clients on all aspects of labor and employment litigation. Prior to joining McGuireWoods, Mandel...
Death row executions on hold again in CA
Posted on September 01, 2010Marin County Superior Court Judge Verna Adams issued a ruling yesterday that said a 2007 injunction against executions remained in force "unless and until" the court approves newly revised lethal injection procedures. The ruling was made at a hearing in...
McCourt divorce trial opens in Los Angeles
Posted on August 31, 2010The contentious divorce trial of Frank and Jamie McCourt opened in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom on Monday. Attorneys for the parties hauled more than 20 boxes of documents and dozens more binders of exhibits into a packed courtroom where...
Fish & Richardson named Pro Bono Firm of the Year
Posted on August 31, 2010Fish & Richardson has been named the 2010 Pro Bono Law Firm of the Year by the San Diego Volunteer Lawyer Program, Inc. (SDVLP), a non-profit organization whose mission is to provide free legal services in civil matters to indigent...
Appeals court rules mandatory 30-day warning program for each new red-light camera installation
Posted on August 31, 2010The Orange Superior Court Appellate Division ruled in a July 23 decision that the statutory requirement of a 30-day warning program before a locality can issue tickets to motorists caught on automated cameras going through red lights applies each time...
Dirk Burley new L.A. associate for Dykema
Posted on August 30, 2010Dykema has announced that Dirk Soung Burley has joined the firm?s Litigation Department as an Associate, resident in the Los Angeles office. Mr. Burley?s practice focuses on general commercial litigation matters. Most recently he was a law clerk for the...
Mistrial declared in Nguyen case
Posted on August 30, 2010The Orange County Register reports that as of Friday night the jury in the Tan Nguyen case was unable to reach a verdict. U.S. District Judge David O. Carter polled the jurors shortly before 5 p.m. and then declared a...
Todd Spitzer no longer an ADA
Posted on August 30, 2010Todd Spitzer has been fired. According to Spitzer himself, he was let go because of the way he handled an information request with the county Public Administrator/Public Guardian Office. Public Administrator/Guardian John Williams issued a statement on Saturday that, while...
Mistrial in Skilled Healthcare trial denied
Posted on August 30, 2010Humboldt County Judge Bruce Watson ruled on Friday that he found no evidence of juror misconduct in the class action lawsuit against Skilled Healthcare and therefore no grounds for a mistrial. The motion was filed earlier this month in response...
Cal State Stanislaus ordered to make Palin appearance documents public
Posted on August 27, 2010Stanislaus County Superior Court Judge Roger M. Beauchesne has ordered Cal State Stanislaus officials to release documents related to Sarah Palin's fundraising appearance at the university, saying it was a violation of the state's open-records law to have refused to...
Presbyterian court rules Spahr violated faith constitution
Posted on August 27, 2010A Presbyterian church court in Napa ruled today that although the Rev. Dr. Jane Adams Spahr did not disrupt the "peace, unity and purity of the church" by performing more than a dozen same-sex marriages during the brief period when...
Fees in Madera Unified election law suit drastically lessened
Posted on August 27, 2010Superior Court Judge James Oakley has reduced the amount of legal fees sought by attorneys over an election law suit filed against the Madera Unified School District. According to officials, lawyers initally billed the district for $1.2 million, which was...
Los Angeles countersues to shut down medical marijuana clinics
Posted on August 27, 2010Nearly 30 lawsuits have been filed challenging Los Angeles' ordinance to limit the number of medical marijuana dispensaries to 41. In turn, the city has filed a countersuit asking Superior Court Judge Anthony J. Mohr to back its decision. Under...
Ninth Circuit says Price is right to sue ABC for defamation
Posted on August 25, 2010The Rev. Frederick Price sued ABC and then-"20/20" correspondent John Stossel for defamation in 2007 over footage of a sermon that made it seem Price was boasting about his riches. In fact, in the part of the sermon televised, Price...
Huntington Beach school board member ordered to change election statement
Posted on August 25, 2010Ocean View School District board member John Briscoe will have to change his election statement, according to a Superior Court judge, because it violates election law. According to court documents, candidate statements should not "make reference to other candidates...
Opening statements delivered in Nguyen trial
Posted on August 25, 2010Former congressional candidate Tan Nguyen faces a possible 40 years in prison if convicted on two counts of obstruction of justice, stemming from a controversial campaign letter sent to Latino voters during his run against Loretta Sanchez in 2006. The...
James Thoma joins Reed Smith in Los Angeles
Posted on August 25, 2010Reed Smith has announced the addition of James Thoma to the firm?s growing Entertainment/Media Finance Team in the Corporate & Securities Group in Los Angeles. His practice will continue to focus on media fund formation, major investments in media companies...
Oxnard teen shooting trial stays in Ventura County, but jurors will be drawn from elsewhere
Posted on August 24, 2010Superior Court Judge Charles Campbell has ordered that jurors in the Brandon McInerney trial be drawn from Santa Barbara County rather than Ventura County, agreeing with the defense's contention that intense press coverage threatened the 16-year-old's right to a fair...
Lesbian minister to be tried in Presbyterian court for performing same-sex marriages
Posted on August 24, 2010Reverend Jane Adams Spahr, a lesbian minister who officiated at more than a dozen same-sex marriages during the brief period of gay marriage legality in California, will be tried Thursday in Presbyterian court for violating her denomination's constitution...
Hogan Lovell IP group joins DLA Piper in L.A.
Posted on August 24, 2010DLA Piper has announced that it has added five partners from Hogan Lovells' intellectual property practice to its Los Angeles office. The group includes Richard de Bodo, a former IP practice leader at Hogan Lovells whose clients have included Dow...
Judge Turrentine, who served 40 years on the bench, dies
Posted on August 24, 2010U.S. District Court Judge Howard Boyd Turrentine died of natural causes Friday at his home in Point Loma. He was 96. Born Jan. 22, 1914 in Escondido, Judge Turrentine graduated from the University of Southern California Law School in 1939...
SoCal Edison sued for alleged role in fire
Posted on August 24, 2010Several cases against Southern California Edison regarding its alleged role in causing the 2007 Grass Valley Fire will be heard jointly by Superior Court Judge Janet Frangie in San Bernardino. The original suit, filed in 2008 on behalf of Craig...
Father-and-son hedge fund managers hit with suit
Posted on August 22, 2010A lawsuit has been filed by angry investors in a pair of small hedge funds catering to Silicon Valley Indian professionals. The suit alleges that Vishwsas Godbole and his son Neil, who ran the funds, concocted a "systematic and organized...
Ex-high school football coach can proceed with suit against district
Posted on August 22, 2010Football coach Marty Martin sued Clovis Unified School District two years ago in Fresno County Superior Court, claiming pressure from parents led to his firing after only one season with the Golden Eagles. Despite the efforts of the district to...
Kramer new IP partner at Quinn Emanuel
Posted on August 22, 2010Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP has announced the addition of intellectual property attorney Karin Kramer as a partner in their Redwood City office. Most recently a partner with Howrey, Kramer has been a trial attorney for more than 30...
Comey leaves Shanghai, returns to Palo Alto
Posted on August 18, 2010Morrison & Foerster announced today that corporate partner Chuck Comey has relocated from the firm?s Shanghai office to its Palo Alto office after 16 years in Asia. Mr. Comey will leverage his extensive experience in Asia in advising on cross-border....
Lying about military medals is not a crime, says 9th Circuit
Posted on August 18, 2010Xavier Alvarez was elected in 2006 to the Three Valley Water District board in Pomona and, during a public meeting in 2007, introduced himself as a retired Marine who was once awarded the Medal of Honor. It not only turned...
Same-sex marriage to wait until December, says 9th Circuit
Posted on August 17, 2010The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals decided yesterday to put same-sex marriage on hold until at least December, when the court will hear the Proposition 8 challenge on an expedited basis and hold arguments. The three-judge panel also ordered...
Judge frees man serving life sentence under three-strikes law
Posted on August 17, 2010Judge Peter Espinoza ordered the release yesterday of Gregory Taylor, a 48-year-old man who had been serving a life sentence for attempting to break into a church soup kitchen. Taylor had previously been committed two robberies to support a drug...
San Diego notches a win in transient occupancy tax fight
Posted on August 17, 2010San Diego is one of several cities and government entities that have sued online travel companies claiming that the taxes they charge should be based on the retail price of the room and not on the wholesale price that hotels...
Five Seyfarth attorneys join Sheppard Mullin in L.A.
Posted on August 17, 2010Five more labor and employment attorneys join Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP from Seyfarth Shaw LLP. Special counsel David Van Pelt and associates Jennifer Abramowitz, Laurie Barnes, Paul Berkowitz and Kate Visosky and class action clerk Erica Ibsen reunite...
Salas gets probation, community service for faking her own kidnapping
Posted on August 16, 2010Nancy Salas, a 23-year-old resident of Glendale, disappeared on May 12 after telling family members she was going for a run. She did not reappear until the following day at Carpet One in Merced, when she claimed to have been...
Jury acquits former investigator of two charges, deadlocked on remainder
Posted on August 16, 2010This past Friday Janet Virginia Strong was acquitted of two misdemeanor charges that she filed false reports. The jury agreed with Strong's defense attorney, Charles Goldwasser, when he argued that Strong had appropriately exercised her discretion when she checked a...
Thomas joins Jenner & Block in L.A.
Posted on August 16, 2010Andrew J. (?A.J.?) Thomas, has joined Jenner & Block as a partner in its Los Angeles office. Mr. Thomas has significant experience in copyright, trademark, misappropriation, theft-of-ideas, First Amendment, and complex business litigation matters. Mr...
Prison time for Greens in entertainment industry FCPA case
Posted on August 13, 2010U.S. District Judge George Wu has sentenced film producer Gerald Green and his wife Patricia to six months in prison and six months home confinement each for paying $1.8 million in bribes to a high-ranking government official in Thailand in...
McDonough attorneys go to BB&K, among others
Posted on August 13, 2010Eighteen lawyers from McDonough Holland & Allen PC will be joining Best Best & Krieger on September 1st. The group includes Ed Quinn, McDonough?s chief executive officer, redevelopment attorney T. Brent Hawkins and city attorneys Iris Yang and Harriet Steiner...
New life for Monteilh's suit
Posted on August 13, 2010On Thursday, federal Judge James V. Selna seemed poised to dismiss a case brought by former FBI informant Craig Monteilh against the federal agency. Monteilh alleged law enforcement agencies violated his civil rights and endangered his life while he was...
BB&K tangled in Bell scandal
Posted on August 11, 2010California Attorney General Jerry Brown Jr. has subpoenaed records from Riverside-based firm Best Best & Krieger in an investigation of the pay packages for city officials in Bell, Calif., where a scandal involving high salaries has spiraled into possible civil...
Judge orders something special for plaintiffs in Wells Fargo class action
Posted on August 11, 2010In a 90-page order filed today, U.S. District Judge William Alsup ruled that Wells Fargo will pay close to $203 million in a class action that alleged the bank processed debit card overdrafts in order to maximize fees. The plaintiffs...
Prop 8 appealed by Imperial County
Posted on August 11, 2010Imperial County has filed an appeal with the 9th Circuit challenging Judge Walker's Prop 8 ruling. According to the LA Times, about 70 percent of voters in Imperial County approved the proposition. The county is being represented by the Christian...
Fight over furloughs continues with new ruling
Posted on August 10, 2010Last Friday Alameda County Superior Court Judge Steven A. Brick sided with the unions suing to stop Governor Schwarzenegger from implementing three monthly furlough days, roughly the equivalent of a 14% pay cut for nearly 150,000 state workers, that would...
Court of Appeals tells Merritt to put up or throw out
Posted on August 10, 2010Yesterday the California Court of Appeal ordered Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Hilleri G. Merritt to show a compelling reason why the Los Angeles Times should not print photographs taken of Alberd Tersargyan at his arraignment hearing, or else...
To Bill, says judge, with not so much love: no college course for community service
Posted on August 10, 2010It's safe to say that U.S. District Judge John Walter in Los Angeles is no fan of Bill Lerach. Apart from overseeing the criminal case that federal prosecutors brought against Lerach's former law firm, now called Milberg LLP, and several...
Shareholder settlement approved in wake of New Century collapse
Posted on August 10, 2010Yesterday U.S. District Judge Dean D. Pregerson granted preliminary approval to a $125 million cash settlement for shareholders of bankrupt New Century Financial Corp., one of the largest lenders to collapse during the subprime mortgage meltdown. The settlement involves three...
Renowned Manatt litigator Robert Zeavin dies
Posted on August 09, 2010Robert Zeavin, co-chair of Manatt, Phelps & Phillips? national trial practice, died on the evening of Thursday, July 29, in Salt Lake City, following a heart attack. He was 59. Based in Los Angeles, Mr. Zeavin was a highly-regarded litigator,...
Claims of juror misconduct call Skilled Healthcare settlement into question
Posted on August 09, 2010A motion filed last week in the Skilled Healthcare settlement talks has complicated matters, as defense attorneys call for a mistrial alleging juror misconduct. Defense attorneys claim that a member of the jury lied on court documents about her previous...
The heart of the matter: copyright infringement
Posted on August 09, 2010In June, Judge James V. Selna of United States District Court in Santa Ana sided with musician Don Henley and his collaborators, Mike Campbell and Danny Kortchmar, in a claim that California Republican Senatorial candidate Chuck DeVore used parodies of...
Alston & Bird's Millar migrates to L.A.
Posted on August 09, 2010Alston & Bird has announced the relocation of tax partner Ethan Millar from Atlanta to the Los Angeles office. Millar is a nationally recognized leader in the area of multistate and federal taxation, having represented major business entities across the...
No redemption for O.C. tax preparer
Posted on August 09, 2010U.S. District Judge James V. Selna of the Central District of California has permanently barred Thanh Viet Jeremy Cao, a 28-year-old Orange County man, and his Lake Forest-based business Phoenix Financial Management Group from preparing federal tax returns...
Pokladowski joins UC Irvine Extension as director of paralegal and legal programs
Posted on August 06, 2010University of California, Irvine Extension has announced the appointment of Tom Pokladowski, Esq. as the director for its paralegal and legal programs. As a part of the business, management and legal department?s management team, Pokladowski will oversee the promotion and...
Judge orders L.A. Times photographer to stop taking photos at arraignment, despite prior permission
Posted on August 06, 2010Alberd Tersargyan was in court for a scheduled arraignment on multiple murder counts in connection with the slayings of four people from 2008 to 2010. Prior to the arraignment, Judge Hilleri G. Merritt approved a written request by Los Angeles...
Lorenzini joins Elkins Kalt
Posted on August 06, 2010Elkins Kalt Weintraub Reuben Gartside LLP has announced the addition of Eric J. Lorenzini as an Of Counsel litigator. Lorenzini is an attorney with nine years of experience in commercial litigation. He joins the Century City-based firm to grow its...
SEC red-lights alleged fake green energy scheme
Posted on August 06, 2010Yesterday the SEC charged two alleged Orange County boiler-room operators and four salesmen with conducting a fraudulent green-energy investment scheme. According to the complaint, investors were told their money would fund an environmentally friendly energy business, but out of $11...
Attorney John Kristensen on Toyota and the NHTSA
Posted on August 05, 2010Among the multitudes of Toyota's woes, the company faces an investigation by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration into a 2005 recall involving steering-related problems in 4Runners, trucks and pickups. NHTSA had been tipped off by John Kristensen, a lawyer...
Councilman and wife indicted for voter fraud
Posted on August 05, 2010After a 15-month investigation by the district attorney's Public Integrity Division, a grand jury indicted Los Angeles City Councilman Richard Alarcon and his wife, Flora Montes de Oca, on a total of 24 felony counts. The indictment stems from allegations...
Suit in O.C. claims adulterated olive oils being sold as extra-virgin
Posted on August 05, 2010A suit filed in Orange County Superior Court this week claims that several retailers and producers of olive oil have been misleading Californians for years about the quality of the olive oil they've been selling and marking up the costs....
New complex commercial litigation partner at McGuireWoods in L.A.
Posted on August 05, 2010McGuireWoods LLP announced that Brooks Gresham has joined the firm's Los Angeles office as a partner with the Complex Commercial Litigation group. Prior to joining McGuireWoods, Gresham served as of counsel to Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP. He has...
Walker deep-sixes Prop 8, but long road ahead
Posted on August 05, 2010It may have escaped your notice, but on Wednesday Chief Judge Vaughn Walker struck down Proposition 8. In his 136-page decision, Walker said that the measure "fails to advance any rational basis in singling out gay men and lesbians for...
California consumer protections cited in first consolidated Toyota complaint
Posted on August 04, 2010Lawyers in the multidistrict litigation against Toyota Motor Corp. filed their first consolidated complaint on Monday. The MDL involves more than 200 lawsuits filed after Toyota recalled more than 8 million vehicles for defects associated with unintended acceleration ? specifically,...
Former investigator to be tried for filing false reports
Posted on August 04, 2010Janet Strong, a former Orange County Sheriff's Department investigator, will be tried today on charges of filing false reports and lying that she had contacted victims of crimes. Prosecutors allege that Strong filed five such false reports between September 2006...
New name at Jeffer Mangels
Posted on August 04, 2010Jeffer Mangels Butler & Marmaro LLP has announced it is changing its name to Jeffer Mangels Butler & Mitchell LLP. The name change is effective August 5, 2010 and coincides with the date that Marc Marmaro, one of the firm?s...
Death row inmate challenges new lethal injection procedures
Posted on August 03, 2010Mitchell Sims, a 50-year-old death row inmate, has claimed in a suit that the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has rushed through revising procedures for lethal injection, deliberately kept the public out of the loop, and consequently executions are...
ACLU goes to bat again for mentally disabled immigrants
Posted on August 03, 2010After having sued successfully for the release of Jose Antonio Franco-Gonzalez, the ACLU of Southern California, along with other civil rights groups, has named him in a new suit among six other plaintiffs. The lawsuit demands that federal officials test...
Countrywide settlement ok'd in L.A.
Posted on August 03, 2010U.S. District Judge Mariana Pfaelzer in Los Angeles gave approval yesterday to an agreement in which Countrywide Financial Corp. will pay $600 million to settle shareholder lawsuits. The settlement would end several class-action lawsuits that claimed Countrywide was loosening loan...
Lead counsel named in Toyota shareholder suit
Posted on August 03, 2010This past June, U.S. District Judge Dale Fischer in Los Angeles consolidated seven class actions against Toyota. But she held off on deciding lead counsel pending the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Morrison v. National Australia Bank. The high court....
Cal Supremes set limits on courts' parole decisions
Posted on August 02, 2010On Thursday the California Supreme Court, in deciding two unrelated cases, unanimously held that courts should not order prisoners released or "place improper limitations" on the type of evidence the state Board of Parole Hearings considers. Michael Prather was sentenced...
New office in Oakland for Burke Williams & Sorenson
Posted on August 02, 2010Burke Williams & Sorenson LLP will open an office in Oakland with 12 attorneys from the disbanding firm McDonough Holland & Allen P.C. The moves are effective Sept. 1. The 12 attorneys will specialize in public law, which involves counseling...
New of counsel for Connolly Bove in L.A.
Posted on August 02, 2010Connolly Bove Lodge & Hutz LLP has announced that Sanjesh Sharma, previously of Hogan & Hartson LLP, has joined the firm as of counsel at their Los Angeles office in the Intellectual Property Group. Sharma primarily focuses her practice on...
Brouhaha brewing over Ansel Adams negatives' authenticity
Posted on July 29, 2010Rick Norsigian, a 64-year-old Fresno resident, announced on Tuesday that 60 glass negatives he purchased at a garage sale nearly a decade ago are early works of photographer Ansel Adams. An appraiser has valued the negatives at nearly $200 million....
McClintock joins Glaser Weil in L.A.
Posted on July 29, 2010Glaser, Weil, Fink, Jacobs, Howard & Shapiro, LLP, has announced that Greg McClintock has become an Of Counsel member of the Firm. Mr. McClintock has more than 35 years of experience in the field of environmental law, much of it...
Three new partners from Seyfarth Shaw join Sheppard Mullin in L.A.
Posted on July 28, 2010Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP has announced the addition of three partners to the firm's Labor and Employment practice group. Thomas R. Kaufman, Michael L. Gallion and Gregg A. Fisch. Kaufman, Gallion and Fisch join Sheppard Mullin's Los Angeles/Century...
Titans' suit accuses Kiffin, USC of improper hiring protocol
Posted on July 27, 2010The Tennessee Titans have filed suit against USC and coach Lane Kiffin over the hiring of Titans assistant Kennedy Pola as offensive coordinator. The Titans accuse both Kiffin and the university of "maliciously" intending to have Pola breach his contract...
Kaye Scholer gets former Dewey partners in Menlo Park
Posted on July 27, 2010Kaye Scholer LLP has announced that Barbara Caulfield, Michael J. Malecek and Peter Root have joined Kaye Scholer?s Menlo Park office as Partners in its Intellectual Property practice. Caulfield, Malecek and Root were previously Partners at Dewey & LeBoeuf...
City wants Scalzo Trust verdict set aside
Posted on July 27, 2010The city of San Juan Capistrano has filed two motions in trial court in an attempt to either have a nearly $7 million judgment against the city tossed and a new trial granted in a housing development case, or for...
Closing arguments wrap up DADT trial in Riverside
Posted on July 26, 2010Closing arguments were given in the "Don't Ask Don't Tell" trial in Riverside on Friday. Last month, U.S. District Judge Virginia Phillips set forth the standard of proof that both sides had to meet. She based it on the U.S....
Attorneys for retired NFL players sued by their clients
Posted on July 26, 2010Two plaintiff classes of retired NFL players are claiming that their attorneys failed to adequately represent them in a breach of contract lawsuit against the NFL Players Association. The players allege, in the underlying action, that the NFLPA neglected to...
9th Circuit says Mattel can't beat on the Bratz
Posted on July 26, 2010The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has overturned an order from December 2008 that ordered MGA to stop manufacturing the Bratz dolls after a four-year dispute. The three-judge panel found the remedy far too broad, and in his opinion...
Feds say Karatz advice-of-counsel defense isn't believable
Posted on July 22, 2010In attempting to quash Bruce Karatz's motion for a new trial, federal prosecutors argued that the former KB Home chief executive could not have relied on advice about stock-options backdating from his company's general counsel because he lied during an...
Mortimer and Larris join Sacks Glazier
Posted on July 22, 2010Sacks Glazier Franklin & Lodise LLP has announced the addition of two new attorneys to its team: J?lene C. Mortimer and Lindsay K. Larris. Ms. Mortimer was previously a litigation associate with Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, LLP. She received...
Court of Appeals will not throw out malpractice case against Lewis Brisbois
Posted on July 22, 2010The California 2d District Court of Appeal affirmed a trial judge's denial of Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith's bid to throw out a $13 million legal malpractice case brought by former client Kmart Corp. The firm had proposed that the...
Lance Armstrong retains Sheppard partner in doping investigation
Posted on July 22, 2010The New York Daily News reported yesterday that Lance Armstrong has hired Sheppard Mullin's Bryan Daly to represent him in the investigation by federal prosecutors into allegations of doping on Armstrong's cycling teams. Floyd Landis, a former teammate of Armstrong's...
Discovery agreement reached in Toyota MDL
Posted on July 21, 2010U.S. District Judge James Selna, the judge in the MDL against Toyota Motor Corp., approved a joint discovery plan yesterday, forestalling a fight over access to evidence. The agreement allows Toyota's lawyers to investigate the vehicles at issue and plaintiffs'...
SoCal Edison sued for racial discrimination
Posted on July 21, 2010A lawsuit has been filed in Los Angeles Superior Court alleging a "racially hostile" work environment at Southern California Edison, where, a group of 11 current and former black employees claim, few blacks are in senior management. The suit also...
Two OC jails will house federal immigration detainees
Posted on July 21, 2010More than 800 federal immigration detainees will now be housed at the James A. Musick Facility near Irvine and the Theo Lacy Facility in Orange, thanks to a contract approved by Orange County supervisors on Tuesday. The move will also...
Governor names Cantil-Sakauye to be next chief justice
Posted on July 21, 2010Governor Schwarzenegger has nominated 3rd District Court of Appeal Justice Tani Gorre Cantil-Sakauye to be chief justice of the California Supreme Court. This would make her the first Filipina American to lead the state's judiciary and also give the California...
Liberal professors have an edge at law schools, says study
Posted on July 21, 2010Researchers from the University of California, Berkeley School of Law have released the first study to focus on the political leanings of law professors. Their conclusion? Law schools hire more openly liberal professors than openly conservatives ones...
Appeals court says Ralphs can regulate pickets on store property
Posted on July 20, 2010The Third District Court of Appeal ruled yesterday that an injunction be issued to block the United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 8 from picketing a Foods Co. grocery store. The case, Ralphs Grocery Company v. United Food and...
Three new labor and employment partners for Sidley in L.A.
Posted on July 20, 2010Sidley Austin LLP announced yesterday that it has added three partners to the firm?s labor and employment practice. Douglas R. Hart, Jennifer B. Zargarof and Geoffrey D. DeBoskey are based in the firm?s Los Angeles office, where they will focus...
Investors sue Deutsche Bank and Nevada Property 1 over late condos
Posted on July 20, 2010Deutsche Bank and Nevada Property 1, owners of a casino-hotel resort named Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, are being sued by condominium buyers who allege the residential units they bought in 2005 aren't being built after all. The suit claims the...
Court finds Marsch's testimony unreliable in Lennar case
Posted on July 20, 2010The Superior Court of the State of California in San Diego issued a tentative decision on Friday in a highly publicized legal dispute between partners over alleged losses at the Bridges at Rancho Santa Fe. The court says testimony from...
Attorneys for McInerney seek judge recusal
Posted on July 20, 2010Brandon McInerney's defense attorneys want Ventura County Superior Court Judge Charles Campbell to recuse himself before the trial begins. On the heels of the judge denying the defense's request for more time to prepare for trial, McInerney's lawyers claim that...
Baker Hostetler expands Costa Mesa office
Posted on July 20, 2010Baker Hostetler announced yesterday that Alan J. Kessel and Vikki Vander Woude have joined the firm in their Costa Mesa office. Kessel joins as Partner and Woude joins as Of Counsel, and they will be members of the firm's Litigation...
Pleasanton reaches tentative settlement with Urban Habitat over home cap
Posted on July 19, 2010Urban Habitat, a regional environmental justice group, filed suit against the city of Pleasanton in 2006 over the city's 29,000-home cap approved by voters in 1996. Attorneys for the group said in the suit that the cap failed to allow...
L.A. attorney pleads no contest to pressuring witness
Posted on July 19, 2010Sean Erenstoft of the Law Office of Sean Erenstoft in Sherman Oaks is expected to lose his law license after pleading no contest to criminal charges that he pressured a witness against testifying against his client in a stalking case,...
Pay cuts for state workers rejected -- for now
Posted on July 19, 2010Judge Patrick Marlette of Sacramento County Superior Court denied an injunction sought by Governor Schwarzenegger to cut the pay of more than 200,000 state workers. The governor has maintained, and two courts have agreed, that state law requires the reductions...
These are not the lasers you're looking for, but maybe this cease-and-desist letter is ...
Posted on July 19, 2010Via Techdirt: Earlier this month Lucasfilms Ltd. sent a cease-and-desist letter to a Hong Kong-based company named Wicked Lasers, whose latest high-powered product too closely resembled the lightsaber from Lucas' Star Wars films. The letter called the Pro Arctic laser...
And Tellez makes three: Chaney tosses Dole verdict
Posted on July 16, 2010Judge Victoria Chaney, acting as a Los Angeles County, Calif., Superior Court judge, threw out a $2.3 million verdict against Dole Food Co., ruling that widespread fraud orchestrated by the plaintiffs' attorneys prevented the food company from deposing witnesses...
Gallo, accused of killing Adenhart, will be tried in Orange County
Posted on July 16, 2010Orange County Superior Court Judge Richard Toohey has denied a motion to move the trial of a driver accused of killing Angels pitcher Nick Adenhart and two of his friends. Toohey rejected the argument that defendant Andrew Thomas Gallo can't...
Two new Akin Gump partners in L.A.
Posted on July 16, 2010Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP has announced that Dino E. Barajas and Elliot Hinds have joined the firm as partners in Los Angeles. Their practices encompass project finance, M&A, private equity transactions, joint ventures and debt finance. Mr.....
New partner at Michelman & Robinson
Posted on July 15, 2010Michelman & Robinson, LLP, has announced that Mark H. Zafrin has joined the firm as a partner in its Corporate & Securities Department. Mr. Zafrin will divide his time between M&R's New York and Los Angeles offices. Mr. Zafrin specializes...
Appeals court suggests 'Crude' outtakes may be limited
Posted on July 15, 2010Joe Berlinger, the director of the documentary "Crude," may have to turn over some outtakes to Chevron after all, according to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The three-judge panel seemed to agree with the previous decision by U.S....
California violates privacy with DNA law, says ACLU
Posted on July 15, 2010A three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals heard arguments Tuesday in a civil rights lawsuit filed by the ACLU aimed at striking down a voter-approved measure to collect DNA samples from anyone in California facing felony...
Attorneys reach predatory lending settlement with Wells Fargo on behalf of NAACP
Posted on July 15, 2010On Monday, the NAACP recognized attorneys Brian Kabateck and Richard Kellner for their efforts in combating predatory lending against blacks. In April, they reached an agreement with Wells Fargo & Co. that gives the NAACP better access to the bank's....
OC judge dismisses Traudt pot case
Posted on July 14, 2010Via the OC Register: As expected, Orange County Superior Court Judge Nomoto Schumann has dismissed Malinda Traudt's suit, in which she hoped to prevent the city of Dana Point from closing the pot dispensary, Beach Cities Collective, that her parents....
New associate at Levene Neale
Posted on July 14, 2010Levene, Neale, Bender, Yoo & Brill L.L.P. has announced that Lindsey L. Smith has been named an associate at the Los Angeles-based firm. Smith joined Levene Neale from Loyola Law School where she was an admissions reviewer. Previously, she was...
Chevron and Berlinger at NY appeals court over 'Crude' outtakes
Posted on July 14, 2010Oral arguments begin today at the U.S. Court of Appeals in New York in Chevron's action to obtain 600 hours of outtakes from Joe Berlinger's documentary film "Crude," a behind-the-scenes look at a class-action lawsuit in Ecuador the energy giant...
McInerney murder/hate crime trial to begin, says judge
Posted on July 14, 2010Ventura County Superior Court Judge Charles Campbell has denied Brandon McInerney's attorney's request for a three-month delay. Scott Wippert said he needed to interview more witnesses and do some further preparations. Campbell says the defense has had plenty of time...
Don't Ask, Don't Tell trial opens in Riverside
Posted on July 14, 2010A case filed by the Log Cabin Republicans challenging the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy excluding homosexuals from serving in the military has been brought to trial today in front of U.S. District Judge Virginia Phillips in Riverside. The case...
Smith's FCPA sentencing postponed for the fourth time
Posted on July 14, 2010Former Pacific Consolidated Industries LP executive Leo Winston Smith pleaded guilty last year to conspiring to pay $71,000 in bribes in the United Kingdom to a Defense Ministry official so that PCI secure Royal Air Force contracts worth some $11...
SoCal woman sentenced for self-texting threats
Posted on July 13, 2010Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. Especially one with an unlimited text plan. Jeanne Mundango Manunga, a 25-year-old woman from Santa Ana, was sentenced to a year in jail last Friday for sending hundreds of threatening text messages...
McTiernan pleads guilty in Pellicano wiretapping case
Posted on July 13, 2010Film director John McTiernan has pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI and a federal judge about having paid Anthony Pellicano $50,000 to wiretap a Hollywood producer's phone. McTiernan's lawyers have described the plea as a "conditional guilty plea that...
Dismissal expected in Dana Point med-marijuana suit
Posted on July 13, 2010Orange County Superior Court Judge Nomoto Schumann has issued a tentative ruling that dismisses Malinda Traudt's case against Dana Point in which she sued to keep the medical marijuana dispensary Beach Cities Collective open. Traudt's family purchases the drug from...
Former Rehab Financial prez pleads guilty on embezzlement charges
Posted on July 13, 2010Belinda Exon, the former president of now-defunct Rehab Financial, pleaded guilty yesterday to one felony charge of embezzling $3.9 million in federal funds meant for low-income housing loans in 23 California cities, most of them in Southern California...
Brownstein Hyatt adds three in L.A.
Posted on July 13, 2010Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck has announced that Les Lo Baugh and Karol K. Denniston have joined the firm?s Los Angeles office as its newest shareholders. Joining Denniston in her transition to Brownstein is former DLA Piper corporate restructuring associate, Brendan...
Judge consolidates iPhone suits into class action
Posted on July 13, 2010Class action suits over the iPhone 4. A new Consumer Reports study that gives the thumbs-down to the iPhone 4's antenna. And now this: Judge James Ware of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California has consolidated...
9th Circuit rules for reconsideration of Guatemalan woman's asylum case
Posted on July 13, 2010The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has reversed two immigration courts' deportation orders for Lesly Yajayra Perdomo, an illegal immigrant from Guatemala who had petitioned the immigration courts for asylum in 2003. Perdomo had cited the high rate of...
Hacker retained by former KB Home CEO Karatz
Posted on July 13, 2010Bruce Karatz has retained Jonathan Hacker, an appellate specialist at O'Melveny & Myers, for his legal team. Hacker, who is a partner in the Washington office of Los Angeles-based O'Melveny, has written briefs in dozens of cases before the U.S....
Dole disciplinary action results in suspension for Walter Lack, reprimand for Thomas Girardi
Posted on July 13, 2010Walter Lack, of the Los Angeles firm Engstrom, Lipscomb & Lack, has been suspended for six months from practicing in front of the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals. The penalty was handed down because of the fraudulent appellate briefs...
No lifelines for Disney in 'Millionaire' verdict
Posted on July 12, 2010Last Wednesday a federal jury awarded Celador International, Ltd. $269.4 million in damages after unanimously finding that Disney subsidiaries, ABC Television, Buena Vista Television, and Valleycrest Productions, Ltd. had breached their contract with Celador to share profits from the game...
Two of counsel and one associate join Murchison & Cumming
Posted on July 12, 2010Murchison & Cumming, LLP has announced that Carlos E. Needham and Steven C. Spronz have become Of Counsel to the firm and that Molly E. Healy has joined the firm as an associate. Carlos Needham, formerly a partner at Manatt,...
Publicity rights suit a disaster for Love
Posted on July 12, 2010Talk about feeling broke up. Via Techdirt: A few years back former Beach Boy Brian Wilson released an album in the UK by distributing copies to all the subscribers of the UK newspaper The Mail in the UK and Ireland....
ADR Services forms Korean Specialty Panel
Posted on July 12, 2010Many civil cases filings in Southern California courts involve some Korean element, whether Korean parties, Korean legal issues or business customs. To that end, ADR Services, Inc., announces the formation of its Korean Specialty Panel. Two prominent figures in Korean...
Milbank partner forms his own firm to "connect more closely" with clients
Posted on July 08, 2010Gregory Evans has left Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy, where he was a litigation partner, to form his own firm, Integer Law Corporation. It's a move he'd been considering since the economic downturn. He says, "I want to, in this...
Appeals court stays med-marijuana store closings in Lake Forest
Posted on July 08, 2010The 4th District Court of Appeal has granted a temporary stay allowing two medical marijuana dispensaries to remain open in the city of Lake Forest. Those dispensaries are Lake Forest Wellness Center and Collective and Independent Collective of Orange County...
Pasadena Playhouse comes out of Chapter 11
Posted on July 08, 2010Pasadena Playhouse has announced that after nearly two months, they have emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy and their financial reorganization plan has been approved by the courts. The Playhouse's executive director Steven Eich praised the "indefatigable efforts" of pro bono...
A burger by any other name ...
Posted on July 08, 2010Call it TEFKAF: The Eatery Formerly Known as Fatburger. Richard Brown had opened a Fatburger franchise in 1991, but went independent when his contract was up in 1999, renaming his establishment "Biggie's Burgers & More." In 2004 Brown noticed that...
DLA Piper snags former SEC attorney in Los Angeles
Posted on July 08, 2010This week DLA Piper announced that Patrick Hunnius has joined the firm as Senior Counsel in its Litigation practice in Los Angeles. Hunnius joins DLA Piper from White & Case in Los Angeles. Hunnius has a wide range of experience...
Rysher will appeal
Posted on July 08, 2010Bart H. Williams of Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP has released a statement proclaiming Rysher Entertainment's intentions to appeal yesterday's "Nash Bridges" verdict.
Under pressure from environmental groups, Berkeley attorney withdraws from delta panel
Posted on July 07, 2010Richard Roos-Collins, a Berkeley environmental lawyer, was one of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's appointees to the newly created Delta Stewardship. He had been working on the Bay Delta Conservation Plan for several years. That plan was an effort to rehabilitate the...
Brandenburg appointed to CA State-Federal Judicial Council Tribal Court Relations Subcommittee
Posted on July 07, 2010Anthony Brandenburg, chief judge of the Intertribal Court of Southern California, has been appointed by California Chief Justice Ronald M. George, and Senior Circuit Judge Arthur L. Alarcón of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, to serve...
Maximum damages levied against country's largest nursing home chain
Posted on July 07, 2010More than seven months after it began, what many believe to be the longest civil suit in Humboldt County history has finally come to an end. The jury in the class-action lawsuit against Skilled Healthcare opted to impose the maximum...
New tax partner and associate for Loeb & Loeb in L.A.
Posted on July 07, 2010Loeb & Loeb has announced that Chris Campbell joined the firm?s Tax Group as a partner in the Los Angeles office. Campbell will be joined by associate Ryan Austin. Campbell and Austin join from O?Melveny and Myers. Chris Campbell focuses...
Don Johnson awarded $23.2 million in 'Nash Bridges' back profits
Posted on July 07, 2010Don Johnson once sang about "looking for a heartbeat." He found one in a Los Angeles jury today. The actor had sued Rysher Entertainment, 2929 Entertainment and Qualia Capital for close to $100 million he said he was owed for...
Toyota MDL gets two special masters
Posted on July 06, 2010U.S. District Judge James Selna has appointed John Trotter and Steven Stone as special masters to help him move the more than 200 lawsuits against Toyota Motor Corp. through the court. Stone and Trotter will focus particularly on discovery matters....
Appeals court approves Schwarzenegger's minimum wage order for state workers
Posted on July 06, 2010The 3rd District Court of Appeal in Sacramento ruled on Friday in favor of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger reducing state workers' pay to the federal minimum wage because the state budget is late. This would amount, for most employees, to $7.25...
L.A. Judge delays med-marijuana decision
Posted on July 06, 2010Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Anthony J. Mohr put off a decision last week on whether to bar the city from enforcing its new medical marijuana ordinance against Green Horizon Collective in Chatsworth, 420 Caregivers in Hollywood, 420 Collective...
ACLU sues FBI challenging no-fly list
Posted on July 06, 2010Corona resident Halime Sat joined nine plaintiffs in a case filed by the ACLU against head officials at the FBI. The suit challenges the U.S. government's no-fly list, calling it unconstitutional and a violation of the Immigration and Nationality Act...
New tax partner for DLA Piper in L.A.
Posted on July 06, 2010DLA Piper has announced that Michael F. Patton has joined the firm?s Tax practice as a partner in the Los Angeles office. He joins from Ernst & Young, where he was a Principal and a member of the International Tax...
Pierce O'Donnell asks for a rehearing
Posted on July 02, 2010Trial attorney Pierce O'Donnell was indicted on charges that he reimbursed 13 employees of his law firm, now called O'Donnell & Associates in Los Angeles, and others who contributed $26,000 in 2003 to the presidential campaign of former U.S. Sen....
Mullin joins Alston & Bird
Posted on July 02, 2010Alston & Bird LLP has announced the addition of Marsha Mullin, previously of Jones Day, as counsel in their Los Angeles office. Mullin primarily focuses her practice on patent infringement actions involving a wide variety of technologies, including communications satellites,...
iPhone 4 users looking for face time in court
Posted on July 02, 2010As of Thursday afternoon, three class actions were pending against Apple in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California over the "death grip" of the latest iPhone 4's allegedly defective antenna. On Tuesday, Sacramento firm Kershaw, Cutter...
Governor appoints, among others, 11 L.A. Superior Court judges
Posted on July 01, 2010Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger appointed 11 judges to the Los Angeles Superior Court yesterday. He also named five others to state superior courts and tapped a new justice for the Fifth District Court of Appeal, according to the Metropolitan News-Enterprise...
Latest angle in Catholic Church sex abuse suits: fraud
Posted on July 01, 2010The Sacramento Bee has a story today about attorney Joseph George, who is utilizing what law professor Larry Levine calls "a creative legal theory" to combat clergy sexual abuse: suing the California Catholic Church for fraud and negligence. George has...
Judge dismisses Metrolink camera challenge
Posted on July 01, 2010U.S. District Judge Percy Anderson in Los Angeles has dismissed a lawsuit brought by the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen that claimed Metrolink violated employees' rights by installing cameras to monitor train engineer activities. The cameras were placed in...
Bergstein strikes back at creditors in court
Posted on July 01, 2010Pangea Media Group CEO David Bergstein and his allies are not only contesting the facts presented by creditors who brought an involuntary bankruptcy action against him in federal court, but they are demanding that Aramid Capital Partners, which has been...
First-run film online pirates are first nine takedowns in new fed initiative
Posted on July 01, 2010U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Justice Department officials announced yesterday that they have shut down nine Web sites as part of an initiative to bring criminal actions against sites that sell counterfeited goods and pirated movies...
Cherry bombs and 'Cherry Bomb' will proceed in La Jolla
Posted on June 30, 2010La Jolla Cove will get its fireworks show after all. Joan Jett, too. Attorney Marco Gonzalez, representing the Coastal Environmental Rights Foundation, had been trying to have the fireworks show moved off the cove because the aerial explosions harmed the...
Art school owners sued for defrauding immigrants
Posted on June 30, 2010Dozens of immigrant families say they were duped into paying tuition for classes at several art schools that ultimately folded, according to a lawsuit filed yesterday in Los Angeles Superior Court. Trisha Ying Zi Zhang and Edgar Kuckelkorn, the owners...
Parker joins ADR Services
Posted on June 30, 2010ADR Services, Inc. has announced the addition of Keith M. Parker, Esq. to their panel. Formerly a partner with Latham & Watkins representing large employers in discrimination and wrongful termination litigation and large government contractors in civil and criminal investigations,...
New name partner at Levene Neale
Posted on June 30, 2010Levene, Neale, Bender, Rankin & Brill L.L.P. has elected Timothy J. Yoo a name partner and announced that the firm has changed its name to Levene, Neale, Bender, Yoo and Brill L.L.P., effective immediately. Yoo, who focuses primarily on commercial...
Temporary stay issued for Dana Point med-marijuana hearing
Posted on June 29, 2010The 4th District Court of Appeal in Santa Ana issued a temporary stay of a preliminary-injunction hearing scheduled for Tuesday that might have led to the closing of Beach Cities Collective, a medical marijuana dispensary. Malinda Traudt, who was born...
Challenges expected to gun restrictions in wake of Supreme Court ruling
Posted on June 29, 2010The recent Supreme Court decision effectively removing Chicago's three-decade old ban on handguns will undoubtedly lead to legal challenges to similar restrictions in California -- at least, if CalCCW.com gets its way. Greg Block, a Huntington Beach firearms trainer and...
Venable adds Nassiri to bankruptcy practice in L.A.
Posted on June 29, 2010Venable announced today that it has added insolvency and restructuring attorney Jennifer L. Nassiri to its Los Angeles office. She will serve as Of Counsel to the firm. Nassiri comes to Venable from DLA Piper. She came to Venable to...
Former porn actresses sue industry AIDS clinic for breach of privacy
Posted on June 29, 2010Diana Grandmason and Bess Garren, two former adult film actresses, are suing the Adult Industry Medical Health Care Foundation for allegedly breaching the privacy of their medical records. AIM, based in Sherman Oaks, is a nonprofit organization that handles STD...
Review granted in Beverly Hilton case
Posted on June 28, 2010The California Supreme Court has agreed to review an appeal filed by Oasis West Realty LLC, owner of the Beverly Hilton, against Southwest Homeowners Association President Ken Goldman. Goldman represented Oasis for a time when he was with Reed Smith....
Claire E. Shin joins Rutter Hobbs & Davidoff
Posted on June 28, 2010Rutter Hobbs & Davidoff announced today that Claire E. Shin has joined the firm as an associate in their bankruptcy litigation and Asia practice groups. Formerly with Seyfarth Shaw LLP, Shin specializes in the representation of creditors and debtors in...
Appeals court affirms building owners' negligence in earthquake case
Posted on June 28, 2010The Second District Court of Appeals last week upheld a decision issued in San Luis Obispo County Court that ruled in favor of the plaintiffs in an appeal in Leroy Myrick v. Mary Mastagni. The case stems from two deaths...
Five attorneys leave Glaser Weil to form their own firm
Posted on June 25, 2010Five lawyers from Los Angeles-based Glaser Weil Fink Jacobs Howard & Shapiro have left to form their own litigation boutique firm. All five are business litigators. Eric Early, managing partner of the new firm, Early Sullivan Wright Gizer & McRae,...
Class certification ordered for security guard suit
Posted on June 25, 2010The Fourth District Court of Appeal ruled yesterday to partially reverse an order denying class certification in an action against a company that employs security guards throughout Southern California. The suit alleges Boyd & Associates, Inc. failed to pay correct...
USC files appeal with NCAA
Posted on June 25, 2010USC filed its appeal with the NCAA today, saying it will accept the bowl ban for the upcoming season and certain scholarship penalties, but asks for the two-year postseason ban to be reduced to one. The university is also asking...
MOVERS
Posted on June 24, 2010DLA Piper announced that Kurt Ramlo has joined the firm?s Restructuring practice as of counsel in the Los Angeles office. Ramlo provides restructuring advice to business organizations facing financial distress. His practice includes guiding organizations through out-of-court and Chapter 11...
Mortgage fraud alleged against Riverside business
Posted on June 24, 2010A lawsuit filed yesterday in U.S. Central District Court in Los Angeles is seeking an injunction to shut down the operations of The Team Realty Group and Nations West Investments, with offices in Riverside, Grand Terrace and La Habra. This...
No more losing control in the curve for students
Posted on June 24, 2010A recent article in The New York Times says law schools are making their grading systems more lenient. In California, Loyola is retroactively tacking on 0.333 to every grade recorded in the last few years. UCLA, USC, and UC Hastings...
Red-light cameras OK'd in L.A., debated in Stanislaus
Posted on June 24, 2010Unsurprisingly for most, Los Angeles' red-light camera program was temporarily and unanimously exempted yesterday from the city's contracting boycott of Arizona. The multimillion-dollar agreement with Scottsdale-based American Traffic Solutions has been extended in spite of Los Angeles' boycott, prompted by...
Quon and electronic workplace privacy explained by Rutan & Tucker attorneys
Posted on June 24, 2010Last week an article by Jeffrey Wertheimer and Brandon Sylvia of Rutan & Tucker LLP ran in the OC Register explaining the Supreme Court's recent decision in City of Ontario v. Quon and how it affects workers in private companies....
Former studio head to lead Southwestern Law's entertainment program
Posted on June 22, 2010Steven Krone, the former president of Village Roadshow Pictures Entertainment Inc., has been named director of Southwestern University School of Law's Donald E. Biederman Entertainment and Media Law Institute. Krone's appointment came eight months after the institute's longtime director, David...
Crackdown on loan-modification fraud claims another lawyer
Posted on June 22, 2010Another attorney has lost his license as part of the State Bar of California's campaign against attorneys engaged in loan modification misconduct. Brian Colombana of the Law Offices of Brian J. Colombana in Lake Forest, Calif., was placed on involuntary...
Attorney accused of smuggling heroin into jail
Posted on June 22, 2010Michael Inman, a criminal defense attorney at Inman & Associates in Beverly Hills, was charged on Friday with bringing drugs into a jail in downtown Los Angeles. The L.A. County district attorney's office alleged that Inman intended to sell 14.25...
O.C. judge confirmed to federal bench
Posted on June 22, 2010Josephine Tucker was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on Monday as a judge on the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. Tucker began her career at Morrison & Foerster, where she was an associate from 1987 to...
Meet L.A.'s dopest attorney
Posted on June 21, 2010Allison Margolin, a 2002 Harvard Law School graduate has built a solo practice on defending criminal cases of marijuana possession. She says about 70% of her practice focuses on people who have run afoul of California's medical marijuana laws. Fourteen...
Economic-loss class against Toyota faces challenges ahead
Posted on June 21, 2010As plaintiffs' lawyers prepare to file their consolidated class action on behalf of Toyota consumers, they face an obstacle that has prevented similar claims from advancing in the past: Class members didn't actually suffer physical injuries. The class members assert...
Jeffer Mangels real estate finance team jumps ship -- again
Posted on June 21, 2010Four lawyers at Jeffer, Mangels, Butler & Marmaro, plus staff, are packing their bags for the second time in 18 months. The real estate finance team last week joined Atlanta-based Troutman Sanders. Martin Taylor, Dan Chambers and Jennifer Irrgang Bojorquez...
Carole Handler leaves Wildman for Lathrop
Posted on June 18, 2010Copyright expert Carole Handler has jumped to Lathrop & Gage's Los Angeles office after only two years in the Beverly Hills, Calif., office of Wildman, Harrold, Allen & Dixon. Handler, now of counsel at Kansas City, Mo.-based Lathrop & Gage,...
Irvine lawyer sentenced for blowing trust fund in stock market
Posted on June 18, 2010A Southern California lawyer who lost more than $2 million from a class action settlement by investing client trust funds in the stock market has been sentenced to 18 months in prison. Sandeep Baweja of the Baweja Law Group in...
Orange County's first LGBT bar association is established
Posted on June 17, 2010James Moloney, a partner at Los Angeles-based Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher has helped found Orange County's first lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) bar association. The Orange County Lavender Bar Association was launched during a gathering on the rooftop of...
Petillon Hiraide & Loomis and Zagzebski Brothers merge
Posted on June 17, 2010Petillon Hiraide & Loomis LLP and Zagzebski Brothers LLP have announced the combination of their practices to form Petillon Hiraide Loomis Zagzebski & Zagzebski LLP. The new firm will continue its predecessors' practices in corporate finance on behalf of early...
Oddo joins Robbins Umeda
Posted on June 17, 2010Robbins Umeda LLP has announced that Stephen J. Oddo joined the firm as partner, effective June 1, 2010. Formerly a partner at Coughlin Stoia Geller Rudman & Robbins, LLP (now known as Robbins, Geller, Rudman & Dowd, LLP), Mr. Oddo...
'Food from the Bar' raises over $285,000
Posted on June 17, 2010The 2nd annual "Food from the Bar" campaign was held this year from April 19 through May 14, inviting the legal community in Los Angeles to raise food and funds for the Los Angeles Regional Foodbank. Participating law firms and...
Preliminary settlement reached in L.A. autism case
Posted on June 17, 2010A preliminary settlement agreement has been approved by the Los Angeles Superior Court in the class action Benito R., et. al. v. Eastern Los Angeles Regional Center, et. al. The suit was filed on behalf of hundreds of children with...
Jeff Rawitz, successful Carona defender, dies
Posted on June 17, 2010Jeffrey M. Rawitz, the former Jones Day partner who helped defend Orange County Sheriff Mike Carona, died Sunday evening from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig's disease. He was 46. Known for his bulldog demeanor during the trial, Rawitz consistently...
Berman and Smiles join Seyfarth Shaw's Labor & Employment department
Posted on June 16, 2010Seyfarth Shaw announced today that Jeffrey A. Berman and Joan E. Smiles have joined the firm in the Los Angeles office. Berman is a partner in the Labor & Employment department, and Smiles is of counsel. Berman?s practice spans traditional...
In NCAA appeals process, USC is really up against it
Posted on June 16, 2010The NCAA has hit USC with some severe penalties because of what it says was a "lack of institutional control" over its athletic programs and violations with Heisman Trophy running back Reggie Bush and basketball star O.J. Mayo's involvement with...
Lawsuit complicates desal plant plans
Posted on June 16, 2010The San Diego County Water Authority is considering a subsidy that would help Poseidon Resources Corp. build its proposed desalination plant. But last week the authority decided to sue Metropolitan Water District, alleging that Southern California's main wholesaler was excessively...
Atzen joins Sheppard Mullin in Los Angeles
Posted on June 16, 2010Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP has announced the addition of Jon Atzen to its Los Angeles/Downtown office as a partner in their corporate practice group. He will also be a member of the Emerging Companies practice. Atzen most recently...
Appeals court affirms tourism agency's immunity from price-fixing suit
Posted on June 16, 2010The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has affirmed a ruling that the California Travel and Tourism Commission is shielded from liability for price-fixing allegations, qualified under the two-prong test established by the United States Supreme Court in California Retail...
Daye joins Klinedinst
Posted on June 16, 2010Klinedinst PC has announced the addition of employment attorney Anthony B. Daye to the firm. He will be working out of both the Orange County and Los Angeles offices. As part of his practice, Daye has represented clients in cases...
O'Donnell back in the hotseat
Posted on June 15, 2010The 9th Circuit court has reinstated criminal charges against plaintiffs' attorney Pierce O'Donnell after concluding that the section of the Federal Election Campaign Act on which he was charged applied to conduit, or indirect, campaign contributions, not just to contributions...
McDermott names new L.A. leader
Posted on June 15, 2010Eric Gordon has been named head of McDermott Will & Emery's Los Angeles office, succeeding Gordon Greenberg. Gordon is currently partner-in-charge of the firm's California health practice and the national co-chairman of the firm's academic medical center practice.
Family lawyers to the stars leave Nachshin & Langlois
Posted on June 15, 2010Scott N. Weston and Joel D. Schwartz have joined Fox Rothschild's Los Angeles office, where they will launch a family law practice for the Philadelphia firm. Weston and Schwartz join Fox Rothschild from Nachshin & Langlois, a West Los Angeles...
Pillsbury adds former Reed Smith partner
Posted on June 14, 2010Mark Litvack joins Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman's intellectual property practice as partner in the Los Angeles office. He will focus on copyright and trademark infringement, Internet piracy and entertainment law. Previously, he was a partner at Reed Smith.
Calif. Toyota litigation coordinated in L.A.
Posted on June 11, 2010Dozens of sudden-acceleration lawsuits filed against Toyota Motor Corp. in California's state courts will be coordinated in Los Angeles. The order issued by Chief Justice Ronald George will please plaintiffs' lawyers, most of whom had argued for Los Angeles...
Lawyers Gone Missing: Munger Tolles bails on Joe Francis
Posted on June 11, 2010A federal judge has allowed lawyers at Munger, Tolles & Olson to withdraw as counsel to Joe Francis, founder of the "Girls Gone Wild" franchise. The defense team, the latest in a line of attorneys who have come and gone...
9th Circuit settles script ownership dispute
Posted on June 11, 2010An appellate ruling involving the 2003 Tom Cruise movie The Last Samurai clarified for the first time in 40 years how a writer of a finished script with copyrightable elements can successfully bring a contract claim against a studio for...
MOVERS
Posted on June 10, 2010PROMOTIONS TO PARTNERSHIP Levene, Neale, Bender, Rankin & Brill: Four associates have been promoted to partnership at the firm. Todd Arnold focuses his practice on bankruptcy litigation, representing corporations and high net-worth individuals in Chapter 11 cases...
Appointment of lead lawyer for Toyota shareholders delayed
Posted on June 08, 2010A federal judge has delayed appointing the lead plaintiffs' attorneys in the shareholder litigation against Toyota Motor Corp. until U.S. Supreme Court decides whether foreign purchasers of a company's stock have standing to sue in the United States. U...
MOVERS
Posted on June 08, 2010Lax & Stevens: Jason Suh joins the firm as an associate and will focus his practice on business and commercial litigation, general civil litigation, real estate litigation and judgment enforcement. Prior to joining the firm, Suh was an associate at...
Loan modification misconduct task force claims two more attorneys
Posted on June 07, 2010Eric Douglas Johnson of the Law Offices of Eric Douglas Johnson in Los Angeles, and Mark Alan Shoemaker of the Law Offices of Mark A. Shoemaker of Long Beach, Calif., are the latest casualties in the State Bar's task force...
Anti-marijuana ordinance goes into effect in L.A. today
Posted on June 07, 2010Last week Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge James C. Chalfant cleared the way for the city ordinance to shut down more than 400 marijuana dispensaries that have opened in the past two and a half years. Dispensaries that registered...
Annuity pays thousands to 'Hannibal Lecter of pedophile Catholic priests'
Posted on June 07, 2010Oliver O'Grady, a Catholic priest formerly of the Stockton diocese, has admitted to abusing many children of various ages, boys and girls, and even slept with two mothers to get access to their children. He was convicted of child sexual...
Rachel Moran will be UCLA Law's new dean
Posted on June 07, 2010Officials have announced that Rachel Moran will be replacing Mike Schill as the dean of UCLA School of Law. Moran has spent the past year on the faculty of the fledgling University of California, Irvine School of Law, and taught...
Screenwriter's Craigslist posts rant and rave him into a defamation suit
Posted on June 07, 2010A Woodland Hills attorney is probably wishing for a "missed connection." Screenwriter Justin Swingle has been posting hundreds of derogatory messages about lawyer Richard Gibson, allegedly because Gibson went out of his way to get some comments Swingle made about...
New litigation associate for Allen Matkins
Posted on June 04, 2010Allen Matkins Leck Gamble Mallory & Natsis have announced the addition of Alan D. Hearty to its litigation group as an associate in Century City. Hearty was previously with Alston & Bird for nearly six years, and his practice focuses...
'Chinatown, on steroids'
Posted on June 04, 2010That's how Bill Jennings, director of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, refers to the current water situation in Kern County. A lawsuit filed in Sacramento Superior Court this week seeks to recoup millions of dollars in taxpayer money that, according...
Bergstein attempts to halt forced deposition
Posted on June 04, 2010On March 17, a group of 14 creditors sought to put five companies controlled by David Bergstein into involuntary bankruptcy. Judge Barry Russell subsequently appointed forensic accountant Ronald Durkin as interim trustee to oversee Bergstein's companies and examine his books,...
New Perkins Coie presence in San Diego
Posted on June 02, 2010Perkins Coie has opened an office in San Diego with the addition of four intellectual property partners. All four were partners at the San Diego office of their former firms. Thane Bauz joined from Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker. He...
U.S. Supreme Court declines hearing sludge-dump appeal
Posted on June 02, 2010Yesterday the Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal the challenged the constitutionality of Measure E, prohibits the spreading of human waste in Kern County farmland. Los Angeles had initially challenged Measure E on the grounds that it violated the...
New appointments to the Judicial Council of California
Posted on June 02, 2010Chief Justice Ronald M. George has announced the appointment of Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Burt Pines to the Judicial Council of California. Admitted to the State Bar in 1964 after attending USC and law school at New York University,...
Judge says 'don't dismiss' to 'don't ask, don't tell' suit
Posted on June 01, 2010President Obama is pressing for the repeal of the "don't ask, don't tell" law, but is also defending it against a suit by the Log Cabin Republicans. The gay rights organization is arguing that "don't ask, don't tell," which prohibits...
New settlement possibilities for Dole workers
Posted on June 01, 2010After over 20 years, constant litigation may finally have lost its appeal for Dole. According to The Los Angeles Business Journal, attorneys for the produce giant have filed a request in Los Angeles Superior Court asking that nearly 1,500 Honduran...
Parents suing construction firm and school officials in rape case
Posted on May 28, 2010A story in the San Bernardino Sun from earlier this week says a suit has been filed against a Rancho Cucamonga construction company that allegedly assigned a registered sex offender to supervise a project at Cesar Chavez Middle School, where...
Carly Simon's Starbucks suit is coming around again
Posted on May 28, 2010From THR, Esq.: This past April, Los Angeles District Court Judge George Wu dismissed a suit brought by singer Carly Simon against Starbucks, alleging that the chain misled her by getting out of the music business five days before they...
ACLU suit on behalf of homeless gets tossed in Santa Monica
Posted on May 28, 2010The ACLU's suit against Santa Monica for its treatment of the homeless has been dismissed, according to the Santa Monica Daily Press. The suit was dismissed "with prejudice" and made "on the basis that the parties have reached an agreement...
Pocklington pleads guilty to perjury
Posted on May 28, 2010According to USA Today, it turns out Peter Pocklington's pockets weren't as empty as he had originally claimed. The former owner of the Edmonton Oilers pleaded guilty yesterday to perjury a Southern California bankruptcy fraud case. He had been arrested...
Like water for salmon, Wanger rules
Posted on May 26, 2010U.S. District Judge Oliver Wanger ruled yesterday that previous salmon restrictions will be eased for the remainder of the spring. For the next three weeks, water agencies can take more from the Delta than they would have under those restrictions....
Supergraphics companies lose battle in 9th Circuit decision
Posted on May 26, 2010Advertising company World Wide Rush has undoubtedly been feeling particularly persecuted by the city of Los Angeles, and today's decision by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals can't be making them feel any better. The company had argued that the...
Supremes won't hear North Valley shootings case
Posted on May 26, 2010The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to take up the case of Lilian Ileto, whose son was murdered in the 1999 North Valley Jewish Community Center shootings. She had sought to challenge the constitutionality of the 2005 Protection of Lawful...
SoCal hospital chain settles 'balanced billing' suit
Posted on May 25, 2010Balanced billing may have taken its final, fatal blow yesterday as Prime Healthcare Services agreed to settle a lawsuit brought by the state of California in 2008 when more than 6,000 Southern California Kaiser Permanente patients were dragged into a...
New and returning associates at Nachshin & Langlois in L.A.
Posted on May 25, 2010Nachshin & Langlois LLP have announced the hiring of two associates, Adam Gardner and Amir Kaltgrad. Adam Gardner returns to Nachshin & Langlois after a six year hiatus. He previously worked for two other Los Angeles law firms where he...
Ponzi scheme targeted Latinos, claims CTFC suit
Posted on May 25, 2010Last Thursday the Commodity Futures Trading Commission filed civil charges against Ruben Gonzalez of West Covina and Jose C. Naranjo of La Mirada, alleging that they ran a Ponzi scheme targeting Latinos. Last week U.S. District Judge Percy Anderson froze...
Suit against Calderon will stand, says judge
Posted on May 24, 2010Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Michelle R. Rosenblatt refused to dismiss a lawsuit last week against former Maywood City Councilman Sergio Calderon. The suit alleges he once held two incompatible offices, including a seat on the board of the Water....
For BitTorrent users, the Hunt may be over
Posted on May 24, 2010Not two weeks after the RIAA's victory over Limewire, another file-sharing web site may be inching toward the chopping block. Last Thursday U.S. District Court Judge Stephen Wilson issued a permanent injunction against Isohunt and its owner Gary Fung from...
New presidential nominees for U.S. District Court in CA
Posted on May 24, 2010Last week President Obama nominated three people to seats on the United States District Court. Among them are Judge Anthony Joseph Battaglia and Judge Edward J. Davila. Judge Battaglia is a nominee for U.S. District Court, Southern District of California...
New counsel for Reed Smith in Century City
Posted on May 24, 2010Reed Smith has announced the addition of interactive entertainment lawyer Patrick Sweeney as counsel in its Corporate and Securities Group. He will be based in the Century City office. Previously, Sweeney was counsel at Nixon Peabody LLP, where he worked...
Harvey Milk attorney John Wahl dies
Posted on May 20, 2010John Eshleman Wahl, attorney for Harvey Milk and longtime gay activist, died in April of a heart attack in Palm Springs. He was 76. After completing undergraduate work at UC Berkeley and his discharge from the Navy, where flew radar...
Appeal likely in SoCal Edison Tehachapi suit rejection
Posted on May 20, 2010City attorneys in Chino Hills are expected to appeal the rejection of a lawsuit that would have stopped Southern California Edison from placing high-voltage, wind-energy towers in the city. In April Judge Keith D. Davis ruled the California Public Utilities...
Judge reconsiders stance on water restrictions
Posted on May 19, 2010U.S. District Judge Oliver Wanger ruled yesterday that the current protections in place for salmon and steelhead that led to delta water pumping restrictions had a "draconian" effect on the water supply, and that the science didn't seem to support...
New bankruptcy partner for Venable in L.A.
Posted on May 18, 2010Venable has announced the addition of California bankruptcy attorney Hamid R. Rafatjoo to its own bankruptcy practice as a partner. Rafatjoo was formerly a partner at Pachulski Stang Ziehl & Jones LLP, a bankruptcy boutique based in Los Angeles. He...
AMPAS: Mundy, Mundy, how could you leave - and take the estate?
Posted on May 18, 2010The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has filed suit in Superior Court against Robert Mundy, the executor of the estate of director Gene Curtis Harrington. The Academy claims that Mundy left the country with close to $600,000 from...
Variety's film review a heavy 'Cross' to bear as suit gets tossed
Posted on May 18, 2010Variety Magazine was sued in March by the producers of the film "Iron Cross," which features the last film appearance of Roy Scheider. Calibra Pictures and the trade magazine had agreed to an advertising campaign including DVD inserts, front-page ads,...
Irvine says playing find-the-conduit delayed multimillion-dollar roadway project
Posted on May 18, 2010The city of Irvine has filed a lawsuit against AT&T California and Cox Communications, alleging that the utilities relocated a conduit without informing city officials, delaying a $50 million roadway construction project. In 2002 the city informed the utilities, according...
Governor's budget plan returns to old inmate idea
Posted on May 17, 2010As part of a plan to shrink the state's nearly $20 billion deficit, Governor Schwarzenegger is revisiting an earlier idea to house 15,000 nonviolent felons in county jails. Local law enforcement agencies objected strenuously when the governor floated this idea...
Judge refuses class certification in Morgan Stanley case
Posted on May 17, 2010Last week U.S. District Judge Otis Wright II rejected certification for three proposed classes of financial advisers at Morgan Stanley & Co. on the basis that the plaintiffs failed to meet all four of the factors that governed prerequisites for...
Former employee's privacy not violated by handwriting analysis
Posted on May 17, 2010The 4th District Court of Appeals decided last week that Tustin police officers did not violate a former employee's privacy by analyzing her handwriting on 28 documents. Janice M. Ohman, a former police records clerk, had been charged with forgery...
Judge orders pot dispensaries to close
Posted on May 17, 2010Orange County Superior Court Judge David Chaffee ruled last week that 10 medical marijuana dispensaries in Lake Forest, having violated the city's municipal code, must close. Chaffee rejected the dispensaries' claim that state law preempts municipal codes and noted that...
Governor appoints new Superior Court Judges
Posted on May 13, 2010Governor Schwarzenegger appointed five superior court judges yesterday. They are: Former prosecutor Daphne S. Scott, now with the Orange County District Attorney?s Office; Solo practitioner Daniel A. Ottolia; Sonoma County Chief Deputy District Attorney Robert M...
Judge halts layoffs at three L.A. schools
Posted on May 13, 2010Los Angeles Superior Court Judge William Highberger issued an injunction yesterday preventing layoffs for budgetary reasons at Samuel Gompers, Edwin Markham, and John H. Liechty schools. The ACLU and other civil rights groups had filed suit in February, claiming that...
Underpayment of out-of-network rates at issue in L.A. suit
Posted on May 12, 2010The Downey Surgical Clinic and Tarzana Surgery Center are leading a class action lawsuit in Los Angeles federal court, claiming that United HealthGroup has routinely underpaid for out-of-network care. These underpayments frequently shifted costs to patients...
Former assistant U.S. attorney joins Stroz Friedberg in L.A.
Posted on May 12, 2010Stroz Friedberg has announced the addition of former Assistant United States Attorney Jason Gonzalez as managing director in the firm?s Los Angeles office. Mr. Gonzalez joins Stroz Friedberg after spending nearly eight years as an Assistant US Attorney in the...
Taitz supporter taints Sec. of State opponent with ineligibility suit
Posted on May 12, 2010Orly Taitz, best known for several unsuccessful lawsuits against President Barack Obama on the basis of his alleged ineligibility for office, is running for secretary of state in California. Her opponent is Damon Dunn, a former NFL player and a...
'Bling ring' burglar's confession and cooperation not a plea deal
Posted on May 12, 2010Nicholas Prugo, 19, is charged along with four others in the now-infamous "bling ring" burglaries. Prugo's attorneys, Daniel A. Horowitz and Mark Dombois, argued that their client had a "tacit contract" and implied deal with the Los Angeles Police Department...
Asbestos award in doubt
Posted on May 10, 2010The largest mesothelioma lawsuit award in California history is likely to be reversed. Evans v. AW Chesterton Co et al. was decided last month in favor of the plaintiff to the tune of a jury award of $200 million in...
Frank McCourt must pay ex-wife Jamie $637,000, fate of Dodgers to be determined later
Posted on May 10, 2010Last Friday Los Angeles Superior Court Commissioner Scott Gordon ordered Dodgers owner Frank McCourt to pay his estranged wife Jamie $637,000 a month in temporary spousal support and mortgage payments. The AP reports that Gordon's 55-page ruling says that Jamie...
Manatt partner George Kieffer confirmed as UC Regent
Posted on May 10, 2010Last week the California Senate confirmed the appointment of George Kieffer to the University of California Board of Regents. Kieffer is a partner in the Los Angeles office of Manatt, Phelps & Phillips LLP. He has also served served as...
Haidl case may appear before the state Supremes
Posted on May 10, 2010Greg Haidl, Keith Spann and Kyle Nachreiner were each sentenced in 2005 to six years in prison for participating in a sexual encounter, captured on videotape, with an intoxicated woman. As part of their sentence, they were ordered to register...
Everything's coming up in San Diego
Posted on May 10, 2010In a recent article from the National Law Journal, Pat Hosey, president of the San Diego County Bar Association and partner at Hosey & Bahrambeygui, said that in the aftermath of the recession San Diego is "on the way back."...
Barry Kurtz Franchise Law hires attorney Candice Lee
Posted on May 06, 2010Barry Kurtz, A Professional Corporation, has announced that Candice Lee has joined the firm. Ms. Lee previously worked as an associate with O?Melveny & Myers L.L.P. in San Francisco where she represented public and private companies in securities matters and...
Leipzig new litigation partner at Allen Matkins
Posted on May 06, 2010Allen Matkins Leck Gamble Mallory & Natsis LLP has announced the addition of Scott J. Leipzig as partner in the firm's litigation practice group in their Century City office. Leipzig was previously a partner with Alston & Bird LLP. has...
Former CalPERS officials accused of violating state corporations code
Posted on May 06, 2010A civil suit has been filed against former top California pension fund officials Federico Buenrostro Jr. and Alfred R. Villalobos, alleging that Buenrostro took tens of thousands of dollars' worth of gifts from Villalobos, a former Los Angeles deputy mayor...
Feld new L.A. partner at Sheppard Mullin
Posted on May 06, 2010Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP announced that Alan M. Feld has joined the firm as a partner in their Los Angeles/Downtown office. Feld will be in the firm's Finance and Bankruptcy practice group. Feld most recently practiced at Manatt,...
Mike Carona to appeal today
Posted on May 05, 2010Former Orange County Sheriff Mike Carona will be in court today, asking a three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in Pasadena to clear his name. Carona's lawyers argue that prosecutors broke an ethical rule when they arranged...
'Cisca' Mok joins Reed Smith
Posted on May 05, 2010Reed Smith announced today that Francisca M. "Cisca" Mok has joined the firm in their Century City office. She will work in their Global Regulatory Enforcement Group. Ms. Mok was formerly a partner in the Los Angeles office of McDermott,...
Court win allows comic to continue busting on her in-laws
Posted on May 05, 2010It's official: secure in the protection of the First Amendment, you can make jokes about your in-laws. Sunda Croonquist, a comic who lives in Beverly Hills, was sued two years ago by her in-laws because they claimed her material was...
Med-marijuana dispensaries ordered to close in L.A.
Posted on May 05, 2010Yesterday Los Angeles city prosecutors sent letters to 439 medical marijuana dispensaries, demanding they be shut down by June 7, when the city's ordinance to regulate the stores takes effect. Under that ordinance, only dispensaries that registered with the city...
Settlement reached in surf club trademark suit
Posted on May 04, 2010In December 2008 the Santa Cruz Surfing Club Preservation Society sued Ryan Rittenhouse for trademark infringement when he trademarked the club's logo and historical photos as his own in 2006. The suit alleged that Rittenhouse had profited from the trademark...
Franklin Mint malicious persecution suit against Manatt goes back to LA Superior Court
Posted on May 04, 2010The Court of Appeals, Division Four, ruled yesterday that the law firm of Manatt, Phelps & Phillips lacked probable cause to sue the Franklin Mint Company for trademark dilution or false advertising over its Princess Diana dolls and plates. The...
Federal judge strikes a blow for med-marijuana bans in OC
Posted on May 04, 2010U.S. District Judge Andrew Guilford ruled yesterday that the cities of Costa Mesa and Lake Forest in Orange County can ban marijuana dispensaries, throwing out a suit brought by four medical marijuana users that claimed the bans would violate their...
Herrman named partner at Gilchrist & Rutter
Posted on May 03, 2010Gilchrist & Rutter PC has named Henry A. Herrman a partner in the firm. Mr. Herrman's practice focuses on commercial real estate, partnership and business transactions concerning development, construction, financing, leasing, acquisitions and dispositions, joint ventures, and management issues, contract...
Mehserle's attorney goes for acquittal
Posted on May 03, 2010Michael Rains, Johannes Mehserle's defense attorney, is seeking outright acquittal for his client. Considering Mehserle, a former transit officer, was captured on bystanders' cell phones and video cameras as he shot an unarmed black passenger on a train station platform,...
OC settles inmate Taser suit
Posted on May 03, 2010Matthew Fleuret, a former jail inmate who alleged he was Tasered while handcuffed and slammed to the floor by sheriff's deputies, has been paid $750,000 by Orange County. The lawsuit stemmed from Fleuret's March 2006 arrest, for which he was...
Ben-Meir and Capoccia are new IP partners at Alston & Bird
Posted on May 03, 2010Alston & Bird LLP have announced today that David H. Ben-Meir and Rachel M. Capoccia, previously partners with Hogan & Hartson LLP, have joined the firm as partners. They become part of Alston?s 200 member IP group. Ben-Meir?s IP litigation...
Wal-Mart settles environmental suit
Posted on May 03, 2010Wal-Mart will pay $27.6 million to settle charges that it violated California environmental laws, prosecutors announced today in San Diego. The San Diego County district attorney's office and the state attorney general's office had filed a civil complaint last month...
New changes proposed in execution guidelines
Posted on May 03, 2010Corrections officials announced new lethal injection procedures last Thursday. The changes are intended to address concerns expressed by a federal judge in 2006 that the state's earlier three-drug sequence may have exposed some of those who were executed to unconstitutionally...
Luke McKissack passes away
Posted on April 30, 2010Prominent criminal defense and civil rights attorney Luke McKissack has died. During his more than 30-year career, McKissack served as the Black Panther Party's chief counsel in Southern California and was chief counsel for the American Indian Movement, defending American...
Suit over love dolls blows through the ceiling in Vista Superior Court
Posted on April 29, 2010Yvette and Michele look like the kind of models who used to grace the covers of Roxy Music albums. Turns out they're also the kind of models who might have inspired the band to write "In Every Dream Home a...
Veteran litigator Wilson new partner at Gordon Kemper
Posted on April 28, 2010Gordon Kemper LLP has announced that veteran litigator Robert G. Wilson has joined their Los Angeles office as a partner. Mr. Wilson was formerly the Managing Shareholder of the firm best known as Cotkin & Collins. Mr. Wilson has been...
Report clears CIF of bias allegations
Posted on April 28, 2010In a 28-page report, attorneys Jack Clarke and Megan Moore from Riverside-based law firm Best Best & Krieger LLP found no evidence to support the complaints of parent-activist group Citizens Against CIF that the federation's San Diego office has demonstrated...
Los Angeles County violated Clean Water Act, says court
Posted on April 28, 2010A U.S. District Court in Los Angeles found that L.A. County violated the federal Clean Water Act when it discharged polluted water at Surfrider Beach in Malibu. The court also found the county liable for discharging polluted water into a...
Those damages could buy a lot of hula hoops ...
Posted on April 27, 2010In a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, Bagdasarian Prods. and writer Janice Karman are claiming that 20th Century Fox took substantial portions of a screenplay prepared for the film "Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel" and...
Salter nominated to Superior Court bench in OC
Posted on April 27, 2010Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger announced yesterday that Glenn R. Salter has been appointed to a judgeship on the Orange County Superior Court bench. He is presently the managing appellate attorney for the 4th District Court of Appeal in Santa Ana, a....
Rooney new corporate partner at Sheppard Mullin
Posted on April 27, 2010Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP has announced that Kevin K. Rooney has joined the firm in the Silicon Valley office as a partner in the Corporate group. Rooney most recently practiced at Hayden Bergman & Rooney in San Francisco,...
New partners in Allen Matkins' L.A. office
Posted on April 26, 2010Allen Matkins Leck Gamble Mallory & Natsis LLP has announced that Timothy McGinity and Andrew Miller have been elected to the firm partnership. They are based in the Los Angeles office. McGinity's practice focuses on real estate, land use and...
Villages of Lakeview development challenged by environmental groups, among others
Posted on April 26, 2010On Earth Day, the Friends of the Northern San Jacinto Valley and the Sierra Club filed suit against Riverside County to stop a planned housing development that would abut a wildlife preserve near San Jacinto. The suit alleges that the...
9th Circuit decision supports no parole for murderers
Posted on April 23, 2010Yesterday the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the governor's right to deny parole to a murderer serving a life term, even if no evidence exists that the prisoner poses a risk to society if released. The court was...
ACLU suit has governor's support
Posted on April 23, 2010Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has thrown his support behind the ACLU's lawsuit against the Los Angeles Unified School District, additionally proposing legislation that would give school districts more flexibility to manage their staffing and resources based on student needs...
Murder conviction dismissed against Marine
Posted on April 23, 2010Yesterday a military appeals court threw out the murder conviction of Sgt. Lawrence Hutchins III, a Marine serving time for the kidnapping and slaying of an Iraqi man. Six other and a Navy corpsman who were part of a squad...
Karatz found guilty on four charges
Posted on April 21, 2010The Los Angeles Times says a federal court jury has convicted former KB Home chief Bruce Karatz of two counts of mail fraud, making false statement in public filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission and making false statements to...
Suit against L.A., Mexican cardinals alleges priest abuse coverup
Posted on April 21, 2010A lawsuit was filed yesterday in Los Angeles accusing Cardinal Roger Mahony and his Mexican counterpart Cardinal Norberto Rivera Carrera of negligence and conspiracy in covering up sexual abuses reported by dozens of young boys against Father Nicolas Aguilar Rivera...
Possible settlement reached in Reggie Bush case
Posted on April 21, 2010It looks like the civil case against Reggie Bush may be settled. Yahoo Sports has it that Bush has reached a settlement with Lloyd Lake, a fledgling sports marketer and financier of a failed agency called New Era Sports &...
Disabled woman's parents can seek visitation rights, says judge
Posted on April 21, 2010In 2006, due to a series of medical mishaps at Cedars-Sinai Medical Hospital, Abbie Dorn was left unable to move or speak after giving birth to triplets. She and her husband Dan eventually divorced. Dan has refused to let the...
Allergan seeks court cost reimbursement
Posted on April 20, 2010Allergan is seeking $460,000 in legal costs from Dee Spears in the aftermath of her unsuccessful suit against the company. Dee Spears had sued the Botox maker for $60 million, accusing it of concealing information about the dangers of the...
Irell's Webber LACBA president-elect
Posted on April 20, 2010According to the Metropolitan News-Enterprise, the Los Angeles County Bar Association has announced the nomination of Eric A. Webber as its president-elect for the 2010-2011 term. Webber is currently the association's senior vice president. The current president-elect, Alan K...
Fryscak new Cooley partner in Palo Alto
Posted on April 20, 2010The JD Journal reports that Cooley Godward has elected antitrust special counsel Francis Fryscak to the partnership in its Palo Alto office. Mr. Fryscak counsels companies on antitrust matters arising out of mergers, acquisitions, and joint ventures, as well as...
Sherman joins Reed Smith in Century City
Posted on April 19, 2010Today Reed Smith announced the addition of Michael S. Sherman as a partner in its Corporate & Securities Group. He will be part of the Century City office. Mr. Sherman was formerly chair of the Entertainment Industries Group at Jeffer...
OC judge orders San Clemente to pay developer for zoning change
Posted on April 19, 2010A group called Avenida San Juan Partnership purchased 2.85 acres of land in 1980 to subdivide into four single-family residential lots with an access road. Three years later, the partnership received city approval for their plans. According to news reports,...
California AG mandates financial overhaul at MOCA
Posted on April 16, 2010The California Attorney General's office has determined that "unreasonably enthusiastic expectations" by management led to overspending at the Museum of Contemporary Art and ordered the museum to hire a consultant as part of "required corrective actions," according to a two-page...
L.A. lawyers help settle Safety-Kleen environmental suit
Posted on April 16, 2010Los Angeles city lawyers have helped negotiate a $15-million settlement with Safety-Kleen Systems Inc., a company accused of illegally selling smog-causing cleaning solvents to auto shops and other businesses across Southern California. The Texas-based company agreed to end the litigation...
Patent lawyer Gardella joins Irell in L.A.
Posted on April 15, 2010Irell & Manella LLP announced today that Greg Gardella has joined the firm as a partner in their Los Angeles office. He arrives from Fish & Richardson P.C. in Minneapolis, where he was a principal. He is a recognized specialist...
Douglas Axel, former assistant U.S. attorney, joins Sidley Austin in L.A.
Posted on April 14, 2010Sidley Austin LLP announced that Douglas A. Axel, former Assistant United States Attorney in the Central District of California and Chief of the office?s Major Frauds Section, has joined the firm as a partner in their Los Angeles office. As...
Second preliminary ruling in L.A. issued against med-marijuana dispensary
Posted on April 14, 2010Judge James C. Chalfant issued a preliminary injunction yesterday against Organica, a popular medical marijuana dispensary, from selling or distributing the drug. At the hearing, Chalfant said he believed the state's laws were intended to allow medical marijuana patients and...
Water District owns Vail Lake, says ruling
Posted on April 14, 2010Superior Court Judge Lawrence Fry has officially ruled in favor of Rancho California Water District in a long-running legal battle over who owns Vail Lake. According to a news release by Best Best & Krieger,who represented the district, Bill Johnson,...
Former assistant U.S. attorney joins WilmerHale in Los Angeles
Posted on April 13, 2010WilmerHale announced today that Brian R. Michael, a former Assistant United States Attorney in Los Angeles and New York, has joined the firm?s Los Angeles office as counsel in the Business Trial, Securities Litigation and Enforcement, and Investigations and Criminal...
New associate at KPA
Posted on April 13, 2010Khorrami Pollard & Abir LLP announced today that Elizabeth Hall has joined the firm as an associate attorney. She will focus on consumer fraud and wage and hour class actions. Prior to joining KPA, Hall worked as a litigation associate...
New magistrate judge makes history in the Central District
Posted on April 13, 2010The first Indian-American federal judge in the Central District of California will be sworn in this week as a U.S. Magistrate Judge. Vijay Chand Gandhi earned his law degree from the University of Southern California Law School and clerked for...
Costantino new senior advisor at Manatt
Posted on April 12, 2010Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP, announced today that Jon M. Costantino has joined the firm as a Senior Advisor. He will be based in the Sacramento office. He is leaving his position as Manager of Climate Change Planning at the...
Governor appoints three to Los Angeles County Superior Court
Posted on April 09, 2010Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger today announced the appointments of Christine W. Byrd, Scott M. Gordon and Laura R. Walton to judgeships in the Los Angeles County Superior Court. Byrd, 58, of Studio City, has been a partner for Irell and Manella...
Dana Point sues to shut down pot dispensaries
Posted on April 09, 2010Dana Point has sued six local medical marijuana dispensaries to shut them down, claiming they're operating illegally under the city's municipal code. The civil suits were filed in Orange County Superior Court and come about nine months after the city...
Conflict of interest decision reflects 'changing landscape of legal practice'
Posted on April 09, 2010The Los Angeles 2nd District Court of Appeal ruled Wednesday that an entire law firm need not be automatically disqualified from a case on the sole basis of one of its attorneys having a conflict of interest. The court said...
Cal Supremes take up attorney ads and free speech
Posted on April 08, 2010Via The Recorder: An advertisement composed by class action lawyer Pierce Gore appeared in the San Jose Mercury News and the Los Gatos Weekly Times in early 2006, advising wood deck owners to contact him if they had built their...
'Commuter drug dealer' ban on table in L.A.
Posted on April 07, 2010The L.A. City Attorney's Office has announced a criminal injunction targeting "commuter dealers" who come into downtown from other parts of town to sell drugs. It would ban 80 drug dealers from entering skid row, and would allow prosecutors to...
Police department lawsuits run up a big tab in Burbank
Posted on April 07, 2010According to a memo, Burbank officials have spent $1.2 million since May on litigation related to the ongoing investigations and lawsuits against the Police Department. Of that sum, $31,772 has gone to Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher for the services of...
Elizabeth Grimes confirmed as justice
Posted on April 06, 2010Following a public meeting of the Commission on Judicial Appointments yesterday, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Elizabeth A. Grimes was unanimously confirmed as a justice of Div. Eight Court of Appeal. She fills the vacancy created by the elevation of...
Three-year-old suit against Miwoks finally going to trial
Posted on April 06, 2010The Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians and former partner Sharp Image Gaming may be going to trial this fall. The Miwoks ran a small gambling hall with Sharp Image before it opened Red Hawk Casino in 2008. Sharp Image...
New lawsuits launched against the Catholic Church in San Diego
Posted on April 06, 2010The San Diego diocese of the Roman Catholic Church is facing a unique lawsuit. A Marine and ex-Navy sailor are saying their military service allows them to bypass legal hurdles and sue the diocese over the sexual abuse they say...
Lauten, famed Normandy figure and SoCal water district general manager, passes away
Posted on April 06, 2010John H. Lauten, who helped plan the invasion of Normandy as an Army captain during World War II and later became the first non-engineer to oversee the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, has died. He was 96. Lauten earned...
Sea Org member will not see wages, says judge
Posted on April 06, 2010According to an AP story, U.S. District Judge Dale Fischer dismissed part of a lawsuit filed against the Church of Scientology by a woman who alleged she worked 100-hour weeks for almost no pay for years. Claire Headley sued the...
New associates at Horvitz & Levy
Posted on April 05, 2010Horvitz & Levy LLP has added Jason J. Jarvis and Andrea A. Ambrose to its team. Mr. Jarvis previously worked for national law firms in Washington, D.C. and Boston, Massachusetts, and served as a law clerk to the Honorable Alice...
Louis Klein joins Meyers Nave
Posted on April 05, 2010Louis C. Klein has joined Meyers Nave as Of Counsel in their labor and employment practice. Mr. Klein has successfully represented public and private employers in various types of employment matters, including whistleblowing retaliation actions, discrimination, harassment, wrongful termination, wage...
Former Paul Hastings associate new deputy executive director at ACLU
Posted on April 05, 2010James Gilliam, a former associate at Paul Hastings, is moving to the ACLU of Southern California as their deputy executive director. He will also be the deputy executive of the ACLU Foundation of Southern California, where he has served on...
Toledano and client indicted for extortion
Posted on April 05, 2010James Toledano, the former chairman of Orange County's Democratic Party and a three-time Assembly candidate, has been indicted by an Orange County grand jury on two felony counts related to an alleged extortion scheme. Toledano was representing Michael Earl Roberts,...
McCoy weighs in on AOC report
Posted on April 05, 2010Okay, so maybe things are as bad as we thought. Los Angeles Superior Court Presiding Judge Charles "Tim" McCoy Jr. wrote a letter on March 31 to the Judicial Council of California, saying that the recent AOC report downplaying the...
Kozinski rules 'downer' animal ban extends to pigs
Posted on April 01, 2010Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Chief Judge Alex Kozinski ruled yesterday that a California law against slaughtering livestock that is unable to walk can be applied to pigs. The decision nixes a preliminary injunction granted to the National Meat...
SoCal attorney charged in insurance scam
Posted on April 01, 2010Los Angeles attorney Susana Ragos Chung surrendered to police on Tuesday after Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O'Malley's office charged her with 28 felony crimes. Chung is alleged to have filed false car insurance claims on behalf of Bay Area...
ACLU SoCal wins release of mentally disabled immigrants
Posted on April 01, 2010Jose Antonio Franco-Gonzalez and Guillermo Gomez Sanchez, two mentally disabled men who have been held in immigration detention for nearly five years, will be released to their families in the wake of petitions filed on their behalf by the American...
Haidl conviction affirmed
Posted on March 31, 2010A three-judge panel from the 4th District Court of Appeal affirmed the sexual-assault conviction of Greg Haidl and two other men yesterday, dismissing arguments from the men's lawyers that an Orange County Superior Court jury should have heard about the...
Former worker at upscale senior facility on trial for abuse and torture
Posted on March 31, 2010Cesar Ulloa, a 21-year-old employee at the Silverado Senior Living facility, is on trial in Van Nuys. He is charged with seven counts of elder abuse and one count of torture. A witness said she walked into a room and...
New human rights clinic to start at Gould
Posted on March 31, 2010Hannah Garry, clinical assistant professor of law at the University of Colorado School of Law in Boulder, has been hired by USC Gould School of Law to launch an international human rights clinic. The new clinic will allow students to...
AOC paints a less catastrophic budget picture in L.A.
Posted on March 31, 2010It's bad, but maybe not as bad as initially imagined. Earlier this month, Los Angeles court officials announced that the budget crisis necessitated the laying off of 329 workers and the closing of 17 courtrooms. Another 500 people would be...
Harassment suit between former gay employee and TBN has been settled
Posted on March 30, 2010Brian Dugger, an engineer for Trinity Broadcasting Network, sued the Christian television giant a year ago, claiming harassment and discrimination. Filed in Orange County Superior Court and moved to federal court, the suit sought at least $1.9 million in punitive...
Opposition to Liu delivered in writing from CA DAs
Posted on March 30, 2010A battle is being waged for public opinion over President Obama's recent nominee to the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. In a letter to leaders of the Senate Judiciary Committee, 42 of California's 58 county district attorneys expressed their...
Take a class with Yoo, tell your friends you met a conservative
Posted on March 30, 2010That's what the controversial law professor thinks may be behind the high enrollment in his classes at Berkeley. So says a recent profile in the Los Angeles Times.Yoo likens his presence at the liberal enclave to "West Berlin during the...
Conflict of interest ruled in Seyfarth malpractice case
Posted on March 30, 2010Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Mark Mooney has blocked Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher from representing Seyfarth Shaw in a malpractice case brought by Billy Blanks. In a March 18 bench ruling, the judge determined that Gibson Dunn could not...
Irvine firm welcomes two new litiation attorneys
Posted on March 29, 2010Yesterday the Wolf Firm announced the addition of two new attorneys to its litigation department. Joseph J. Nardulli will be lead trial counsel and Chanel L. Oldham will be a new associate litigation attorney. Mr. Nardulli, who formerly was the...
Mountain View affordable apartment units in question
Posted on March 29, 2010Last year, an appellate court determined Los Angeles could not require a developer to include below-market-rate units because landlords have the right to set rent levels. In October, the California Supreme Court decided not to hear the case. Bad timing...
ACLU demands release of two men in immigration detention
Posted on March 29, 2010Petitions filed in Los Angeles and San Diego by civil rights groups contend that two mentally disabled men who have been held in immigration detention for nearly five years should be freed. According to a statement from the American Civil...
Pipe manufacturing company fights whistleblower suit
Posted on March 29, 2010JM Eagle is the world?s largest maker of plastic pipe, with products used in water and sewage lines and electrical and gas distribution systems across the globe. But now Nevada, Virginia, Delaware, Tennessee and 43 municipalities and water districts, including...
Cal Supremes tell Hare Krishnas pamphlets, yes; solicitation, no
Posted on March 25, 2010According to the Los Angeles Times, the California Supreme Court today upheld an ordinance that prohibits Hare Krishna members and other groups from soliciting money at Los Angeles International Airport. They can distribute their literature and speak to willing people,...
Judge's order stops furloughs
Posted on March 25, 2010Alameda County Superior Court Judge Frank Roesch had originally ordered the state last month to discontinue furloughs that affected thousands of California state attorneys and administrative law judges. That ruling was stayed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger...
Multidistrict Litigation Panel shops for Toyota suits location
Posted on March 25, 2010The seven-member U.S. Panel on Multidistrict Litigation is being asked today to consolidate dozens of proposed class-action lawsuits filed by Toyota owners to appear before a single court. The owners claim the value of their vehicles has plummeted after millions...
Stockton loan scam victim now a debt collector
Posted on March 24, 2010Keith Tinney, a 66-year-old homeowner who fell victim to a forensic loan audit scam, was awarded $2,995 in San Joaquin County Superior Court's small claims division yesterday. The award was in the amount Tinney paid to Southern California businessman Paul...
Indictments handed down in SoCal mortgage loan scam
Posted on March 24, 2010Yesterday federal prosecutors announced the indictment of Glenn Steven Rosofsky and Michael Trap, two Southern California men charged with running a loan modification scam. According to the indictment, the men ran a business called Nations Housing Modification Center (or sometimes...
BARBRI plaintiffs' firms looking for a Real challenge
Posted on March 23, 2010McGuireWoods, one of the firms involved in obtaining a $49 million settlement in an antitrust class action against the parent company of BARBRI, are planning another go-round before the 9th Circuit with an appeal over their fees. The notice of...
Appleton explains harsher economic realities in Hollywood
Posted on March 23, 2010"Cash break zero deals" may not be as unwelcome a phrase in Hollywood as "An Alan Smithee film," but it does signal that the days of actors receiving big bucks whether or not their film is a hit are over...
Law firms among new targets of cyberscammers
Posted on March 22, 2010In January of this year, the FBI issued a warning alerting law firms to scammers purporting to need help collecting delinquent payments or divorce settlement money. The State Bar of California issued a similar warning in May. A recent report...
Friess new litigation partner at Allen Matkins
Posted on March 22, 2010Allen Matkins Leck Gamble Mallory & Natsis LLP has announced the addition of K. Erik ?Rick? Friess as partner in their Orange County office. He joins the firm's litigation practice. Friess was previously a partner with Nossaman LLP, where he...
Tire dealer found liabile for child's death
Posted on March 22, 2010American Tire Depot, a Southern California tire-store chain, was found negligent by a California jury for installing a 12-year-old tire on a Ford Explorer involved in a crash that killed an 11-year-old boy. The Moreno family's Explorer rolled over on...
New associate at Lax & Stevens
Posted on March 22, 2010Lax & Stevens, a full service construction law firm in Los Angeles, has announced the addition of Jason Suh as an associate. Mr. Suh has broad experience in the areas of business and commercial litigation, general civil litigation, real estate...
Latest SoCal cemetery case results in nearly $4M settlement
Posted on March 22, 2010Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Anthony Mohr, finalizing a preliminary agreement reached last year, has approved a $3.87 million settlement to be distributed in the coming month to class members alleging improper handling of the remains of their deceased...
Supergraphics crackdown results in removal of two L.A. advertisements
Posted on March 19, 2010CBS Outdoor is removing two 11-story supergraphic advertisements nearly a week after City Atty. Carmen Trutanich sent a dozen letters regarding signs that his office has identified as illegal. City prosecutors and surrounding neighbors have long viewed the advertisements as...
Ninth Circuit goes before the cameras
Posted on March 19, 2010The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has announced that it will offer remote viewing in Pasadena next week of en banc proceedings in San Francisco. Among others, the 11-judge panel is scheduled to review a decision in a case arising...
Gibson Dunn and former client in fee dispute
Posted on March 19, 2010Elliott Broidy, a venture capitalist and former client of Gibson Dunn & Crutcher, has filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court against the firm over $1.3 million in fees Gibson Dunn seeks for representing him. The firm wants the...
Calfee, after helping develop greenhouse gas emissions guidelines, returns to BB&K
Posted on March 18, 2010Christoper H. Calfee is returning to his home firm of Best Best & Krieger as an of counsel attorney in their environmental and natural resources practice. Calfee was appointed more than a year ago by Gov. Schwarzenegger as special counsel...
Immigration status threatens deportation for recently paroled Sanchez
Posted on March 18, 2010Rosie Sanchez was paroled, only to find herself back in jail. According to the Mercury News, Sanchez has been told that she will likely bounce back and forth between prisons before an immigration hearing and eventual deportation. At the time...
OC firm pays $100K to settle Ponzi suit
Posted on March 18, 2010Paul H. Heckler and his Tustin firm, Yosemite Capital Management, agreed yesterday to ay more than $100,000 to settle charges by the Securities and Exchange Commission that they placed clients into what turned out to be a Ponzi scheme. It...
Menifee council at odds over new city attorney bids suggestion
Posted on March 18, 2010Menifee Councilwoman Darcy Kuenzi called Tuesday for new bids for a city attorney. The call comes on the heels of a monthlong audit that will review all city contracts, invoices and financial controls. Eight law firms submitted bids to the...
Court rules cyber-gay bashing not protected free speech
Posted on March 17, 2010The 2nd District Court of Appeal ruled that students at Harvard-Westlake School who posted death threats and antigay messages on the Internet site of a 15-year-old classmate can't claim the constitutional protection of free speech. This upholds an earlier decision...
Judge approves Mattel lead paint settlement
Posted on March 17, 2010U.S. District Court Judge Dale Fischer of the Central District of California approved a class settlement yesterday that resolves multidistrict litigation involving lead paint in Mattel Inc. toys. The settlement involves millions of toys that were recalled or removed from...
New white collar defense partners at Arent Fox in L.A.
Posted on March 17, 2010Arent Fox LLP announced today that Terree Bowers and Mary Carter Andrues have joined the firm as partners in Los Angeles. They join the white collar defense practice. Terree Bowers is the former US Attorney for the Central District of...
Gang Tyre has Gold in their hills again
Posted on March 17, 2010Stanley Gold, the former managing partner of entertainment boutique Gang Tyre Ramer & Brown Inc., has returned to the firm as counsel. Gold was managing partner of Gang Tyre until 1985, when he became president and chief executive officer of...
Jury says Anthem must pay for out-of-state operation
Posted on March 16, 2010Last month Ephraim Nehme sued Anthem Blue Cross to pay for an out-of-state liver transplant after the insurance giant refused. Blue Cross originally approved for the transplant to take place at UCLA, where Nehme's doctor strongly recommended that the patient...
L.A. courtrooms hit hard by layoffs
Posted on March 16, 2010Due to the massive shortfall in an $800 million budget, 50 courtrooms are expected to close in Los Angeles by September, laying off nearly 1,000 workers. That's 20 percent of the court system's staff. Among the closures: one courtroom in...
Sanchez paroled after 23 years
Posted on March 15, 2010In 1985, Rosie Sanchez was convicted of arson for a fire that killed a person sleeping inside a clothing store and sentenced to 25 years to life. Last week, after maintaining her innocence through the 23 years she spent in...
New charges from FL keep CA child molester behind bars a little longer
Posted on March 15, 2010The release of convicted child molester George Joseph England from prison was thwarted last week by a criminal complaint signed in West Palm Beach, Florida. The new charges include transporting a juvenile from California to Florida with the intent to...
Munger Tolles attorney tapped to L.A. Police Commission seat
Posted on March 15, 2010Richard Drooyan, a former assistant U.S. attorney, has been nominated by Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to the Los Angeles Police Commission. He would fill a seat vacated by Andrea Ordin, who stepped down recently to take a post in...
K&L Gates welcomes two new OC partners
Posted on March 12, 2010K&L Gates LLP has announced the addition of Stephen T. Freeman and Gregory J. Hartker as partners in its tax practice. Both join K&L Gates from Stradling Yocca Carlson & Rauth, where Freeman served as chair of the firm's tax...
Alvarez to represent self in fourth trial
Posted on March 12, 2010Charged with two counts of attempted murder and in custody for more than five years, Alvarez has been tried unsuccessfully three times. He announced on Thursday an intention to represent himself in his fourth trial, citing his court-appointed attorneys' desire...
Brown goes to bat for farm laborers in new suit
Posted on March 12, 2010A lawsuit filed in Imperial County Superior Court by State Attorney General Jerry Brown alleges that farm labor contractor Juan Munoz underpaid workers and scheduled them for continuous shifts in "potentially deadly" conditions in the Coachella Valley and other areas...
Orange County sues Toyota
Posted on March 12, 2010Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas announced today that his office, along with other private attorneys, has filed suit against the U.S. sales arm of Toyota, alleging that the automaker has endangered the public with defective vehicles and engaged in...
Governor changes parole file policy
Posted on March 11, 2010Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has reversed a longtime policy of shredding sex offenders' parole files, wanting those documents instead to be maintained indefinitely. This policy change comes on the heels of a recent arrest of a paroled sex offender accused of...
Rosendahl joins DLA Piper in NY and LA
Posted on March 11, 2010DLA Piper announced today that Roger W. Rosendahl has joined the firm?s corporate and finance practices as a partner in the New York and Los Angeles offices. He comes to DLA Piper from Kaye Scholer. Mr. Rosendahl?s practice focuses on...
Suit alleges Korean immigrants targeted in loan modification scam
Posted on March 11, 2010Attorneys with the Asian Pacific American Legal Center accused Trinity Law Associates Inc., a Los Angeles law firm, of defrauding at least 28 Korean immigrants out of thousands of dollars by falsely promising that their services would prevent foreclosures...
Rabson new partner at Wilson Sonsini
Posted on March 10, 2010Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati announced today that Michael Rabson has rejoined the firm as a partner. He will be based in the firm's Palo Alto office and serve as a strategic advisor to life sciences and clean technology clients....
Alcala sentenced to death
Posted on March 10, 2010During his closing remarks on Tuesday, Rodney Alcala asked the jury to forego the death penalty in favor of a life sentence. To do otherwise, he said, would make the jurors become "wannabe killer[s] in waiting." To underscore his point,...
New partners named at Glaser Weil
Posted on March 09, 2010Glaser, Weil, Fink, Jacobs, Howard & Shapiro, LLP announced today that litigator Scott Gizer and corporate attorney Lisa Hamilton Klein have been elected to the partnership. Mr. Gizer handles all aspects of business litigation with a specialty in real estate...
Court of Appeals says Sony owes C3 no Moe
Posted on March 09, 2010Sony Pictures Television Inc. owned the copyrights to 190 Three Stooges short films. C3 Entertainment Inc. claimed Sony violated the terms of a contract between the parties when Sony distributed compilations of the shorts without paying C3 a share of...
Taxes due for Twenty-Nine Palms tribe member
Posted on March 09, 2010The California Court of Appeals has ruled that a Twenty-Nine Palms Band of Mission Indians member must pay state income tax on the money she received from gaming operations at Spotlight 29 Casino. Angelina Mike had been living on another...
Residents' group opposing museum expansion drops suit
Posted on March 08, 2010The Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles has agreed to pay $150,000 to Homeowners Opposed to Museum Expansion, a neighborhood group that sued to block the center's expansion of its Museum of Tolerance. The group is made up of residents...
Birotte is new U.S. Attorney for SoCal
Posted on March 05, 2010Andre Birotte Jr. was sworn in yesterday as the U.S. Attorney for the district covering Southern California. He was nominated to the post by President Barack Obama. Birotte is the first black U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California,...
New LA partners at Foley & Lardner
Posted on March 05, 2010Foley & Lardner LLP have announced that three of the firm?s senior counsel have been elected to partnership in the Los Angeles office. Jeffery R. Atkin is a member of the Energy Industry Team and the Finance & Financial Institutions...
Ramirez confirmed by Senate to FTC
Posted on March 05, 2010The U.S. Senate has confirmed President Obama?s nomination of Edith Ramirez to the Federal Trade Commission. She will be replacing Republican Deborah Majoras, who stepped down in March 2008. A partner in Quinn Emanuel Urquhart Oliver & Hedges? Los Angeles...
New OC Corporate & Finance partner at Manatt
Posted on March 04, 2010Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP, announced today that Thomas J. Leary has joined the firm?s Orange County office as a partner in the Corporate and Finance practice group. Leary has extensive experience advising public and private companies, boards of directors...
Supergraphics battle intensifies in Los Angeles
Posted on March 04, 2010When Carmen Trutanich promised during his election campaign to crack down on unpermitted supergraphics, he clearly meant it. According to an LA Times story, arrest warrants have been issued against four people accused of putting up supergraphics without permits...
Activision sued for wrongful termination by former execs
Posted on March 04, 2010Jason West and Vince Zampella, co-founders of Activision?s Infinity Ward studio, sued Activision Blizzard in Los Angeles Superior Court yesterday, claiming breach of contract and wrongful termination. The two former executives, creators of the "Call of Duty" game franchise, claim...
Tri-City files suit to prevent just-around-the-corner clinics in its district
Posted on March 04, 2010In a lawsuit filed on February 26, the Oceanside-based Tri-City Healthcare District asked a judge to block Escondido-based Palomar Pomerado Health from building a series of quickie medical clinics inside Albertson's grocery stores. The stores are located in Oceanside, San...
OC jury decides Allergan not liable in girl's death
Posted on March 03, 2010A jury refused to hold Botox maker Allergan Inc. liable for the death of a 7-year-old Texas girl being treated for cerebral palsy, saying that the warning labels provided by the company were more than adequate. Kristen Spears, born with...
Former O'Melveny & Myers partner new nom for Dept. of Commerce
Posted on March 03, 2010President Barack Obama has announced that he intends to nominate Michael C. Camuñez to be the Department of Commerce?s assistant secretary for market access and compliance. A former partner at O'Melveny & Myers, Camuñez is currently special counsel to the...
Anti-solicitation law shelved, for now, in Costa Mesa
Posted on March 03, 2010Barely a month after civil rights groups filed a lawsuit challenging Costa Mesa's anti-solicitation ordinance on the grounds that it prevented day laborers from looking for work on the street, we have a moratorium. The city agreed to stop enforcing...
Expenditure limit lifted in fraud litigation
Posted on March 03, 2010San Bernardino County Counsel Ruth Stringer has requested that the Board of Supervisors remove a spending cap from the county's contract with Irell & Manella in connection with the civil action against former county assessor Bill Postmus. John Hueston, an...
An about-face on approved flora
Posted on March 03, 2010For two years the city of Orange has been fighting with Quan and Angelina Ha over the couple's decision to remove their front lawn, in order to preserve water and save money. That dispute was supposed to reach a courtroom...
San Jose sees beginnings of its first federal death penalty trial
Posted on March 02, 2010For the next six months, 35-year-old Anh The Duong will face a sweeping racketeering indictment accusing him of leading a violent gang that carried out murders and robberies throughout California and Nevada during the 1990s. It will be the first...
Water-saving lawn removal at odds with OC codes
Posted on March 02, 2010The road to litigation is sometimes paved with good intentions - and wood chips. Two years ago Quan and Angelina Ha tore out the grass in their frontyard. As far as they were concerned, their reasoning was sound: the grass...
Barton C. Gaut, longtime legal figure in Riverside, retires
Posted on March 02, 2010Since 1962 when he first arrived on the scene as a newly graduated litigator, Barton C. Gaut has served his entire legal career in Riverside. After nearly 13 years on the Fourth District Court of Appeals as an associate justice,...
Rutter Hobbs announces new partners and litigator in LA
Posted on March 01, 2010Los Angeles-based Rutter Hobbs & Davidoff Incorporated have announced the appointment of partners Richard Hong and Paul J. Laurin, and litigation associate Risa J. Morris. Hong joins the firm from Jeffer, Mangels, Butler & Marmaro LLP. He will assist Rutter...
Lawsuits may imperil Riverside County Senate candidates
Posted on March 01, 2010Former Assemblyman Russ Bogh and Assemblyman Bill Emmerson are both running for Riverside County's 37th District Senate seat on the Republican ticket. And both have pending lawsuits that might affect their candidacies. Bogh's family business, Bogh Construction Inc...
Claims filed against state by Dugard family members
Posted on March 01, 2010Members of the Dugard family, including Jaycee Dugard herself, have filed claims against California, citing "various lapses by corrections department" and claiming "psychological, physical and emotional" damages. State parole agents started supervising Phillip Garrido in 1999, when he fell under...
Anthem Blue Cross sued by consumer group
Posted on March 01, 2010Consumer Watchdog has filed suit against Anthem Blue Cross, claiming the insurance giant has violated state law by closing certain policies to new members while illegally offering remaining customers alternative plans with fewer benefits at higher rates...
C3 dispensary to close
Posted on February 26, 2010The C3 Collective marijuana dispensary in Walnut Creek has been ordered to close. Contra Costa County Superior Court Judge Barry Baskin granted a preliminary injunction Wednesday afternoon to close C3 or else face contempt of court charges. In his ruling,...
Lujan pleads guilty to perjury
Posted on February 26, 2010Louie Lujan is the former mayor of La Puente. And because of a plea deal, it will be the last public office he will ever hold. Lujan has pleaded guilty to charges of perjury, stemming from campaign finance reports that...
LAUSD sued over teacher layoffs
Posted on February 25, 2010The ACLU and other civil rights lawyers have filed suit against the state and Los Angeles Unified School District on behalf of three middle-school students, alleging that budget cuts and teacher layoffs have infringed on their equal rights to an...
Ogletree Deakins opens new office in Orange County
Posted on February 25, 2010Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart, P.C. have announced that they will open an office in Orange County on March 1. Joining the firm as co-managing shareholders will be Vince Verde and Keith Watts, formerly with the Orange County office...
Duffy new Obama pick for U.S. attorney
Posted on February 25, 2010President Barack Obama nominated assistant U.S. attorney Laura E. Duffy yesterday to be the next U.S. attorney for the Southern District of California. If confirmed, Duffy would replace current U.S. Attorney Karen Hewitt, who took over the position when her...
Supergraphics under siege again in LA
Posted on February 24, 2010Los Angeles City Atty. Carmen Trutanich filed a lawsuit on Monday that accuses several individuals and businesses of erecting supergraphic advertisements illegally on buildings across the city, including the Sherman Oaks Galleria and the Howard Hughes Center in Westchester...
Preliminary injunction reinstates autism therapy
Posted on February 24, 2010The Los Angeles Superior Court issued a preliminary injunction yesterday against the Eastern Los Angeles Regional Center in Alhambra for unlawfully terminating a treatment for autism. The order requires ELARC to reinstate funding for Developmental, Individual Difference, Relationship-based treatment services...
Johnson joins Arent Fox in LA
Posted on February 24, 2010Arent Fox LLP announced last week that leading labor and employment lawyer Harry I. Johnson III has joined the firm as a partner in the firm's Los Angeles office. He comes to Arent Fox from Jones Day, where he served...
Former OC judge joins Panish Shea & Boyle in LA
Posted on February 24, 2010Panish Shea & Boyle LLP has announced that former Orange County Superior Court Judge Peter J. Polos has joined the firm in an "Of Counsel" role following his retirement from the bench on February 19, 2010. He is the firm?s...
Rodney Alcala's closing statements
Posted on February 23, 2010After prosecutor Matt Murphy delivered his closing statements in the Alcala trial, the time came for Rodney Alcala himself to deliver his last argument. For two hours, Alcala insisted to the jury that the evidence against him was made up...
Cooley and Trutanich move forward with med-marijuana suits
Posted on February 23, 2010Making good on their promises to take aggressive action against illegal marijuana dispensaries, Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley and City Atty. Carmen Trutanich have snapped into action. Jeff Joseph, the operator of Venice-area outlet Organica, was charged yesterday...
Anthem Blue Cross to be grilled about coverage, rate hikes
Posted on February 23, 2010Anthem Blue Cross may be feeling a wee bit up against it this week. First, there's the trial taking place in Los Angeles Superior Court, where the insurance giant faces charges of refusing to pay for Ephraim Nehme to get...
Fuentes de-friends Facebooking jurors with new bill
Posted on February 23, 2010Assemblyman Felipe Fuentes, D-Sylmar, introduced legislation last week that would amend civil and criminal contempt statutes to allow punishment of jurors who discuss confidential legal proceedings via Google, Twitter, Facebook and the like. The growing problem of jurors using the...
Six Venable attorneys move to Arent Fox
Posted on February 23, 2010Arent Fox LLP announced last week that six attorneys are joining the firm's automotive practice. Aaron H. Jacoby, John D. Bronstein, and Richard D. Buckley, Jr. join Arent Fox as partners. Kenneth Murphy joins as counsel. Rounding out the new...
Closing arguments in Alcala trial
Posted on February 22, 2010After more than a month of testimony, closing arguments have begun in the Rodney Alcala trial. Prosecutor Matt Murphy told jurors today to use their common sense in finding 66-year-old Rodney Alcala guilty. He also begged the jury to convict...
Adkins leaves OC for DC
Posted on February 22, 2010Robb Adkins, the top federal prosecutor in Orange County, left the U.S. Attorney's Office last week to head a government agency aimed at quelling financial crime. Adkins will handle a variety of criminal and civil actions as part of the...
OC deputies union request to stop early releases denied
Posted on February 22, 2010Last Thursday, an Orange County judge rejected a request by the Orange County sheriff's deputies union to immediately halt the early releases from that county's jail, saying that decision should be in the hands of Sheriff Sandra Hutchens. Sheriff Lee...
Despite sting op, doctor keeps medical license
Posted on February 22, 2010A San Diego judge refused for the second time to temporarily suspend the license of Dr. Andrew Rutland. In a sting at one of Rutland's offices, an investigator said Rutland offered to give her a tablet that would induce miscarriage,...
Real estate fraud scheme lands five in prison
Posted on February 18, 2010Edward Seung Ok, a 40-year-old Huntington Beach man, was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison yesterday for his role in a $12-million real estate fraud scheme that targeted about 100 homeowners in southern California who faced foreclosures, according to...
L.A. activist at the center of Supreme Court anti-terrorism case
Posted on February 18, 2010Ralph Fertig, a 79-year-old pacifist and human rights activist from Los Angeles, will be the lead plaintiff in a Supreme Court case to be heard next week that will test whether speaking out on behalf of an oppressed foreign minority...
OC deputies union sues to cease early inmate release
Posted on February 17, 2010Last week, a judge in Sacramento County issued a temporary restraining order halting the release of the inmates under the new state law. The union representing sheriff's deputies in Orange County is hoping for a similar resolution to the lawsuit...
New LA litigation partner at Manatt
Posted on February 17, 2010Manatt, Phelps & Phillips LLP have announced the addition of Becca J. Wahlquist as a partner in the litigation department in Los Angeles. Before coming to Manatt, she was a partner at Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Wahlquist focuses her practice...
Environmental groups claim rush to judgment in Powerlink lawsuit
Posted on February 17, 2010A lawsuit was filed yesterday by three San Diego community groups to stop construction of San Diego Gas and Electric's Sunrise Powerlink transmission line through southern Imperial and San Diego counties. The Protect Our Communities Foundation, Back Country Against Dumps,...
She says/he says/DOJ says in DA race conviction rate dispute
Posted on February 16, 2010The district attorney race in Sonoma County is heating up over conviction rates. Challenger Jill Ravitch says statistics show incumbent Stephan Passalacqua never scored better than 74 percent from 2003 to 2008, and scored at 62 percent in 2007. Advertisements...
Baylor gains new Starr president
Posted on February 16, 2010Kenneth Starr is leaving his post as dean of Pepperdine University School of Law to become president of Baylor University in Waco, Texas. He says the decision was prompted by a desire to move back to his home state. In...
Entertainment law firm announces three new attorneys to its letterhead
Posted on February 16, 2010Entertainment law firm Morris Yorn Barnes & Levine announced today that it has added three long-time firm attorneys, David Krintzman, Todd Rubenstein and Alex Kohner to the firm's masthead. David Krintzman joined the firm as its first associate in 1995...
Jury awards $12M in hospital negligence case
Posted on February 12, 2010A jury in Pomona Superior Court found that Greater El Monte Community Hospital was negligent in treating Jessica Ramirez, a woman left in a vegetative state after waiting hours at the hospital before being sent elsewhere for surgery to remove...
Pilot program shields construction projects from lawsuits
Posted on February 12, 2010Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's office introduced a pilot program on Wednesday in Sacramento that would fast-track select construction projects by exempting them from environment-related legal challenges, with the aim to speed up the start of construction...
Sheppard Mullin announces new partners
Posted on February 12, 2010Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP announced Wednesday that it has elevated 10 of its attorneys to partner, including five in Los Angeles and two in San Diego. In Los Angeles: Alfred Fraijo Jr. is a member of the Real...
Former Tustin hospital CFO pleads guilty in fraud scheme
Posted on February 11, 2010Vincent Rubio, the former chief financial officer for Tustin Hospital and Medical Center, was charged two years ago with participating in a multimillion-dollar scheme to defraud Medicare and Medi-Cal. The hospital, according to authorities, paid a skid row center operator...
Seal Beach medical marijuana suit settled
Posted on February 11, 2010Bruce Benedict, a former resident of Seal Beach, sued the town's police in August 2008, claiming they unlawfully confiscated 40 to 50 medical marijuana plants and forced him to become a police informant. Benedict suffers from hepatitis C and was...
Biller can't release Toyota documents, but Toyota can't have them back yet
Posted on February 11, 2010An arbitrator in a federal lawsuit filed by former Toyota Motor Corp. attorney Dimitrios Biller issued a preliminary injunction yesterday preventing the lawyer from disclosing internal company documents until a ruling is issued about the merits of the case...
Judge nixes delta pumping restriction delay
Posted on February 11, 2010Five days after U.S. District Judge Oliver W. Wanger put a two-week hold on water pumping restrictions, he rejected an emergency request by water districts representing cities and Valley farmers to delay a new set of pumping restrictions in the...
Carlsbad desalination plant approved
Posted on February 11, 2010The California Coastal Commission voted 8-to-4 yesterday to allow Poseidon Resources to continue to develop an ocean-water desalination plant in Carlsbad, denying a revocation request from Surfrider Foundation and San Diego Coastkeeper. KBPS reports that the issue at hand was...
Cal Supremes say a footrest is a footrest is a footrest
Posted on February 09, 2010Overturning two lower courts, the California Supreme Court ruled yesterday that state law does not prohibit people from carrying bicycle footrests, even though police say some gang members use the parts as illegal metal knuckles. The case arose from the...
Goel pleads guilty in Galleon case
Posted on February 09, 2010Rajiv Goel, a former Intel Capital director who was arrested in San Jose, California, last October, pleaded guilty on Monday to fraud in the Galleon insider trading case. He told a New York court that hedge fund founder Raj Rajaratnam...
New CA Toyota suit links crash to throttle system
Posted on February 08, 2010The family of a woman killed in the crash of her Toyota Camry has filed suit against the automaker, claiming the crash was caused by faulty electronics. The suit says Toyota's electronic "drive-by-wire" throttle system caused the car's sudden acceleration...
Lewis Brisbois announces new partners
Posted on February 08, 2010Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith LLP announced the election of 29 associates to the partnership last week. Among them: Jeanne Bawa and Matthew Walker are based in the San Bernardino office. Ms. Bawa specializes in the defense of workers' compensation....
Delta pumping limits eased for two weeks
Posted on February 08, 2010Federal Judge Oliver Wanger temporarily lifted pumping curbs designed to protect salmon migration in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta on Friday. The decision means that water agencies serving mostly the San Joaquin Valley and Southern California can run Delta pumps...
Toyota in Lieu's line of fire
Posted on February 08, 2010Toyota is being scolded with many voices from many corners. Add Ted Lieu to the growing choir. Lieu, chairman of the state Assembly's Rules Committee as well as Democratic candidate for California attorney general, successfully pushed last Thursday for a...
Prosecutors recommending 20 years for 74-year-old convicted Chinese spy
Posted on February 08, 2010Prosecutors will be seeking a 20-year prison sentence today for a Chinese-born engineer convicted of six federal counts of economic espionage. Dongfan "Greg" Chung was found guilty in July for keeping 300,000 pages of sensitive papers in his home. The...
SEC drops Broadcom suit
Posted on February 05, 2010The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has voluntarily dropped its civil case against four former executives of Broadcom Corp., including its former general counsel, David Dull. Filed last year, the SEC's suit had named former CFO William Ruehle and co-founders...
DOJ still unconvinced by GBS 2.0
Posted on February 05, 2010Late yesterday afternoon, the Department of Justice said in a brief that it still had objections to the so-called Google Books Settlement, despite changes both parties have made. The DOJ, while commending both parties for their progress, still had copyright...
Luce Forward announces new San Diego leadership changes
Posted on February 05, 2010Yesterday Luce Forward announced several leadership changes, including four in San Diego. Partner Dennis Doucette will now serve as co-chair of the firm's business/corporate practice group with Rick Frimmer. Dennis Doucette practices in corporate, securities, mergers and acquisitions, corporate and...
Jones Day announces new partners in CA
Posted on February 04, 2010Yesterday Jones Day announced the addition of four new partners throughout California. Two are in San Diego. Patrick Elsevier is moving to Jones Day from Alston & Bird?s Atlanta office. He is an IP litigator specializing in biotechnology patent litigation...
Jury awards multimillion dollar verdict in malpractice suit
Posted on February 04, 2010In Riverside Superior Court last Friday, a jury awarded an Arizona couple $16.5 million in a medical malpractice lawsuit against Southern California neurosurgeon Christopher Pham. They found Pham negligent in treating Trent Hughes in 2003 for pain and tingling related...
Manatt names Shatz to partner in LA
Posted on February 04, 2010Manatt, Phelps & Phillips LLP announced yesterday that Benjamin Shatz has been elevated to partner. He is with their appellate practice group in their Los Angeles office. He is the Chair of the Los Angeles County Bar Association Appellate Court...
New Orrick partners in LA and Orange County
Posted on February 03, 2010Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP announced today the admission of seven lawyers to the partnership, effective January 1, 2010. Two of them are based in California. Mark Mermelstein is in the Los Angeles office and Thomas J. Gray is in...
Retired 'gift card' judge censured by CJP
Posted on February 03, 2010Yesterday the Commission on Judicial Performance censured retired Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Brett C. Klein because of his handling of a class action against Windsor Fashions, Inc. The plaintiffs were suing the store or alleged violations of the Song-Beverly...
Class-action suit says Nutri-Grain bars not so Nutri
Posted on February 03, 2010A class-action law suit filed Monday in San Diego accuses Kellogg's of false advertising, claiming that the company's Nutri-Grain bars actually contain trans-fats. In their ads, Kellogg's suggests that Nutri-Grain bars allow you to "Eat Better All Day" because they...
Civil rights groups sue Costa Mesa on behalf of day laborers
Posted on February 03, 2010A pair of civil rights groups, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund and the ACLU of Southern California filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Santa Ana, challenging Costa Mesa's anti-solicitation ordinance that allegedly prevents day laborers...
Alcala delivers opening statement on his own behalf
Posted on February 02, 2010The Orange County Register continues its coverage of the Rodney Alcala trial today. This morning, Alcala, who is defending himself against five murder charges, delivered an hour-long opening speech the OC Register called "rambling," in which he insisted he was...
Two new shareholders at Buchalter Nemer
Posted on February 02, 2010Buchalter Nemer announced that Senior Counsel Mia S. Blackler and Of Counsel Scott O. Smith have been elected shareholders. Ms. Blackler is a member of the Firm's Litigation Practice Group in San Francisco where she focuses on commercial, real property,...
Travel sites duck occupancy taxes in LA
Posted on February 02, 2010Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Carolyn Kuhl granted a request by Priceline.com Inc, Expedia Inc, Trip Network Inc, Orbitz LLC and Travelocity.com LP, Hotels.com LP and Hotwire Inc to invalidate $21.3 million in taxes, interest and penalties assessed by...
Former SEC attorney joins Foley & Lardner
Posted on February 02, 2010Foley & Lardner LLP announced today that Clifford Hyatt has joined the firm as a partner in the Los Angeles office working in the Securities Enforcement & Litigation Practice. Prior to joining Foley, Hyatt was a partner and litigator with...
Privacy suit against CHP over Internet "death images" revived
Posted on February 02, 2010Reversing a ruling dismissing invasion of privacy, intentional infliction of emotional distress and negligence claims, the Fourth District Court of Appeal yesterday revived a suit against two California Highway Patrol officers who allegedly leaked grisly photos of an 18-year-old Orange...
Cal Supremes deny challenges to 'Jessica's Law'
Posted on February 01, 2010Today a split California Supreme Court upheld Proposition 83, or "Jessica's Law," turning back constitutional challenges to the measure from four ex-convicts who argued that the law's provisions are "not rationally related to the harm voters were trying to prevent...
Local Presbyterian churches regain control of their property
Posted on February 01, 2010Last Friday the Third District Court of Appeal reversed a ruling allowing two Sacramento-area Presbyterian churches to take their property with them as they left the national church. In an unpublished opinion, the court held that the trust in which...
Two new partners at Sheppard Mullin in LA
Posted on February 01, 2010Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP have announced the addition of Kelly C. Crabb and Richard W. Kopenhefer as partners in their Los Angeles office. Crabb joins the firm's Entertainment, Media & Technology practice and Kopenhefer joins Labor & Employment...
UC San Diego Law School, revisited
Posted on February 01, 2010UC San Diego has wanted to build a law school for decades. A proposed merger with the California Western School of Law in the early '80s was rejected by administrators at UC, who claimed it would be unnecessary. But the...
Third time's a charm for Alvarez
Posted on February 01, 2010A Fresno County Superior Court jury decided last Friday that it was unable to reach a verdict in the trial of Jesse David Alvarez, who was accused of seriously wounding a woman while trying to kill her father in September...
Cal Supremes order 'Jessica's Law' under closer scrutiny
Posted on January 29, 2010The California Supreme Court ruled yesterday that a 2006 proposition known as "Jessica's Law" may violate constitutional guarantees of equal protection by indefinitely holding sexually violent predators in prison. The court said a fact-finding hearing must be held to determine...
Injunction signed against Garden Grove street gang
Posted on January 29, 2010Orange County Superior Court signed a permanent injunction against the Hard Times street gang in Garden Grove. The District Attorney's office said this was the first such injunction in Orange County to name a gang as a defendant, as opposed...
Indie band article in Rolling Stone not 'transformed' by proximity to cigarette ads, rules Cal appeals
Posted on January 29, 2010A unanimous three-justice panel at California's 1st District Court of Appeal dismissed a suit brought by a class of indie rockers that claimed the layout of a story featuring them in Rolling Stone made it look like the bands endorsed...
Pot initiative gets the signatures
Posted on January 29, 2010Backers of the California Cannabis Initiative submitted its petitions yesterday to qualify for November's statewide ballot. According to a press release, the initiative received approximately 700,000 signatures, with names from every one of California's 58 counties...
Parole hearing for infamous 'Onion Field' killer
Posted on January 27, 2010Gregory Powell, the gunman in the infamous "Onion Field" police killing, is up for parole today. He is 75 years old. Powell was convicted of the March 1963 kidnapping and execution of LAPD Officer Ian Campbell, famously documented in Joseph...
$22M for 29 class action lawsuits, agrees Ameriquest
Posted on January 27, 2010Ameriquest has agreed to settle 29 class-action lawsuits alleging predatory lending. The group of subprime lenders has pledged $22 million to repay aggrieved borrowers and their lawyers. The agreement potentially affects 712,000 borrowers and covers loans as far back as...
Prosecution witness in Alcala trial certain of defendant/lawyer's guilt
Posted on January 27, 2010There was some dramatic testimony yesterday in the Alcala case. Jackie Young, formerly of Huntington Beach, told Deputy District Attorney Matt Murphy that she had seen Alcala at the beach shooting photos of two 12-year-old girls, one of whom was...
Kelly increases attack on Toyota
Posted on January 26, 2010Michael Kelly, managing partner of Los Angeles-based Kirtland & Packard, now has two lawsuits pending against Toyota Motor Sales USA Inc. The first suit was filed on November 17th in Los Angeles federal court representing two Southern California customers, one...
Spherix partners pay and cooperate in Galleon investigation
Posted on January 26, 2010Ali T. Far and Richard Choo-Beng Lee, partners at San Jose, California-based Spherix, have pleaded guilty to criminal charges in a wide-ranging insider-trading investigation of hedge funds and are aiding federal prosecutors a U.S. probe of Galleon Group LLC...
Conflict-of-interest charges dropped in long-running pension case
Posted on January 26, 2010Yesterday the California Supreme Court threw out criminal charges filed by the San Diego County district attorney against five former members of the city retirement board stemming from the city's pension controversy. The court decided that those five could not...
New team leader at Dykema
Posted on January 26, 2010Dykema has announced that J. Kevin Snyder has been appointed team leader of the firm?s Class Action Defense Team in Los Angeles. Snyder's practice focuses on complex business and intellectual property litigation in state and federal courts. He has represented...
LA passes medical marijuana ordinance
Posted on January 26, 2010The Los Angeles City Council today finally approved an ordinance that will cap the number of medical marijuana dispensaries at 70, close more than 500 that have opened since the Council began debating the ordinance, and strictly regulate the location...
Another victory for Lorillard
Posted on January 25, 2010After nearly eight weeks, a Los Angeles jury found in favor of the defendants in Cox v. Asbestos Corporation, Ltd. Robert Cox did smoke Lorillard's Kent cigarettes with filters that contained asbestos, but the jury concluded that there was no...
Botox on trial in Santa Ana
Posted on January 25, 2010Jury selection will begin today in Santa Ana for a lawsuit brought by the mother of a 7-year-old Texas girl who died after receiving Botox injections. Plaintiffs include surviving relatives of patients who died after Botox treatments and patients who...
'Caperton' exonerates recusing/nonrecusing judge
Posted on January 25, 2010Relying on last year's U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Caperton v. Massey, the California Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that a judge did not violate a defendant's due process rights by overseeing her criminal trial after initially recusing himself from...
Sentencing for Greens delayed until March
Posted on January 21, 2010Gerald and Patricia Green were convicted in September of last year of bribing Thai officials to control the Bangkok International Film Festival. Sentencing was expected today, but according to the Associated Press, U.S. District Judge George Wu has pushed back...
Obama to nominate local attorney to State Justice Institute board
Posted on January 21, 2010The Metropolitan News-Enterprise reports today that President Obama intends to nominate Hernán D. Vera, the president and chief executive officer of Public Counsel, to the Board of Directors of the State Justice Institute. Prior to joining Public Counsel in 2002,...
Residents take UC Berkeley frats to court
Posted on January 21, 2010Residents near UC Berkeley's southern edge filed a lawsuit on Tuesday in Alameda County Superior Court against dozens of fraternities, contending that they make life miserable for neighbors by encouraging underage drinking, littering sidewalks and streets, partying all night and...
Nora Quinn to run for Superior Court judgeship
Posted on January 21, 2010Administrative Law Judge Nora A. Quinn is planning to mount a campaign for an open seat on the Los Angeles Superior Court. According to the Metropolitan News-Enterprise, Quinn is in the process of forming a campaign committee and will be...
New corporate partner at K&L Gates in OC
Posted on January 21, 2010The Orange County office of K&L Gates has added Michael A. Hedge as a partner in its corporate practice. Hedge advises public and private companies on corporate finance, venture capital, securities, and merger & acquisition transactions. His clients have included...
Cal Supreme say no limit on med marijuana possession
Posted on January 21, 2010The California Supreme Court unanimously ruled today that state lawmakers were wrong to change provisions in Proposition 215, passed in 1996 and allowing patients with a doctor's recommendation to possess an unspecified amount of marijuana. In order to give law...
ELARC under fire for eliminating funding for autism treatment
Posted on January 19, 2010Yesterday attorneys with Public Counsel and Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP filed a class action law suit and preliminary injunction on behalf of children with autism against the Eastern Los Angeles Regional Center. The plaintiffs allege that ELARC illegally eliminated...
Florence-Marie Cooper dies
Posted on January 19, 2010U.S. District Judge Florence-Marie Cooper, a former legal secretary who rose to the federal judiciary and held accountable some of the nation's most powerful officials and institutions, died early Friday in Santa Monica after suffering a stroke. She was 69...
Central Coast pot dispensaries spark controversies in shadow of possible ban
Posted on January 19, 2010Purple Cross Rx, a medical marijuana dispensary that opened a couple weeks ago in Hollister, is already preparing for its first legal battle. Officials in Hollister claim the dispensary is operating in violation of zoning laws. They plan to serve...
Pro-life demonstrator may face prison
Posted on January 19, 2010At 75 years of age, pro-life activist Ross Foti has been a regular fixture demonstrating in front of the San Mateo Planned Parenthood clinic since 2001. A stipulated injunction Foti agreed to in 2004 prevents him from parking his truck,...
Glendale resident one of three men charged in possible nuke smuggling scheme
Posted on January 14, 2010According to an indictment filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, Jirair Avanessian, an Iranian-born chemical engineer living in Glendale, was paid several hundred thousand dollars to ship "high-dollar vacuum pumps and pump-related" equipment to Iran...
Supreme Court says no to Prop 8 video broadcast
Posted on January 14, 2010The U.S. Supreme Court, by a 5-4 vote, continued the stay on transmitting video coverage of the Prop 8 trial. The conservative majority wrote that defenders of the ban on gay marriage would suffer "irreparable" harm should the trial be...
Governor announces three new appointments
Posted on January 13, 2010Governor Schwarzenegger announced last week that he had appointed three attorneys to various state posts. He named former Public Utilities Commission member Rachelle Chong as special counsel of advanced information and communications technologies for the Office of the State Chief...
Blank Rome lands six new attorneys in LA
Posted on January 13, 2010Blank Rome announced yesterday that it has added six new attorneys to its Los Angeles office - five to build a new labor and employment practice and a sixth who specializes in corporate law. The labor attorneys, who announced their...
Tobisman named partner at Greines Martin
Posted on January 13, 2010Greines Martin Stein & Richland LLP has announced that Cynthia Tobisman has been named partner. She joined the firm in 2001 after practicing as a litigator and transactional attorney for three years following her graduation from Boalt Hall School of....
CA prison plan, pending appeal, OK'd by panel judges
Posted on January 13, 2010U.S. District Judges Thelton Henderson and Lawrence Karlton and 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Stephen Reinhardt make up the panel that ordered the state of California to educe its prison population by about 40,000 inmates to improve medical...
LA Council takes up marijuana again
Posted on January 13, 2010The Los Angeles City Council meets again today after a month's hiatus to consider the regulation of medical marijuana dispensaries. Last month the council stalled on the subject, postponing debate until city planners completed a detailed analysis of several proposals...
Anti-gang activist has bail reconsidered in hearing today
Posted on January 13, 2010U.S. District Court Judge Manuel Real will hear arguments today on whether Alex Sanchez, an anti-gang activist accused of still participating in gang life, should be granted bail or kept in jail. Sanchez allegedly gave an order to kill a...
Practices at Challenger youth center challenged by ACLU
Posted on January 13, 2010The American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California and other legal groups filed a class-action lawsuit yesterday against the Probation Department and the county Office of Education, alleging that the Challenger Memorial Youth Center in Lancaster has failed "to deliver...
Sixty guilty pleas in Mongols racketeering case
Posted on January 13, 2010Thom Mrozek, spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office, said yesterday that 60 of the 79 Mongols Motorcycle Club members arrested in a federal sweep have pleaded guilty to racketeering charges. About 10 of those who entered guilty pleas have been...
Squire Sanders adds corporate lawyer Hsu to LA office
Posted on January 12, 2010Squire, Sanders & Dempsey LLP announced last week announced last week that James L. Hsu has joined their Los Angeles office as partner. He joins Squire Sanders from Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal LLP. Hsu is a corporate lawyer who advises...
Cyclist-assaulting physician sentenced to five years
Posted on January 12, 2010Christopher Thomas Thompson, a doctor and the founder of a medical records company, was found guilty last Friday of six felonies and a misdemeanor for assaulting a pair of cyclists with his car. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Scott T....
Former USC coach may need to testify in two SoCal cases
Posted on January 12, 2010Before Pete Carroll decamps to Seattle, he's got some unfinished business to attend to in his longtime home of southern California. For one, the LA Times reports that Carroll was served with a subpoena yesterday compelling him to appear for...
K&L Gates welcomes two new partners in Palo Alto
Posted on January 11, 2010The Palo Alto office of K&L Gates LLP announces the addition of Karineh Khachatourian and Bryan J. Sinclair as partners in the firm?s intellectual property litigation practice. They join K&L Gates from Mintz Levin Cohn Ferris Glovsky and Popeo P.C....
Sacramento federal court to hear clergy housing allowance case
Posted on January 11, 2010The Freedom From Religion Foundation, an organization based in Madison, Wisconsin, filed a lawsuit last year in Sacramento federal court, challenging the "parsonage allowance" given to clergy that permits them a tax benefit on housing income. The Foundation claims this...
Salkin seeking judgeship; Margolin, too - maybe
Posted on January 08, 2010Deputy District Attorney Valerie F. Salkin will seek a judgeship on the Los Angeles Superior Court in the June 8 election, and Calabasas solo practitioner William M. Margolin said that he, too, will be mounting a campaign, according to the...
Gundlach and TCW head to court
Posted on January 08, 2010TCW Group Inc., the Los Angeles-based unit of Societe Generale, is suing former investment chief Jeffrey Gundlach and three ex-employees after more than half of its fixed-income professionals joined his new firm. They more than $200 million in damages...
SoCal ob-gyn ordered to cease practice pending disciplinary hearing
Posted on January 08, 2010Administrative Law Judge James Ahler ordered a Southern California obstetrician-gynecologist to immediately stop performing abortions and delivering babies until a formal disciplinary hearing can be held about the death of one of his patients during an abortion...
Parachute Center in court for negligence
Posted on January 08, 2010A Southern California man is suing a popular Lodi-area skydiving drop zone for negligence after a 2006 accident left him temporarily paralyzed and with severe spinal cord injuries. Christian Barton knew jumping out of a plane was risky. But his...
ACLU cautions Hesperia school board over opening meetings with prayer
Posted on January 08, 2010On Monday, January 11, the Hesperia Unified School District on a policy outlining how invocations should be conducted. In May 2009, board member Anthony Riley argued in favor of adding an invocation to meetings, claiming, "I have never been in...
Subcontractor's restitutional responsibility for Catalina fire grows by $11.9M
Posted on January 07, 2010Gary Dennis Hunt, a 51-year-old contract worker convicted of accidentally touching off a wildfire on Catalina Island in 2007, was ordered yesterday to pay nearly $12 million in restitution. This is in addition to the $4 million he was ordered...
New managing partner at Michelman & Robinson
Posted on January 07, 2010Michelman & Robinson LLP announced that Dana A. Kravetz has assumed the role of Firm Managing Partner from Sanford L. Michelman, effective January 1, 2010. Mr. Kravetz has acted as the Firm's Administrative Partner and the Managing Partner of M&R's...
Southwestern Law School's Max Goodman passes away
Posted on January 07, 2010Professor Max A. Goodman, one of the leading family law experts in California who served on the Southwestern Law School faculty for over four decades, passed away on December 31, 2009 at the age of 85. Professor Goodman was a...
CA Supremes to decide airport donations case
Posted on January 07, 2010Via the Associated Press: The California Supreme Court heard arguments yesterday over whether Los Angeles International Airport is a public place and should therefore be open to solicitors. The International Society for Krishna Consciousness says yes; the airport says no,...
New Dykema members in Los Angeles
Posted on January 06, 2010Dykema announced yesterday that three members of its litigation department were elected to membership, the firm's equivalent of partner. These include two attorneys in the Los Angeles office. S. Christopher ("Kit") Winter focuses his practice on business litigation and strategic...
Two new partners at Irell & Manella
Posted on January 06, 2010Irell & Manella announced yesterday the election of two new partners, Lisa Sharrock Glasser and Ellisen Shelton Turner. Ms. Glasser, 31, is resident in the Newport Beach office. Mr. Turner, 34, is resident in the Los Angeles office. Ms. Glasser...
CA computer company claims Green Dam contains stolen code
Posted on January 06, 2010Solid Oak Software Inc., a family-owned firm in Santa Barbara, has filed a $2.2 billion copyright infringement lawsuit against the People's Republic of China, two Chinese software makers and seven major computer manufacturers that helped distribute Green Dam Youth Escort...
New court study says budget cuts spell big-time trouble for CA
Posted on January 06, 2010California faces $21 billion in budget cuts during the fiscal year that begins on July 1. According to a study commissioned by the Los Angeles County Superior Court, those cuts will cost more than $30 billion in economic losses statewide...
Five new lawyers at Hawkins Parnell
Posted on January 06, 2010Hawkins, Parnell & Thackston, LLP announced today the addition of five lawyers in its Los Angeles office. Jacob Zuniga, Mark Hilliard, and Kelly McMahon have joined as members of the Business Litigation and Toxic Tort & Environmental Litigation Groups...
MOVERS: Elevations at Murchison & Cumming
Posted on January 05, 2010Murchison & Cumming announced yesterday that Richard C. Moreno, Chair of the Transportation Liability Practice Group, has become a Senior Partner of the firm. Paul R. Flaherty, has also become an Associate Partner. Mr. Moreno specializes in the handling of...
MOVERS: Former Bryan Cave partner joins Sheppard Mullin
Posted on January 05, 2010Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton announced Monday that international trade specialist Curtis M. Dombek has joined its downtown Los Angeles office. A former partner with Bryan Cave, Dombek has joined Sheppard Mullin as a partner in the firm's Government Contracts...
Clean trucks agreement under fire from environmental groups
Posted on January 05, 2010Weeks after approving a deal with the trucking lobby over enforcement measures in its Clean Trucks Plan, the Port of Long Beach and the American Trucking Associations find themselves the subject of a suit brought by The Natural Resources Defense...
Alleged serial killer, representing himself, participates in jury selection
Posted on January 05, 2010Rodney James Alcala is accused of killing five females in the late '70s, including the kidnap/slaying of a 12-year-old girl. Final jury selection began today in Alcala's death penalty trial, and since he is representing himself, Alcala will be questioning...
Steptoe promotes ten attorneys
Posted on January 05, 2010Steptoe & Johnson LLP announced today the promotion of ten attorneys. This includes Richard Reinis in Century City and Jay Smith in Los Angeles. Both have been promoted to partner. Mr. Reinis practices in the Business Solutions and Litigation Departments...
Jeffer Mangels partners and associates leave to form Elkins Kalt
Posted on January 05, 2010Last May, three Irell & Manella partners left the firm to form their own. Now comes news of ten lawyers, including six partners, who have left Los Angeles-based Jeffer, Mangels, Butler & Marmaro to strike out on their own as...
MOVERS: Clark joins Allen Matkins
Posted on January 05, 2010Allen Matkins announced today that Alan Clark has joined the firm's Los Angeles office as partner. Clark was previously a partner with Latham & Watkins, where he practiced commercial litigation since beginning his legal career in 1975. Clark has extensive...
Pamela L. Butler sworn in as Superior Court judge
Posted on January 04, 2010Deputy District Attorney Pamela L. Butler, who has served with the District Attorney's office since 1995, was named a judge by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and sworn in on December 30. County Presiding Judge Adrienne Grover, who presided over the swearing-in,...
Local inventors accuse toy maker of patent infringement
Posted on January 04, 2010Cindy Reichman and Shelly Conte, a Fresno mother-and-daughter inventor team, are suing Jakk's Pacific for $100 million in damages for allegedly stealing their concept for a talking doll that plays hide-and-seek. The lawsuit, filed in Fresno County Superior Court, stems...
Reggie Bush gifts case will go to court
Posted on January 04, 2010The state Court of Appeal upheld a lower court's order denying Reggie Bush's motion to compel arbitration with Lloyd Lake, a fledgling sports marketer, meaning the case will go on in court. Lake is accusing Bush and his parents of...
Paul Hastings partner nominated by Obama for SoCal U.S. Attorney
Posted on January 04, 2010The White House announced on Christmas Eve that Andre Birotte Jr. has been tapped to become the top federal prosecutor in Los Angeles. As U.S. attorney, he would oversee the nation's second-largest office with about 275 lawyers and a seven-county...
Court of Appeals says no to Vioxx class action
Posted on December 16, 2009The manufacturer of Vioxx cannot be sued in a class action by consumers who claim they were misled into buying the painkiller before it was pulled off the market in 2004, according to the Court of Appeals Division Three. This...
GC at Liberty to fight online piracy
Posted on December 16, 2009Marc Randazza, general counsel for San Diego-based adult entertainment company Liberty Media Holdings, filed a federal lawsuit Dec. 3 in the Southern District of California against 51 eBay sellers who have allegedly engaged in a counterfeit DVD enterprise...
Santa Clara judge permits Medileaf to stay open
Posted on December 16, 2009Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Kevin Murphy ruled yesterday that Gilroy's Medileaf medical marijuana dispensary will remain open. Murphy rejected a preliminary injunction sought by the city that would have shut the dispensary's doors until a trial determined its...
Carney dismisses Broadcom backdating charges, citing 'shameful' prosecutorial conduct
Posted on December 15, 2009U.S. District Court Judge Cormac Carney dismissed with prejudice the cases against William Ruehle, the former chief financial officer of Broadcom, and Henry Nicholas, one of the company's co-founders. Carney also dismissed the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's civil case...
9th Circuit increases CA's responsibility for foster kids' care to 100 percent
Posted on December 15, 2009The 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled yesterday that California should pay the full cost of care for thousands of children in group homes, reversing a lower court ruling finding that state payments covering 80 percent...
MOVERS: Kim and Miyamoto join Squire Sanders
Posted on December 14, 2009Global law firm Squire, Sanders & Dempsey L.L.P. is adding corporate and litigation support for clients with business interests in East Asia. New partners Joon Yong Kim and David T. Miyamoto join Squire Sanders from Sidley Austin. Kim is based...
Recession prompts firms to rethink the billable hour
Posted on December 14, 2009Thanks to the recession, several law firms in Los Angeles are billing flat fees for a defined project, charging less for an unsuccessful outcome or simply reducing rates. For example, downtown L.A. firm Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP set...
Maywood City Council finds Calderon lied about stepping down
Posted on December 14, 2009Maywood City Councilman Sergio Calderon, who resigned his seat last month only to ask for it back days later, had initially said he was leaving because of a council dispute over Maywood's police contract with the city of Cudahy. But...
Chais not off the hook
Posted on December 14, 2009Eric Roth may have given up the Chais, but not the U.S. government. Federal prosecutors are conducting a criminal investigation of Beverly Hills money manager Stanley Chais. U.S. prosecutors in New York asked a judge to allow them to intervene...
Supreme Court to hear Ontario texting case
Posted on December 14, 2009The Supreme Court agreed today to hear an appeal from the police department in Ontario, California, that was successfully sued by Sgt. Jeff Quon and three other officers after their text messages -- some of which were sexually explicit --...
Water pact takes a hit in Sacramento
Posted on December 11, 2009As reported yesterday, a ruling was announced in the ongoing water rights case: Superior Court Judge Roland Candee in Sacramento tentatively invalidated the 2003 settlement, saying that the state improperly agreed to pick up much of the cost of saving...
Racial profiling case results in a partial win for black barbers in Moreno Valley
Posted on December 11, 2009A partial settlement was reached in a civil rights lawsuit filed by a group of Moreno Valley barbers. The settlement requires the state Board of Barbering and Cosmetology to write new policies against racial discrimination. The defendants -- which include...
Burbank police get help from former U.S. attorney
Posted on December 11, 2009Former U.S. Atty. in Los Angeles Debra Wong Yang has been hired, along with director of the Police Assessment Resource Center Merrick Bobb, to assist with litigation and policy issues involving the Burbank Police Department, according to city officials...
Orrick gives hope that Bratz line will not be spoiled
Posted on December 11, 2009MGA lost their epic battle with Mattel over the Bratz dolls. But this past week the company won a major victory when it convinced the 9th Circuit to put a hold on the doll recall. The appellate court's order also...
MOVERS: Kolhoff among 18 new Reed Smith partners
Posted on December 10, 2009Reed Smith LLP today announced the election of 18 new partners firmwide, effective January 1. Among them is Los Angeles-based Nicole Herron Kolhoff. Kolhoff is a member of the firm?s Financial Industry Group. She is a corporate finance lawyer who...
Judge Carney dismisses felony charge against Samueli
Posted on December 10, 2009U.S. District Judge Cormac J. Carney a year ago had rejected a plea bargain for Samueli because it did not allow for any jail time. But in a seeming about-face, Carney cleared the Broadcom co-founder of a criminal charge of...
Water rights case may get a ruling this week
Posted on December 10, 2009A judge is expected to rule this week on the legality of the Quantification Settlement of 2003. More than a dozen legal challenges to the agreement are the subject of a trial that began in Sacramento last month and is...
USC lands interdisciplinary scholar to head new Ph.D. program
Posted on December 10, 2009USC has recruited Mathew D. McCubbins to join the faculty in January as a Provost Professor. He will share appointments at the USC Marshall School of Business, the USC Gould School of Law and USC College. He has been a...
Vinocor spoils Coppola's 'Encyclopedia,' says lawsuit
Posted on December 10, 2009Film director and winemaker Francis Ford Coppola hired Vinocor USA Inc. in 2007 to make custom bottles at $8.76 a case and oversized screw caps at $43.25 per 1,000 for his wine company, Francis Ford Coppola Presents LLC. According to...
Samueli takes the stand in Broadcom case
Posted on December 09, 2009Henry Samueli's two days of testimony in the Broadcom case revealed that he said he was never told the company's process for granting stock options to employees was improper or illegal. He also admitted to not telling the truth when...
Single-injection execution success in Ohio not as easily transferable to California
Posted on December 09, 2009California has put the death penalty on hold as it reviews its three-drug procedure, hoping to address claims that it inflicts "cruel and unusual punishment." The first drug is supposed to render the prisoner unconscious, the second induces paralysis and...
Circumstances of L.A. attorney's shooting a mystery
Posted on December 09, 2009Jeffrey A. Tidus, a prominent Los Angeles attorney and former State Bar Board of Governors member, was found found fatally shot in the driveway of his Rolling Hills Estates home at 8:33 PM Monday night. He was transported to Torrance...
Grand jury testimony alleges special perks for councilman in San Jacinto corruption trial
Posted on December 09, 2009According to grand jury transcripts released yesterday, builder Randy Wastal delivered testimony about how developer Stephen Holgate sold San Jacinto Councilman Jim Ayres and his wife Nancy a home in the Enclave community for thousands less than it was worth...
Edward Sanders, Reed Smith attorney and senior advisor to President Carter, dies at 87
Posted on December 09, 2009Edward Sanders, a Reed Smith attorney whose contributions included serving as senior advisor to President Jimmy Carter, passed away at home Monday morning at 87 years of age. Sanders served as Senior Advisor to President Carter and the Secretary of...
Schwarzenegger's prison-population reduction plan approved by inmates' lawyers
Posted on December 08, 2009The Schwarzenegger administration's plan for reducing the prison population calls for a reduction of 33 adult prisons to 137.5 percent of design capacity within two years. This plan has met with approval from lawyers for California's sick inmates, but they...
Controversial energy rate hike gets thumbs-up from Cal PUC admin judge
Posted on December 08, 2009In a proposed decision, Judge Thomas Pulsifier supports a recommendation by San Diego Gas & Electric Co. to raise rates by 5 percent for people who use the least electricity and lower them between 4 percent and 5 percent for...
War memorial site suit rejected
Posted on December 08, 2009The lawsuit filed by the City Project objecting to construction on the site of El Pueblo de Los Angeles has been rejected by a Superior Court Judge. The judge ruled that construction was far enough long that continuing would do...
Attorneys donate time to legal self-help groups, even as funding dwindles
Posted on December 08, 2009The Riverside County Superior Court in February created a management position for a staff attorney to oversee its self-help program for family law, small claims, probate and eviction cases. The court program does not offer legal representation but can show...
MOVERS: McDermott's new partners for 2010
Posted on December 07, 2009McDermott Will & Emery has announced partner promotions for 2010. They include: Corporate Andrew T. Turney (Los Angeles) focuses in the areas of corporate securities and capital market transactions, mergers and acquisitions and finance, as well as assisting clients with...
Unsealed court transcript may vindicate Monteilh's undercover claims
Posted on December 07, 2009Earlier this year Craig Monteilh claimed he was recruited by the FBI to work undercover as part of an antiterrorist effort in Orange County. Citing bureau policy, the FBI declined comment. But according to an unsealed court transcript, state prosecutors...
Lawsuit challenges building of war memorial
Posted on December 04, 2009A lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court by advocacy group The City Project argues that the Eugene A. Obregon Congressional Medal of Honor Memorial would alter parts of the El Pueblo de Los Angeles site that have important historical...
Nonprosecution agreement ensures Dull testimony in Broadcom case
Posted on December 04, 2009David Dull, the former general counsel of Broadcom Corp., is expected to reach a nonprosecution agreement with the government following prosecutorial misconduct claims. U.S. District Court Judge Cormac Carney of the Central District of California in Santa Ana granted immunity...
MOVERS: Howard joins Hoge Fenton
Posted on December 01, 2009Hoge Fenton Jones & Appel announced today that David S. Howard, JD, CPA has joined the firm in the Silicon Valley office. Howard, dual licensed as a CPA and attorney for nearly 40 years, recently returned to the practice of...
Hensley letter ruled privileged by Cal Supremes
Posted on December 01, 2009The California Supreme Court unanimously ruled that opinion letters sent by outside counsel to a corporate client is protected by the attorney-client privilege, irrespective of the letter?s content. They also said that Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Emilie H...
Samueli compelled to testify, gets immunity
Posted on December 01, 2009Broadcom Corp. co-founder Henry Samueli will be compelled to testify in the federal options backdating trial of the Irvine chip manufacturer's former chief financial officer, according to U.S. District Court Judge Cormac J. Carney. Carney took the rare step of...
Supreme Court denies Kevin Cooper's appeal
Posted on December 01, 2009Turns out those professors were right: Kevin Cooper lost his last appeal yesterday when the Supreme Court refused to hear his case. Cooper's lawyers failed to convince the justices that there were still doubts about his being the killer and...
Supremes deny Ford's appeal in silence
Posted on December 01, 2009The U.S. Supreme Court decided yesterday to reject an appeal by Ford Motor Co. to overturn an $83-million judgment for a San Diego woman who was paralyzed when her Explorer rolled over and crushed her spine. The roof of the...
MOVERS: New partners and counsel at Latham & Watkins
Posted on November 30, 2009Latham and Watkins announced today that 23 associates have been elected to the partnership, and 13 associates have been elected to the role of counsel, effective January 1, 2010. Attorneys elected to the partnership include: LOS ANGELES Aaron Murphy is...
MOVERS: New managing partner and executive committee at Nordman Cormany
Posted on November 30, 2009Scott B. Samsky, a partner in Nordman Cormany Hair & Compton LLP, has been named managing partner of the Ventura County firm. He is succeeding Anthony H. Trembley, and is also joined on the executive committee by newly appointed member...
MOVERS: Two reappointments and one new appointment to water boards
Posted on November 25, 2009Yesterday Governor Schwarzenegger named three attorneys to state posts. Palmdale attorney James W. Charlton of Charlton Weeks LLP and Santa Barbara sole practitioner Jeffrey S. Young were reappointed to posts on their local regional water quality control boards...
Gun possession-related expulsion at local high school garners national attention
Posted on November 25, 2009Last week's expulsion of Gary Tudesko for storing a pair of unloaded shotguns in his truck off-campus has sparked nationwide interest. Tudesko, a junior at Willows High School, had allegedly been bird hunting and didn't want to be late for...
Council OKs marijuana sales, considers dispensary cap
Posted on November 25, 2009The Los Angeles City Council decided yesterday that dispensaries will be allowed to continue selling medical marijuana as it also considers an ordinance that would cap the number of shops that sell marijuana between 70 and 200. Both City Atty....
Nguyen's nomination will get debate and vote after Thanksgiving break
Posted on November 24, 2009Prior to leaving for the Thanksgiving recess on Saturday, the U.S. Senate unanimously agreed to vote on President Obama?s nomination of Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Jacqueline H. Nguyen o the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California...
Huebner confirmed as ambassador
Posted on November 24, 2009The U.S. Senate has confirmed President Obama?s appointment of openly gay California attorney David Huebner as the U.S. ambassador to New Zealand and Samoa, making him the third openly gay ambassador in U.S. history. The nomination was approved subject to...
MOVERS: Governor appoints four lawyers to state positions
Posted on November 23, 2009Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger named four attorneys to state posts on Friday. The governor reappointed Newport Beach attorney Ali Jahangiri to the California Law Revision Commission and Coronal Del Mar attorney Francis Quinlan Jr. to the State Compensation Insurance Fund Board...
Jury finds "no smoking gun" in economic espionage case
Posted on November 23, 2009Lan Lee and Yuefei Ge were charged in 2006 with trade secret theft. Federal prosecutors then bumped up the indictment to include economic espionage, saying the defendants tried to commercialize stolen computer chip data with venture funding from the Chinese...
Kevin Cooper's Supreme Court bid not looking good, law professors say
Posted on November 23, 2009Kevin Cooper was convicted of murder and sentenced to death in 1985 for the brutal killings in Chino Hills of Douglas and Peggy Ryen, their daughter Jessica, and houseguest Christopher Hughes. The Supreme Court will decide this Tuesday whether or...
AG looking into potential church computer scams
Posted on November 23, 2009State Attorney General Jerry Brown said last week that California is investigating several companies that may have ripped off as many as 30 Southern California churches by forcing them to to pay up to $45,000 for computer kiosks that were...
Superior Court judge says bribe offer was a joke
Posted on November 23, 2009Humboldt County Superior Court Judge W. Bruce Watson, acting as an evidentiary referee, wrote a report filed with the California Supreme Court last month that found former San Francisco deputy attorney general Ronald Bass was indeed joking when he offered...
Compensation ordered for gay couple denied spousal benefits
Posted on November 18, 2009Today U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Stephen Reinhardt ordered compensation for federal public defender Brad Levenson and his spouse, Tony Sears, who were married during the five-month period in California when same-sex marriage was legal but denied spousal...
King orders arbitration for former Toyota lawyer
Posted on November 18, 2009U.S. District Judge George H. King of the Central District of California ordered that Dimitrios Biller, former national managing counsel in the legal services group in charge of Toyota's rollover litigation program, must arbitrate claims that the automobile manufacturer hid...
MOVERS: Alston & Bird names two partners in Los Angeles
Posted on November 18, 2009Alston & Bird has announced that it has named Elizabeth A. Fierman and J. Andrew Howard partners in the firm?s Litigation and Trial Practice and Construction and Government Contracts Groups, respectively. Fierman and Howard are among 18 new partners named...
Harkonen found guilty of wire fraud
Posted on September 30, 2009Yesterday a jury found former InterMune Inc. CEO W. Scott Harkonen guilty on one felony wire fraud count. The conviction carries a maximum of 20 years in jail. Federal prosecutors accused Harkonen of exaggerating the efficacy of the drug Actimmune....
Cal Bar Foundation presents scholarships and grants Thursday night
Posted on September 30, 2009The California Bar Foundation said Tuesday that it is awarding $250,000 in scholarships and grants to law students and aspiring public interest lawyers. The nonprofit organization said 23 students from eight California law schools will receive a total of $130,000...
Two new bankruptcy judges appointed by Ninth Circuit
Posted on September 30, 2009Ninth Circuit Chief Judge Alex Kozinski said on Tuesday that the Circuit's judges have appointed two Los Angeles attorneys to serve as judges of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Central District of California. Contingent upon approval of background clearances,...
Ryan gets six months in jail, three years formal probation, for Haven hoodwink
Posted on September 30, 2009Former Haven Humane Society CEO Norman Ray Ryan was convicted by a Shasta County jury in May of five felonies: embezzlement by a public officer, two counts of identity theft and two counts of grand theft. Yesterday he lost his...
Christian Legal Society to challenge appellate 'viewpoint neutral' ruling
Posted on September 29, 2009The Christian Legal Society's chapter at the University of California Hastings College of Law is challenging a lower appellate court ruling that the law school's open membership rule prohibiting registered students groups from discriminating on the basis of religion or...
MOVERS: Reinhold joins Hopkins & Carey
Posted on September 29, 2009Last week Hopkins & Carey announced that Karen Reinhold will be joining the firm in San Jose. Karen practices in the firm?s Litigation and Employment Law practice groups focusing on employment-related litigation and advice, including trade secret, harassment, wage-and-hour and...
State Bar to decide on conduct of Toyota 'whistleblower'
Posted on September 28, 2009Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge John L. Segal has referred Dimitrios Biller, former national managing counsel in the legal services group in charge of Toyota's rollover litigation program, to the State Bar of California for possibly violating the rules...
CA Court of Appeals leaves med-marijuana decisions to cities
Posted on September 28, 2009Last Tuesday the California Court of Appeal published an opinion upholding a lower court's injunction stopping a medical marijuana dispensary from operating in Los Angeles County. In that case, the city of Claremont issued a moratorium preventing the issuance of...
MOVERS: Larson to join Girardi & Keese after resigning the bench
Posted on September 28, 2009Girardi & Keese announced on Friday that U.S. District Judge Stephen G. Larson will join the firm as a partner when his resignation takes effect in the beginning of November. Larson recently informed his colleagues that he was going to...
MOVERS: Chief Judge Brandenburg joins JAMS in San Diego
Posted on September 28, 2009Chief Judge Anthony J. Brandenburg has joined JAMS, The Resolution Experts, the nation?s largest private provider of mediation and arbitration services. He will resolve disputes involving contracts, employment, environment, evictions/exclusions, gaming, intertribal, land use, personal injury and various issues in...
No plea reinstatement for Samueli
Posted on September 28, 2009A panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit has refused to reinstate a plea deal between Henry Samueli, the co-founder of Broadcom Corp., and federal prosecutors who are pursuing criminal charges related to stock options backdating....
Proposed medical center prompts competition, traffic, other concerns
Posted on September 28, 2009Donald Ecker, managing member and project leader of March Healthcare Development, has said Riverside County is in short supply of health care services, including hospital beds. He proposed a large-scale medical complex at March Air Reserve Base that would provide...
State's ethics enforcement agency says charges against Schwarzenegger will not be back
Posted on September 28, 2009The Fair Political Practices Commission, in a letter earlier this month, told a lawyer for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger that a complaint filed by the California Democratic Party four years ago in connection with a consulting contract he reached with a....
Chrysler to pay $24 million to Long Beach family in personal injury settlement
Posted on September 25, 2009Richard Mraz, 38, was working as a longshoreman when the transmission of his Dodge pickup malfunctioned, shifting the vehicle into reverse. The truck knocked him down, inflicting a skull fracture. Mraz died 17 days later. In 2007, a Los Angeles...
Lawyers to DirecTV: stop the surprise fees
Posted on September 25, 2009Lawyers for California customers of The DirecTV Group Inc. filed a preliminary injunction motion on Sept. 21 in Los Angeles Superior Court seeking to stop the satellite television service from automatically withdrawing early cancellation fees from customer bank accounts and...
Students and civil rights groups come to the support of AB 540
Posted on September 25, 2009Yesterday a coalition of 80 civil rights, student and community organizations representing Asian and Pacific Islander Americans today filed a legal brief with the California Supreme Court supporting a state law that allows undocumented students to pay in-state fees at...
MOVERS: Chang joins Axiom from Hogan Hartson, Cartwright rejoins Latham
Posted on September 23, 2009Axiom, a new model professional services firm focused on the high-end legal market, announced last Thursday that David G. Chang has joined as Engagement Manager in their Los Angeles office. Prior to joining Axiom, Chang was an intellectual property litigator...
Former California Education Secretary nominated to Customs post by Obama administration
Posted on September 23, 2009The White House announced yesterday the nomination of Alan Bersin to be the new commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the nation's largest law enforcement agency. Bersin, a veteran of federal border enforcement and a former San Diego schools...
Redding's Earl Murphy dies
Posted on September 23, 2009Earl Murphy, Redding's city attorney throughout the 1960s and 1970s, died on September 14. He was 90 years old. Murphy helped create The Mall in downtown Redding and the Civic Auditorium. He worked with officials on the city's first comprehensive...
Trans World vs. Financial Systems Innovation: It's on, again
Posted on September 23, 2009Trans World, who owns the f.y.e. chain of music and video stores, filed a federal lawsuit in Albany on Sept. 22 asking for a judgment it didn?t infringe on the patent for an electronic system to process credit card and...
Brown files suit against Chais
Posted on September 23, 2009California Attorney General Jerry Brown filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles County Superior Court against Beverly Hills financial advisor Stanley Chais, who allegedly steered hundreds of millions in investor dollars to Bernard L. Madoff's Ponzi scheme. Brown contends that from...
FEC and CREW marshall forces against O'Donnell
Posted on September 23, 2009Not a week after Pierce O'Donnell's case goes to appeal, prosecutorial support arrives. In a brief filed on Sept. 23 with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, the Federal Election Commission called a trial judge's ruling throwing...
MOVERS: SoCal Bingham gains Proskauer vet Silbergeld
Posted on September 23, 2009Arthur F. Silbergeld, a former partner in the Los Angeles office of New York's Proskauer Rose, has moved to Bingham McCutcheon. Silbergeld worked at Proskauer for 10 years.Bingham's Southern California offices have attracted other prominent attorneys in recent months...
Emissions suit reinstated against utilities
Posted on September 22, 2009A U.S. Appeals Court reinstated on Monday a 2004 lawsuit by eight states, including California, and the city of New York against five of the largest U.S. utilities over their carbon dioxide emissions. The lawsuit, originally dismissed by U.S. District...
Questions of causation and politics plague global warming suits
Posted on September 22, 2009At Anderson Kill's 12th Annual Policyholder Advisor Conference, a panel discussed the hurdles involved in bringing global warming suits against companies. But they said one case worth watching is Native Village of Kivalina v. Exxon Mobil, et al., in which...
MOVERS: Grunfeld joins Kaye Scholer
Posted on September 22, 2009Kaye Scholer LLP announced yesterday that Dan Grunfeld, Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy in the office of Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, has joined Kaye Scholer as Co-Chair of the Los Angeles Litigation Department, effective November 2. Areas of...
MOVERS: Deitsch elected to Public Law chair
Posted on September 22, 2009Stephen P. Deitsch, a Best Best & Krieger attorney who serves as city attorney for four California cities, was elected this month to chair the Public Law Section of the State Bar of California. Deitsch, a BB&K partner who specializes...
Loan modification crackdown continues with unveiling of alleged attorney offenders
Posted on September 22, 2009In an unusual move, the State Bar of California identified 16 Southern California attorneys who are under investigation for loan modification misconduct. Interim Chief Trial Counsel Russell Weiner said in the release that the seriousness of the issue warranted releasing...
Federal judge argues futility of sealing Toyota suit
Posted on September 22, 2009U.S. District Judge George H. King has refused to seal a wrongful termination suit in which a former in-house attorney for Toyota Motor Sales USA Inc. has asserted that the auto manufacturer hid and destroyed evidence in numerous rollover lawsuits....
MOVERS: Katten Muchin's Kim new president of Women Lawyers LA
Posted on September 22, 2009Attorney Helen B. Kim, a securities litigation partner in Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP?s Los Angeles and New York offices, is the new president of the Women Lawyers of Los Angeles. She assumes the WLALA presidency less than a year after...
City of Fullerton and Orange County at odds over using funds to redevelop "blighted" areas
Posted on September 17, 2009The city of Fullerton wanted to use tax increment funds to revitalize 1,165 acres in the southwest and southeast sections with public improvements, affordable housing funds and small business loans. But the county and Friends for Fullerton's Future, a local...
New DNA-for-freedom plan under fire in OC
Posted on September 17, 2009Orange County has begun an "informal" program, according to district attorney Tony Rackauckas, in which people who have been arrested are offered a deal: offer up some DNA and get your charges dropped. The plan became public when Rackauckas sought...
MOVERS: Buchalter Nemer continues to grow in Orange County, San Francisco and Scottsdale
Posted on September 16, 2009Three new attorneys have joined Buchalter Nemer as Shareholders. LeslieAnn Haacke and Glenn P. Zwang joined the firm?s Litigation Practice Group in its and San Francisco offices, respectively. Kambiz Izadi joined the firm?s Business Practices Group in its Orange County...
Small Silicon Valley IP firms making strides
Posted on September 16, 2009Two former Quinn Emanuel Urquhart Oliver & Hedges senior associates, Douglas Colt and Thomas Wallerstein, launched their own practice last week. Colt and Wallerstein said that they weren't laid off from Quinn Emanuel, although that firm too has conducted layoffs,...
A "conduit" by any other name: O'Donnell case goes to appeal
Posted on September 16, 2009Federal prosecutors argued in a brief filed on Monday before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that Pierce O'Donnell did violate the Federal Election Campaign Act by contributing $26,000 to a presidential candidate in the names of 13 other...
Immigrant holding center suit settled
Posted on September 16, 2009Civil rights groups announced today that a lawsuit against the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement over "barbaric" conditions at the basement holding center known as B-18 has been settled. The ACLU, the National Immigration Law Center and a private law...
They paved paradise, put up a parking lot - but whose is it?
Posted on September 15, 2009Three years ago New York-based developer Joseph Moinian bought four acres of land across the street from Staples Center for $80 million, intending a project including two towers of 53 and 37 stories, 860 market-rate units, a 222 room hotel...
A journey from teacher to bankruptcy attorney
Posted on September 14, 2009Business is bad for everybody lately - which means business is booming for Amy Goldman, the co-chair of the Bankruptcy and Insolvency department for the law firm Lewis Brisbois in Los Angeles. A profile in last Friday's Los Angeles Downtown...
New women's legal association formed
Posted on September 14, 2009Laura Crane, a real estate attorney based in the Ontario office of Best Best & Krieger, has founded the Inland Empire Legal Association of Women. The group will hold a 7 p.m. Sept. 19 gathering at a private residence in...
Four class action suits threaten RV maker
Posted on September 14, 2009At least four class action suits have been prepared against former executives of Riverside-based Fleetwood Enterprises alleging violations of the Securities Exchange Act by issuing false and misleading statements about the company's financial condition between Dec...
MOVERS: Paone joins Theodora Oringher in OC
Posted on September 14, 2009Tim Paone, formerly a partner of Manatt Phelps & Phillips, has joined the Orange County office of Theodora Oringher, where he will oversee the expansion of the Firm?s Real Estate and Land Use Group. Paone will continue to provide entitlement...
No rescue at dawn for Greens in FCPA case
Posted on September 14, 2009Last Friday a jury found Gerald Green, 77, and Patricia Green, 52, guilty of conspiring to bribe a former Thai government official to obtain contracts that provided for, among other things, control of the annual Bangkok International Film Festival. The...
All eyes on Pate
Posted on September 14, 2009R. Hewitt Pate was hired in July as vice president and general counsel of Chevron Corp., the nation's third largest corporation and the target of billions of dollars worth of litigation. Now he has moved to Chevron's San Ramon, Calif.,...
MOVERS: Former associate White House Counsel Kenneth Lee joins Jenner & Block
Posted on September 11, 2009Kenneth K. Lee, former Associate Counsel to President George W. Bush, has joined Jenner & Block?s Los Angeles office as a partner. Mr. Lee also practiced law with another prominent law firm and acted as special counsel to the Senate...
MOVERS: Raines Law Group Elevates Three to Partnership
Posted on September 11, 2009Beverly Hills business and real estate firm Raines Law Group LLP said Thursday that it has named Daniel Brozost, Jennifer Tullius and Randal Ivor-Smith to partner. Brozost joined the firm in 2007. He represents clients in real estate matters including...
Arson convictions overturned for Caltech student with Asperger's
Posted on September 11, 2009A Caltech graduate student convicted five years ago of conspiracy and arson for vandalizing 125 SUVs has had his arson convictions overturned and his sentence vacated by a federal appeals court. The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in...
UCI settles a dozen fertility fraud suits
Posted on September 11, 2009The UC Board of Regents has quietly settled a dozen lawsuits stemming from fertility fraud uncovered nearly 15 years ago. In all, the University of California has paid out more than $24 million for 137 separate incidents in which eggs...
MOVERS: Khorrami Pollard chooses Kerns for Controller
Posted on September 10, 2009Khorrami Pollard & Abir, one of the largest plaintiff-only firms in California, announced the hiring of Adam E. Kerns as Controller. Most recently, he was an associate with the law firm Saul Ewing LLP. Mr. Kerns also previously worked as...
I'll cover you: ACLU settlement with school district mandates harassment training
Posted on September 10, 2009The ACLU's Southern California branch sued the Newport-Mesa Unified School District back in March for allegedly breeding an atmosphere hostile to female and gay students. That case has been settled, with the provision that the district will hold "mandatory training...
There and back again: suit settlement allows 'Hobbit' films to go forward
Posted on September 09, 2009Last year, two of Tolkien's children, Christopher, 84, and Priscilla, 80, sued New Line, now a unit of Warner Bros., for an estimated $150 million that they claimed was owed from the three Lord of the Rings movies. The lawsuit,...
Recession is forcing law schools to keep it real
Posted on September 09, 2009The movement to incorporate practical skills into legal education isn't new, but legal educators and researchers report that the floundering economy is increasing incentives for law schools to revamp their curricula to prepare students for the realities of the legal...
MOVERS: Cooley Godward's Sato joins Acucela's Board of Directors
Posted on September 09, 2009Acucela, a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on developing new treatments for blinding eye diseases, announced today the appointment of Glen Y. Sato, a partner in the Life Sciences and Corporate practice groups of the law firm Cooley Godward Kronish LLP,...
MOVERS: Schill leaves UCLA for UCLS
Posted on September 09, 2009Michael Schill, who has served as dean at UCLA School of Law since 2004, will assume his new position as the head of the University of Chicago Law School in January. Schill replaces Saul Levmore, who has served as the...
MOVERS: Lambert's new home is Gilchrist
Posted on September 08, 2009The law firm of Gilchrist & Rutter PC, which conducts a broad practice in the areas of real estate, business and commercial transactions, environmental law, land use and civil and complex business litigation, has announced the addition of attorney David...
MOVERS: Two new attorneys join La Bella
Posted on September 08, 2009La Bella & McNamara LLP has added two new attorneys to its ranks, Daniel M. Benjamin and Meghan Ashley Wharton. Daniel M. Benjamin, Of Counsel, focuses his practice on commercial and complex civil litigation. Mr. Benjamin earned his J.D. from...
Law students suffer another job prospect blow with lowered associate offer rates
Posted on September 04, 2009Summer associate offer rates are down significantly at many big California firms. Some firms are still compiling numbers, but most offer rates are in the range of 60 to 85 percent. One firm, Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, offered jobs to...
Staffer at Wilson Sonsini charged with office supply scam
Posted on September 04, 2009According to an indictment filed in U.S. District Court in San Jose, John Masakazu Tashiro, a purchasing specialist at the Palo Alto firm Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, helped a San Francisco office supplier defraud the company of some $1...
Researcher's survey shows death penalty issue 'much more unsettled'
Posted on September 04, 2009Support for the death penalty has dropped from 79 percent to 66 percent in California, according to a survey conducted by Craig Haney, a UC Santa Cruz psychology professor and lawyer. Haney says the survey also shows that most Californians...
Avalon makes number 33 for BB&K
Posted on September 02, 2009The City of Avalon on Santa Catalina Island has hired Best Best & Krieger LLP as its city attorney, becoming the 33rd city in California where the firm holds that key position. Terms of the contract were approved last night...
Out-of-state conduct and due process at issue in unpublished Cal CoA decision
Posted on September 02, 2009The California Court of Appeal issued an unpublished decision yesterday in Walmach v. Foster Wheeler in which it decided that contrary to arguments put forth via State Farm v. Campbell, the state of California may indeed punish a defendant for...
Ruehle case raises new issues and requires supplemental advisement, say judges
Posted on September 02, 2009Yesterday a three-judge panel for the 9th Circuit in Pasadena decided outside input was necessary to help decide the case before them. The issue is whether William Ruehle, the former chief financial officer of Broadcom Corp., should have assumed that...
Schwarzenegger requests delay in inmate-release order
Posted on September 02, 2009Yesterday the Schwarzenegger administration asked the federal courts to delay an order requiring California to reduce its inmate population over the next two years. In the filing, the administration said a court-ordered inmate release could boost California's crime rate by...
MOVERS: Allen Matkins adds Pernicka to litigation practice
Posted on September 01, 2009Allen Matkins Leck Gamble Mallory & Natsis LLP announced today the addition of Charles Pernicka as senior counsel in the firm's San Diego office. Pernicka has represented clients in all aspects of real estate development litigation, including purchase and sale...
Former Toyota lawyer turns whistleblower on automaker with claims of concealing evidence
Posted on September 01, 2009Dimitrios P. Biller of Pacific Palisades, a former managing counsel for Toyota Motor Sales USA Inc., filed a lawsuit in federal court on July 24th that legal experts predict could reopen cases that the automaker had won or settled over...
MOVERS: Cooley Godward gains White & Case IP trio
Posted on September 01, 2009Heidi Keefe, Mark Weinstein and Mark Lambert joined Cooley Godward on Monday. The former White & Case lawyers said they were going to Cooley because of its local connections with tech companies. The three represent clients like Facebook, Cisco Systems...
MOVERS: Handzlik joins Greenberg Traurig
Posted on September 01, 2009Greenberg Traurig announced yesterday that Jan L Handzlik has joined its Los Angeles office as a shareholder in the Litigation Group. Prior to joining Greenberg Traurig, Handzlik was a partner with Howrey LLP. He is a nationally recognized trial lawyer...
Cal Supremes to hear opinion letter confidentiality case
Posted on September 01, 2009On Wednesday the California Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in a years-long attorney-client privilege case arising from a 22-page opinion letter containing both legal advice and factual information. At issue will be whether or not factual information in opinion...
Supplemental benefits for judges jumps a constitutional hurdle
Posted on August 31, 2009In an order issued Aug. 20 and released Friday, First District Court of Appeal Justice James Richman, sitting on assignment as a Los Angeles Superior Court judge, granted summary judgment in favor of Los Angeles County continuing to pay benefits...
Sands CEO sues contractor for breach of contract and negligence
Posted on August 31, 2009Las Vegas Sands Corp. Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Sheldon Adelson filed a lawsuit this month in federal court in California against Linden & Associates Inc. of Los Angeles over a 12-year-old, $1.6 million construction contract for a luxury home...
Medical center in involuntary bankruptcy filing under siege by creditors
Posted on August 31, 2009Attorneys at Carlsbad-based DiCaro, Coppo & Popcke have sued the new owners of Shasta Regional Medical Center, alleging that an attorney represented the hospital for a two-week doctor's peer review hearing last summer and was never paid for the service...
L.A. area lawyer and former Associate Justice among newly appointed commissioners
Posted on August 31, 2009Mayor Villaraigosa has announced the appointment of 11 new commissioners. Included in the appointments are Armand Arabian, the former Associate Justice of the California Supreme Court and superior Court judge, and lawyer Yolanda Orozco. Justice Armand Arabian received his J...
Settlement reached in Broadcom second-largest in derivative action
Posted on August 31, 2009Broadcom Corp. has agreed to pay $118 million to settle allegations of stock options backdating, in one of the largest such deals in a derivative action to date. The proposed settlement, subject to approval by U.S. District Judge Manuel Real...
Masry & Vititoe bankruptcy numbers numbers at leat four lawyers and law firms among top creditors
Posted on August 28, 2009Masry & Vititoe, the personal injury law firm of Erin Brockovich fame, said in bankruptcy court papers that it has spent $3 million defending lawsuits filed by the family and estate of former name partner Edward Masry, who died in...
Imminent closure of Stark makes some hopeful about future of youth correction
Posted on August 28, 2009The Heman G. Stark Correctional Facility in Chino will soon shut its doors to juvenile offenders in a move to shift a system away from adult-style punishment for youthful offenders. Stark now houses 390 men, including 32 from Northern California,...
Countrywide settles class action retirement suit
Posted on August 28, 2009U.S. District Judge John Walter of the Central District of California has preliminarily approved a $55 million settlement between Countrywide Financial Corp. and its former employees, who were seeking compensation for losses to their retirement plans...
Judge dismisses shareholder action against Downey
Posted on August 27, 2009U.S. District Judge John Walter of the Central District of California has dismissed a shareholder class action against the former officers and directors of Downey Financial Corp., a mortgage lender that filed for Chapter 7 liquidation in November. Downey Financial,...
Opening statements made yesterday in entertainment "bribes-for-contracts" trial
Posted on August 27, 2009The Associated Press reports that opening statements were delivered in the first case to charge entertainment industry figures under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Jonathan Lopez, a senior trial attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice, told the seven man-five...
Judge's environmental report ruling gums up high-speed rail project
Posted on August 27, 2009Judge Michael Kenny called into question the environmental report backing a controversial high-speed rail project yesterday, calling it "inadequate" because it failed to address Union Pacific's recent announcement that it would not allow the speedy trains to run along its...
Drug bust ensnares San Bernardino locals
Posted on August 27, 2009Among the 16 suspected drug runners indicted by the Imperial County Grand Jury yesterday are two San Bernardino County residents, Lorena Lara of Fontana and Juan Berumen Sandoval of Rialto. All have been charged with conspiracy to transport cocaine and...
Exclusion policy needs explaining, says appeals panel
Posted on August 26, 2009A three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ordered the Federal Bureau of Prisons to reconsider the application for sentence reduction from Jerry Crickon, a federal prisoner in a Long Beach halfway house due for release in...
Bond sales cost Californians over $1 billion
Posted on August 26, 2009In 2006, the Compton Unified School District refinanced $50.8 million in taxpayer- approved bonds, with an eye to save the district money. Officials took out $6.5 million in cash, which they said would be used for school construction and repairs....
Appointment of openly gay assistant police chief in Riverside County a sign of changing times
Posted on August 26, 2009Raymond Gregory began working for the Sheriff's Department in Blythe in 1990. When he moved to the Coachella Valley eight years later and volunteered for the sheriff's association in Riverside, he also decided to live his life publicly as a...
Liver transplant still on hold for Sellers
Posted on August 26, 2009Ronald "Joey" Sellers, who petitioned the government for a life-saving liver transplant, has found his request on hold yet again. U.S. District Judge Kent Dawson said at a hearing yesterday morning that the government could pay for an operation but...
MOVERS: Jeffrey Morgan joins Moiré Marketing
Posted on August 26, 2009Legal marketing pioneer Jeffrey Morgan has joined Moiré Marketing Partners as a principal and head of the firm's new West Coast operations. Prior to joining Moiré, Morgan was senior vice president and chief marketing officer for Best Lawyers in America,...
Retrial of smoking case nets plaintiff half of original damages
Posted on August 25, 2009A Los Angeles jury awarded $13.8 million in punitive damages against Philip Morris USA on Aug. 24 in the retrial of a case that originally netted a record $28 billion to a lifetime smoker. The smoker, Betty Bullock, who was...
Lawyer indicted on charges of bribery and obstruction of justice
Posted on August 25, 2009Alfred N. Villalobos, a California lawyer who allegedly agreed to accept more than $100,000 in bribes in exchange for coaching his client to lie to a grand jury investigating immigration fraud, has been indicted on obstruction of justice charges. Federal...
Cal Supremes unanimous in clarifying attorney fees rule
Posted on August 25, 2009The California Supreme Court affirmed the Fourth District Court of Appeal's unpublished 2007 ruling that a woman in a 2003 car accident needed to be ?made whole? as to all damages, but that her attorney fees in securing compensation from...
Art recovery statute ruled "too broad"
Posted on August 24, 2009The 9th Circuit ruled last week that a 2002 statute allowing Californians to recover art stolen by Nazis is unconstitutional and goes beyond providing redress. According to circuit Judge David R. Thompson, the law's language "suggests that California's real purpose...
First graduating class of Chapman prosecutors includes two deputy district attorneys
Posted on August 24, 2009Monterey County District Attorney Dean Flippo announced that Deputy District Attorney Pamela L. Ham and Deputy District Attorney Carol Reed received masters of law in prosecutorial science degrees from Chapman University School of Law. Ham received her undergraduate degree at...
Cooley still doing deals
Posted on August 24, 2009Craig Jacoby, a partner in the San Francisco office of Cooley Godward Kronish, led a team of Cooley lawyers representing SpringSource in its $420 million sale to software virtualization company VMware Inc., announced Aug. 10. San Mateo's SpringSource is a...
Taggers hanging out can be arrested under new "Nuch" proposal
Posted on August 24, 2009Los Angeles City Attorney's Carmen Trutanich latest idea is raising some sticky constitutional issues. In an interview, Trutanich said his staff has begun amassing street-level intelligence and reviewing legal strategies that would pave the way for a series of injunctions...
MOVERS: New IP partner at K&L Gates in Palo Alto
Posted on August 20, 2009K&L Gates LLP announced yesterday the addition of Charles D. Holland to the firm?s Palo Alto office as a partner in the intellectual property practice. Holland joins K&L Gates from Morrison & Foerster LLP. A patent lawyer and engineer who...
MOVERS: Sheppard Mullin gains healthcare expert Yood
Posted on August 20, 2009Kenneth Yood has joined the Los Angeles/Century City office of Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP as a partner on the firm's Healthcare team and in the Corporate practice group. Yood joins Sheppard Mullin from Fulbright & Jaworski in Los...
Governor's prison plan includes 11th-hour commission addition
Posted on August 20, 2009Governor Schwarzenegger's plan to reduce costs by trimming California's prison population by nearly 30,000 inmates will get its first airing today before the state Legislature. If approved by the Senate and Assembly, the governor's proposal would release or divert from...
Nurse Connection head charged with insurance fraud
Posted on August 20, 2009Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner said yesterday that Joseph Baiden surrendered to the Los Angeles Superior Court on Tuesday. Baiden is accused of falsifying payroll figures at his medical staffing business, Nurse Connection Inc., between 2001 and 2007 to underpay the...
Samueli wants closed hearing for appeal
Posted on August 19, 2009Say what you will about him, Henry Samueli won't give up the fight. He's not only appealing Judge Carney's rejection of his plea deal, but he also wants that hearing to be closed to the public. Through his lawyers, Samueli...
Activists aim to change towing and impound policies in CA
Posted on August 19, 2009The ACLU, Latin American Alliance for Immigrant Rights, and other advocates for undocumented immigrants are scheduled to meet with new Police Chief George Gascon in San Francisco to discuss the trend of city residents having their cars impounded by police...
Liver transplant request being shot down by feds
Posted on August 19, 2009Ronald "Joey" Sellers is charged with racketeering for crimes allegedly committed as head of the white supremacist Aryan Warriors gang. He is being held at the Federal Correctional Institution at Terminal Island in Southern California. His lawyers are making a...
Governor signs 'Good Samaritan Bill' and others into law
Posted on August 18, 2009Among the 131 of the 140 pieces of legislation that Governor Schwarzenegger signed after being put on hold pending budget negotiations, two have emerged that affect personal injury lawsuits. The first, Assembly Bill 83 (otherwise known as the "Good Samaritan...
UC not quite united in its endorsement of Google books deal
Posted on August 18, 2009The University of California has long been considered one of Google's first and closest allies in the company's book-digitizing plan, but a letter to the court suggests there may be dissension in the ranks. A group of prominent UC faculty...
Obama administration defends, and objects to, DOMA in Orange County case
Posted on August 18, 2009Yesterday the Obama administration made its objection to the Defense of Marriage Act abundantly clear -- even as the Justice Department finds itself defending DOMA in an case brought by an Orange County gay couple. Assistant Attorney General Tony West...
Former Nuggets star's business manager in misappropriation suit
Posted on August 18, 2009A lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Sacramento, California, yesterday alleges that Denver Nuggets star Carmelo Anthony's former business manager misappropriated more than $2 million of the player's assets. Larry Harmon and employees of Larry Harmon & Associates are...
Arsonist needs treatment before sentencing, defense attorney charges
Posted on August 17, 2009Attorney Susan Dondershine, the defense lawyer for a man convicted of arson in 2007, charges in a strongly worded pleading to the U.S. District Court that her client is suffering from severe mental health issues in Santa Clara County Main...
Appeals decision defines requirements for Sarbanes Oxley whistleblower cases
Posted on August 17, 2009The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last Thursday that whistleblowers must show only that they called attention to what they believed was fraud in order to sue their employers for wrongful termination under the Sarbanes Oxley Act. The...
Former U.S. attorney nominated to police commission
Posted on August 17, 2009Last Thursday Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa nominated a former U.S. attorney to serve on the police commission and help choose the next chief. Debra Wong Yang, 49, who served as the nation's first Asian-American U.S. attorney from 2002-07, was nominated to...
USC student stabbing death trial begins today
Posted on August 17, 2009The trial of Travion Ford, a 24-year-old man charged with murdering Bryan Frost, a University of Southern California student from Idaho, is expected to begin today in Los Angeles Superior Court. Ford pleaded not guilty during a Sept. 26 arraignment...
Loan modification sinks two Southern California lawyers, with a third in the wings
Posted on August 13, 2009The State Bar announced yesterday that it has obtained the resignations of Christian Dillon of Dana Point and Nabile Anz of Irvine, and that charges have been filed against Christopher Diener of Irvine. All were accused of loan modification activities...
Kaleidescape victory overturned in another victory against DVD copying
Posted on August 13, 2009Right on the heels of the victory against Real and its DVD-copying technology, California's 6th District Court of Appeal threw out a trial court win for Sunnyvale's Kaleidescape yesterday. Kaleidescape also makes high-end home entertainment systems that allow people to...
Lisker's freedom still in limbo, but at least he's out of jail
Posted on August 13, 2009Bruce Lisker may be out of jail, but the question of just how free he remains has yet to be answered. Though he is no longer in prison, Lisker is not a free man. He must be in federal court...
San Fernando Valley man freed from life sentence
Posted on August 12, 2009Bruce Lisker has been serving a life sentence for the March 1983 stabbing and beating death of his 66-year-old mother, Dorka, at her Sherman Oaks home. U.S. District Judge Virginia A. Phillips in Riverside overturned his conviction Friday, concurring with...
SDG&E shutoff plan denied, save for a possible experimental season
Posted on August 12, 2009Administrative Law Judge Timothy Kenney recommended yesterday that the five-member California Public Utilities Commission reject San Diego Gas & Electric Co.'s controversial proposal to cut power to as many as 130,000 residents of rural San Diego County during Santa Ana...
White-collar practices on the rise in LA
Posted on August 12, 2009White-collar defense practice groups have gotten some serious bolstering in recent weeks. It was announced this week that Thomas O'Brien, the sitting U.S. attorney for the Central District of California, would join Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker in the fall...
Digital piracy no longer a Real possibility
Posted on August 12, 2009Hollywood studios scored a crucial win in the war against digital piracy on Tuesday when U.S. District Judge Marilyn Hall Patel issued a pretrial junction on RealNetworks, preventing it from either selling the DVD-copying technology known as RealDVD or licensing...
Pepperdine conservative scholar named new ambassador
Posted on August 11, 2009Unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate on August 7th, Douglas W. Kmiec is the United States Ambassador to the Republic of Malta. He will be on leave from Pepperdine University as the Caruso Family Chair in Constitutional Law during his...
Prop 8 suit still has supporters on different pages
Posted on August 10, 2009The Recorder reported a couple weeks back about the clash between attorneys and civil rights groups in the federal challenge of Proposition 8. That clash seems to continue to heat up. Now that a trial is nearing, the lawyers who...
Northwestern Law gets 19-year-old Irvine student
Posted on August 10, 2009Kate McLaughlin, who turned 19 last week, skipped six grades, enrolled in community college at age 12 and graduated from UC San Diego at 17. Now she's headed to Northwestern University this fall for law school. According to the OC...
New Obama appointees reflect heretofore underrepresented communities
Posted on August 10, 2009President Obama has named four new federal judges for California, three of them Asian Americans, who have long been underrepresented on the federal bench. The president named U.S. Magistrate Judges Edward M. Chen and Richard G. Seeborg to the Northern...
The potential chilling effects of tolling provisions at issue in Supreme Court review
Posted on August 07, 2009The question of what constitutes a stay in court proceedings has been taken up by the California Supreme Court in the form of a March 23 ruling by Los Angeles' 2nd District Court of Appeal. That ruling, a 2-1 decision,...
Suit against Pasadena hospital alleges understaffing and no overtime
Posted on August 07, 2009Former employees of Aurora Las Encinas Hospital, a private psychiatric facility in Pasadena, filed a class-action lawsuit in Los Angeles County Superior Court yesterday alleging that chronic understaffing has forced the staff to work past the ends of their shifts,...
MOVERS AND HONORS: Ogletree, Horvitz, and Sedgwick
Posted on August 07, 2009Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart, P.C. has announced that Stuart D. Tochner has joined its Los Angeles office as a shareholder. Prior to joining the firm, Mr. Tochner was a labor and employment partner at Musick Peeler in Los...
Web site copyright infringement suit allowed
Posted on August 06, 2009Brayton Purcell, a Novato-based personal injury firm, was handed a victory against two-lawyer San Diego-based Recordon & Recordon yesterday by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in an Internet copyright infringement case. Brayton Purcell, a 50-lawyer personal injury and...
Western State accredited
Posted on August 06, 2009The American Bar Association has granted Western State University College of Law full accreditation, giving the state 19 fully accredited law schools. The school first won provisional accreditation from the ABA in 1998, but did not secure full approval within...
Former Warner Bros. GC to head new program at USC
Posted on August 06, 2009John Schulman, who retired from his post as general counsel of Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. last year, has joined the University of Southern California Gould School of Law to open and run a new entertainment law program. Schulman joined USC...
State ordered to reduce prison popluation
Posted on August 05, 2009A panel of three federal judges on Tuesday ordered California to reduce its prison population by 40,000 inmates over the next two years. The order cited Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's own words when he proclaimed a state of emergency in the...
Taser lawsuit settled in Santa Paula
Posted on August 05, 2009The city of Santa Paula agreed to pay Andrew S. Hernandez $250,000 to settle a lawsuit he filed in federal court in Los Angeles. The lawsuit alleges that in 2006 he was forcibly taken to the ground by Santa Paula...
Chemerinsky, Nelson newest members of ABA economic commission
Posted on August 05, 2009The American Bar Association yesterday announced that Los Angeles attorney Matthew Nelson and Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of UC Irvine?s law school, have joined the group?s newly-created Commission on the Impact of the Economic Crisis on the Profession and Legal Needs...
Press wants Krugel transcripts unsealed
Posted on August 05, 2009The Associated Press and the Los Angeles Times, along with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, filed a motion Tuesday challenging a federal judge's decision to seal court transcripts from a recent civil trial in Los Angeles involving...
Carrion police shooting settled for $1.5 million
Posted on August 05, 2009San Bernardino County has tentatively agreed to pay $1.5 million to Elio Carrion, a U.S. Air Force serviceman who was unarmed when a sheriff's deputy shot him following a high-speed chase three years ago. If approved by the county Board...
Redlands courthouse to shutter
Posted on August 05, 2009On July 7, the San Bernardino County Superior Court announced that it would reduce the hours at two other courthouses in Big Bear and Needles beginning on September 8. They have now announced that its courthouse in Redlands will close...
Suit against LAPD dismissed
Posted on August 04, 2009A judge on Monday threw out a lawsuit filed by the mother of a toddler killed by a SWAT officer's bullet during an attempted hostage rescue in 2005. L.A. County Superior Court Judge Rolf M. Treu granted the city's motion...
Prosecutors claim Ruehle knew his statements weren't confidential
Posted on August 04, 2009Federal prosecutors in the William Ruehle case argued in a recent brief before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit that the former chief financial officer of Broadcom knew that statements he made to his attorneys at Irell...
Blue Cross accused of deliberately underpaying out-of-network hospitals
Posted on August 03, 2009Methodist Hospital of Southern California has accused Blue Cross and Anthem affiliates in 10 states of RICO and ERISA violations. Methodist alleges that Blue Cross refuses to let it transfer patients from emergency rooms, then underpays the hospital and sticks...
Challenge to county and state benefits for LA judges dismissed, again
Posted on August 03, 2009An appellate court justice has dismissed a taxpayer lawsuit challenging the dual payment of county and state benefits to Los Angeles County Superior Court judges for the second time in less than three years. In a 17-page decision, Justice James...
Coupons in lieu of cash no victory for consumers
Posted on August 03, 2009Sacramento County Superior Court Judge David De Alba authorized the settlement of a class action that lawyers argued could be worth as much as $500 million to people who owned Ford Explorers during the 1990s. It was a complex case...
Heat illness preventions to be updated, ACLU still not satisfied
Posted on August 03, 2009A day after the ACLU filed suit, the Department of Industrial Relations' Division of Occupational Safety and Health filed a proposal with the Cal/OSHA standards board to update California's first heat illness prevention regulations. The action also follows the July...
Hiring trends in recession basis for new course at Santa Clara
Posted on August 03, 2009Santa Clara University School of Law has rolled out a new program that utilizes advice from working attorneys on how to understand the looming recession and its impact on recruiting. According to Vicki Huebner, the assistant dean for law career...
Judge's rule city intrusion into state's jurisdiction with grocery worker ordinance
Posted on August 03, 2009A state appellate panel has upheld a lower court ruling that overturned a Los Angeles ordinance requiring new owners of grocery stores to retain existing workers for 90 days. The city ordinance, enacted in 2005, cited a threat to health...
Sheppard Mullin gives Yahoo a Pass
Posted on August 03, 2009Brian Pass, an entertainment and IP partner at Sheppard Mullin, helped negotiate the ten-year Internet search and advertising deal Yahoo struck with Microsoft last week, a partnership that might help Yahoo break Google's dominance in that particular market...
MOVERS: Ice Miller and Laquer Urban
Posted on July 31, 2009Ice Miller LLP announced this week that Mark Neyland has joined the firm as senior counsel in the collegiate sports practice. Neyland previously served as an assistant director of enforcement at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Neyland was the...
Producers allegedly made payoffs to ensure little Dieter flight
Posted on July 31, 2009A closely watched criminal trial begins Aug. 4 in a Los Angeles federal court involving a pair of Beverly Hills film producers. In a 22-count superseding indictment, federal prosecutors outline a case alleging that Gerald and Patricia Green, whose recent...
ACLU to sue state over inadequate heat protections
Posted on July 30, 2009The American Civil Liberties Union, the United Farm Workers of America and a number of farmworkers are announcing a lawsuit against the state of California and its Division of Occupational Safety and Health, accusing them of failing to protect the...
Second Amendment ruling under review by 9th Circuit
Posted on July 30, 2009The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decided Wednesday to review en banc a panel ruling that had significantly broadened Second Amendment protections by applying them to state and local governments. This holding, arrived at by Judge Diarmuid O'Scannlain, is...
Professors say 'broader life experience makes for better decisions'
Posted on July 30, 2009Daria Roithmayr of the USC Gould School of Law, in collaboration with Duke Law School's Guy-Uriel Charles, has a column over at CNN.com that tackles the ideas of race and experience as they pertain to decision-making. They touch on new...
SLO County to cough up defense cash for jailed Paso Robles firm family
Posted on July 30, 2009Thanks to a judge's ruling, a jailed mother and son who were also the president and vice-president of a bankrupt money lending company will be unable to pay for their defense, leaving San Luis Obispo with the bill. Superior Court...
Illinois demands shuttering of allegedly false charitable organization
Posted on July 29, 2009Morrell Steven Neely is listed as the director of the Center for AIDS Prevention, which describes itself as a Beverly Hills-based nonprofit that provides information on HIV and AIDS. However, court documents filed last week in Illinois allege Neely was...
Dole defamation defense goes to Lathrop & Gage
Posted on July 29, 2009Earlier this month Dole Food Co. filed suit against the makers of a documentary of the first U.S. trial involving the pesticide claims against Dole. "Bananas!" was screened during Film Independent's Los Angeles Film Festival and, according to Dole, excluded...
Abergil gang to be extradited to the U.S.
Posted on July 28, 2009A motion to extradite Yitzhak Abergil and accomplices to the United States to stand trial on charges including murder, extortion, and drug dealing was granted today by the Jerusalem District Court. According to an indictment, Yitzhak Abergil took part in...
Death sentence upheld for East Palo Alto woman
Posted on July 28, 2009Celeste Carrington, 47, admitted fatally shooting Victor Esparza, 34, a janitor at a shoe factory in San Carlos, in January 1992, and Caroline Gleason, 36, a property manager at a real estate office in Palo Alto, in another robbery two...
Biometric verification: doubters say 'devil is in the details'
Posted on July 28, 2009Lawyers are expressing both skepticism and criticism about the concept of using biometric data, such as fingerprints and retina scans, to verify if employees are eligible to work in the United States. Senator Charles Schumer, who also chairs the Senate...
Governor intervenes on behalf of disabled student's bar exam case
Posted on July 28, 2009Sara Granda, a recent graduate of the University of California, Davis School of Law and a paraplegic, failed to meet a June 15 online application deadline for the bar exam. Her attorney, Stewart Katz, of the Law Offices of Stewart...
Southwestern professor's daughter abducted near school, found murdered
Posted on July 28, 2009The recent abduction and murder of a 17-year-old girl, the daughter of a partner at Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck who had just finished a summer course as an adjunct professor at Southwestern University School of Law, has sent shockwaves through...
Smaller firms lead by example in lean times
Posted on July 28, 2009Berliner Cohen. Hoge, Fenton, Jones & Appel Inc. Ropers Majeski Kohn Bentley PC. What do these firms have in common? Layoffs have been the norm in stories about big firms lately. While giants crumbled and others restructured salary arrangements for...
Recession making it difficult to discuss it in Hollywood
Posted on July 27, 2009Hollywood's dream machine is not immune to the recession. The Motion Picture Association of America, which represents the major studios, reported the release of 284 movies in the United States between January 2 and July 21, compared to 336 films...
Forget it, Jake - it's San Bernardino County
Posted on July 27, 2009Taking on corruption is no easy task, but it would seem in San Bernardino County the difficulties magnify a hundredfold. Leonard Gumport was hired by the county in mid-2000 to investigate former top county officials who took bribes and kickbacks...
Former California 'evangelist' found guilty on all counts
Posted on July 27, 2009There has been some pretty lurid testimony delivered in the Tony Alamo case over the past couple of weeks. Four "Jane Does" have come forward to testify to Alamo's penchant for young girls. One, now 17, said the evangelist married...
UC law school faculty to see pay cuts and furloughs
Posted on July 24, 2009Law school faculty in the University of California system will see furloughs and a cut in pay for the upcoming school year. Although not unforeseen, says UC Davis school of law dean Kevin Johnson, "it's not a morale booster." The...
Wilson closes JDL civil trial amid claims of First Amendment violations
Posted on July 24, 2009U.S. District Judge Stephen V. Wilson perplexed Constitutional scholars and advocates of freedom of the press when he closed the two-day trial in a case involving the 2005 prison killing of Jewish Defense League activist Earl Krugel. Wilson issued a....
SEC tells Maynard to reimburse $4.1 million to CSK
Posted on July 23, 2009The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission demanded that CSK Auto Corp.?s former chief executive officer forfeit $4.1 million he received during an accounting fraud he didn?t orchestrate. Maynard L. Jenkins was ordered to return bonuses and stock-sale profits he earned...
Prison guard's brutality convictions reinstated by Ninth Circuit
Posted on July 23, 2009A federal appeals court has reinstated the brutality convictions of a Southern California prison guard for yanking two shackled inmates from a van and throwing them to the ground headfirst. The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco...
Attorneys and civil rights groups unhappy with one another in Prop 8 challenge
Posted on July 22, 2009Gay rights groups' attempt to intervene in a federal challenge of California's Proposition 8 has created a rift with the high-powered attorneys heading the case, turning erstwhile allies into head-butting competitors. Civil rights groups worry that Theodore Olson, David Boies...
Tax evasion takes center stage in Hollywood civil suit
Posted on July 22, 2009Hollywood tax lawyer Matthew Krane is suing his former client, entertainment industry billionaire Haim Saban, over a $36 million fee Krane was paid for referring Saban to an investment fund run by the Quellos Group. The suit charges Saban with...
Nuch working day and night to resolve Jackson memorial taxpayer dilemma
Posted on July 22, 2009City Attorney Carmen Trutanich has been reviewing the procedures that led the city to spend an estimated $1.4 million for police protection and other city services for the star-studded Michael Jackson's memorial at the Staples Center. Investigators have apparently turned...
Real money = less money
Posted on July 22, 2009A federal judge in Los Angeles, ruling on an issue that had been remanded to his court by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, has granted attorney fees to two law firms that objected to the $49...
Former SEC trial attorney joins Greenberg Traurig
Posted on July 21, 2009Michael Piazza, a former Regional Trial Counsel for the Los Angeles office of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, has joined Greenberg Traurig's securities litigation practice group as head of the Orange County office's practice. Piazza moves to Greenberg...
Governor gives seal of approval to stay seal removal
Posted on July 21, 2009Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed a bill that may allow federally protected harbor seals to stay in the Children's Pool at La Jolla beach, despite a judge's earlier order to begin chasing them away. Earlier Monday, a San Diego Superior...
Lawsuit alleges shelters' routine refusal of homeless with service dogs
Posted on July 21, 2009The Southern California Housing Rights Center and the Disability Rights Legal Center have filed a lawsuit against the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority over what they say are discriminatory practices toward homeless people who rely on service dogs...
Former Broadcom CFO wants "ethical misconduct" finding sustained against I&M
Posted on July 21, 2009The former chief financial officer of Broadcom Corp. has urged the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit to sustain a lower court that blasted Los Angeles-based Irell & Manella for "ethical misconduct" in a criminal backdating case. In...
Fiscal crisis may yield Chapter 9 work for firms
Posted on July 20, 2009Despite the dire financial outlook for California's cities, most lawyers don't expect the economic downturn to let loose a flood of municipal bankruptcies. But many are preparing for an uptick in Chapter 9-related work. For instance, while Pacific Grove is...
Korea Law Center established by UC Irvine
Posted on July 20, 2009UC Irvine School of Law has established a Korea Law Center to promote practical solutions to problems arising at the intersection of U.S. and Korean law. The center, part of a new, multi-continent UC Irvine International Commerce & Law Institute,...
Haven can sue HHS over Medicare cap
Posted on July 20, 2009A federal judge has tentatively ruled that Los Angeles Haven Hospice Inc. has standing to sue the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services over the validity of a regulation that governs how much a provider may receive in Medicare...
District court judge says we watch o'er the Ramparts et al. no longer
Posted on July 20, 2009On Friday, U.S. District Court Judge Gary Feess lifted the controversial consent decree that for more than eight years had guided an independent monitor overseeing sweeping reforms of the Los Angeles Police Department. The consent decree resulted from the LAPD's...
Crisis yields new partnerships between bankers and law firms
Posted on July 20, 2009In Los Angeles, the law firm of Manatt, Phelps & Phillips has joined forces with commercial real estate investment banking firm George Smith Partners to help borrowers restructure their debt. Bank problems with commercial real estate loans led the Manatt...
Released diocese records paint permissive atmosphere for potential abuse in Monterey
Posted on July 20, 2009Records released by the Diocese of Monterey paint a damning picture of an era that church officials say has since ended, revealing a flawed system that led to the repeated sexual abuse of at least two children, an 11-year-old altar...
Cox to join Bingham
Posted on July 17, 2009Christopher Cox, the former top U.S. securities markets watchdog when George W. Bush was president, announced today that he will join law firm Bingham McCutchen LLP as a partner in Southern California. Cox, 56, will be part of Bingham's corporate,...
Cal legislature on harassment cases: nothing to see here, move along ...
Posted on July 16, 2009State Senate officials have secretly approved a $70,000 legal settlement that prohibits a staffer who accused a former colleague of harassment from going public with the charges. The payment, made last month, is the latest in a string of such...
Attorney general Brown & FTC collaborate on Operation Loan Lies
Posted on July 16, 2009The Federal Trade Commission is sending out a DVD in an effort to curb the calls and mailers that have helped dupe hundreds of thousands of homeowners out of hundreds of millions of dollars in the name of mortgage relief....
ERISA stock drop case dismissed
Posted on July 15, 2009Earlier this week, a ERISA suit against Computer Sciences Corporation was dismissed on summary judgment by Los Angeles federal district court judge James Otero. The plaintiffs had alleged that the company and its retirement plan committee had breached their fiduciary...
Los Angeles to close courtrooms every third Wednesday
Posted on July 15, 2009Leaders of the Los Angeles and Mendocino, Calif., superior courts decided they could no longer wait for a coordinated, statewide closure plan to emerge from the mire of legislative budget negotiations. Instead, they'll shutter hundreds of courtrooms today, keeping a...
Tolkien heirs to New Line: And some things that should not have been forgotten were lost ... like our percentage
Posted on July 15, 2009J.R.R. Tolkien sold movie rights to his ''Lord of the Rings'' novels 40 years ago for 7.5 per cent of future receipts. Three films and $6 billion later, his heirs say they haven't seen a cent from Time Warner. New...
Settlement in kickbacks lawsuit costs defendants over $15M
Posted on July 15, 2009A total of $5.5 million in refunds are in the mail to more than 50,000 Californians who allegedly overpaid for natural hazard disclosure reports because the real estate brokerages that listed their homes were taking kickbacks from the company producing...
ACLU sues Santa Monica over treatment of the homeless
Posted on July 15, 2009Yesterday the ACLU sued Santa Monica in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, saying city police routinely violate homeless people's constitutional rights by harassing and arresting them, even as the city fails to provide sufficient shelter beds. The suit is...
New addition at Century City Reed Smith office
Posted on July 14, 2009Reed Smith announced the addition of James L. Sanders as a partner in the Global Regulatory and Enforcement Group of its Litigation Department. Mr. Sanders is resident in the firm?s Century City office, where his practice focuses on securities litigation,...
Close the old jail, not the new one, says ACLU
Posted on July 14, 2009The American Civil Liberties Union yesterday asked a federal judge to bar the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department from closing a 1,600-bed jail near Castaic Lake without planning for the detrimental impacts such an action might have on other jails...
As CA goes, so DE should go in Medicaid case, says lawyer
Posted on July 14, 2009A lawyer representing pharmacy groups suing Delaware for cutting Medicaid drug reimbursement rates believes a recent U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit ruling stopping California from trimming state Medicaid payments to medical providers strengthens the groups' position in...
CA Supremes won't hear asbestos case
Posted on July 14, 2009The California Supreme Court has denied a petition to review an asbestos liability case in which a Los Angeles judge blasted the plaintiff's firm, Waters & Kraus, for engaging in a "type of judicially sanctioned extortion." The case involves a...
Plaintiff gives up the Chais
Posted on July 13, 2009A Los Angeles woman who lost millions of dollars after investing funds through Stanley Chais, alleged to have funneled those funds to Bernard L. Madoff, has voluntarily dismissed her class action against the California investment manager. Daphne Brogdon filed a...
In the wake of Chaney's dismissal, DBCP = Don't Bother Claiming Pesticide (Exposure)
Posted on July 13, 2009The unraveling of multimillion-dollar Los Angeles cases alleging that Nicaraguan men had been sterilized by pesticide exposure is now threatening to upend hundreds of other claims in U.S. courts, as judges examine charges that plaintiffs' lawyers orchestrated an extraordinary international...
Dole files suit against 'Bananas!' filmmakers
Posted on July 09, 2009Dole Food Co. has filed a defamation suit in Los Angeles against two Swedish filmmakers whose recently screened documentary chronicles a lawsuit alleging that workers in Nicaragua were rendered sterile after being exposed to the pesticide DBCP on Dole's banana...
Senate bill says lay off lawsuits offering discounts to furloughed workers
Posted on July 09, 2009Since Governor Schwarzenegger ordered the 235,000 state workers under his authority to start three-day furloughs per month, Sacramento-area businesses have marketed to furloughed workers with targeted discounts on everything from lift tickets to oil changes...
'Larger than life' lawyer back in business
Posted on July 09, 2009After a nearly year-long fight to clear himself of charges of illegally funneling money to John Edwards' campaign, Pierce O'Donnell found those charges either dismissed or dropped by mutual agreement. And so, as he says, "I have my life back."...
More arrests in gang takedown effort
Posted on July 09, 2009Following a similar takedown this past May, federal authorities announced yesterday that 11 additional members of the Varrio Hawaiian Gardens street gang had been arrested. Additionally, 16 members and associates from other gangs wanted on state and federal charges were...
L.A. area lawyers just beat it for Jackson memorial
Posted on July 08, 2009As tens of thousands of Michael Jackson fans poured into downtown Los Angeles' Staples Center for the King of Pop's memorial service on July 7, attorneys who work in offices just blocks from the star-studded event opted to stay home....
More vexation on the horizon for "vexatious litigant"
Posted on July 08, 2009As if things weren't hard enough for Mitchell W. Roth. In January, U.S. District Judge Manuel Real of Los Angeles declared Roth a vexatious litigant and ordered him to refund fees to nine clients. Then Bar prosecutors shut down Roth's...
Couple claims "knowing how to know" no treatment at all in Scientology suit
Posted on July 08, 2009In a lawsuit filed June 29 claiming breach of contract, misrepresentation and attempts at religious conversion, Sarah Locatelli claims her husband, Daniel, received no drug treatment, education or otherwise for the $20,000 they paid to Narconon Southern California in Newport...
Cancer shmancer, pot is the answer, says MPP
Posted on July 08, 2009State lawmakers are bitterly debating how to close a $26.3 billion budget deficit that likely means cuts to state services. The Marijuana Policy Project, unsurprisingly, has a suggestion via another 30-second television spot with the pitch that legalizing and taxing...
Climan, Flaum, and Reifschneider not your Cooley anymore
Posted on July 08, 2009The heart of Cooley Godward?s Silicon Valley M&A practice ? Richard Climan, Keith Flaum and Eric Reifschneider ? has defected to Dewey & LeBoeuf. Leading M&A lawyers Climan and Flaum are rainmakers and longtime leaders at Cooley. Reifschneder was the...
MGA swaps counsel for Orrick
Posted on July 08, 2009The manufacturer of Bratz dolls has replaced its lawyers for the second time this year in preparation for the next phase of its long-running copyright battle with Mattel Inc. In a July 7 order, Larson approved MGA's request to replace...
Ziffren Brittenham founding partner gifts UCLA Law School with $1M
Posted on July 08, 2009Ken Ziffren, founding partner of Ziffren Brittenham and chairman of the UCLA School of Law $100-million endowment campaign, has given a $1 million leadership gift to the school. The gift is in both his and his wife Ellen's names. In...
Hayes back
Posted on July 07, 2009After an eight-year absence, David J. Hayes has reclaimed both the California water portfolio and the title as deputy secretary of the Interior. Hayes will coordinate the Obama administration?s role in California water use. This is familiar territory for the...
Multitasking not a stretch for Estrich
Posted on July 07, 2009Yesterday's Am Law Daily featured an interview with Susan Estrich, who wears three hats: lawyer at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart Oliver & Hedges, professor at the University of Southern California's law school, and political commentator on television and in syndicated newspaper...
Michael Jackson: The will has brought some fortune, but to whom?
Posted on July 06, 2009Much has been made in several corners, including this one, about the debt Michael Jackson left behind in the wake of his passing. However, according to the Los Angeles Times, the reality is Jackson's assets outweigh his debt by at...
Katherine Jackson no longer in control of her son's estate
Posted on July 06, 2009Judge Mitchell L. Beckloff denied Katherine Jackson's request to remain temporary special administrator of her son's estate, replacing her with two longtime advisors of Michael Jackson, lawyer John Branca and music executive John McClain. Branca and McClain were named co-executors...
9th Circuit: immigration petitioners not to blame for tangled bureaucracy
Posted on July 06, 2009Lawyers in Los Angeles involved in representing immigrants seeking permanent residency in the United States are continually frustrated with multiple governmental agencies that often don't coordinate with one another. The problem is particularly acute in Los Angeles, which has more...
Environmental regulators call the pot kettle black
Posted on July 06, 2009State environmental regulators last month voted to place marijuana smoke on its list of hundreds of substances known to cause cancer. Scientists with the state's Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment found that marijuana smoke and tobacco smoke share 33...
Critics of LA police wanna be startin' somethin'
Posted on July 06, 2009The Los Angeles police are under scrutiny for their actions following the death of Michael Jackson. While the police say proper procedures were followed based on the circumstances officers encountered when they were called to the home, others are saying...
Noted sports law attorney joins Arent Fox in Los Angeles
Posted on July 06, 2009Arent Fox LLP today announced noted sports attorney Maidie E. Oliveau, 55, has joined the firm as counsel in its Los Angeles office. Ms. Oliveau has worked on a number of major sports-related transactions, negotiating and administering more than 200....
'There is a lack of respect for law down there'
Posted on July 01, 2009You may recall LALP reporting on the Nicaraguan farm workers' lawsuit against Dole that was ultimately thrown out by Judge Victoria Chaney (not to mention the resulting film). In yesterday's OC Register Chapman University Law Professor Ronald Rotunda addresses the...
Ruling delayed on PEMGroup asset freeze
Posted on June 30, 2009U.S. District Judge Philip Gutierrez yesterday postponed ruling on whether assets of Southern California financier Danny Pang and his PEMGroup funds should stay frozen until Pang's civil trial begins. Gutierrez told Pang's lawyers and Securities and Exchange Commission attorneys that...
Cablevison foes say new DVR ruling will disrupt vast revenues
Posted on June 30, 2009Hollywood studios and television networks lost their bid Monday for the Supreme Court to block the use of a new digital video recorder system that could make it cheaper and easier for viewers to record shows and watch them when...
Attorneys spell for a good cause
Posted on June 30, 2009The Fifth Annual Lawyers for Literacy Spelling Bee is scheduled for July 8 in Los Angeles. More than 100 lawyers, associates and staff from 10 law firms in Los Angeles will test their spelling prowess at the event, which will...
Can life sentences really save the budget?
Posted on June 30, 2009A new argument has been taken up by death penalty opponents: we can't afford it. According to abolitionists, by commuting all 682 death row inmates' sentences to life without the possibility of parole, the state could save up to $1...
Kenneth Julian, successful prosecutor of Mike Carona, joins Manatt Phelps
Posted on June 30, 2009Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP, announced today that Kenneth B. Julian has joined the firm as a litigation partner in the national trial practice. He will be based in the firm?s Orange County office. Prior to joining Manatt, Julian was...
9th Circuit: I always feel like somebody's watching me
Posted on June 29, 2009From prisoners' rights to environmental protection, laws set by the 9th Circuit were overturned in 15 of the 16 cases reviewed this term by the U.S. Supreme Court. The justices shot down four rulings seen as protecting nature against industrial...
Schenk tapped to serve on governing body of world?s largest trial bar
Posted on June 29, 2009Frederick Schenk ? a longtime partner with Casey Gerry, San Diego?s oldest plaintiff?s law firm ? has been elected to serve on the Board of Governors of the American Association for Justice (AAJ), which with more than 55,000 members is...
Homeless suit settled with city
Posted on June 29, 2009Laguna Beach agreed to settle a lawsuit over its treatment of disabled homeless people by constraining police from interfering with those asleep in public places. Under the agreement, the city's police officers will not cite, arrest or harass people under...
Injunction junction, what's its function?
Posted on June 29, 2009Gang injunctions, like the most recent one issued against the Barrio Van Nuys gang, remain controversial in some legal circles. For supporters, injunctions make neighborhoods safer because gang members can be penalized for actions that otherwise would be legal, such...
"Security threat" Su files suit against FBI
Posted on June 29, 2009In a lawsuit filed last week in U.S. District Court in San Jose, Haiping Su, a UC Santa Cruz scientist, asked a federal judge to order a hearing to "clear his name" and recover damages from the federal government. Su...
The troubled legacy of the King of Pop
Posted on June 26, 2009To say Michael Jackson's death was the most noteworthy news item yesterday is an understatement. As seemingly the entire world mourns his passing, everything about the King of Pop is under scrutiny, from the circumstances surrounding his death to his...
Northwestern Mutual defends itself against individuals who 'are not, and have never been, employees'
Posted on June 26, 2009A $200 million class action lawsuit was filed by two former California financial reps and one former Georgia financial representative for Northwestern Mutual in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California in San Diego and alleges the...
School's in for summer at Chino
Posted on June 26, 2009Administrators at two Southern California schools face a $7 million penalty from the state after cutting a few school days too short. The Chino Valley Unified School District discovered in April that Friday class sc