Special Section
PERSONALITY PROFILE:
THERESA J. MACELLARO
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She’s a Bar Leader Extraordinaire and an Accomplished Practitioner
By Sherri Okamoto
The new year usually denotes the end of the season of giving for most, but attorney Terri Macellaro’s giving season runs year ’round. She’s a powerhouse litigator whose clients have included motion picture studios, athletes, celebrities, Fortune 500 companies, and government officials, yet she has given back to the community throughout her legal career, leading bar organizations, advocating for the rights of others, and serving on boards of directors of nonprofit organizations.
She’s a past president of the Italian American Lawyers Association (“IALA”), a current co-chair of the Multicultural Bar Alliance of Southern California (“MCBA”) and chair of the Los Angeles County Bar Association’s Animal Law Section.
Macellaro’s peers have selected her for more than 10 years as one of Southern California’s SuperLawyers, and she is a recipient of the Marquis Who’s Who Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award.
Following some impressive victories for clients who were basketball players, the Los Angeles Lakers and Comerica Bank jointly awarded Macellaro their Best of Los Angeles Women’s Business Award for excelling in a field traditionally dominated by men (sports law).
Macellaro was also selected and interviewed by a Forbes entity as one of America’s Most Influential Women.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Mary Ann Murphy declares that Macellaro is “a force,” but “a quiet force” who regularly does amazing things with such seeming ease that others might not truly appreciate what she’s done.
“She has a history of being extremely successful litigating major cases, with major clients,” but “she also does all of these things for the community, without any expectation of recognition,” Murphy says.
Murphy, a past president of the Irish American Bar Association (“IABA”), reflects that Macellaro’s accomplishments in 2020, while president of the IALA, are illustrative of this.
The judge recalls that “people were kind of trying the Zoom meeting thing” in the early days of the pandemic, but Macellaro “ripped the cover off the ball” with the online meetings she organized.
U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Anthony Fauci, comedian Jay Leno and actor Joe Mantegna were among the persons who graced the screens of one of her first Zoom meetings.
“Word got out about this,” Murphy says, and Macellaro invited other bar associations to participate in the Zoom gatherings.
Murphy opines that what Macellaro was able to do during the pandemic “was just extraordinary.” To her knowledge, Murphy says, no other bar group was able to maintain the same level of activity and participation as IALA during the pandemic.
The meetings “really helped all of us have some semblance of legal community during the pandemic,” and then Macellaro “got all of these luminaries to appear,” Murphy says. “To this day, I don’t know how she did it.”
The special guests also “seemed to appreciate and enjoy the camaraderie from all the members on the Zoom call,” Murphy says, with East Coast-based guests often staying online late into the night.
Macellaro “just amazed everyone,” and “she gave us all a great gift” by providing a means of connection within the legal community that “kept us together as a group,” Murphy says.
Frisco Comments
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Christopher Frisco, one of this year’s MetNews Persons of the Year and a prior IALA president, says he wouldn’t expect anyone to envy Macellaro’s position of leading IALA through the pandemic, “but she was so creative, and she was able to conduct our meetings online through Zoom with some really extraordinary figures to speak in such a way that you almost would not have known there was a problem with COVID.”
Macellaro “made it so enjoyable” that the meetings were “a special treat,” with “great attendance,” Frisco says. “I just marvel at what a great job she did.”
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Daniel Crowley was the Irish American Bar Association’s president during the pandemic, and he worked with Macellaro on the annual IABA/IALA Gaelic & Garlic Night.
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Macellaro, middle, poses for a photo with her father and stepmother the day she was sworn in as an attorney in New York. |
After Macellaro secured U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito’s attendance, Macellaro and Crowley invited retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy to present Alito with a Lifetime Achievement Award from IALA. Macellaro also did her research and learned that Alito is an avid Philadelphia Phillies baseball fan with a large poster of Phillies Hall of Famer Mike Schmidt on the wall in his chambers. Macellaro then arranged to have Schmidt, then-Phillies Manager Joe Girardi, and Hall of Famer Tony La Russa all join in on the Zoom meeting as surprise guests when Kennedy presented Alito with his award.
“All the lawyers on the call, and the judges, were just in awe of the fact we had two Supreme Court justices on the call,” Crowley says, “but if you were looking at Alito, he was in awe that these baseball players were there.”
Crowley says it was “a tremendous accomplishment by Terri to put it all together,” and she “was just amazing.”
Macellaro also didn’t forget about the staff at Casa Italiana, who were out of work while the hall couldn’t open. On the night of the annual Italian Street Fair, she arranged to have the regular wait staff deliver food to members before the event, so they could enjoy a meal together from the safety of their own homes.
Crowley says with things like this, Macellaro “was a shining light during COVID,” but she never took the spotlight.
“She doesn’t call a lot of attention to herself, but man, she gets things done,” Crowley remarks.
Praise From Fujie
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Holly Fujie says she’s seen first-hand what Macellaro is capable of, as they are cochairs of the Multicultural Bar Alliance of Southern California.
The MCBA is a coalition of more than 20 local women and minority bar organizations, established 33 years ago to promote unity in the legal community. The presidents of the bar associations attend quarterly meetings presided over by Macellaro and Fujie.
Fujie says working with Macellaro over the past three years “has been absolutely wonderful.” Macellaro “stepped up at a time when the MCBA was in danger of losing direction,” Fujie recalls. “She really helped revitalize the organization and has brought a level of energy to it that I don’t know what we would have done without her.”
Fujie reflects that “people, who if you ask them for something, they will say yes” are “few and far between,” but “Terri is one of those people.”
Macellaro “doesn’t have to boss people around,” because “everyone knows Terri does the dirty work, the tough work, on anything,” and she “will do whatever is necessary for the organization,” Fujie says. “As a leader, she is unsurpassed.”
Fujie describes Macellaro as “creative, giving, incredibly hard-working.” She is “the whole ticket,” Fujie says, “not just an idea person, not just an organization person, she’s a follow-through-on-everything-and-get-other-people-to-help-because-they-want-to-help-her person.”
Her obvious level of dedication motivates others, Fujie opines, as “I would do anything for Terri, and she’s absolutely the type of person who would do so in return.”
Whenever there is an event, Macellaro is “always the first person there and carrying boxes of stuff in,” and “she thinks of everything,” from name tags to weights to put on the edges of table clothes to make sure they don’t blow away, Fujie says.
Animal Law Section
Macellaro “thinks of things other people don’t,” and “she gives, she’s giving, she looks for situations where there is a need and then she does everything she can to try and fulfill it,” Fujie says. Macellaro’s work with the Los Angeles County Bar Association’s recently-formed Animal Law Section is an example of this, Fujie says. Macellaro’s “done everything she could to create that section and make it succeed.”
Macellaro chaired the section in its inaugural bar year in 2023-2024. She shares the responsibility with attorney Rachel Hobbs of Freeman, Mathis & Gary for the 2024-2025 bar year.
Her interest in the area dates back to her early days as an attorney, when she handled a pro bono case representing the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals on a Freedom of Information Act request from the State University of New York regarding animal experiments being conducted with taxpayer money.
After this experience, Macellaro cofounded and cotaught a course on animal law at Rutgers Law School with Professor Gary Francione—one of the first in the nation. Macellaro also chaired the American Bar Association’s Animal Protection Committee. She served as the editor of the “Animal Law Report,” an American Bar Association publication, as well.
Inspiration to Lawyer
San Francisco-based attorney Bruce Wagman of Riley, Safer, Holmes & Cancila says he is “completely indebted to Terri Macellaro” for introducing him to animal law.
Wagman heard Macellaro speak at a standing-room-only American Bar Association Annual Convention presentation on “Animals Rights—The Issue of the ’90s,” alongside iconic civil rights attorney William Kunstler (whose clients included the Chicago Seven and Black Panthers) and animal rights activist Grace Slick (of the rock band Jefferson Airplane)—both of whom Macellaro recruited for the event.
“Terri’s vision that animal law would be something of importance obviously was amazingly prescient,” Wagman says. “I had never heard of it,” but that presentation “truly changed my life.”
Wagman now practices animal law exclusively. He’s also a written caselaw book for law schools, and taught animal law courses at Stanford Law School, the University of California, Berkeley school of Law, and the University of California College of the Law, San Francisco.
Bacigalupo Comments
Retired Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Paul Bacigalupo comments that Macellaro has “a love and compassion for animals that is just striking.”
Bacigalupo praises Macellaro for her work “as a leader nationally, and locally, in advocating for animal rights.” He says he has been working with Macellaro to build support to move two aging elephants from the Los Angeles Zoo to a sanctuary, and Macellaro “has been a steadfast, committed advocate” for the cause.
He adds that Macellaro is remarkable for “her generosity with the time she spends with the community, and with important causes in the legal profession” as well.
Macellaro is literally, “a voice for those who can’t speak for themselves,” Bacigalupo says, and with the Multicultural Bar Association, she helps promote the causes of the constituent groups. Bacigalupo posits that the way Macellaro uses her leadership “to give a voice to so many, is a reflection of how much she cares about our community.”
Macellaro’s community involvement has also included serving on the Board of Directors of Public Counsel, The American Judicature Society and In Defense of Animals. She was appointed commissioner on the Los Angeles Board of Animal Services by then-Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. Macellaro has also founded her own nonprofit organization and has served on numerous bar committees.
Macellaro’s Background
Perhaps her selflessness comes from the “absolute outpouring of love and generosity” she and her sister Lori received when her mother passed away when she was eight years old. Macellaro and her sister were brought up by her father and maternal grandmother, and even with the loss of her mother, recalls having a happy childhood with her large Italian family in Yonkers, New York. There was also a host of politicians and movie stars featured in Macellaro’s early life.
One of her uncles was Alfred DelBello, the lieutenant governor of New York from 1983-85, and former mayor of Yonkers. Another uncle, Robert Cacace, was the chief administrative judge in Yonkers. Another uncle, Hugh Marlowe was a television and movie star with extensive credits, including six appearances on “Perry Mason.”
Macellaro says the episodes of Perry Mason might have sparked her interest in law, but her father unquestionably had a far greater influence. “My father is one of my biggest role models,” Macellaro says.
Charles Macellaro is a first-generation Italian-American, a Korean War veteran, and was the first in his family to graduate from college. After that, he earned a law degree from New York University School of Law, which Macellaro jokes “is one of the 11 or 12 ‘Top 10’ law schools in the nation.”
Macellaro says her father “retired” in 2022, at the age of 90, when he sold his office building and law practice—but he retains his law license and has been handling “just one last matter” for the past two years.
“My father is the greatest guy,” Macellaro declares. “He was very much about the civil rights movement back in the ’60s, and making the world a fairer place for everyone.”
In addition to practicing law, Macellaro’s father was active in politics often appearing on the front page of their local newspaper in Yonkers, The Herald Statesman.
When Macellaro was 11, her father remarried, the family moved to Tarrytown, and Macellaro gained three step-siblings, including an older brother, Thomas Rice, who would eventually graduate from NYU Law School and become a corporate partner at Baker & McKenzie in Manhattan.
He’s not the only other family member to pursue law as a career. Macellaro’s cousin, Susan Cacace, served as a judge in New York’s Westchester County Court and was recently elected district attorney of that county.
Captain of Cheerleaders
In high school, Macellaro ran track and field, and was captain of the cheerleaders. Macellaro then went to Smith College—an all-women’s college that is part of “The Five College Area” in Western Massachusetts.
Smith College had a Junior Year Abroad program, but it did not include the London School of Economics and Political Science, which was where Macellaro wanted to go. She did the necessary leg work to be able to spend her junior year in London, and for the London School to become part of the Smith College program.
After Macellaro graduated Phi Beta Kappa with honors in economics in 1984, she decided to follow in the footsteps of her father and step-brother by attending NYU School of Law.
At NYU, Macellaro joined the Moot Court Board and took full advantage of NYU’s clinical programs, which gave her the opportunity to try cases while she was a law student. She won the Jurisprudence Award for getting the highest grade in civil procedure her first year.
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Macellaro, third from left standing in middle row, takes a group photo with her friends at Smith College during her freshman year. |
She externed for U.S. District Court Judge Peter K. Leisure of the Southern District of New York, spent a summer working for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for that district, and spent a second summer working at Weil, Gotshall & Manges.
After graduating from NYU in 1987, Macellaro worked at Cravath, Swaine & Moore, a prestigious Wall Street firm.
Macellaro says she pulled many all-nighters, billing more than 3,000 hours in her first year. She says she believes putting in so much time and effort got her opportunities that she might not otherwise have received.
Macellaro spent close to four years with Cravath, but she jokes that they were “like dog years” because she learned so much in that time, it would have taken seven years anywhere else to have the same experience.
She decided to leave New York though, because she wanted to prove to herself that she could make it on her own. Macellaro decided to move to California after coming to the Golden State for a vacation and falling in love with its mild weather.
Macellaro initially went to work for the law firm of Lavely & Singer, one of Hollywood’ premiere entertainment law firms, where she had “the absolute privilege of working closely with Marty Singer.”
Singer says Macellaro was “a great attorney at the firm,” “very smart,” and “extremely valuable” because of her skills.
Everyone who worked with Macellaro admired her professionalism and experience, he declares.
“She is very thoughtful and careful when she comes up with her analysis,” Singer says. “She’s also very efficient in terms of billing, and she’s gotten great results.”
Even though Macellaro eventually left the firm, Singer says the firm will still refer clients to her. In fact, he and Macellaro are currently working together representing codefendants in a high-profile celebrity case.
Changes Firms
Macellaro left Lavely & Singer to join Christensen, Miller, Fink, Jacobs, Glaser, Weil & Shapiro, where she worked closely with Louis R. “Skip” Miller, whom she describes as “another legal titan in the community.”
Miller says Macellaro is “a terrific lawyer and a very fine, nice, good person.”
As a lawyer, Macellaro “is very smart, smooth, and effective,” Miller says. “She was my right-hand person.”
With this wealth of experience under her belt, Macellaro established The Macellaro Firm in 2004, handling business and entertainment litigation and advising businesses, often on how to avoid litigation.
“The primary reason I became a lawyer was to help people and that’s what I’m doing,” Macellaro says.
In her practice, Macellaro notes, she is “completely hands-on.”
She reviews the documents and writes the briefs, because she says she’s seen excellent evidence get lost when the task of document review was handed to a junior attorney who didn’t appreciate the usefulness of a particular writing.
Retired Los Angeles Superior Court Commissioner Bruce Mitchell says he’s known Macellaro for more than 20 years and says she was “one of the finest lawyers to appear in front of me.”
Macellaro is “extremely bright,” and “an excellent oral advocate in the courtroom,” he remarks, adding:
“Terri’s legal brief writing is truly exceptional. Her writing was so good, so insightful and crisp that I would at times stop reading part way through a brief and say to myself, ‘This is excellent! Who wrote this?’ then look back at the face page and see Terri’s name.”
When she’s not practicing law, Macellaro says, she’s tending to her “hobbies”—bar activities and community work—and, in what little down time she has, going to concerts and sporting events and spending time with her husband, Jesse Fernandez, and their rescued animals.
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