The 75-musician Los Angeles Lawyers Philharmonic, composed mostly of lawyers and judges, is attracting a growing audience. After receiving a standing ovation at its debut performance, the orchestra has performed before a wide variety of audiences. Its attorney-musicians say the rehearsals and performances revitalize them as much as their fans.
Justice Laurie Zelon, a longtime champion for those who need, but can’t afford, legal help received the Benjamin Aranda Access to Justice Award. Zelon has devoted much of her career to opening the courts to people who might otherwise never be represented.
Bills for State Bar membership fees will be mailed Dec. 1. The payment deadline, as well as the MCLE compliance deadline for attorneys whose last names start with N-Z, is Feb. 1.
A governance task force took the first steps last month to address legislative criticism that the State Bar may not be meeting its public protection mandate.
The State Bar starts to review claims by the Innocence Project that the bar doesn’t do enough to discipline prosecutors who commit misdeeds.
Sacramento lawyer Sonia Fernandes, staff counsel for the enforcement division of the state’s Department of Managed Health Care, received the Jack Berman Award for her public service.
Three State Bar Court judges, Judith Epstein, Richard Honn, and Lucy Armendariz, were reappointed.
U.S. District Court Judge Andrew Guilford, a former State Bar president, offers a primer on good legal writing. It starts with a contract between writer and reader.
Sacramento-area lawyer James Sandison, already facing State Bar charges of misusing his client trust account and named in a $60 million loan modification fraud suit by the attorney general, has now been charged by the State Bar with “swindling distressed homeowners.”