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districts and the races for two offices in the
Los Angeles district are being couched in "insider v. outsider"
terms.
The candidates are:
District 4 (San Francisco and Marin counties): Laura Goldin, 48, a
partner in the San Francisco firm Rothschild & Goldin; Marie F. Hogan, 52,
NextCard Inc. senior counsel; Roderick A. McLeod, 53, a partner with
Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison LLP; Robert H. Perez, 65, supervising
attorney with the San Francisco Department of Child Support Services;
and Matthew N. White, 47, a San Rafael sole practitioner and of
counsel to Keegin, Harrison, Schoppert & Smith.
District 6 (San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Kern, Ventura, Riverside
and San Bernardino counties): James O. Heiting, 53, a partner with
Heiting & Irwin in Riverside.
District 7, Office 1 (Los Angeles County): Stephen J. Ipsen, 41,
deputy district attorney and Matthew St. George, 52.
District 7, Office 2: Michelle "Mickey" Katz, 60, a certified
family law specialist and family law mediator, and David M. Marcus,
49, partner with Marcus, Watanabe, Snyder and Dave, LLP.
District 8 (Orange County): Richard L. Dombrow, 58, of Santa Ana, a
sole family law practitioner; Grace E. Emery, 75, of Orange, a sole
practitioner in employment law; Jack P. Holmes, 41, of Fullerton, a
sole practitioner who specializes in business litigation, personal
injury and immigration law; Richard W. Millar Jr., 63, of Newport
Beach, partner with Millar, Hodges & Bemis; and Joel S. Miliband,
49, of Irvine, a partner with Rus, Miliband & Smith.
Complete election details can be found on pages
21-24.
Ballots were mailed April 30 and must be returned
by July 1. Winners will take office Oct. 10 at the bar's annual
meeting in Monterey. New board members are elected by attorneys whose
place of business is in the bar district in which an election is held.
The future of the sometimes controversial
conference of delegates, which may spin off from the bar in some
fashion if a proposal currently under debate is adopted, was addressed
by virtually every candidate. Two former chairs are seeking office and
several other candidates are past or current delegates to the group.
But while most see the conference as a valuable tool for the bar to
give advice to legislators and help create or change California laws,
most agreed with the notion of a friendly divorce.
In District 8, four of the five candidates
mentioned the unauthorized practice of law by non-attorneys as a
serious problem, offering solutions that range from authorizing the
bar to prosecute such individuals to putting pressure on local
district attorneys to enforce the law.
Insider v. outsider
In Los Angeles, where Matt Cavanaugh won a seat
last year by running as an outsider, he is trying to create another
insider v. outsider race. Two candidates, Matt St. George for Office 1
and Michelle Katz for Office 2, won the endorsement of the Breakfast
Club, a group of local attorneys who solicit and endorse candidates.
Old friends and longtime bar activists, they are running as a team.
Cavanaugh contacted the other Los Angeles
candidates, Stephen J. Ipsen and David M. Marcus, to run as a team as
well. Although Marcus says in his campaign material that he is not an
insider, he also was careful in an interview to clarify his position:
"I'm certainly not some anti-establishment radical." He also
softened somewhat his claim that the board rubber stamps staff
recommendations "without regard for what is in the best interest of
the members."
He told the California Bar Journal: "I do not
know whether the decisions are necessarily in the best interest of
lawyers. If they are, I'll support them. To the extent (the board)
may make decisions and spend money that are not in the best interest
of lawyers, I want to be there."
For his part, Ipsen said he is running on his own
and declined to be part of a ticket. He says he is not anti-bar board
nor would he bring a negative agenda to the board. "I believe in
institutions and strong institutions, but I believe they can grow out
of control," he says. He says he simply wants to bring a fresh
perspective to the bar, which, like any large organization can benefit
from a different viewpoint, and he wants to take a hard look at how it
spends member dues.
Their opponents say their long involvement and
experience are the very reasons they should be elected. "I've
always felt that kind of involvement offers a benefit," says Katz, a
family law mediator who favors collaboration over divisiveness.
"It's not a drawback."
As for the insider-outsider notion, "Been
there, done that," says St. George. "Those are the wars of the
past and I'm looking to the future. We saw what happens when you
have those kind of fights. We had a veto. It's time to say we're
all in this together."
CYLA election
In addition to the race for the board of
governors, four candidates were deemed elected to the board of the
California Young Lawyers Association, which represents attorneys age
35 and under or those who have been in practice fewer than five years.
They are:
District 4, Lesley Weaver, 32, an attorney with
Milberg Weiss Bershad Hynes & Lerach in San Francisco; District 6,
Meghan B. Clark, 27, who practices in the law offices of David E.
Edsall in Camarillo; District 7, Office 1, Francis S. Ryu, 34, an
attorney with Gelfand Rappaport & Glaser in Los Angeles; District
7, Office 2, Los Angeles sole practitioner Excel A. Sharrieff, 32; and
District 8, Matthew J. Fletcher, 27, of Connor, Culver, Blake &
Griffin LLP in Irvine. |
