The National Law Journal's L.A. Legal Pad

MOVERS: Two reappointments and one new appointment to water boards

Yesterday 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. Folsom lawyer Robert G. Walters was appointed to his first term on a water board.

Charlton, 61, has served on the Lahontan Regional Water Quality Control Board since April of this year and as a partner for Charlton Weeks since 1998.

Young, 55, has served on the Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board since 2000 and operated the Law Offices of Jeffrey S. Young since 1997.

Walters, 74, was appointed to the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board. He has served the San Juan Water District as director since 2007 and president since January 2009.

Each appointment requires Senate confirmation.

Click here for the full story.

Gun possession-related expulsion at local high school garners national attention

Last 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 class, so he parked his truck on a public street. The guns inside were unloaded, and were discovered via a private company's scent-detection dogs.

Willows High Principal Mort Geivett noted during a hearing that the state Education Code required the district to pursue expulsion. On the Education Department Web site, guidelines state that administrators have some discretion regarding off-campus infractions. Recommendations should be based on the ineffectiveness of other disciplinary methods or if a student poses an ongoing threat to himself or others.  Presumably to that latter end, Geivett read Tudesko's disciplinary record at the hearing.

Tudesko's mother, Susan Parisio, intends to file an appeal as early as next week.

Full story here.

Council OKs marijuana sales, considers dispensary cap

The 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. Carmen Trutanich and L.A. County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley had pressed the council to explicitly ban the sale of marijuana, but in drafting their ordinance the council opted for a provision that would allow "cash contributions, reimbursements and compensations" for actual expenses, as long as they comply with state law.

The council is scheduled to take up the ordinance again Dec. 2.

Full story here.

Nguyen's nomination will get debate and vote after Thanksgiving break

Prior 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 next Tuesday at noon Eastern time, following 30 minutes of debate. With a unanimous committee vote and a 60-senator Democratic majority, the nomination is expected to be confirmed.

Nguyen would be the first Obama-appointed federal judge in California. She was the first Vietnamese American woman to serve on the California bench, and will be the first Vietnamese American to serve as an Article III federal judge if confirmed by the Senate.

Nguyen, who was rated well-qualified for the position by the American Bar Association, would fill a seat that has been vacant since Nora Manella was named to this district’s Court of Appeal in 2006.

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Huebner confirmed as ambassador

The 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 Huebner’s commitment to respond to requests to appear and testify before any duly constituted committee of the Senate.

The Senate voted by voice vote Friday to confirm Huebner.

Click here for details.

MOVERS: Governor appoints four lawyers to state positions

Governor 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 of Directors, and appointed San Rafael attorney Lawrence Mulryan to the insurance fund board and Oxnard attorney Barbara Macri-Ortiz to the Housing Finance Agency Board of Directors.

Jahangiri has served on the Law Revision Commission since September and currently serves on the Board of Overseers at Loyola Law School and as ambassador to the Samuel Jordan Center at the UC Irvine School of Humanities.

Quinlan has served on the State Compensation Insurance Fund Board of Directors since 2007 and joined Archer Norris, PLC in March as special counsel.

Mulryan erved as interim president and chief executive officer for the State Compensation Insurance Fund in 2007, and was executive director of the California Insurance Guarantee Association during the preceding 15 years.

Macri-Ortiz has been in private practice since 2001. A Democrat, she was a national representative for United Farm Workers of America from 1969 to 1988.

Senate confirmation is required for Jahangiri and Macri-Ortiz.

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Jury finds "no smoking gun" in economic espionage case

Lan 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 government.

But on Friday, the government came up empty as a federal jury acquitted the two Silicon Valley engineers on a pair of counts and deadlocked on three others. The jurors who sided with the defendants felt the government relied too much on witnesses from NetLogic Microsystems Inc., the company in question. The jurors also found the government had no "smoking gun" that the defendants were working for the Chinese government.

The jury deliberated for five days. On both a conspiracy count and an economic espionage count, the jury hung 9-3 in favor of acquittal. On another trade secret count, they divided 6-6.

Full details here.

Kevin Cooper's Supreme Court bid not looking good, law professors say

Kevin 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 not to hear his case.

Cooper has long maintained his innocence, and his attorneys argue that the reviews in lower courts have been unfair because they required too high a standard when considering his innocence claims. Cooper is urging the Supreme Court to hear his case to provide guidance to lower courts about what standard of review applies when considering an inmate's innocence.

But legal experts say Cooper's odds for success may be worse than the average petitioner. Not only will the brutal facts of the murder harm his case, they suggest, but the Supreme Court often brings cases that will allow it to clarify unsettled areas of the law that lower courts failed to interpret consistently instead of reviewing evidence to make a ruling partly based on its views of the petitioner's guilt or innocence.

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AG looking into potential church computer scams

State 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 presented to them as cost-free.

One of those companies, Television Brand Online, got congregations in Moreno Valley, Riverside, Perris, San Bernardino and Murrieta to sign leases for what was advertised as the company's "signature" equipment, which turned out to be an outdated desktop computer in a box.  Checks that TBO promised to cover expenses never materialized, and leasing companies came after the churches demanding as much as $50,000.

Brown is also investigating Balboa Capital Corp., United Leasing Associates of America Ltd. and Banc of America Leasing and Capital LLC. in connection with the scams.

Click these for more details.

Superior Court judge says bribe offer was a joke

Humboldt 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 a juror money to vote guilty during the mid-'80s death penalty trial of double-murderer Curtis Price.

Defense lawyers for Price, now on death row for murdering a man in Southern California and a woman in Eureka, Calif., six days apart in 1983, raised the bribe allegations after a bartender at Eureka's Waterfront Cafe told a local lawyer about it in 1995. The attorneys argued that Bass was having drinks at the cafe during the trial when he encountered juror Zetta Southworth, who worked there as a cook, and handed the bartender a tip and suggested he share it with Southworth for a guilty vote.

The California Supreme Court in 2004 ordered an evidentiary hearing, which was finally held earlier this year in Eureka.

For the full story at The Recorder, click here.

Compensation ordered for gay couple denied spousal benefits

Today 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 benefits by the federal government.

Reinhardt deemed the denial of healthcare and other benefits to be a violation of the Constitution's guarantee of due process and discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, which is prohibited by California state law.

When the federal government denied Levenson's application for spousal benefits, Levenson appealed, seeking either an independently contracted benefits package for his spouse or payment of the equivalent value of the coverage denied. Reinhardt ordered the latter, based on a "back pay" provision in the law covering federal defense lawyers' employment.

Full story at LATimes.com.

Also, commentary and link to decision here.

King orders arbitration for former Toyota lawyer

U.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 and destroyed evidence in cases involving victims of rollover accidents.  He also dismissed racketeering claims brought by Biller's legal consulting firm, Litigation Discovery & Trial Consulting Inc.

Biller's suit, which Toyota failed to get sealed, had threatened to reopen personal injury cases against Toyota on behalf of victims of rollover accidents. In recent months, plaintiffs in previous personal injury cases have filed court documents in Texas and California against Toyota and its in-house counsel, citing Biller's allegations.

Full story at NLJ.com.

MOVERS: Alston & Bird names two partners in Los Angeles

Alston & 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 throughout Alston & Bird’s nine U.S. offices, raising the total number of partners at the firm to 355 nationally, with 38 in Los Angeles.

Fierman is a member of the Litigation and Trial Practice Group and focuses her practice on complex commercial litigation, real estate litigation, products liability and toxic torts. Representing corporations, partnerships, business owners and individuals, her experience spans across a broad range of business litigation matters, involving business torts, intellectual property claims, environmental litigation, unfair competition and unlawful business practices challenges, professional negligence and breach of contract. Additionally, Fierman represents clients in numerous real estate and real property disputes, including easement rights, wrongful foreclosure, quiet title, nuisance, breach of lease, trespass and disruption of business. Fierman received her J.D. from the University of Arizona in 2002 and her B.A. from Arizona State University in 1998.

Howard is a member of the firm’s Construction and Government Contracts Group, where he specializes in federal, state and local government contracting. As part of his practice, Howard advises clients on compliance with and in negotiation of government contracts, subcontracts and teaming agreements, and represents them in pre- and post-award bid protests, in suspension and debarment proceedings, and in claims prosecution proceedings at the local, state and federal level. He also represents government contractors embroiled in civil and criminal investigations by government agencies. In addition, Howard also has substantial experience representing owners and contractors in all kinds of construction matters, including the drafting and negotiating of design and construction contracts, and in mediation, arbitration and litigation of construction claims and disputes. Howard earned his J.D., cum laude, from Mercer University in 2002 and both his B.M. and B.A. from Furman University in 1998.

MOVERS: Gibson names 11 partners for 2010

Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP announced today that the firm has elected 11 new partners, effective January 1, 2010. The new partners include:

Christopher Chorba (Litigation/Class Actions - Los Angeles) - Chorba has a broad commercial litigation practice including class actions, appellate, and complex fraud and civil matters. He is a member of the Association of Business Trial Lawyers and he was the Co-Chair of the ABTL's Young Lawyers Division for 2008-2009. He is a member of the firm's Pro Bono and Community Affairs Committees. Chorba graduated from the University of Virginia School of Law in 2001, where he served on the Editorial Board of the Virginia Law Review and received an award for his Law Review Note.

Douglas Fuchs (Litigation/White Collar - Los Angeles) - A former Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California who served as Deputy Chief of the Major Frauds Section, Fuchs represents corporations and individuals in white collar criminal, SEC and other regulatory enforcement matters and related civil litigation. He also served as a law clerk to Judge Cynthia Holcomb Hall, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Fuchs graduated cum laude from the University of Chicago Law School in 1992, where he was a member of the Law Review.

Sam Newman (Corporate/Restructuring - Los Angeles) - Newman's practice involves representing creditors, debtors and other parties-in-interest in Chapter 11 cases. He also advises buyers and sellers of financially-distressed assets and lenders and borrowers in financing transactions involving distressed assets. He graduated magna cum laude from Georgetown University Law Center in 2001, where he was elected to the Order of the Coif.

William Thomson (Litigation/Appellate - Los Angeles) - Thomson has broad experience before both appellate and trial courts across the country, including product liability, mass tort, securities and consumer class actions, derivative cases and internal corporate investigations, and First Amendment litigation. He served as a law clerk to Judge Robert Kelleher of the U.S. District Court, Central District of California. He graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles, School of Law in 1996. He also earned a Ph.D. degree and an M.A. degree from the University of Chicago.

Stephen Tsoneff (Corporate/Media & Entertainment - Century City) - Tsoneff focuses on entertainment finance, secured transactions and mergers and acquisitions, primarily representing film studios and production companies in their distribution and financing transactions and commercial and investment banks providing production financing for motion pictures. He graduated from Columbia University School of Law in 2000, where he was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar.

Full list of new partners here.

Declawing ban gains traction across the state

Just a week ago we reported that Berkeley approved banning the practice of declawing cats.  As goes Berkeley, so go Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, and several other California cities.

The Beverly Hills City Council voted 5-0 last night to approve a declawing ban, except in cases of medical necessity. The Los Angeles City Council also gave final approval to a similar ordinance yesterday.

Officials in both cities say they wanted to pass the ordinance so it can take effect before New Year's Day 2010, when a state law bars cities and counties from regulating the practice of veterinary medicine.

Opponents worry that the ban could lead to an increase in the number of cats surrendered by unhappy owners to shelters or to a reduction in adoptions.

Click these for details.

Going to the mat for and against pot

Los Angeles District Attorney Steve Cooley warned yesterday that he intends to prosecute medical marijuana dispensaries that sell the drug even if the city's leaders decide to allow those transactions. The clash between the City Council and district attorney puts Los Angeles at the center of a growing debate about the legality of dispensaries.

The ordinance recommended by the City Council would allow dispensaries to accept cash contributions as long as they comply with state law. Cooley and City Attorney Carmen Trutanich maintain that recent court decisions clearly indicate collectives cannot sell marijuana over the counter, although members can be reimbursed for the cost of growing it.

Although Cooley has recently emerged as the most vocal opponent of these stores, his views are increasingly shared by prosecutors, sheriffs and police chiefs. For more on this ongoing debate, click here.

Nine indictments come down in SoCal political corruption scheme

The Riverside District Attorney’s Office says Scott Douglas Shaull, of Roseville, and Stephen Russell Holgate, until recently of Granite Bay, were key players in an alleged scheme in which various parties funneled money to political campaign warchests in return for real-estate concessions and council votes.

Last week, the county’s grand jury indicted four San Jacinto city councilmen, a school board member, and four developers – including Shaull and Holgate – for bribery, money laundering, conspiracy and tax evasion, among other allegations.

In the search warrant, Riverside DA Senior Investigator Kim Robinson wrote that Shaull purchased a home from San Jacinto city councilman Jim Ayres and his wife, a San Jacinto school trustee, for $89,950 more than its appraised value. The extra $89,950 should have been reported as a gift, Robinson said, but never was. In addition, another employee of Holgate’s paid Ayres’ wife, Nancy, a San Jacinto school board member, $36,000 that was never reported.

Click here for the full story.

FTC, Intel to talk settlement this week

Last Thursday Intel and Advanced Micro Devices called a truce, with Intel agreeing to pay AMD $1.25 billion. In return, AMD agreed to withdraw its formal complaints with antitrust regulators in the U.S., Europe and Japan.  This week, Intel executives will meet with officials at the Federal Trade Commission to discuss the settlement.

AMD will retract its formal filings as a result of the settlement, but it will still be able to lobby seeking government action on conduct not covered by the agreement. According to its lead counsel Chuck Diamond, who is a partner at O’Melveny & Myers in Los Angeles, AMD wanted a comprehensive settlement that addressed all loyalty discounts.  But Intel said that such discounts in a settlement with a competitor would itself be a violation of antitrust laws.

In addition to the open FTC investigation, Intel is still facing 80 class action lawsuits.

Full story at Main Justice.

MOVERS: BB&K reappoints managing partner Garner

Best Best & Krieger yesterday announced that it has selected Riverside attorney Eric Garner to serve a third two-year term as managing partner of the firm. According to a spokesperson, Garner has litigated cases and negotiated agreements involving major water bodies across the state since joining the firm in 1987. These cases have included the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, the Mojave River, the Santa Ana River, and groundwater basins beneath Santa Maria, Chino, Monterey and the Antelope Valley.

The attorney maintains an active water law practice with the firm and also serves as chair of the International Bar Association’s Water Law Committee.

The firm also voted to admit San Diego attorney Sophie A. Akins and Sacramento attorney Andrew J. Morris into the partnership effective January 1.  Garner's term is effective immediately.

Full story here.

Lowered standing requirements for consumer class actions credited for contact-lens class certification

Orange County Superior Court Judge David C. Velasquez ruled on Nov. 12 to certify a class of consumers who purchased contact lens solution linked to an infection that can cause blindness. 

The plaintiffs, who represent California consumers who purchased Complete MoisturePlus contact lens solution between 2003 and 2007, are asking for refunds of their money. They claim that the company misled them into believing that its contact lens solution disinfected their lenses, when in fact the solution could cause an eye infection that can lead to pain and blindness or even force the removal of an eye.

Plaintiffs' attorney Mark Robinson, senior partner at Robinson, Calcagnie & Robinson in Newport Beach, credited the certification order to the California Supreme Court's May 18 decision in In re Tobacco II Cases. He expressed hope that the In re Tobacco II ruling could persuade a federal judge in San Francisco to certify a nationwide class of consumers in separate case he is handling against Abbott Medical Optics Inc.

Full story at NLJ.com.