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

MOVERS: Ice Miller and Laquer Urban

Ice 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 lead investigator and chief presenter on behalf of the Enforcement Staff on several high profile major infractions cases.

Neyland's responsibilities at Ice Miller will be to provide counsel to client institutions on NCAA infractions (major and secondary) and compliance matters; including assistance with internal investigations and investigations conducted by the NCAA Enforcement Staff. In addition, Neyland will work with the Firm's clients to conduct compliance reviews and to assist in student-athlete eligibility matters.

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Laquer, Urban, Clifford & Hodge, LLP, a dynamic transactional and litigation firm headquartered in Pasadena, CA, announced that civil litigation attorney Mathew T. Bechtel has joined the firm. Mr. Bechtel’s practice will primarily focus on employee benefit law, as well as business litigation and general employment law.

Mr. Bechtel received his J.D. from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law where he worked as the Production Editor for the Hastings Communications and Entertainment Law Journal. He earned his B.A. in Interdisciplinary Computing and the Arts (Music) from the University of San Diego. He is licensed to practice law in all California state courts and the Central District of the United States District Court.

Producers allegedly made payoffs to ensure little Dieter flight

A 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 credits include production of the 2006 film “Rescue Dawn,” made corrupt payments to a Thai foreign official totaling $1.8 million between 2002 and 2006 in order to obtain $14 million worth of contracts. Specifically, prosecutors claim that they arranged payments from a group of businesses they owned in Beverly Hills to Juthamas Siriwan, the former governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand, which puts on the Bangkok International Film Festival.

The case is one of the few to go to trial involving violations of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), particularly in the entertainment industry, which increasingly has depended upon sales in foreign markets. Both have pleaded not guilty to the charges, which, in addition to FCPA violations, include conspiracy and obstruction of justice.

Full story at NLJ.com.

ACLU to sue state over inadequate heat protections

The 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 state's estimated 650,000 farm workers from heat-related illness and death.

The ACLU of Southern California and the LA law firm Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP criticized the state’s proposed new emergency standards for heat-related illness for outdoor workers.

According to Cal-OSHA, employers must provide shade for at least a quarter of their outdoor employees when the temperature reaches 85 degrees.

Full story here.

Second Amendment ruling under review by 9th Circuit

The 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 at odds with other rulings from around the country -- including one penned by 2nd Circuit Judge Sonia Sotomayor.

Arthur Hellman, a professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, speculated that pro-gun control forces on the 9th Circuit may be seeking to resolve the circuit split now, which would relieve some of the pressure on the U.S. Supreme Court to weigh in.

Attorneys involved in the case reacted cautiously to Wednesday's order.   Read their thoughts in the full story here.

Professors say 'broader life experience makes for better decisions'

Daria 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 research that views varied life experiences and ethnicity as a positive, and also considers race as one of several factors that impact those life experiences. 

Check it out here.

SLO County to cough up defense cash for jailed Paso Robles firm family

Thanks 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 Judge Jac Crawford ruled yesterday that the court will continue to hold the assets of Estate Financial Inc. president Karen Guth and her son and company vice president, Joshua Yaguda, in order to pay for the possible restitution of their alleged victims.

Representatives from the public defenders’ office who testified at the hearing have declined to represent Guth and Yaguda, citing conflicts of interest and lack of expertise in the complex real estate and financial matters required by the case.

Guth and Yaguda’s private attorneys, Southern California-based Steve Smith and Dyke Huish, said they are owed $350,000 for representing Guth and Yaguda since late October.  They have agreed to being paid by the county through at least the preliminary hearing on August 24th.

Full story here.

Dole defamation defense goes to Lathrop & Gage

Earlier 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 all mention of Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Victoria Chaney's findings that the lead attorney in the case committed fraud. 

This week, the Swedish filmmakers dug in their heels and retained a team of attorneys from Lathrop & Gage lead by Lincoln Bandlow (left), a First Amendment specialist in Los Angeles, and trial attorney John Shaeffer, partner in charge of the Los Angeles office.

Full story at NLJ.com.

Illinois demands shuttering of allegedly false charitable organization

Morrell 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 not registered as a charitable organization with the state when he advertised for donations in May on newspaper Web sites based there.

Consequently, Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan has requested in court documents that the Center for AIDS Prevention be dissolved, and for a receiver to oversee all money raised from Illinois.

According to court documents, Neely applied for charitable status for his group in 1987 and received it.  But because the applicant did not properly answer whether certain people involved had ever been convicted of a misdemeanor involving misuse of funds, the status was revoked a few months later.  Almost 20 years later, Neely filed another application with the state and gave a Chicago address.  The court documents allege that neither Neely or the organization was based at that address.

Click here for details.

Southwestern professor's daughter abducted near school, found murdered

The 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 the school.

Deborah Drooz's daughter, Lily Burk had just picked up some paperwork at the Southwestern law school's building for her mother when she was abducted on Friday afternoon, according to recent press reports. During the next hour, Burk called her parents, asking how to withdraw cash from an ATM using her credit card. Her beaten body was discovered in her car Saturday morning at a downtown parking lot. A 50-year-old transient, Charles Samuel, who had entered a drug treatment program near the law school's campus, has been arrested for her murder.

Drooz, an adjunct professor at Southwestern since 2001, had just finished finals last week for a summer course she was teaching called "Defamation, Privacy and Publicity," according to Leslie Steinberg, assistant dean of public affairs at the law school.  About two dozen students from the class hosted a candlelight vigil on July 27 for Lily.

Full story at NLJ.com.

Smaller firms lead by example in lean times

Berliner 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 partners and associates, these smaller firms were making quieter news of their own on the opposite end of the spectrum: success and survival.

They ignored consolidation, didn't get caught up in offering massive salaries to lure attorneys, and employed other conservative strategies like keeping a low overhead and cultivating a diversified client list.

Click here for details.