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

Southwestern Law School's Max Goodman passes away

Professor Max A. Goodman, one of the leading family law experts in California who served on the Southwestern Law School faculty for over four decades, passed away on December 31, 2009 at the age of 85.

Professor Goodman was a graduate of Loyola Law School and a Certified Family Law Specialist, and maintained a successful law practice in Los Angeles for over two decades. In 1966, he joined the Southwestern faculty where he quickly earned a reputation as one of the most highly regarded family law professors in the country. During recent years, he continued to teach as Professor Emeritus in Residence and had just formally retired in Fall 2009.

The recipient of numerous awards from the legal profession, Professor Goodman was honored by Southwestern for his service to the community, teaching excellence and commitment to the advancement of the law school as the Irwin R. Buchalter Professor of Law in 1988 and the Irving D. and Florence Rosenberg Professor of Law in 1994 and received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree in 2000. That year he also was named "Outstanding Friend" by the Southwestern Alumni Association, and in 1986, his former students established a major scholarship fund in his name.

Services were held on Monday, January 4 at Mt. Sinai Memorial Park. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to the Professor Max A. Goodman Scholarship Endowment Fund at Southwestern (donations may be made online at www.swlaw.edu/giving).

Click here for the full story.

Edward Sanders, Reed Smith attorney and senior advisor to President Carter, dies at 87

Edward Sanders, a Reed Smith attorney whose contributions included serving as senior advisor to President Jimmy Carter, passed away at home Monday morning at 87 years of age.

Sanders served as Senior Advisor to President Carter and the Secretary of State on the Middle East from 1978-1980. He was at Camp David when president of Egypt, Anwar Sadat, with President Jimmy Carter and Israel's Prime Minister Menachem Begin, came to an agreement and traveled with President Carter back to the Middle East the following year to finalize the treaty.

Prior to joining the Carter administration, Sanders was a partner at Irell & Manella for 28 years. Upon his return from Washington in 1980 he, along with Irwin Barnet, Russell Goldsmith, and son Michael Sanders, founded the law firm subsequently known as Sanders, Barnet, Goldman, Simons & Mosk, which merged with Crosby, Heafey, Roach & May in September 2000. Crosby Heafey later merged with Reed Smith, and Sanders became an active attorney in the firm’s Century City office.

Sanders is survived by his wife of more than 63 years, Rose Eisen Sanders. He is also survived by his son, Michael Sanders, who worked with his father at Reed Smith’s Century City office, his daughter, Susan Sanders Witkow, and four grandchildren. Services will be held this Thursday, December 10th at Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery, 6001 W. Centinela Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90045; at 2:00 p.m. in the Large Chapel.

For a full tribute to Sanders, click here.

Westcott Griswold dies at 79 after 50 years in real estate law

After over 50 years as a San Diego real estate attorney, Westcott Griswold died on September 18, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported. (here) He was 79.

Griswold, a graduate of UC Berkeley's law school, spent two years in the army before working as house counsel for Security (Safeco) Title, then 30 years at Hillyer Crake, a San Diego real estate law firm, before starting a private practice from home in 1991, the Union-Tribune reported.

His wake is this Friday, 4 p.m. to 7 p.m., at the San Diego Yacht Club.

Manatt entertainment lawyer Gerald Margolis dies of pneumonia at 65

Manatt entertainment lawyer Gerald Margolis died of complications related to pneumonia on Sept. 15, according to a firm press release. He was 65.

While fighting the physical effects of progressive muscular atrophy for the past six years, Margolis "continued to to practice law, counsel, strategize, and advise at the highest levels of the legal profession until his untimely death,: according to the press release.

Margolis represented the likes of R. Kelly, Robin Williams, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards and is credited with helping build Manatt's music practice and founding a California branch after joining the New York-based firm in the 1970s, the Los Angeles Times reported. (here)

Margolis worked on litigation and transactional work in music and film. He was also a faculty member at the USC Law School Entertainment Law Symposium and a lecturer with the Practicing Law Institute.

The memorial service will be held on Oct. 6 at 11:00 a.m. at Fox Studios' Darryl F. Zanuck Theater. Donations should got to the Challenged Athlete's Foundation.

Oldest retired Calif. judge still assigned to hear cases, Julius Title, dies at 93

Retired Los Angeles Superior Court judge Julius Title died of heart failure on Sunday, the L.A. Times reported. (here) He was 93.

Title was a real estate attorney for 20 years and then a superior court judge for 15 years until retiring in 1985. Or so he thought - he then worked as an arbitrator, special master and judge pro tem in civil disputes.

Title returned to the bench in 1997 as part of the Assigned Judges Program, which "issues temporary judicial assignment orders to active or retired judges and justices to cover vacancies, illnesses, disqualifications, and calendar congestion in the courts."

The program has 375 retired judges. Title "was the oldest retired judge assigned by the state to hear cases," a spokesperson for the Judicial Council of California told the Times.

He taught at Whittier College of Law and was faculty at the California Judicial College and the National Judicial College. Title was appointed to the State Bar Commission on Access to Justice last year.

His funeral is at 3 p.m. today at Hillside Memorial Park.

Metropolitan News-Enterprise obituary

L.A. Deputy Dist. Atty. Ken Lamb dies at 55 from tongue cancer

Los Angeles Deputy Dist. Atty. Ken Lamb died of tongue cancer on Tuesday, the Long Beach's Press-Telegram reported. (here) He was 55.

Some colleagues called Lamb, a former police sergeant, the "Babe Ruth" of the judicial system for having prosecuted - 622 felony jury trials including some of the most high-profile cases in Long Beach, the Contra Costa Times reported (here).

Lamb, who was never a smoker or drinker, found a spot on his tongue last year that he was shocked to find out was cancer, the Contra Costa Times reported.

Lamb attended an event in his honor last Wednesday. Nearly 200 lawyers, judges, police officers attended and District Attorney Steve Cooley gave him the Distinguished Ken Lamb Achievement Award.

Instead of flowers, donations should go to a cancer research center

USC law professor Charles Whitebread dies from lung cancer at 65

USC law professor Charles Whitebread died in Santa Monica on Tuesday from lung cancer, Above The Law reported. (here) He was 65.

An expert on criminal law, the U.S. Supreme Court and juvenile law, WhiteBread taught at the University of Virginia School of Law for 13 years before joining USC in 1981. He also gave a lecture on how to succeed in the first year of law school at 81 law schools, taught a criminal procedure and criminal law for Bar/Bri and gave lectures on recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions.

"His unique delivery — imagine a blend of Jon Stewart, Erwin Chemerinsky and Foghorn Leghorn — made his updates one of the most popular and best-received events each year," writes Cal Law's Legal Pad. (here)

USC law and the University of Virginia Law School plan to separately recognize Whitebread's contributions at yet to be determined dates, law dean Robert Rasmussen wrote in a press release.
 
The family requests that expressions of sympathy be in the form of contributions to the Charles H. Whitebread Scholarship at the University of Southern California Law School, or the Jeff Griffith Youth Center, c/o Friends of the Center

Whitebread's family requests donations be made to a scholarship fund in his name (here) or to the Jeff Griffith Youth Center, which serves homeless lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning young people.

According to his Web site, Edgar Allen Poe was one of Whitebread's favorite authors...

"Take this kiss upon the brow!
And, in parting from you now,
Thus much let me avow-
You are not wrong, who deem
That my days have been a dream"
- Excerpt from Edgar Allen Poe's "A Dream within a Dream"

Labor lawyer Pamela McKee dies of ovarian cancer at 55

Los Angeles labor lawyer Pamela W. McKee died of ovarian cancer on August 29, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported. She was 55.

McKee worked for the Department of Labor in Philadelphia for 10 years before moving in 2001 to La Cañada, Calif. to run the agency's legal office in Los Angeles, the Inquirer reported.

The memorial service is on Sept. 13 in Altadena, Calif.

Donations should go to the Roy and Patricia Disney Cancer Center Endowment Fund.

Obituary in The Philadelphia Inquirer

Godfather of healthcare lawyers dies at 93

James Ludlam, who joined Musick Peeler nearly 70 years ago, died on Tuesday of unknown causes. He was 93.

Ludlam was of counsel at the firm and focusing on healthcare law throughout his career, a pioneer in the field in California and nationally and regarded as the dean of healthcare lawyers by peers.

According to his firm profile, Ludlam "was the leader in the enactment of tort reform in the passage of the Medical Injury Compensation Reform Act, one of the most comprehensive malpractice liability reform statutes in the country."  The law eased a crisis in th 1970s, where doctors were leaving the state and giving up their practices due to high malpractice insurance premiums cause by runaway jury awards, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Ludlam was an honarary fellow of the American College of Hospital Administrators and the American College of Legal Medicine and an American Bar Foundation fellow.

He was also general counsel, advocate and spokesperson for the California Hospital Assn. for thirty years and general counsel at the Hospital Council of Southern California (now called the Healthcare Assn. of Southern California) for nearly 40 years, the Times reported.

Ludlam and three other lawyers founded the Society of Hospital Attorneys, which became the American Health Lawyers Assn.

He worked on healthcare policy until last month, the Times reported.

Services will be private and memorial donations should go to the House Ear Institute and the National Health Foundation.

Los Angeles Times Obituary

San Diego IP attorney John Benassi dies of heart attack at 59

San Diego intellectual property attorney John Benassi died on Saturday of a probable heart attack. He was 59, The Recorder reported.

Benassi left Heller Ehrman to join Cooley Godward as a partner in June (posting on the move). Benassi previously lead Heller Ehrman's San Diego office. The majority of his three decade legal career was spent at Lyon & Lyon.

A viewing will be held on Thursday, from 5-7 p.m. at El Camino Mortuary. The funeral Mass will happen at the Church of Nativity on Friday. Donations are asked to be directed to the John Benassi Memorial Scholarship Fund or to Kids Korps USA.

Read The Recorder's full obituary here