Friday, May 31, 2013
Page 1
Gerald Chaleff Selected to Receive Shattuck-Price Award
By a MetNews Staff Writer
The Los Angeles County Bar Association said yesterday it will honor Gerald L. Chaleff with its highest honor, the Shattuck-Price Outstanding Lawyer Award.
The award will be presented during LACBA’s Installation Dinner on June 27 at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.
LACBA President Richard Burdge said Chaleff, who currently serves as special assistant for constitutional policing at the Los Angeles Police Department, “was selected as the recipient of the Shattuck-Price Award for his remarkable career of service to the justice system, including his dedication and efforts in helping to guide the Los Angeles Police Department into a more transparent and community-oriented department.”
Burdge added:
“Whether as a Police Administrator and Special Assistant for the LAPD, a member of the Police Commission, a defense attorney or a Deputy General Counsel to the Webster Commission, he has sought to understand and improve the relationship between the LAPD and the community. His efforts have significantly contributed to the relationship between the department and the people of Los Angeles evolving from adversarial to collaborative.”
A graduate of UCLA and Harvard Law School, Chaleff was admitted to the State Bar in 1967 and practiced primarily in the area of criminal defense. He was named in 1992 as deputy general counsel to the Webster Commission, which investigated the LAPD’s response to the riots that followed the acquittals of police officers accused of beating an African-American motorist, Rodney King.
In 1997, he joined the Police Commission and later became president of the commission, helping negotiate terms with the federal Department of Justice over terms of the consent decree that provided federal monitoring of the department.
He was fired from the commission by then-Mayor Richard Riordan in late 2001. The mayor said the commission was suffering from a lack of leadership.
But in 2003, then-Police Chief William J. Bratton asked Chaleff to join the department’s civilian management, and he has continued to serve under Chief Charlie Beck, overseeing the Fiscal Operations, Internal Audits and Inspectors, Legal Affairs, and Planning and Research Divisions, as well as the Governmental Liaison Section. He is also responsible for risk management and special projects, including the MacArthur Park May Day 2007 Report and the upcoming report about former LAPD Officer Christopher Dorner.
He was president of LACBA in 1993-94 and chaired the Judicial Elections Evaluation and Law Enforcement and Justice committees, among others and has served on the boards of several community organizations, including the Constitutional Rights Foundation, Inner City Law Center, Coro Foundation and the St. Joseph Center.
He was a partner in the Santa Monica law firm of Chaleff & English and at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, LLP, where he chaired the white-collar criminal defense practice group.
The Shattuck-Price Award was established in 1968 by the Los Angeles County Bar Association to honor two past presidents, Edward S. Shattuck and Ira M. Price II, who died in office. The award is presented “to a lawyer who has shown extraordinary dedication to the high principles of the legal profession and to improving the administration of justice in Los Angeles County.”
Copyright 2013, Metropolitan News Company