Joe Scotts, I and III

In this week's Downtown News, Jay Berman looks back at the story of legendary Los Angeles lawyer Joseph Scott. He arrived in town in 1893 and practiced law here for six decades, becoming known as Mr. Los Angeles. His only elected service was ten years on the Board of Education, but after he died they put up a statue of him outside the county courthouse downtown. It's still there. His grandson Joe is director of communications for District Attorney Steve Cooley, the blogger at Body Politic and former editor of Political Animal and California Eye, and the author of a still-in-progress novel about the corrupt Frank Shaw era in L.A.