President Obama on Aug. 1 nominated Michelle T. Friedland and John B. Owens to serve as judges of the court. Both are litigation partners at Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP, Friedland in San Francisco and Owens in Los Angeles.

If confirmed by the Senate, Friedland will fill a judgeship vacant since April 1, when Judge Raymond C. Fisher assumed senior status. Owens would fill a judgeship vacant since Dec. 31, 2004, when Judge Stephen Trott assumed senior status.

Friedland, 41, is a former lecturer at Stanford Law School, from which she graduated in 2000.

Owens, 41, is a former federal prosecutor in Los Angeles and San Diego, where he headed the Criminal Division before joining Munger Tolles last year.

There are no current vacancies, but Judge Gary Feess is taking senior status on March 13 of next year.

There are no vacancies.

Services were held in San Luis Obispo Aug. 14 for retired Justice William Clark, who served on the court from 1973 to 1981, and later served as national security advisor to President Reagan and as secretary of the interior..

There is a vacancy in a position that the Legislature authorized but has never funded.

Judge Dewey L. Falcone retired May 8 and died Aug. 15. Still vacant are the seats last held by Judges Joseph DeVanon Jr, who retired this past Jan. 31; Phillip Hickok, who retired Feb. 4; Jan Greenberg Levine, who retired Feb. 13; and Dudley Gray, who retired Feb. 19.

Also vacant are the seats of Judges John S. Fisher, who retired Feb. 22; Peter Meeka, who stepped down March 29; Richard Adler, who left April 1; Stephanie Sautner and Linda K. Lefkowitz, both of whom retired April 5; Diane Wheatley, who retired April 16; Beverly Reid O’Connell, who joined the federal bench April 30; and John Reid, who retired June 2. There are still three vacancies resulting from the conversion of commissioner positions to judgeships.

Judge Edward A. Ferns is sitting on assignment in Div. Two of the Court of Appeal and Judge John Segal in Div. Seven through September, while Judges Brian M. Hoffstadt and Sanjay T. Kumar will be returning from assignment.

Among those whose names have been sent to the JNE Commission as possible judicial appointees to the court are State Bar Court Judge Richard Honn, Superior Court Commissioners Robert Kawahara, Alan Rubin, Emma Castro, Jane Godfrey, Sharon Lewis Miller, Mark Zuckman, David Cowan, Dennis Mulcahy and Kenneth Taylor; Deputy County Counsel Terry Truong; Deputy County Counsel Julie Ann Silva; Deputy Public Defenders Enrique Monguia, Lee W. Tsao and Johan ElFarrah; Deputy District Attorneys, Kathleen Tuttle and Brentford Ferreira; Glendale attorney Kenneth Wright; Court of Appeal staff attorneys Kenneth E. Roberson and Kim Nguyen; Los Angeles attorneys Timothy Martella and Angel Navarro; and Assistant U.S. Attorney Wesley Hsu.

The name of Ed Chau was sent to the commission prior to his election to the state Assembly.

The Legislature took the following action on bills of interest to the legal community in August.

•AB 65, by Assemblymembers Katcho Achadjian, R-San Luis Obispo, and Bonnie Lowenthal, D-Los Angeles, which would extend the rape-by-impersonation statute to include one who deceives the victim into believing the defendant is the victim’s fiancé, fiancée, or cohabitant. As amended Feb. 20 and Feb. 25, the bill would extend to certain other sex crimes. The bill was enrolled and sent to the governor Aug. 26.

•AB 157 by Assemblymember Nora Campos, D-San Jose, which would allow a court issuing a protective order against domestic violence or harassment to include a provision barring the defendant from impersonating the plaintiff, operative July 1, 2014. The bill, which passed the Assembly May 2 by a vote of 75-0, passed the Senate Aug. 19 by a vote of 37-0 and was enrolled and sent to the governor.

•AB 161 by Campos, which would specifically authorize a court in a domestic violence proceeding to issue an ex parte order restraining any party from cashing, borrowing against, canceling, transferring, or disposing of, or changing the beneficiaries of any insurance or other coverage held for the benefit of the parties and their child or children, if any, for whom support may be ordered. The bill passed the Assembly April 11 by a vote of 75-0, and was sent to the Senate, where it was amended June 10 to postpone the operative date to July 1 of next year. The amended bill passed the Senate last month, passed the Assembly Aug. 19 by a vote of 77-0, and was enrolled and sent to the governor.

•AB 176 by Campos, which would provide that where there are both civil and criminal protective or restraining orders regarding the same parties in effect, the more restrictive order takes precedence, whereas under current law, the criminal order takes precedence. The bill passed the Assembly May 9 by a vote of 75-0, passed the Senate Aug. 26 by a vote of 37-0, and was enrolled and sent to the governor.

•AB 184 by Assemblymember Mike Gatto, D-Burbank, which would establish an extended statute of limitations in which to prosecute hit-and-run cases. The bill passed the Assembly May 29 by a vote of 76-0, passed the Senate Committee on Public Safety June 25 by a vote of 7-0, and was re-referred to the Appropriations Committee, where it was placed on the suspense file Aug. 12.

•AB 307, by Campos, which would expand the list of crimes that may result in a 10-year protective order, in addition to penalties provided by law upon conviction, to include specified sex crimes, including rape, spousal rape, and crimes for which a person is required to register as a sex offender. The bill passed the Assembly April 25 by a vote of 76-0, passed the Senate with amendments Aug. 26 by a vote of 39-0, and was sent to the Assembly for concurrence in Senate amendments.

•AB 381, by Assemblymember Ed Chau, D-Alhambra, which would expand the definition of elder or dependent-adult financial abuse and add reasonable attorney fee awards to the remedies available in civil actions regarding such abuse. The bill, which passed the Assembly April 15 by a vote of 77-0, was approved by the Senate, with amendments, July 1 by a vote of 36-0. The Assembly concurred in the Senate amendments on July 3 by a vote of 74-0. The governor signed the bill into law Aug. 13.

•AB 499, by Assemblymember Phil Ting, D-San Francisco, which, as amended, would permit an anti-harassment injunction to be entered, or renewed, for a maximum of five years, rather than three years as under current law. It would also provide that such an injunction is valid for five years if the court does not specify a shorter period. The bill passed the Assembly April 18 by a vote of 76-0. It was amended in the Senate June 18 to postpone the operative date to July 1 of next year, then passed the Senate July 8 by a vote of 33-0 and was sent back to the Assembly, where it passed Aug. 8 by a vote of 77-0. It was signed into law by the governor Aug. 27.

•AB 566, by Assemblymember Bob Wieckowski, D-Fremont, which would limit the ability of trial courts to contract out services previously performed by employees. The bill passed the Assembly May 30 by a vote of 51-25 and was sent to the Senate, where it passed the Appropriations Committee Aug. 12 by a vote of 6-0.

•AB 1401, by the Assembly Judiciary Committee, which, as amended in the Senate June 10, would allow aliens who are lawful permanent residents to serve on juries. The bill, which passed the Assembly April 25 by a vote of 45-26, passed the Senate Aug. 19 by a vote of 25-11, and was sent back to the Assembly, which concurred in the amendments by a vote of 48-28 Aug. 22.

•SB 55, by Sen. Jerry Hill, D-San Mateo, which would establish requirements regarding installation of ignition interlock devices by repeat drunk drivers. The bill passed the Senate May 29 by a vote of 38-0, was amended in the Assembly Aug. 5 and re-referred to the Committee on Public Safety, which passed it Aug. 13 by a vote of 5-0 and re-referred it to the Committee on Transportation. That committee passed it Aug. 15 by a vote of 12-0.

•SB 59, by Sen. Noreen Evans, D-Santa Rosa, which, as introduced, would extend the rape-by-impersonation statute to include one who deceives the victim into believing the defendant is the victim’s “intimate sexual partner.” As amended in the Senate Feb. 14, the bill would be expanded to other crimes involving sodomy, oral copulation, and sexual penetration and would apply to any person who impersonates the victim’s “sexual partner,” defined as any individual with whom the victim has had consensual sexual contact. The bill passed the Senate April 22 by a vote of 38-0, and was sent to the Assembly, where it passed the Appropriations Committee Aug. 14 by a vote of 17-0. It passed the Assembly as an urgency measure Aug. 22 and was sent back to the Senate, where Assembly amendments were concurred in Aug. 26 by a vote of 37-0.

•SB 315, by Sen. Ted Lieu, D-Torrance, which would expand the circumstances under which a party in a civil case may appear by telephone to include all conferences, hearings, and proceedings other than trials or trial readiness conference. The court could still order personal appearances on a hearing-by-hearing basis. The bill passed the Senate May 20 by a vote of 36-0 and was sent to the Assembly, where a Judiciary Committee hearing set for Aug. 13 was canceled at the request of author.

•SB 345, by Sen. Noreen Evans, D-Santa Rosa, which would set State Bar dues for next year in the current amount. The bill passed the Senate May 16 by a vote of 37-0 and was sent to the Assembly, where it passed the Judiciary Committee Aug. 20 by a vote of 10-0 and was amended Aug. 21. As amended, the bill would increase the portion of bar dues allocated to nonprofit legal services organizations to $30 and eliminate the sunset date on that provision. It would also require the State Bar to participate with the Controller’s Office and Franchise Tax Board in a program to collect amounts due the State Bar.

•SB 463, by Sen. Fran Pavley, D-Calabasas, which would extend to Jan. 1, 2017, the sunset date of the law allowing judges imposing determinate sentences to select the lower, middle, or upper base term. The bill passed the Senate May 29 by a vote of 38-0 and is set to be heard today by the Assembly Appropriations Committee.

•SB 649, by Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, which would reduce penalties for possession of some controlled substances. The bill passed the Senate May 2 by a vote of 23-14 and was sent to the Assembly, where it was set for third reading yesterday.