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Topic Archive: Law
The L.A. Times' Scott Glover says it appears the FBI is doing the final vetting of LAPD Inspector General Andre Birotte Jr. for likely appointment by President Obama as U.S....
Posted October 28, 2009 5:58 PM
Laurence Rittenband was the Superior Court judge who handled the original Roman Polanski case, and if the recent documentary is correct, was going to undo a plea deal with Polanski....
Posted October 15, 2009 11:18 AM
Federal prosecutor Eileen Decker, chief of the national security section in the local U.S. Attorney's office, is joining the Villaraigosa administration as deputy mayor for homeland security and public safety....
Posted September 17, 2009 12:48 PM
Here’s a story that's gotten too little attention. Federal officials had been accused of keeping suspected illegal immigrants in "barbaric" conditions in a downtown detention center. From AP: The federal...
Posted September 16, 2009 5:03 PM
Former City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo began today as counsel at Goodwin Procter LLP in Los Angeles, in the firm's litigation department. He will have the leeway to continue his run...
Posted August 12, 2009 5:17 PM
O'Brien, appointed by President Bush and confirmed in Oct. 2007 as the United States Attorney for the Central District of California, meaning Los Angeles, will join the L.A. office of...
Posted August 10, 2009 8:11 PM
President Obama has nominated Dolly Gee, managing partner at Schwartz, Steinsapir, Dohrmann & Sommers, and Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Jacquelyn H. Nguyen to the U.S. District Court bench...
Posted August 10, 2009 11:04 AM
A Los Angeles County Superior Court jury today assessed $370 million in damages against Guess? Inc. co-founder Georges Marciano for defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress in a case...
Posted July 28, 2009 2:58 PM
Catching up to this via the SoCal Minds blog: Pepperdine law professor Douglas Kmiec, a regular on op-ed pages and elsewhere in the media, was nominated by President Obama to...
Posted July 9, 2009 11:18 AM
Eater LA, through a post signed by Curbed creator Lockhart Steele, says its post earlier this week leveling blind charges at downtown wine bar The Must "didn't rise to our...
Posted July 2, 2009 6:15 PM
A panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeal has sided with Jet Propulsion Lab scientists who are resisting a government requirement that they detail past and present financial...
Posted June 4, 2009 2:42 PM
It's not entirely clear to me who's leaving who here, but this much I know. Martin Berg, who was replaced abruptly last December as editor of the Los Angeles Daily...
Posted June 3, 2009 11:42 AM
The trickle of local Obama supporters receiving appointments as ambassadors is not quite a flood yet, but it's reached stream status. The latest is Munger, Tolles & Olson partner Vilma...
Posted May 29, 2009 9:40 AM
Vote of the electorate is upheld by the California Supreme Court on a 6-1 split, but the court ruled unanimously that existing same-sex marriages will also remain valid. Longtime Supreme...
Posted May 26, 2009 10:12 AM
There were any number of candidates off the Manny Ramirez situation. Just to change the subject, here are a pair of Twitter sends from Lawrence Hurley, U.S. Supreme Court reporter...
Posted May 7, 2009 3:19 PM
Cortney Fielding, the Superior Court reporter for the Los Angeles Daily Journal, is leaving the legal paper to freelance and work on a documentary project. * Update: Catherine Ho, a...
Posted May 1, 2009 4:31 PM
From the weekend L.A. Times, by Harriet Ryan: In a statement attached to the newly opened file, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Maureen Duffy-Lewis said a series of missteps,...
Posted April 27, 2009 12:27 AM
KTLA reporter Eric Spillman thought he had a good case so he fought the ticket he received via red-light camera while exiting the 2 freeway in Glendale. He won and...
Posted April 20, 2009 12:26 AM
Irvine's new law school — the one that was, then wasn't, and now is run by Erwin Chemerinsky — got a huge number of applicants for its first class and...
Posted April 16, 2009 3:43 PM
Californians Aware and its former president Richard McKee, a Pasadena City College professor, have been ordered to pay the legal fees that Orange Unified School District incurred after being sued...
Posted March 19, 2009 10:22 PM
President Obama has appointed a Maryland state official to head the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, meaning that Villaraigosa adviser Thomas Saenz didn't get the job. The Daily Journal reported...
Posted March 14, 2009 5:49 PM
Hedges died Tuesday morning at home in South Pasadena of melanoma. He was 57. He was a leading Hollywood lawyer and also made a name for himself as an archaeologist....
Posted March 11, 2009 6:56 PM
Good column in today's L.A. Daily Journal (by former editor Martin Berg) about a storefront law office on East Compton Boulevard run by Luz Herrera. She's just your typical Tijuana-born,...
Posted March 3, 2009 1:35 PM
Some 190 lawyers and 250 staffers are getting the word this morning at Latham & Watkins offices around the country. The law firm was founded in Los Angeles in 1934...
Posted February 27, 2009 9:13 AM
Thomas A. Saenz, the in-house counsel to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, has been selected to head the U.S. Department of Justice's civil rights division, the Los Angeles Daily Journal reports today...
Posted February 24, 2009 9:42 AM
The economic downturn is hitting the pro bono legal sector hard, with the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California imposing layoffs for the first time, today's L.A. Daily Journal...
Posted February 19, 2009 8:45 AM
The Los Angeles Daily Journal will report tomorrow that a ruling by Judge Stephen Reinhardt of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals says the Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutionally...
Posted February 4, 2009 7:40 PM
Remember Robert G. Bernhoft and Robert E. Barnes, those lawyers known as "the Bobs" who came out from Milwaukee last year determined to make it big in Hollywood? The L.A....
Posted January 26, 2009 3:34 PM
Two weeks after David Houston took over abruptly as editor of the Los Angeles Daily Journal, I'm hearing a lot of unhappiness out of the newsroom. Houston has reportedly been...
Posted December 17, 2008 12:39 PM
Politics, media and assorted news briefs from the greater Los Angeles universe. Heavy fog in Sacramento aborted Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's flight from Santa Monica, so he made his fiscal emergency...
Posted December 1, 2008 4:14 PM
The Los Angeles Daily Journal newsroom was told this afternoon, in a very brief meeting, that editor Martin Berg is moving over to columnist and the new editor in chief...
Posted December 1, 2008 1:48 PM
It's not often you see Hollywood lawyers the prominence of Terry Christensen go to federal prison. He was sentenced today to three years, plus a $250,000 fine, for conspiring with...
Posted November 24, 2008 3:30 PM
Milwaukee lawyers Robert Bernhoft and Robert Barnes figured that getting actor Wesley Snipes off the felony tax charges he faced, and opening an office in Malibu, would gain them entree...
Posted October 16, 2008 5:35 PM
Of course Orange County judge David C. Velasquez was going to lose on his order barring the Register from reporting on a lawsuit against the paper by its news carriers....
Posted September 30, 2008 12:37 PM
Why yes, I believe they did. Terry Christensen's law firm sent out a press release today (via Sitrick & Co.) that says he'll be "withdrawing" from the practice of law...
Posted September 18, 2008 10:33 PM
Allison Margolin has changed up her look a bit since we last checked in, but not her tune. She has an Op-ed piece in today's Daily News arguing that medical...
Posted September 4, 2008 2:14 PM
As Mark picked up earlier at LA Biz Observed, prominent lawyer Terry Christensen and former private eye Anthony Pellicano were convicted today of conspiring to illegally wiretap the ex-wife of...
Posted August 29, 2008 5:33 PM
Los Angeles City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo today filed a civil court challenge to block Controller Laura Chick from asserting the power to audit his office, and she called in the...
Posted August 11, 2008 10:27 PM
Cyrus Sanai, the lawyer who publicized the existence of Judge Alex Kozinski's web stash as part of a grudge against the judge, files his report for the LA Weekly on...
Posted August 7, 2008 9:20 AM
Today's Los Angeles Daily Journal says that Alex Kozinski, chief judge of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeal, is in Sun Valley, Idaho for a circuit conference. He's not...
Posted July 30, 2008 3:05 PM
Alan Mittelstaedt, formerly an editor and L.A. Sniper columnist at CityBeat and LA Weekly (and blogging at the Weekly and at Witness LA), is joining the editing staff at the...
Posted July 28, 2008 1:59 PM
A federal grand jury has been secretly probing whether attorney Pierce O'Donnell violated federal campaign laws by asking employees of his law firm to contribute to the 2004 presidential campaign...
Posted July 24, 2008 11:49 AM
I'm told that the Los Angeles Daily Journal's Supreme Court reporter in Washington, Brent Kendall, has left to join Dow Jones Newswire. He was at the DJ for five years....
Posted July 8, 2008 9:23 AM
Cyrus Sanai is the Beverly Hills attorney who found sexually explicit photos and videos on Judge Alex Kozinski's personal website and who tipped the Los Angeles Times to the porn,...
Posted June 13, 2008 12:15 AM
Alex Kozinski, chief judge of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, confirmed to the L.A. Times that he had posted sexually explicit photos on his website and only blocked...
Posted June 11, 2008 12:42 PM
The public information office at the Los Angeles County Superior Court has a bone to pick with tonight's Roman Polanski documentary on HBO. The court sent out this media advisory:...
Posted June 9, 2008 1:19 PM
California's Supreme Court ruled 4-3 that the voter-approved prohibition against same-sex marriage was unconstitutional. Mayor Villaraigosa praised the ruling as the "right thing to do," and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said...
Posted May 15, 2008 12:42 PM
The seaside city has asked Ken Starr, dean of the Pepperdine Law School, to convene media and legal experts to help draft an ordinance that would control paparazzi swarms around...
Posted May 8, 2008 5:46 PM
New U.S. Attorney Thomas O’Brien redistributed the 17 lawyers in the public integrity unit in Los Angeles among the major fraud and organized crime sections, the Recorder reports. The San...
Posted March 17, 2008 3:16 PM
The Anthony Pellicano trial jury was seated today. The government's opening statement is set to begin tomorrow at 8 am. The prosecution's official witness list, unsealed today, has 127 names...
Posted March 5, 2008 5:56 PM
Interesting lineup at noon today at the Loyola Law School Entertainment & Sports Law Society symposium. Topic: "The Paparazzi, Celebrity Bloggers...and the Lawyers Who Represent Them." Speakers: Michael Amir, legal...
Posted February 28, 2008 12:17 AM
Sandra Hernandez, who broke the news last May on the pre-deportation government drugging of two men before boarding at LAX, writes in today's L.A. Daily Journal that Homeland Security has...
Posted January 14, 2008 10:19 PM
Loyola Law School Dean David Burcham has been named provost at Loyola Marymount, a new position at the law school's parent institution. The new interim law dean is Victor Gold,...
Posted January 11, 2008 12:28 PM
No word in the Times web story on when civil rights lawyer Stephen Yagman begins serving his federal prison term for tax evasion, money laundering and bankruptcy fraud. But the...
Posted November 27, 2007 6:45 PM
CityBeat columnist Alan Mittelstaedt FOI'd the chancellor of UC Irvine trying to find out who pressured him to un-hire Erwin Chemerinsky as dean of the new law school, before eventually...
Posted November 7, 2007 11:25 PM
The Daily Journal's Sandra Hernandez reports that attorneys for immigrants being held in the U.S. facility are livid. In the wake of a series of scandals including the death of...
Posted October 23, 2007 12:25 PM
The family of Lana Clarkson said through its attorney that "we support the decision of the district attorney in this case and we will be present at the retrial. We...
Posted September 27, 2007 12:40 PM
Phil Spector's homicide trial ended this afternoon in a mistrial, with the DA's office vowing to try again. The final count was reportedly 10-2 in favor of conviction. Earlier, the...
Posted September 26, 2007 5:48 PM
The newly reinstated dean-to-be of the future UC Irvine law school will be next year's commencement speaker at the rival Chapman University law school. The dean there, John Eastman, has...
Posted September 17, 2007 9:01 PM
Liberal legal scholar and pundit Erwin Chemerinsky will become dean of the new UC Irvine law school after all. Chancellor Michael V. Drake spent the week in North Carolina —...
Posted September 17, 2007 11:39 AM
A three-judge panel of the state's Second District Court of Appeal sided with local groups and the city of Santa Monica and ordered that construction activity stop on phase two...
Posted September 13, 2007 11:12 PM
Constitutional law scholar and media quotemeister Erwin Chemerinsky was all set to be named dean of the new UC Irvine law school — he even signed the contract — but...
Posted September 12, 2007 12:54 PM
The Hollywood Reporter's legal site gives up the ghost as a standalone publication effective, well, immediately. Coverage of Hollywood's legal movers and issues will become a "dedicated channel" on THR.com,...
Posted August 20, 2007 5:26 PM
Jack McClellan, the self-proclaimed pedophile who has become notorious for hanging around local young girls and posting pictures on his website, flew to Chicago yesterday. Before he left, he was...
Posted August 4, 2007 10:14 AM
From the email in-box: Quarterback Matt Leinart has agreed to pay Brynn Cameron $15,000 in monthly support for the child they spawned together at USC. Corina Villaraigosa is already billed...
Posted July 30, 2007 1:45 PM
Lots of L.A. city council members are happy about this — a judge rejected a challenge to the ballot measure that extends their term limits. Voters in Los Angeles passed...
Posted July 17, 2007 4:06 PM
Associated Press reports that the Roman Catholic Archdiocese in Los Angeles has agreed to pay at least $600 million to settle legal cases with hundreds of Catholics who say they...
Posted July 14, 2007 11:55 AM
Today's Daily Journal front page carries the story of Ted A. White, an attorney who quit abruptly as a $115,000-a-year immigration judge in Los Angeles before completing his first year....
Posted July 10, 2007 11:32 AM
Brenda Lee only received $2,500 in punitive damages today from the jury that earlier awarded her $6.2 million for suffering discrimination as a black lesbian in the Los Angeles Fire...
Posted July 5, 2007 2:59 PM
Pinkberry's popular frozen concoction isn't yogurt in the eyes of the law in California, but the makers would like to fix that. Alexa Hyland in today's Daily Journal chronicles the...
Posted June 14, 2007 1:10 PM
A jury yesterday recommended that Frank Lima should receive compensation from the city of Los Angeles after he argued that he suffered retaliation for refusing to give preferential treatment to...
Posted June 8, 2007 9:10 AM
The Bush Administration has settled on Thomas O'Brien, chief of the criminal division for the U.S. attorney's office here and a former gang prosecutor in the district attorney's office, to...
Posted May 30, 2007 10:27 PM
Curtis Hazell, the third-ranking official in the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office and college roommate of DA Steve Cooley, says he did not begin dating stripper Donna Novarro until...
Posted May 24, 2007 8:59 AM
Just before jurors returned a verdict yesterday in a breach-of-contract case involving the creators of the NBC sitcom "Will & Grace," lawyers for the network revealed that the jury foreman...
Posted April 27, 2007 9:11 AM
It's Adam Gorfain, a 41 year old senior producer for "Dateline NBC" at the NBC News studios in Burbank, according to sometime NBC ABC independent investigative producer Eric Longabardi on...
Posted April 24, 2007 8:59 AM
Waiting to hear just when (or if, considering appeals) he goes to federal prison in the Fleishman-Hillard case, Doug Dowie is writing up a storm. In addition to the screenplays...
Posted April 4, 2007 11:46 AM
The former New York Post gossip reporter alleges that Beverly Hills gazillionaire Ron Burkle committed libel, emotional distress, interference in business relationship, injurious falsehood, abuse of process and civil conspiracy....
Posted March 22, 2007 6:12 PM
President Bush gave Attorney General Alberto Gonzales a vote of confidence last night, but why let that ruin a good story? This morning's Daily Journal speculates on possible replacements for...
Posted March 21, 2007 8:14 AM
A local panel formed by the White House has recommended Thomas O'Brien, chief of the criminal division in the U.S. Attorney's office here, and Sidley Austin partner Kimberly A. Dunne...
Posted February 27, 2007 8:13 AM
For the first time in 57 years a Los Angeles jury has handed down a death sentence in a federal case, tomorrow's Daily Journal reports. Two Russian mafia associates from...
Posted February 13, 2007 10:20 PM
Lawyers for Phil Anschutz say the stinker of a movie lost $105 million because Clive Cussler lied about his book sales. Cussler says that's, uh, ridiculous. All I want to...
Posted February 1, 2007 4:35 PM
The law firm of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart Oliver & Hedges raised its salary for new associates to $160,000 a year, following the lead of a top New York City firm,...
Posted January 24, 2007 10:47 PM
PI Anthony Pellicano's client isn't as much a fool as he seemed. A week after receiving court permission to represent himself against charges of racketeering and wiretapping, the Daily Journal...
Posted January 16, 2007 11:45 AM
Mogul Kirk Kerkorian got briefings from his high-powered attorney on what P.I. Anthony Pellicano was learning from illegal wiretaps of Kerkorian's ex-wife in their child-custody and support case, the New...
Posted January 10, 2007 10:23 PM
Remember when South Bay bagel shop owner Lynn Diane Olson shocked the legal establishment by getting elected last June to the Superior Court? Although rated not qualified by the county...
Posted January 5, 2007 3:10 PM
LA Biz Observed had it early this morning: the U.S. Attorney for Los Angeles, Debra Yang, is resigning to join Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher and co-chair the firm's crisis management...
Posted October 17, 2006 2:23 PM
With the demise of the Los Angeles Alternative in print form, Allison Margolin needed a new place to advertise her services as L.A.'s Dopest Attorney. She found one. Ads for...
Posted October 16, 2006 9:01 PM
Civil rights lawyer Stephen Yagman made bail on income tax evasion charges after spending part of Friday in jail and returned to his office on the Venice Beach boardwalk, where...
Posted June 26, 2006 10:37 PM
Civil rights attorney—and long-time thorn in the side of local law enforcement officials—Stephen Yagman has been indicted on nineteen counts of income tax evasion. The indictment dated June 1 was...
Posted June 23, 2006 12:25 PM
Today's Daily Journal carries an Erin Park story saying that the City Attorney's office spent $10 million on an outside law firm to defend the city against a lawsuit over...
Posted June 19, 2006 10:56 PM
© 2003-2009 • About LA Observed • Email the editor
| Bev Hills billionaire Ron Burkle has $56 million in loans against his two houses. The McCourts have borrowed $28 million on their properties.
| Steve Jones, the self-proclaimed Sire of Wilshire (a nod to the physical address of his former home at Indie 103.1 FM), is back on the air!
| She gaped at me like I was living history -- Miss Jane Pittman come to put her withered lips to the "Young Only" fountain straw of ageism.
As newspapers and television pull back from investigative reporting, foundations and other organizations are beginning to fill the void. One of the most interesting is Accountable California, a project of Local 721 of the Service Employees International Union.
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