Nov.
30,
2018

A report on where
things
stand



Brown Fills All Court of Appeal Vacancies...Trump Nominates Three to Ninth Circuit, Three to District Court for the Central District of California...Judge Manuel L. Real Assumes Senior Status...Superior Court Names Angela J. Davis Court Commissioner



Judicial Elections

There were four contests in the Nov. 6 run-off election. The candidates, their ballot designations, and the amount their committees spent on the election effort appear below, with the percentage of votes they attracted, according to the count yesterday afternoon. The name of the victor is in bold face.

Office No. 4:
A. VERÓNICA SAUCEDA, “Superior Court Commissioner, County of Los Angeles,” $46,444, 59.47%
ALFRED A. COLETTA, “Deputy District Attorney, County of Los Angeles,” $323,107, 40.53%

Office No. 16:
PATRICIA (PATTI) HUNTER, “Deputy City Attorney, City of Los Angeles,” $53,333, 61.81%
SYDNE JANE MICHEL, “Senior Deputy City Prosecutor, City of Redondo Beach,” $409,272, 38.19%

Office No. 60:
TONY J. CHO, “Deputy District Attorney, County of Los Angeles,” $273,547, 55.61%
HOLLY L. HANCOCK, “Attorney at Law,” $46,444, 44.39%

Office No. 113:
JAVIER PEREZ, “Deputy District Attorney, County of Los Angeles,” $72,213, 68.56%
MICHAEL P. RIBONS, “Lawyer,” $139,022, 31.44%

Judges, Lawyers Under Scrutiny

Philip James Layfield
Suspended Attorney, Accused Felon, Truck Driver

Layfield has been released on bail and is presently residing in Delaware. He is facing trial in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California on charges of mail fraud and money laundering.

The prosecution is in connection with Layfield pocketing settlement funds belonging to Josephine Nguyen, who was a client of the erstwhile law firm of Layfield & Barrett. She was to receive 60 percent of a $3.9 million settlement of her personal injury claim, amounting to $2.3 million.

The defendant, apprehended in New Jersey in March and incarcerated until August, had previously fled to Costa Rica.

Trial was initially set for May 15, was continued to Aug. 14, and is now set for Feb. 26. The U.S. Attorney’s Office and Layfield’s attorney, Anthony M. Solis, stipulated to the delay, with Layfield waiving his speedy trial rights, in light of the voluminousness of government documents and Solis’s trial schedule, District Court Judge Michael W. Fitzgerald on July 31 gave his assent.

Solis on Aug. 17 filed an emergency motion for an order modifying the terms of Layfield’s release to permit him to leave his residence to attend classes paving the way for him to obtain a commercial driver’s license so he can seek employment as a truck driver. The motion was granted and he completed a seven-week course. On Oct. 16, Fitzgerald granted a motion permitting him to accept employment with a trucking company. Given that Layfield’s employment necessitates leaving his home, Solis filed a motion on Oct. 20 seeking modification of his bond to delete the home detention/home confinement condition.

Layfield was suspended from law practice by the State Bar of California after he failed to show up for his Jan. 24 disciplinary hearing. The State Bar Office of Chief Trial Counsel filed disciplinary charges against him on Sept. 20, 2017, alleging that the attorney misappropriated more than $3.4 million from his clients.

Layfield acknowledges moving funds from the attorney-client trust account to his erstwhile firm’s general fund, but insists he thought there was enough money in the coffers to cover the clients’ shares of settlements. He ascribes blame to others, including the State Bar prosecutor.


Judiciary: Vacancies, Appointments



Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals

There are six vacancies on the 29-judge court.

Judge Stephen Reinhardt died March 29.

Judge Richard C. Tallman assumed senior status on March 3.

Judge Alex Kozinski retired Dec. 18, 2017, in the light of misconduct allegations.

Judge Barry Silverman took senior status Oct. 11, 2016.

Judge Diarmuid O’Scannlain took senior status Dec. 31, 2016.

Judge Harry Pregerson took senior status Dec. 11, 2015 (and died Nov. 25, 2017, of respiratory disease, at the age of 94).

President Donald Trump on Nov. 13 made three nominations: Daniel P. Collins, a partner at the Los Angeles firm of Munger, Tolles & Olson, to replace Pregerson; Patrick J. Bumatay, an assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of California, to take Kozinski’s former seat; and Kenneth Kiyul Lee, of the Los Angeles firm of Jenner & Block LLP, to Reinhardt’s post.

Trump on July 19 named Eric D. Miller, of Perkins Coie’s Seattle office, to take Tallman’s spot, and on Aug. 27, nominated Bridget Bade, a magistrate judge of the District Court for the District of Arizona, to replace Silverman. Hearings on the nominations were held by the Senate Judiciary Committee on Oct. 24.

 

There are seven vacancies.

Judge Manuel Real, 94, assumed senior status on Nov. 4, after 52 years on the bench.

Judge Beverly Reid O’Connell died Oct. 8, 2017, at the age of 52.

Judge George H. King retired Jan. 6, 2017.

Judge Christina A. Snyder took senior status Nov. 23, 2016.

Judge Dean Pregerson took senior status Jan. 28, 2016.

Judge Margaret Morrow took senior status Oct. 29, 2015, and subsequently left the bench to become president and chief executive of Public Counsel;

Judge Audrey B. Collins resigned Aug. 1, 2014 to join the state Court of Appeal.

Trump on Nov. 13 nominated Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Stanley Blumenfeld to succeed Collins, Jeremy B. Rosen of Horvitz & Levy to replace Morrow, and Mark C. Scarsi of Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy to take King’s seat.

Gov. Jerry Brown on Nov. 14 chose his senior legal advisor, Josh Groban, for the California Supreme Court seat that had been occupied by Justice Kathryn M. Werdegar until her Aug. 31, 2017 retirement. His confirmation hearing before the Commission on Judicial Appointments is scheduled for Dec. 21. The panel will be comprised of Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye, state Attorney General Xavier Becerra, and the state’s senior Court of Appeal presiding justice, J. Anthony Kline of the First District.

Second District

Gov. Jerry Brown on Tuesday made three appointments here.

Div. Four: Presiding Justice Norman Epstein retired Aug. 22 and Nora Manella, then an associate justice on the panel, was confirmed Aug. 23 as his successor. With Manella’s elevation, the seat she previously occupied became vacant. Brown named Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Brian S. Currey to fill it.

Div. Five: Presiding Justice Paul Arthur Turner of Div. Five died May 18, 2017. Brown elevated Court of Appeal Justice Laurence D. Rubin to the vacancy.

Div. Eight: Brown chose Los Angeles Superior Court Judge John S. Wiley Jr. to take the seat now occupied by Rubin.

Assuming confirmation of all three on Dec. 21—by a panel comprised of Cantil-Sakauye and the senior presiding justice of this district, Arthur Gilbert—there will be no vacancies in the district.

(Assuming confirmation on that date of three persons nominated to the First District Court of Appeal, there will be no vacancies in the state. The First District nominees are Gordon D. Burns, undersecretary of the California Environmental Protection Agency, San Francisco Superior Court Judge Tracie L. Brown and Alameda Superior Court Judge Ioana Petrou.)

Ending pro tem stints on this district’s Court of Appeal today are Currey and Wiley, as well as Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Gary I. Micon. Serving on assignment through Dec. 14 are Los Angeles Superior Court Judges Laura A. Seigle and Lisa R. Jaskol. Continuing to the end of the year are retired Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Allan Goodman and Orange Superior Court Judge Kim Dunning.

 Seats in other districts are filled.


Los Angeles County
  

Judge Benny C. Osorio retired Nov. 14. Currey and Wiley will leave the Superior Court if confirmed as Court of Appeal justices.

The governor yesterday made seven appointments to the court. Receiving judgeships were private practitioners Daniel M. Crowley, Alexander C.D. Giza, and Jessica A. Uzcategui; Administrative Law Judge Mary E. Kelly; Los Angeles Deputy District Attorney David K. Reinert; Los Angeles Deputy Alternate Public Defender Jeffrey S. Cohen-Laurie; and Holly A. Thomas, 38, deputy director of executive programs at the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing. (See story, Page One.)

Five vacancies currently remain.

The court has appointed Assistant U.S. Attorney Angela J. Davis of the Central District of California as a commissioner. Her starting date has not been determined.


 

 

 


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