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

New citizenship tests for immigrants, no Dream Act for undocumented

The Bush administration released a new citizenship test that will go into effect Oct. 1, 2008, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The 100 new civics questions created are criticized for being politicized and making it more difficult for immigrants to pass the test, which costs immigrants $675 dollars each time they take it. Test-takers must correctly answer six of the ten questions (take a sample test here).

Of the 6,000 people who volunteered to take the new test over past four months at ten different locations more people passed (94%) compared to those taking the current test (84%).

None of the testing sites were in California.

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Also, the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act or Dream Act was removed from the Department of Defense authorization bill and thus from being voted on.

The act which offers a pathway to citizenship for legally foreign immigrants who came to the US at 15 years old or younger if they spend two years in college or the military.

Congress has never voted on the Dream Act. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), who made the announcement that it would not be part of the DoD bill yesterday, promised that it would go to a Senate vote by Nov. 15.

Quinn Emanuel's Ramirez to join Obama campaign

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama will open a regional campaign office in Oakland California on Sunday, The Oakland Tribune reports. The date will coincide with candidate Hillary Clinton’s rally on the same day. The paper's Inside Bay Area political blotter details that Quinn Emanuel Urquhart Oliver & Hedges’ Edith Ramirez will take a leave from the firm to serve as Obama’s Latino outreach director.

New labor and employment partner to Cromwell & Moring's Irvine office

Mark A. Romeo is joining Cromwell & Moring as a partner in their Irvine office. He'll lead their labor and employment group's West Coast operations.

Romeo focuses on counseling and litigation-related advice to businesses on trade secret and unfair competition matters. He joins Crowell & Moring from Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman's Orange County office.

New Bar president to take the helm

A profile in The Recorder of the new State Bar President Jeffrey Bleich describes the litigation partner in Munger, Tolles & Olson's San Francisco office as a risk taker up for a challenge. Alameda County Superior Court judge Jon Tigar tells a story about kayacking with Bleich through an archway that became submerged under water, while a former law school friend says he became known among peers as “superman” for his ability to take care of multiple, difficult tasks.

Bleich, who will be sworn in tomorrow, “hopes during his term to raise the State Bar's image in the eyes of both its members and the general public,” the paper reports.

Bleich graduated from Amherst College in 1983 and got a master's degree in public policy from Harvard University in 1986. After graduating from Boalt Hall School of Law in 1989, he held three clerkships: Judge Abner Mikva of the D.C. Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals; Chief Justice William Rehnquist of the U.S. Supreme Court; and Judge Howard Holtzmann of the Iran-U.S. Claims Tribunal in the Netherlands.

Bleich, 46, handles complex business litigation and represents a variety of technology companies, pharmaceutical manufacturers and telecommunications providers at his firm. He also serves on Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama national finance committee.

Board of Governors rejects malpractice insurance requirement

After a vigorous debate, the State Bar Board of Governors yesterday narrowly rejected rules that would have required California attorneys to disclose if they do not have malpractice insurance, The Metropolitan News-Enterprise reported.

The rule, which was defeated nine to eight with a tie-breaking vote by President Sheldon H. Sloan (right), would also have required that the State Bar identify uninsured attorneys on its web site. According to the paper, Sloan, felt that such a provision was “over the top.”

In favor of the proposal were board members:

William Gailey, Jeffrey L. Bleich, Matthew Butler, George Davis, Jeannine English, James N. Penrod, John E. Peterson and James Scharf.

Voting against the proposal were:

Laura N. Chick, John J. Dutton, Richard A. Frankel, Holly J. Fujie, Jo-Ann Grace, Howard Miller, Danni R. Murphy, and Carmen M. Ramirez voted against it.

Malpractice liability restricted by S.C.

The California Supreme Court issued a decision yesterday that gives former law firm clients less time to file a malpractice suit, The Recorder reported.  

The dispute between the now defunct Cleveland firm Arter & Hadden and Texas-based Beal Bank turned on an interpretation of the Code of Civil Procedure §340.6, and whether an attorney who left Arter and continued to represent the bank fell under a “continuous representation” clause of the rule.

Nine major law firms joined the Los Angeles County and Orange County bar associations in filing amicus curiae briefs in favor of the firm’s position that the negligence suit the bank sought should have been filed within a year of the client discovering wrongdoing or four years from the date the act was committed. 

The firm had initially won its case before Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge John Shook, but the 2nd District Court of Appeal reversed.  The Recorder noted that the Supreme Court said the 2nd District's decision, written by Justice Kathryn Werdegar, had “gone against the Legislature's intent, to balance a client's right to relief from negligence with attorneys' need for a reasonable limitations period.”

When law firms take notes from YouTube

Law firms are trying to win over young recruits by putting entertaining YouTube style videos on their site, The New York Times reported today.

Among them is Los Angeles firm, Quinn Emanuel Urquhart Oliver & Hedges who put together a video entitled, "A Day in the Life of an Associate."

Rather than actually showing a day in the life of one of their associates, they hired an actress. The character she plays is a graduate from Yale and Stanford named Ivey who wears jeans and a t-shirt when she consults with the partners.

While the video may have been acceptable by YouTube standards, it was not for Quinn Emanuel.

It never showed on on the site. Quinn Emanuel's hiring partner told The Times that it was because some associates and partners thought it was too corny.

Shawn Khorrami partners to form Khorrami Pollard & Abir

The law offices of Shawn Khorrami are partnering with Dylan Pollard and Danny Abiris to form Khorrami Pollard & Abir which will operate from new, expanded offices in Downtown Los Angeles.

The move to the Citigroup Center at 444 South Flower Street and expands the firm to 40 legal professionals and its areas of practice. Beginning with personal injury cases, the firm will also cover pharmaceutical class actions and mass torts, wage and hour and other employment cases, toxic torts, consumer fraud class actions, product liability, residential habitability claims, catastrophic personal injury/wrongful death and police misconduct.

During the past 12 years, the Shawn Khorrami's firm has prosecuted cases against some of the biggest corporations in the country including Google, McDonalds, Philip Morris, Coca-Cola, Eli Lilly and Co., Merck and Co., Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, and many more.

State Bar to make diversity award

Tomorrow the State Bar will hold its sixth Annual Diversity Awards. Gordon Overton of the California Attorney General’s office in Van Nuys and the Santa Clara County Bar Association will be honored. The Diversity Awards recognize outstanding efforts made by a bar association and individual attorneys in promoting diversity in the legal profession, in particular, to recognize efforts ensuring the full and equal opportunity of all persons for entry and advancement in the legal profession.

Wally Knox named Dept. Water and Power commissioner

Attorney and former assemblyman Wally Knox was approved as a commissioner of the Department of Water and Power by the City Council on Wednesday.

Knox was appointed by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to replace Mary Nichols, who left to become head of the California Air Resources Board. Knox and the mayor served together as Democrats in the Assembly.