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Plea deal brings jail sentence for Los Gatos slaying co-defendant

A Southern California man who played a role in the slaying last year of a popular Los Gatos bar owner was sentenced today to six years and eight months in state prison.

Robert Jacome, 27, pleaded guilty to robbery and accessory to murder in the slaying of Mark Achilli, 53, who was gunned down March 14 in broad daylight in the driveway of his upscale townhouse. Jacome must serve at least 85 percent of the sentence, according to Amy Cornell, spokeswoman for the Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office.

As part of the plea deal, Jacome is expected to testify later this year at the trial of the three men accused in the murder-for-hire plot. In exchange for Jacome's testimony, prosecutors dropped murder charges, which could have resulted in a 25-years-to-life sentence had Jacome been found guilty.

A trial date is expected to be scheduled Wednesday for the three men charged with Achilli's murder.

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Raids on marijuana dispensaries go up in smoke

The operators of local medical marijuana dispensaries were breathing easier today after U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced that federal authorities will stop raiding dispensaries in states where medical marijuana is legal.

Los Angeles officials also said the federal policy change will allow them to better regulate dispensaries in the city.

Speaking to reporters Wednesday, Holder said, "What the president said during the campaign ... is now American policy" in regards to stopping raids by the Drug Enforcement Administration on pot dispensaries.

Proposition 215, approved by California voters in 1996, made it legal to sell marijuana to people who have a doctor's prescription, and since then hundreds of dispensaries have sprung up throughout the state.

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Chevron hopes tossing business-license fee isn't reaching for the impossible

Chevron Corp. is suing the city of Richmond over a business-license fee that voters passed last fall. In its suit filed Thursday in Contra Costa County Superior Court, Chevron claims that voter-approved Measure T violates state laws that ban taxes on business inventory and state regulations on local sales and use taxes.

It's unclear how much Chevron would be required to pay. Past city estimates have ranged from $16 million to $26.5 million, depending on the fluctuating price of oil. The fee is based on the value of materials used in the manufacturing process.

City Attorney Randy Riddle said the city has 30 days to file a response and that the case will be discussed by the council in closed session Tuesday.

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USC law student pleads parole for imprisoned woman

A woman who sat in a car while her husband robbed and killed a shop owner in 1980 asked Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger for parole Thursday.

Connie Keel was convicted of first-degree murder when she was 21 and sentenced to 25 years to life in prison. After 29 years in prison, she is trying to win release with the help of a University of Southern California law student.

Second-year law student Adam Reich took up her case and represented her at her sixth hearing before the California Board of Parole in October. The board recommended that Keel be released and now her fate is in the hands of the governor.

Reich submitted a written request for her parole to Schwarzenegger, who has 30 days to decide whether to uphold or deny her release from prison.

"This woman served 29 years in prison for sitting in a car," Reich told The Associated Press. "She's lost three decades of her life. To be able to survive as long as she has with such optimism and resilience—I think that's a testament to her moral character and strength."

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IP and climate change

The Recorder continues its Green Letter Law Hot Topics series with an article by David Hall that addresses how the evolving issues of climate change will relate to the broader practice of intellectual property.  Click here for details.

Bill to limit State Bar prosecutor powers suddenly loses support

Angered by a perceived lack of due process in the State Bar discipline system, a group of government attorneys in Santa Clara County has spent the last few months drafting legislation to rein in the powers of State Bar prosecutors.

But their efforts took a sharp blow earlier this week when the powerful California District Attorneys Association — which had agreed in principle to support the move in November — unexpectedly pulled out.

Four months ago, the leaders of the Government Attorneys Association began drafting what they named the State Bar Fairness Act aimed at, among other things, establishing a statute of limitations that forces State Bar prosecutors to begin investigating allegations within three years of the discovery of misconduct, and then a one-year deadline to file formal charges.  The proposed act also calls for speedy, continuous trials and for the attorney general's office to investigate and prosecute any complaints against State Bar prosecutors themselves.

The GAA is a bargaining unit for deputy DAs, deputy public defenders and child-support lawyers in Santa Clara County.

The GAA's proposal — which would apply to all lawyers in the state — was spurred largely by last year's State Bar prosecution of Santa Clara County Deputy DA Benjamin Field. A State Bar Court judge earlier this month recommended he be suspended for four years for disobeying judges' orders, concealing evidence and committing acts of dishonesty.

Read the full story at The Recorder.

McKenna Long adds 17 Brown Winfield lawyers to real estate and litigation practices

McKenna Long & Aldridge expanded its Real Estate and Litigation Practice groups today. Seventeen attorneys formerly with Los Angeles-based Brown Winfield Canzoneri Abram, Inc. join MLA’s Los Angeles office. The addition of the Brown Winfield group will bring the firm’s Real Estate Practice group to 65 lawyers with more than 30 based in California.

The attorneys joining MLA’s Real Estate practice include partners: Steven Abram, James Camp, Tony Canzoneri, Gordon Eng, Wendy Glenn, Geoff Mitchell, Bill Pham, Dennis Roy, and Mark Steres. MLA also welcomes senior counsel, Ken Brown, and of counsel, Donald Ries.

The attorneys joining MLA’s Litigation practice include partners: Wayne Grejewski, Michael Wallenstein and Thomas Winfield, III, as well as associates Adrian Guerra, Diana Vernazza and Aimee Wong.

Full bios for each of these attorneys can be found at http://www.mckennalong.com/people.html.

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Top UC law schools launch Washington, D.C. field placement program

Students at UC Berkeley School of Law and UCLA School of Law are learning first-hand how laws are made in a new internship program in Washington, D.C. called UCDC Law. This uniquely collaborative program among the UC law schools places second and third-year students in congressional offices on Capitol Hill, the U.S. Department of Justice, regulatory agencies and more. UC Irvine law students will eventually join their peers in this full-semester academic program.

A companion seminar for students examines the unique role of lawyers in creating federal legislation. Weekly classes include talks by influential policymakers from all three branches of government, independent agencies, the media, lobbying firms and leaders of national nonprofit organizations.  The line-up includes senior counsel from the House Office of Legislative Counsel, U.S. State and Treasury Departments,  the Congressional Research Service, Lawyer’s Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, U.S. Senator Boxer’s staff—as well as National Public Radio’s legal reporter Nina Totenberg.

See the full press release, with links to a full program description, here.

"Time to match the reality of access to the rhetoric of equality"

Clare Pastore, a law professor at the University of Southern California Gould School of Law, has a column in today's Delaware Online in which she details the importance of civil counsel and how to fund lawyers for all who need them.  Read it here.

Safety goes head to head with right-to-know in animal research fights

Scientific researchers whose work involves testing monkeys, dogs or other creatures sometimes face the wrath of animal-rights activists.

Now, their employers -- public universities and research institutions -- are curtailing information they once made public to protect the scientists, saying existing laws justify the blackout. Citing recent acts of violence against scientists, institutions are withholding identities, locations and other details from documents concerning experiments involving animals. Animal-rights groups, who worry institutions are covering up inhumane practices, are turning to the courts for help.

With mixed results, research institutions have lobbied for legislation that withholds animal researchers' identities. California recently made it a crime to publish the names of animal researchers or their family members and their addresses with the intent to commit violence. Similar legislation in South Dakota stalled as lawmakers cited concerns about limiting freedom of information.

Some of these efforts have landed the universities in court. The University of California was sued last summer by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, a group that advocates eliminating the use of animals in research, to obtain records involving experiments. In its complaint, the group said "only through access to the records...can it be determined how public funds are being spent and how animals are being treated."

Read the full story at WSJ.