Monday, May 9, 2016
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County Bar Set for First Contested President-Elect Race in 35 Years
By KENNETH OFGANG, Staff Writer
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MICHAEL K. LINDSEY LACBA Senior Vice President |
MICHAEL E. MEYER Former LACBA Vice President |
The Los Angeles County Bar Association is set for its first contested election of a president-elect in 35 years, as the association Friday released the official list of officer and trustee candidates for 2016-2017.
Michael K. Lindsey, a corporate and transactional lawyer at Steinbrecher & Span downtown, will face Michael E. Meyer, a real estate attorney who is a former vice president of LACBA and chairs the Los Angeles offices of DLA Piper. The winner becomes LACBA’s second-in-command on July 1, and automatically moves up to the presidency a year later.
The current president-elect, Margaret Stevens, becomes president July 1.
Lindsey qualified for the ballot as the candidate of the association’s Nominating Committee. Meyer qualified by obtaining petition signatures from at least 100 members, and has been endorsed by the recently formed Council of Sections.
Senior Vice President
The senior vice president for the 2016-2017 term will be David K. Reinert, a deputy district attorney and the current vice president. Reinert was the choice of the Nominating Committee.
The Council of Sections had endorsed Phil Lam for the post, but he was disqualified because his employer, the Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office, failed to pay his LACBA dues by the March 31 cutoff date for determining eligibility.
There will, however, be a contest for the office that Reinert now holds. Annaluisa Padilla, an immigration attorney, is the Nominating Committee choice, while Tamila Jensen, a sole practitioner who handles elder law, estate planning, real estate, and family law matters, qualified by petition and has been endorsed by the Council of Sections.
There will also be voting for nine trustee positions. The rules provide for three trustees to be elected from each of three categories—members at large, members of affiliated bar associations, and members of sections.
Member at Large
The Nominating Committee choices for member-at-large are James “Jim” P. Clark, Miguel Tomas Espinoza, and Diana K. Rodgers. They are opposed by Bankruptcy Judge Sheri Bluebond and attorneys Bradley Pauley, and Ronald Brot, each of whom was nominated by petition and endorsed by the Council of Sections.
Running to represent sections are John F. Hartigan, Marc L. Sallus, and Roxanne Wilson, all endorsed by the Nominating Committee. Also running is William L. Winslow, who was nominated by petition.
The Council of Sections is backing Hartigan, Sallus, and Winslow.
Running to represent affiliated bar associations are Oscar Rene Gutierrez, Princeton H. Kim, and Angela Reddock. The three were chosen by the Nominating Committee, with Reddock a late replacement for the committee’s original selection, Ronnivashti Whitehead, who was disqualified.
Richard Lewis was nominated by petition and endorsed by the Council of Sections. Two other council-backed candidates, Kelly Ryan and Edwin Summers, were disqualified for failure to belong to an affiliated bar association by the March 31 cutoff date.
Ballots are due to be sent to members later this month, with voting to close June 10.
The contest between Lindsey and Meyer is the first since Richard M. Coleman defeated Robert S. Warren in 1981.
Copyright 2016, Metropolitan News Company