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

Harkonen found guilty of wire fraud

Yesterday 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. The wire fraud count dealt solely with a press release, prepared at the direction of Harkonen, which misstated the results of a clinical trial.

Harkonen was cleared of a second misbranding charge, which was centered on subsequent statements from InterMune to doctors and patients to which the press release was attached. At one point during deliberations, the jury sent out a note asking whether a person could be guilty of misbranding simply for creating a document that caused a drug to be misbranded -- presumably, the press release -- but who didn't give specific directions to use it.

Full story at The Recorder.

Cal Bar Foundation presents scholarships and grants Thursday night

The 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 in funding through its Diversity Scholarship Program, while $120,000 in scholarships will be given to 28 students from 12 law schools through its Public Interest Scholarship Program.

The foundation will present the awards—up to $7,500 per student—at a reception Thursday at Bingham McCutchen’s San Francisco offices featuring California Supreme Court Justice Carlos R. Moreno.

Full story here.

Two new bankruptcy judges appointed by Ninth Circuit

Ninth 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, Assistant U.S. Attorney Catherine Bauer will fill a vacancy created by the April 2008 retirement of Judge Mitchell Goldberg,  and DLA Piper associate Deborah J. Saltzman will fill a vacancy created by the September 2008 retirement of Judge David Naugle.

A native of San Antonio, Texas, Bauer was admitted to the State Bar of California in 1985 after graduating from UCLA and the USC Gould School of Law, and she represented Bank of America in bankruptcy proceedings for 15 years.

An associate with DLA Piper since last year, Saltzman was admitted to the State Bar in 1996, and graduated from Amherst College and the University of Virginia School of Law before beginning her career as an associate at O’Melveny & Myers LLP.

Click here for details.

Ryan gets six months in jail, three years formal probation, for Haven hoodwink

Former 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 bid for a new trial and was sentenced to six months in Shasta County jail for bilking the nonprofit group out of almost $1,400.

He was also placed on formal probation for three years and ordered to perform six months in an adult work program, pay back the money, undergo counseling and pay an assortment of other fines and penalties.

The embezzlement charge was thrown out by Superior Court Judge Monica Marlow, ruling that there was not enough evidence to prove that Ryan was a public officer or that the funds he stole were public monies. Probation officials have said that his conviction on that count made him legally ineligible for probation.

For more details, including Ryan's alleged history of criminality, click here.

Christian Legal Society to challenge appellate 'viewpoint neutral' ruling

The 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 sexual orientation is "viewpoint neutral and reasonable."

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit ruled in March that the law school was not required to recognize and fund a religious student group that discriminates in the selection of members and officers. CLS is the only group from which the law school has withheld recognition.

For 10 years — from 1994 to 2004 — CLS did not bar gay and lesbian or non-Christian students from membership and leadership positions. But in 2004, the group changed its bylaws and refused to comply with the law school's nondiscrimination policy.

Full story at NLJ.com.

MOVERS: Reinhold joins Hopkins & Carey

Last 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 discrimination matters. Prior to joining the firm, Karen worked for 16 years as Associate General Counsel for Loral Space & Communications. During that time, she created an in-house litigation and trial function for employment-related disputes filed against Loral’s California based companies, with a specific focus on reducing the cost of litigation and trial without compromising results. In addition to her litigation and trial responsibilities, Ms. Reinhold provided advice and counsel directly to human resource executives, senior managers and general counsels for the various Loral business units spread across the United States as well as the corporate office located in New York City. Prior to joining Loral, Ms. Reinhold was a member of the employment group at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe in San Francisco.

Ms. Reinhold earned a Juris Doctor degree from Santa Clara University School of Law, where she graduated cum laude, and a bachelor’s degree in Political Science from University of California, Riverside. Ms. Reinhold was admitted to the State Bar of California in 1982.

State Bar to decide on conduct of Toyota 'whistleblower'

Los 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 of professional conduct by disclosing confidential attorney-client information.

Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A. Inc., based in Torrance, Calif., requested an injunction to force Biller to stop publicizing privileged information about Toyota's lawsuits, settlements and litigation policies. Segal granted the injunction, but made clear the order won't affect federal litigation in which Biller accuses the automaker of widespread discovery abuses in rollover litigation.

The state case deals with Biller's consulting firm, Litigation Discovery & Trial Consulting Inc., which provides legal seminars for MCLE credit to California attorneys.

Full story at NLJ.com.

CA Court of Appeals leaves med-marijuana decisions to cities

Last 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 a business license or other approvals for medical marijuana dispensaries as uses not permitted under the city's zoning ordinance.

Earlier last week in Lake Forest messengers began delivering 35 civil complaints against property owners and tenants connected to 14 medical marijuana dispensaries in the city. The city hopes to shut down the shops.

Pot dispensary advocates argued almost two weeks ago at the Lake Forest City Council that that cities did not have the right to regulate or ban dispensaries because the Compassionate Use Act allows persons to use marijuana for certain medicinal uses. But Jeffrey Dunn, an attorney with Best, Best and Krieger who is handling the cases for Lake Forest, said that the Compassionate Use Act has the purpose to exempt certain people with specific medical conditions from violating state criminal law. He added that federal law still forbids marijuana use.

Click here for the full story.

MOVERS: Larson to join Girardi & Keese after resigning the bench

Girardi & 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 resign after less than four years on the bench. The 44-year-old jurist cited the failure of efforts to increase the annual salary for the office and the anticipated costs of future college educations for his seven children.

Larson was nominated as a district judge by then-President George W. Bush in 2005 and confirmed by the Senate the following year, after having been appointed a magistrate judge in 2000. He has sat in Riverside for the last nine years.

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MOVERS: Chief Judge Brandenburg joins JAMS in San Diego

Chief 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 the field of Native American Law.

While serving on the Municipal Court Bench in San Diego County as a commissioner, Brandenburg conducted numerous settlement conferences and set up a mediation hotline program for settling civil disputes. He is a recipient of several distinguished awards, most notably the Spirit of Luiseno Award by the Rincon Band of Mission Indians in 2008 and the Restorative Justice Mediation Award by Amicus Project in 2007.

He earned his J.D. from the Thomas Jefferson School of Law in San Diego. He received his M.A. from the University of Connecticut and his B.S. from Eastern Connecticut State University.

Full story here.