2021 Year in Review

Thursday, December 30, 2021

Page 12

2021 IN REVIEW

END OF THE YEAR:

A Year Marred by Continuing Pandemic But With No Sizzling Controversies

Court Decisions

Ninth Circuit

April 13: The court affirmed the conviction of a man for attempting to extort $1 million from entertainer Andy Grammer by threatening to accuse him in a civil action of sexual misconduct that had not occurred, rejecting the contention that threats of sham litigation do not come under the federal Hobbs Act.

April 26: A panel invalidated a condition of probation that a transgender defendant not use the name “Nadine,” even in a social setting, without permission of her probation officer. The defendant, tried as Todd Kamawu Paishon, was found guilty of the possession of stolen mail. She was sentenced by District Court Judge Percy Anderson of the Central District of California to two years and three months in prison, to make restitution in the amount of $9,104.23, and to a three-year period of supervised release. A condition of probation imposed by Anderson on Jan. 13, 2020 was: “The defendant shall not obtain or possess any driver’s license, Social Security number, birth certificate, passport or any other form of identification in any name, other than the defendant’s true legal name, nor shall the defendant use, any name other than his true legal name without the prior written approval of the Probation Officer.” A three-judge panel affirmed the conviction but ordered that on remand, the condition of probation relating to Paishon’s name be amended.

May 14: The court, in a 2-1 decision, affirmed a $20 million punitive damage award—lowered by the trial judge from the $75 million set by a jury—in an action against Monsanto by a man who developed lymphoma after using the company’s pesticide, Roundup.

Aug. 25: A three-judge panel affirmed the District Court’s denial of a preliminary injunction in a challenge, under the U.S. Constitution’s Contracts Clause, to the City of Los Angeles’s “eviction moratorium” applicable to residential tenancies during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Sept. 2: The court affirmed, in a 2-1 decision, a preliminary injunction that bars the City of Los Angeles from enforcing an ordinance permitting the discarding of homeless persons’ “bulky items” that are stored in public areas. Judge Michelle T. Friedland, writing for the majority, said “that Plaintiffs are likely to succeed on their claim that this provision, on its face, violates the Fourth Amendment’s protection against unreasonable seizures,”

Oct. 5: In a 2-1 decision, the court reversed an order denying a preliminary injunction to bar enforcement of AB 32 which phases out all private detention facilities in California, saying that the plaintiffs are likely to succeed on the merits in challenging the legislation. Under the bill, signed into law by Governor Gavin Newsom on Oct. 11, 2019, Penal Code §9501 now provides—with exceptions—that “a person shall not operate a private detention facility within the state.”

Nov. 9: The court declared that maintaining old press releases on a website telling of crimes doesn’t invade privacy, declining to reinstate an action by a Los Angeles County resident against the U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Nov. 30: Sitting en banc, the court upheld, by a vote of 7-4, a California statute that bans possession of large-capacity magazines for firearms, with Judge Lawrence VanDyke lambasting the circuit for relegating the Second Amendment, over the years, to “a second-class right” and a colleague, Judge Andrew D. Hurwitz, rebuking him for his comments.

U.S. District Court, Central District of California

Oct. 15: Judge Jon Tigar of the Northern District of California approved an award of $5.7 million in attorney fees and costs in a class action, preliminarily settled in 2017, challenging Uber’s practice of tacking on a $1 “safe rides fee” that was not disclosed to passengers in advance and misrepresenting the extent of its efforts in conducting background checks of drivers.

California Supreme Court

Jan. 27: The justices denied review to Jeffrey Johnson of the decision by the Commission on Judicial Performance ousting him as a justice of the Court of Appeal for this district based on sexual harassment of attorneys, staff members, and colleagues.

May 3: A unanimous court invalidated the death sentence of a woman who, in 1998, set a fire that killed her four daughters, holding that while the convictions stand, the penalty cannot in light of misconduct by the trial judge. That judge was L. Jeffrey Wiatt of the Los Angeles Superior Court. Wiatt, facing a Sheriff’s Department investigation into allegations of child molestation, fatally shot himself in 2005. Writing for a unanimous court, Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye said: “Defendant contends the trial judge was ‘impatient, undignified, and discourteous’ to the defense, engaging in conduct that established bias and misconduct in violation of her state and federal constitutional rights. The People argue that the trial judge’s apparent intemperance must be viewed in light of defense counsel’s ‘shenanigans,’ and indeed, the judge characterized the defense as ‘one of the most unprofessional performances’ he had ever seen. The trial judge’s response to this challenge, however, failed to maintain the high standards of fairness we demand.” The opinion spares inmate Sandi Dawn Nieves from the prospect of execution. She was sentenced to death by Wiatt, pursuant to the jury’s recommendation, on Oct. 6, 2000.

July 12: The high court said that a case decided in 1884 which has been cited a total of eight times by it and other courts under the assumption that it had precedential value never did, and was correctly disregarded by the Court of Appeal though for the wrong reason. Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye wrote for a unanimous court in finding that—contrary to the unreported Dec. 9, 1884 decision in Ganahl v. Soher—the rule that time is computed by excluding the first day and including the last day does apply where a plaintiff, whose period for suing is tolled during his or her minority, reaches 18. Cantil-Sakauye said that the 1884 opinion may be disregarded because it was rendered by a three-justice panel, under a constitutional provision then in effect, and, previously unnoticed, before the decision became final, it was vacated upon the case being taken up by the full court.

Courts of Appeal

Jan. 21: This district’s Div. Six certified for publication its unpublished Dec. 23 opinion affirming a $221,140.40 award to the financial services giant Charles Schwab & Co., Inc. under the Penal Code’s restitution statute. The award was based on moneys it paid to its lawyers in establishing that an independent investment advisor with whom it had contracted, then stopped doing business with, was contacting its employees, in violation of a restraining order. “Here we decide that victims may recover attorney fees and costs occasioned by a defendant’s criminal conduct,” Presiding Justice Arthur Gilbert of Div. Six said in the opinion.

Feb. 11: Div. Three of this district concluded that Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Michael L. Stern did not abuse his discretion in including in an award of attorney fees recompense, at the Encino labor lawyer Seth E. Tillmon’s lawyer’s customary hourly rate of $425, for the time the sole practitioner spent in performing clerical tasks. Then-Justice Halim Dhanidina wrote the opinion which affirms a $84,107.50 award by Stern, except for a $552.50 component. Dhanidina said clerical tasks included “scanning, printing, and downloading documents; preparing proofs of service; preparing mailings; formatting documents; calendaring dates; and traveling to mailboxes or postal centers to mail documents.” He explained that Tillmon, lacking a support staff, “had to do everything himself.”

March 1: A Los Angeles Superior Court judge abused his discretion in issuing a preliminary injunction barring enforcement of the county’s then-existing ban on outdoor dining at restaurants, Div. Four of this district held, relying largely on a 1905 decision of the U.S. Supreme Court stemming from an order of a local health department in response to a smallpox epidemic. Justice Brian S. Currey authored the opinion granting a petition for a writ of mandate sought by the Los Angeles County’s Department of Public Health. The writ directs the trial court to vacate its Dec. 15 order barring implementation of that department’s Nov. 22, 2020 edict that the service of food outdoors be shut down, effective three days later. Currey wrote: “We now hold that courts should be extremely deferential to public health authorities, particularly during a pandemic, and particularly where, as here, the public health authorities have demonstrated a rational basis for their actions.” The “extremely deferential” standard of review, Currey said, harks to the Feb. 20, 1905 U.S. Supreme Court case of Jacobson v. Massachusetts.

March 9: This district’s Div. Eight affirmed a $90,000 award of attorney fees to a lawyer, David Karton, who prevailed in an action against an unlicensed contractor and claimed entitlement to $287,640. It held that Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Elaine W. Mandel, in setting the fees, properly took into account the attorney’s incivility and his over-litigation of the case, attributable to his personal embroilment. “Trial judges deciding motions for attorney fees properly may consider whether the attorney seeking the fee has become personally embroiled and has, therefore, over-litigated the case,” Justice John Shepard Wiley wrote. “Similarly, judges permissibly may consider whether an attorney’s incivility in litigation has affected the litigation costs.”

March 16: Div. Six of this district rejected the contention of a man that he should be released from a psychiatric hospital where he is confined based on being a “sexually violent predator” because, at age 74, he’s no longer a danger. Justice Kenneth Yegan authored the opinion for Div. Six. It affirms a March 10, 2020 order by Ventura Superior Court Judge Anthony Sabo that convicted child molester Earl Lavern Hoffman is to stay put in Coalinga State Hospital. Yegan, who is 73, wrote: “Old age! As John Steinbeck would say, ‘bastard Time’ is always ticking….And for some people, as it ticks, the person may mature, learn, and grow, and perhaps grow out of sexual deviancy. But there are others who may not mature, learn, and grow, and grow out of sexual deviancy. Here, for example, appellant is a 74-year-old self-admitted child molester, who, in a moment of candor, said that he could not guarantee that he would not molest another child upon release.” Yegan quoted Hoffman—who had suffered 19 arrests, mostly based on sexual conduct toward children—as saying that “nobody can predict what I can do in the future,” adding: “Not even I can.” The jurist remarked: “We take appellant at his word….”

March 18: This district’s Div. Three affirmed a judgment based on a jury’s determination that a lawyer for the state Department of Managed Health Care was acting in the scope of her employment when, in the hallway of the Stanley Mosk courthouse, she threw papers at the head of a plastic surgeon the agency was suing. By virtue of the jury’s finding, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Michael Harwin granted judgment in favor of the lawyer, Kristin Door, because the plaintiff, Dr. Jeannette Martello, had not filed the requisite claim against the public entity that employed Door. “Failure to file a claim bars a plaintiff from suing the entity or employee,” Presiding Justice Lee Edmon of said in an unpublished opinion affirming the judgment.

April 15: This district’s Div. Eight upheld a judgment in a wrongful-discharge case which includes a $500,000 punitive-damage award—33 percent higher than the $15,057 in economic damages that were assessed—with the opinion proclaiming that Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Randolph Hammock appropriately took into account that the employee would have collected noneconomic damages had she not died. Justice Maria E. Stratton authored the opinion. Hammock’s view was that “[b]eing fired for some bogus reason, obviously, can create emotional distress” and that “the non-economic damages that were not awarded” in light of Code of Civil Procedure §377.34—which bars punitive damages for pain and suffering where the plaintiff has died—would otherwise have been “justified” and should be a “factor” in setting punitive damages. Stratton agreed.

April 23: Interest begins to run on awards of costs at the time of judgment even though the dollar amount is set later, Div. One of the Fourth District declared, but interest on attorney fees, it said, does not start to run until the award is made.

April 26: Amazon, which bills itself as an “an online mall” which neither manufactures nor sells goods, is actually more like a retailer than a facilitator, this district’s Div. Eight held, rejecting the company’s bid for a repudiation of last year’s decision by the Fourth District’s Div. One that it is strictly liable for harm from defective products. In the case decided by the Los Angeles-based panel, in an opinion by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Sam Ohta, sitting on assignment, there was a reversal of a summary judgment by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Ralph C. Hofer in favor of Amazon.com LLC.

April 30: The Association for Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs was entitled to a $7.8 million award against its ousted president and a cohort who, by falsely claiming to hold the leadership reins and creating confusion as to who was in charge, caused a 140-day delay in the formulation of new memorandum of understanding with the county providing for a pay hike, this district’s Div. Eight declared. Justice Elizabeth A. Grimes wrote the opinion which rejected the view of Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Victor Chavez, since deceased, that the association—known as “ALADS”—lacked standing to sue over the deputies’ losses. The judge did award $75,190.98, based on various categories of direct losses to ALADS, and costs totaling $51,615.85. Grimes’s opinion orders that the judgment be amended to change the award of damages to $7,813,833—based on a $55,813.00 per day cumulative loss to deputies—minus $158.31 for time spent by ALADS’s executive director and a consultant in stopping payment on a blank check, for which the jurist found the evidence to be lacking. The check was provided by an intimidated accountant upon demand of Armando Macias, who had been removed as president by ALADS’s board after it was uncovered that his shoddy attendance record as a trustee had rendered him ineligible for election, under the bylaws, and by John Nance, the acting president.

May 5: The Third District held that there was no constitutional impediment to Gov. Gavin Newsom issuing sweeping executive orders in response to the current pandemic, reversing a judgment which granted declaratory relief and a permanent injunction. It declared that the California Emergency Services Act (“CESA”), enacted in 1970—and, specifically, Government Code §8627, a part of that act—confers on the governor “police power” in emergencies, authorizing orders that conflict with statutes.

May 26: The 60-day period for bringing an appeal is triggered by the granting of an anti-SLAPP motion—which is, by statute, immediately appealable—not from the time the ensuing judgment of dismissal is filed, the Sixth District held in an unpublished opinion by Justice Allison M. Danner, jettisoning an appeal by a man it identified by the pseudonym “Jim Roe.” Danner did not explain why the appellant—who sued a girl and her mother over the allegedly false statement to police that he had slapped the girl on her rear end, resulting in his arrest—was entitled to proceed anonymously. This was in contrast to the approach of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California which found that the litigant, James Zuegel, has no legitimate claim to anonymity. Magistrate Judge District Court Judge Beth Labson Freeman said in Oct. 18, 2017 ruling in Zuegel’s suit against the Mountain View Police Department: “The use of fictitious names is directly at odds with the public’s common law right of access to judicial proceedings.”

June 14: This district’s Div. Seven disapproved a general practice of some judges of the Los Angeles Superior Court’s San Fernando Courthouse in withholding from defense counsel in felony cases the names of prospective jurors, saying that nondisclosure should occur only where circumstances in the individual case call out for it.

June 25: Div. One of this district reversed a conviction for second degree murder based on utterances at trial by then-Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Edmund Willcox Clarke Jr. The unpublished opinion says: “After reviewing the record, we conclude the trial court engaged in judicial misconduct that, when viewed in the aggregate, rendered the trial fundamentally unfair.” Some of the remarks quoted—such as “Let’s have straightforward questions, don’t put arguments in there, or I will start sustaining my own objections” and “Trust the jury to understand your point, without making them three or four times”—reflected impatience with the defense lawyer’s approach, the opinion sets forth.

July 26: Div. Two of this district affirmed two orders by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Dennis J. Landin, each denying a motion to set aside a $15 million default judgment against Grammy-winning music producer Noel Fisher in favor of a model/singer who claims he raped her on seven occasions during a period ending in 2018 while he was guiding her music career.

Sept. 21: The Third District ordered publication of its Aug. 24 unpublished opinion saying that a Brown Act requirement that last-minute documents provided to members of a local legislative body in connection with an agenda item be made “available” contemporaneously to the public was violated. A memo was emailed to a county clerk, whose office furnishes documents to the public, at a time when that office was closed, yet was immediately forwarded to supervisors.

Sept. 27: No actual injury need be established in an action by the Department of Fair Employment and Housing under the Unruh Civil Rights Act, Div. Five of this district declared, upholding an assessment of civil penalties totaling more than $6.2 million against a finance company that paid more for automobile installment sales contracts purchased from used car dealers where the buyer was a male.

Oct. 12: The Fifth District rejected a child molester’s contention that his sentence of 396 years to life in prison constitutes cruel and unusual punishment, spurning the view expressed by the late California Supreme Court Justice Stanley Mosk in 1998 that a prison term exceeding a human life span is senseless and necessarily violates the Eighth Amendment. Presiding Justice Brad Hill noted that Mosk’s concurring opinion in People v. Deloza “been rejected by other courts.”

Nov. 19: Div. Three of this district, in an unpublished opinion, reversed an award of sole physical custody to the mother of two boys because the bench officer, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Debra R. Archuleta, who had not presided over the case, did not look at the file and merely adopted the recommendation of the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services.

Nov. 30: An ex-employee’s declaration that she did not recall signing an agreement, purportedly executed by her when she was hired, to arbitrate any disputes that might develop with her employer was enough to overcome a motion by that employer to compel arbitration of her lawsuit against it for wrongful labor practices, Div. Seven of this district held.

Los Angeles Superior Court

Feb. 8: Los Angeles Superior Court Judge James Chalfant declared that the Association of Deputy District Attorneys’ bid for a preliminary injunction to block implementation of certain “special directives” issued by District Attorney George Gascón “is granted in large part,” finding some of the policies are “unlawful.” The judge ruled that Gascón’s fiat on Dec. 7, his first day in office, that no priors are to be alleged for purpose of the Three Strikes Law violates the command of two Penal Code sections that all strikes are to be “pled and proved,” a requirement that has been upheld, he noted, in five Court of Appeal decisions. He also held that Gascón’s edict that deputies are to move to vacate all strike allegations and other allegations aimed at sentence-boosting, pled while Jackie Lacey was district attorney, is invalid where there is no legal cause to do so. Spurning the embattled chief prosecutor’s contention that a court cannot tell a public official how to carry out the duties of office, Chalfant said in his 46-page decision: “The District Attorney’s disregard of the Three Strikes ‘plead and prove’ requirement is unlawful, as is requiring deputy district attorneys to seek dismissal of pending sentencing enhancements without a lawful basis. An injunction against a public official’s unlawful actions cannot, by definition, interfere with the lawful exercise of the official’s duties.” Deputies cannot validly be ordered to move for an order striking an existing strike allegation where neither requisite of Penal Code §1385—that it be in “furtherance of justice” or the strike can’t be proven—is met, Chalfant said. “[A] deputy district attorney may not move to strike an existing prior based on Office policy and must have a legal ground to do so,” he set forth. Chalfant said in his decision: “On December 7, 2020, when Gascón assumed the Office, he attempted to uproot the long-standing system of sentencing enhancements, including the Three Strikes law for prior convictions. Legislating by fiat, Respondent Gascón issued a series of special directives that all but repealed California’s sentencing enhancement laws and commanded his employees—Los Angeles County…prosecutors sworn to uphold and enforce the law—to violate numerous statutory mandates and refrain from performing their duties under the law.” He elaborated: “Portions of the Special Directives prohibit deputy district attorneys from complying with their ministerial prosecutorial duties in violation of the law, their oaths of office, and their ethical responsibilities as officers of the court….The unlawful conduct includes barring deputy district attorneys from charging enhancements they statutorily are obligated to charge, barring deputy district attorneys from complying with their ministerial duty to exercise case-by-case discretion to maintain or move to dismiss charges, mandating that deputy district attorneys move to dismiss special circumstance allegations that cannot be dismissed by law, and mandating that deputy district attorneys attempt to unilaterally abandon a prosecution where a judge denied a motion to dismiss….Deputy district attorneys risk contempt of court or discipline by the State Bar each time they undertake this conduct.” Chalfant’s order is before the Court of Appeal for this district.

Deaths

Feb. 9: Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Lori Ann Fournier, who was appointed to her post in 2006.

Feb. 13: Robert S. Warren, a member of the law firm of Gibson, Dunn and Crutcher for 41 years and an attorney for 57 years; 1989 recipient of the Los Angeles County Bar Association’s Shattuck-Price Outstanding Lawyer Award.

Feb. 17: Joseph DiLoreto, a judge of the Los Angeles Superior Court from 1995-2014.

April 23: Retired Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Michael Berg.

May 16: Jack LeVan, director of judicial support for the Los Angeles Municipal Court and, for three years following court consolidation in 2000, for the Los Angeles Superior Court.

Aug. 31: Enrique Romero, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge from 1992-99, and a Los Angeles Municipal Court judge for four years before that.

Sept. 21: Glendale attorney Edvin Erdi Minassian, a former president and longtime board member of the Armenian Bar Association, a national organization headquartered in Los Angeles County.

Oct. 19: Joseph Lane, retired clerk of the Court of Appeal for this district.

Judicial Appointments

Ninth Circuit

July 13: Attorney Jennifer Sung was nominated by President Joseph Biden. She was confirmed by the Senate Dec. 15 by a vote of 50-49.

Sept. 20: U.S. District Judge Lucy Haeran Koh of the Northern District of California was nominated; she was confirmed Dec. 13. Also nominated were California’s First District Court of Appeal Justice Gabriel P. Sanchez who, if confirmed, will replace Judge Marsha S. Berzon, and Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Holly A. Thomas, who if given the nod by the Senate, will assume the seat held by William A. Fletcher. Berzon and Fletcher have said they will assume senior status upon confirmation of their successors.

District Court, Central District of California

Sept. 8: Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong was nominated, gaining confirmation Dec. 17. She replaced Judge Christina A. Snyder, who took senior status Nov. 23, 2016. Also nominated was Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Hernan D. Vera who would have taken the seat previously occupied by Judge Margaret Morrow who went on senior status Oct. 29, 2015, then left the bench to become president and chief executive of Public Counsel, a post from which she has departed. However, the Senate Judiciary Committee on Dec. 2 reported unfavorably on the nomination.

Dec. 15: Nominated were U.S. Magistrate Judge Kenly Kiya Kato of the Central District of California, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett, Orange Superior Court Judge Fred W. Slaughter, and Riverside Superior Court Sunshine Suzanne Sykes. If confirmed, Kato will succeed Judge Beverly Reid O’Connell, who died, and Garnett will gain the post that was vacated by Judge Manuel Real upon assuming senior status. He subsequently died. Slaughter would replace Judge Andrew J. Guilford and Sykes would take over from Judge James V. Selna. Guilford and Sykes have taken senior status.

Los Angeles Superior Court

March 25: Gov. Gavin Newsom announced the appointments of three Los Angeles deputy district attorneys: Alfred A. Coletta, filling the vacancy created by the retirement of Judge Lisa H. Cole; Warren Masami Kato, replacing Judge Edmund W. Clarke Jr., who retired; and Susan Ser, filling the vacancy created by the death of Judge Vincent H. Okamoto. Also appointed was Los Angeles County Deputy Public Defender Lowynn Y. Young, who follows Judge Songhai Miguda-Armstead, who retired.

July 9: Granted judgeships were mediator Ian C. Fusselman and Michelle L. Kazadi, an administrative law judge for the California Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board.

Sept. 6: Appointed were Los Angeles County Deputy Public Defender Ramiro P. Cisneros, Deputy Attorney General E. Carlos Dominguez, House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary staff counsel Benjamin P. Hernandez-Stern, Chief Deputy U.S. Attorney Abraham C.V. Meltzer of the Central District of California, Los Angeles Deputy District Attorney Reginald L. Neal, and Deputy District Attorney Tara L. Newman of the Central District of California. Ciscernos replaces Judge William A. MacLaughlin, Dominguez takes over from Judge Irma J. Brown, Meltzer succeeds Judge Ray A. Santana, and Neal assumes the post that had been held by Judge Gilbert Lopez. MacLaughlin, Brown, Santana, and Neal retired. Hernandez-Stern fills the vacancy created by the death of Judge Victor Chavez and Newman has the seat previously occupied by Judge Fernando L. Aenlle-Rocha, who was appointed to U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.

Nov. 10: Loeb & Loeb Senior Counsel Josh R. Freeman Stinn was chosen to fill the vacancy created by the death of Judge Lori A. Fournier.

Nov. 29: Gaining appointments were Assembly Assistant Majority Leader Edwin P. Chau, D-Monterey Park, to replace Judge Robert J. Perry, Los Angeles Deputy Public Defender Donald A. Buddle Jr. to take the seat previously occupied by Judge Michael A. Tynan, and Supervising Deputy Federal Public Defender Patricia A. Young to succeed Judge Ramona G. See. All three incumbents had retired.

Retirements

Ninth Circuit

Dec. 13: Judge Richard A. Paez assumed senior status upon the confirmation of Koh.

Dec. 15: Judge Susan P. Graber graduated to senior status when the Senate confirmed Sung.

California Supreme Court

Oct. 31: Justice Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar left the bench to head the Washington-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. His successor has not been named.

Second District Court of Appeal

April 1: Justice Halim Dhanidina of Div. Three retired after less than three years at his post and is now partner at Umberg/Zipser LLP.

June 30: Presiding Justice Tricia Bigelow of Div. Eight retired and became a mediator, arbitrator and appellate consultant.

Los Angeles Superior Court

Jan. 27: Irma J. Brown, co-founder of the Black Women Lawyers, retired after a 39-year career as a bench officer starting with her 1982 election by judges as a commissioner of the Compton Municipal Court, followed by her appointment as a judge of that court in 1986, and a judgeship on the Superior Court through unification in 2000.

Feb. 19: Judge Michael A. Tynan relinquished the seat he won in a 1984 election contest with a Municipal Court judge.

March 8: Judge Robert J. Perry, placed on the bench through appointment in 1992, ended his judicial career.

March 12: Judge Ramona G. See—who was appointed to the Los Angeles Municipal Court in 1997 and became a Superior Court judge through unification—exited the judiciary, proceeding to join an alternate dispute resolution firm.

March 19: Judges Gary J. Ferrari and Anthony Mohr each completed his judicial service. Ferrari was appointed to the Long Beach Municipal Court in 1989 and elevated to the upper trial bench in 1998. Mohr was placed on the Los Angeles Municipal Court in 1994 and promoted to the Superior Court in 1997.

April 1: Clifford L. Klein left the post he had held since 2001 to become a private judge.

April 14: John A. Torribio, a Superior Court judge since 1989, retired.

April 20: Judge Norman P. Tarle brought to a conclusion a career as a bench officer comprised of service as a Superior Court judge since 2001, as a Superior Court commissioner from 1994-2001, and as a Los Angeles Municipal Court commissioner from 1985-1994. He is now a private judge.

June 19: Judge Robert J. Schuit, appointed to the Los Angeles Municipal Court in 1997 and elevated through court unification, embarked upon retirement, proclaiming himself to be a happy man, citing his recent marriage.

June 29: Michael D. Abzug, appointed to the Superior Court in 2008, hung up his robe.

July 30: Judge Patricia D. Nieto called it quits as a judge, a post to which she was elected in June 2008 but given an early start through an appointment to the post.

Aug. 24: Leaving the bench was Judge Victor H. Greenberg, a judge of the court since 2009 and a commissioner for nine years before that.

Aug. 16: Judge Rolf M. Treu ended a judicial career that began with his appointment to the Citrus Municipal Court in 1995, becoming a Superior Court judge in 2000 through court consolidation.

Nov. 1: Judge Ann I. Jones, who was appointed in 2001, retired.

Other Events

March 30: The State Bar instituted disciplinary proceedings, now near-certain to culminate in disbarment, against one-time wealthy and high-living attorney Thomas V. Girardi. He is accused of pocketing settlement funds belonging to clients, including $2 million owed to children of air crash victims. Girardi, 82—who is in a nursing home, in bankruptcy, and being divorced by his wife, singer/television personality Erika Jayne, 50—did not file a written response. On Aug. 6, 2021, he was placed on inactive status. On Nov. 10, the Office of Chief Trial Counsel filed a petition for disbarment following default, and on Dec. 7, State Bar Court Judge Yvette D. Roland took under submission a request that the court recommend to the California Supreme Court that Girardi be stripped of his bar license. Attached to the Nov. 10 petition was an Oct. 19, 1999 private reproval of Girardi in connection with mishandling of client trust funds. It shows that “Mr. Girardi has been a preeminent trial attorney in Southern California for the last two decades”; that he “has made generous donations to Loyola Law School in excess of $2,000,000”; and that he “spearheaded efforts to build a new and much-needed Juror Assembly Room for the downtown Los Angeles Superior Court, offering to contribute $1,000,000.”

May 10: The State Bar of California announced that there was a 37.2 percent passage rate on the February bar exam, under lowered standards ordained by the California Supreme Court in July 2020. Had it not been for the high court decree, it was disclosed, there would have been a passage rate of only 23.7 percent. Lowering of the required cut score from 1440 to 1390 resulted in 1,151 applicants passing the general bar exam rather than 734, the State Bar said in its announcement. It reported that 3,098 persons completed the exam, which was administered remotely in light of the pandemic.

May 17: Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Rupert A. Byrdsong was elected the 90th president of the California Judges Association by the group’s Executive Board. He embarked on a one-year term Oct. 1.

June 2: Bryant Garth, former dean of Southwestern Law School, came out of retirement to assume the role of interim dean of the University of California, Irvine School of Law. Garth was dean at Southwestern from 2005 until 2012, when he joined the faculty at UC Irvine. He succeeds Dean L. Song Richardson who will become the president of Colorado College. She is UC Irvine’s Law’s second dean, succeeding founding Dean Erwin Chemerinsky in 2018.

June 3: Members of the Los Angeles County Bar Association chose Ann I. Park, a partner in the Los Angeles office of Foley & Mansfield, as 2021-22 president-elect, it was announced. She will take office on July 1 and will automatically succeed to the presidency one year later. Park defeated Metropolitan News Company President/General Counsel Jo-Ann W. Grace in month-long electronic balloting by a vote of 973-585.

June 11: Attorney/journalist Robert Greene was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for a series of editorials in the Los Angeles Times on the subject of criminal justice reform. “The 62-year-old writer culminated 2020 with a stark assessment of the nation’s substantial shortcomings during a year of plague and brutality, concluding with a clarion call for America to do better,” the newspaper announced on its website. He was an attorney with Lawler, Felix & Hall (now Arter Hadden Lawler Felix & Hall) until turning to journalism, becoming a staff writer for the METNEWS in May 1992, later serving as associate editor. Greene departed in 2003 to become a writer for the now-defunct Los Angeles Free Press, going to the Times as an editorial writer in February 2006.

June 24: Los Angeles Superior Court Presiding Judge Eric C. Taylor issued a general order, effective June 28, which retained the requirement, issued in 2020 in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, that face masks be worn in county courthouses—whether the person has been vaccinated or not—but lifted the need for social distancing.

Aug. 24: U.S. District Court Senior Judge James Selna of the Central District of California declared a mistrial in the case of Los Angeles attorney Michael J. Avenatti on 10 counts of wire fraud in connection with allegedly siphoning nearly $10 million in client funds because prosecutors withheld potentially exculpatory financial data gleaned from his law firm's servers. Avenatti contends that a retrial would subject him to double jeopardy. Selna disagreed and the question is before the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on an interim appeal. On July 8, Avenatti was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison by U.S. District Court Judge Paul G. Gardephe of the Southern District of New York on attempted extortion and wire fraud counts. The case, tried before a jury in Gardephe’s courtroom, stemmed from Avenatti’s effort to exact a sum of about $25 million from Nike by threatening to blacken its reputation in litigation if it did not comply. State Bar disciplinary charges were filed July 29, 2019, but proceedings were abated on Sept. 17 of last year in light of pending charges before Selna. The conviction in the case tried in New York renders it a virtual certainty that he will be disbarred. He is under suspension based on that conviction.

Aug. 27: Disbarred lawyer Philip James Layfield was convicted by a jury in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California on 19 counts of wire fraud, one count of mail fraud, one count of tax evasion, one count of failure to collect and pay over payroll taxes, and one misdemeanor charge of failure to file a tax return. He is facing a potential sentence of more than 200 years in prison. A sentencing hearing is slated for Jan. 27.

Sept. 14: Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Michael J. O’Gara drew a public admonishment from the Commission on Judicial Performance stemming, in part, from his public opposition to District Attorney George Gascón. O’Gara joined a Facebook group calling for the recall of Gascón and, in a post, charged that the controversial district attorney was “blatantly violating” a state constitutional provision by ordering deputies to allege no sentencing enhancements.

Nov. 12: The State Bar announced that 53 percent of those taking the July bar exam—amounting to 3,995 persons—were successful.

Dec. 6: A new effort to recall Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón was launched—with hefty funding and professional guidance in contrast to a previous failed grass roots bid. Former District Attorney Steve Cooley commented: “This effort to recall DA Gascón will succeed because it is beginning with $2.5 million raised or pledged. The effort is now being led by top notch professionals.”