Wednesday, November 18, 2015
Page 1
Brown Names 25 Judges, Seven in Los Angeles
By KENNETH OFGANG, Staff Writer
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
MICHELLE M. AHNN Deputy Alternate Public Defender |
EWUSI MENSAH FRIMPON Lawyer |
STEPHEN I. GOORVITCH Assistant U.S. Attorney |
MAURICE A. LEITER Lawyer |
CATHERINE J. PRATT Superior Court Commissioner |
THERESA M. TRABER Lawyer |
JOSHUA D. WAYSER Lawyer |
Gov. Jerry Brown yesterday named 25 people to serve as superior court judges, including seven who will serve on the Los Angeles Superior Court.
The new judges here will be Michelle M. Ahnn, Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong, Stephen I. Goorvitch, Maurice A. Leiter, Catherine J. Pratt, Theresa M. Traber and Joshua D. Wayser.
Ahnn, 42, has served as a deputy alternate public defender since 2001. She was a lecturer at UCLA School of Law from 2004 to 2005 and an E. Barrett Prettyman Fellow at Georgetown University Law Center from 1999 to 2001.
Ahnn clerked for Judge Napoleon A. Jones Jr. at the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California from 1998 to 1999 and is a graduate of Brown University and UCLA School of Law. She fills the vacancy created by the elevation of Lee S. Edmon to the Court of Appeal.
Frimpong, 39, is a Los Angeles area native who lives in Silver Spring, Md. and has served as vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary of the Millennium Challenge Corporation, a U.S. government foreign aid agency, since January.
She served in several positions at the U.S. Department of Justice from 2007 until she was named to her present position. She was an associate at Morrison and Foerster LLP from 2002 to 2007 and served as a law clerk for Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Stephen Reinhardt from 2001 to 2002.
A graduate of Harvard University and Yale Law School, she fills the vacancy created by the retirement of Judge Thomas R. White.
Goorvitch, 43, has served as an assistant U.S. attorney for the Central District of California since 2007. He was counsel at O’Melveny and Myers LLP from 2003 to 2007 and served as a law clerk for Court of Appeals Judge Rosemary S. Pooler of the Second Circuit from 2002 to 2003 and for Judge Nora M. Manella of the Central District from 2001 to 2002.
A graduate of UC San Diego and the UC Berkeley School of Law, he also served as an attorney at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. He fills the vacancy created by the retirement of Judge James A. Steele.
Leiter, 57, has been at Arnold and Porter LLP since 1991, and has been a partner of the firm since 1994. He was previously assistant chief of the Criminal Division at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District, and before that an associate at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton and Garrison. He is a graduate of Harvard University and Georgetown University Law Center, and fills the vacancy created by the retirement of Judge Antonio Barreto.
Pratt, 53, has been a commissioner of the court since 2006. She served as senior deputy county counsel from 1999 to 2006, having previously worked at Auxiliary Legal Services Inc., at the PaineWebber Legal Department, and at Keesal, Young and Logan.
She is a graduate of UC Berkeley and the USC School of Law, and fills the vacancy created by the retirement of Judge Leslie A. Dunn.
Traber, 59, is a founding partner at Traber and Voorhees, where she has worked since 1991. She previously practiced at Litt and Stormer, where she was a partner from 1989 to 1991.
Traber graduated from the University of Michigan and Northeastern University School of Law, and fills the vacancy created by the retirement of Judge Steven D. Ogden.
Wayser, 52, has been managing partner since 2011 at Katten, Muchin and Rosenman LLP, which he joined in 2008. He previously worked at Lord, Bissell and Brook LLC, at Stern, Neubauer, Greenwald and Pauly PC, and at Shearman and Sterling LLP, after having clerked for Judge Louis L. Stanton at the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
His undergraduate and law degrees are both from Columbia University. He fills the vacancy created by the retirement of Judge Cesar C. Sarmiento.
Appointed by Brown in other counties were Deputy District Attorney Delia Trevino to the Alameda Superior Court; Amador Superior Court Commissioner Renee C. Day and San Luis Obispo Superior Court Commissioner Gayle Peron as judges of their respective courts; Deputy Public Defenders Frank Ospino and Mary Kreber Varipapa and Deputy District Attorney Kathleen E. Roberts to the Orange Superior Court; Kimberly J. Merrifield, an attorney in private practice and a contract attorney for the Butte county counsel, to the Butte Superior Court; Deputy Public Defender David E. Goldstein to the Contra Costa Superior Court; Mennemeier Glassman LLP partner Kenneth Mennemeier to the Sacramento Superior Court; and Deputy Public Defender Jose S. Franco and Assistant Public Defender Nona L. Klippen to the Santa Clara Superior Court.
Also Wingert, Grebing, Brubaker and Juskie LLP partner James A. Mangione and Dependency Legal Group of San Diego Supervising Attorney Tilisha T. Martin to the San Diego Superior Court; Mark E. Cullers, chief of the Fresno office of the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District, Superior Court Commissioner Mary Dolas, and former Chief Deputy District Attorney Michael G. Idiart, now in private practice, to the Fresno Superior Court; Public Defender Raimundo J. Montes De Oca to the Santa Barbara Superior Court; and Morrison and Foerster LLP partner Stephen P. Freccero to the Marin Superior Court.
Day, Varipapa, and Montes De Oca are registered without party preference; all of the other appointees are Democrats.
Copyright 2015, Metropolitan News Company