Legal Pad

Lawyer Attacks Mallen's Judicial Qualifications

While checking out campaign finance reports for the three-way San Francisco judicial race, we came upon an interesting written exchange (.pdf) between a seemingly average Joe Q. Citizen, a lawyer for candidate Mary Mallen and the director of the department of elections. (Mallen is challenging sitting judge Thomas Mellon Jr., as is city Supervisor Gerardo Sandoval).

Joe Q. Citizen, a.k.a. Joshua Arce of Haight Street, wrote to the department of elections in early March, arguing that Mallen should be disqualified from running for judge because she had been ineligible to practice law during a roughly year-long period between July 1997 and August 1998. The California Constitution says that a person gunning for a bench seat must have been a member of the bar “for 10 years immediately preceding selection,” a period that stretches back to June 1998 for the current crop of candidates.

Attacked by Tiger, and his BMW towed? SUE!

The San Jose brothers involved in the Christmas Day tiger mauling are leaving no stone unturned in preparing a suit against the city and county of San Francisco.

In formal claims (.pdfs here and here) sent Wednesday to the city Controller’s Office, Kulbir and Amritpal Dhaliwal’s attorney Shepard Kopp listed 18 “acts and omissions” that appear to form the basis of a future suit. The suit includes some obvious claims, like failure to maintain premises in a safe condition.

But Kopp, an attorney at L.A.’s Geragos & Geragos, also claims that a public relations firm defamed his clients in service of the San Francisco Zoo, and he says Kulbir Dhaliwal was “wrongfully deprived of the use of his vehicle, a 2002 BMW M3,” which was impounded as evidence, reportedly because an investigator found a bottle of Grey Goose vodka and one of synthetic urine (used to beat drug tests, one hopes).

Matt Dorsey, a spokesman for City Attorney Dennis Herrera, wouldn’t say, ‘We’ll see you in court’ — at least, not in so many words.

Girardi, Lack face Huge Ninth Circuit Fines

Looks like Los Angeles plaintiff attorneys Tom Girardi and Walter Lack are facing nearly $400,000 in sanctions from the Ninth Circuit for filing a frivolous appeal.

The two lawyers spearheaded a lawsuit on behalf of Nicaraguan workers against Dole Food Company and other corporations over pesticide use. Check out A. Wallace Tashima’s brutal 67 page recommendation here (.pdf).

—  Dan Levine

The Hits Keep Coming: Mukasey Outtakes

Attorney General Michael Mukasey didn’t use the Commonwealth Club’s dime only to wax on about public corruption and defend Los Angeles U.S. Attorney Thomas O’Brien. The Club’s board chairwoman, Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman senior partner Mary Cranston, fed Mukasey a smorgasbord of questions from the audience Thursday at the Intercontinental Hotel.

Mukasey gave an impassioned plea for telecom immunity, saying they only shared information on foreign terror suspects in response to the president’s call for help, and his assurance that it was legal. No immunity means the companies will push back against cooperating, meaning the government might actually have to seek a warrant. Applying for a warrant in that situation would have taken time, and “in that time, we lose intelligence.” Legal Pad thinks this argument is code for: “I know my former colleagues on the federal bench better than any of you. They’re a bunch of weak-ass commies and we can’t trust any of them.”

The attorney general came to an emotional moment when describing the 9/11 World Trade Center attacks, arguing that the failure to track calls into the United States led to the tragedy.

“We’ve got 3,000 people who went to work that day and didn’t come home to show for that,” he said, choking back tears.

Asked about racial profiling and the Muslim community, said it was natural for the Justice Department to allocate investigative resources in an efficient way.

“We investigate where the threat is coming from,” he said. “The threat is coming from Islamic extremism. It’s not coming from Calvinism.”

—  Dan Levine

Let the Judicial Mudslinging Begin

With a little over two months to go before the June 3 judicial election, Judge Thomas Mellon Jr. has taken a shot at one of the two candidates running for his seat on the San Francisco Superior Court.

A statement fired off last night by Mellon campaign manager Jim Ross accused one of his opponents, county Supervisor Gerardo Sandoval, of engaging in “pay-to-play politics” by receiving campaign contributions from “almost every major lobbyist, as well as major builders and property owners.”

“We are looking at an extraordinary situation in which Sandoval is using his political position as a Supervisor to fund a campaign for judge,” Ross quotes himself as saying. He goes on to urge Sandoval to return contributions from “lobbyists, developers and others with business pending before the Board of Supervisors.”

Court Takes Up Home Schooling Again

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger called the ruling “outrageous.” Conservative activist James Dobson termed it “an all-out assault on the family.” And even he-man actor Chuck Norris compared it to decisions made in Nazi Germany or the Stalinist-era Soviet Union.

What has everyone’s dander up? A Feb. 28 ruling by Los Angeles’ Second District Court of Appeal that outlawed home schooling by parents who don’t have teaching credentials.

All the caterwauling must have had some effect because the appeal court took the extremely unusual step earlier this week of granting a rehearing. Not just a revisiting of some minor facts, mind you, but a full hearing in June.

Video Games: Expect Higher Scores in Legal Work

Legal Pad was interested in catching up with Nixon Peabody’s new hire: of counsel Patrick Sweeney, the former GC of Brash Entertainment, a video game publisher that distributes content based on major motion picture licenses (such as Alvin & the Chipmunks).

We were particularly interested in what Sweeney thought of the video game industry and legal work since Cal Law had recently run an article about how experts anticipate that such work will increase.

Sweeney, who worked in the video game business for about ten years — including a stint at Vivendi Universal Games — agreed that we’re going to see more from this industry.

GOP watches Doomed Bills Die ... But Why?

It took Democrats less than a day to kill the biggest pieces of tort reformers’ 2008 legislative agenda. Dispatched quickly on Tuesday were: AB 1905, which would have allowed defendants to appeal a judge’s class certification; AB 1891, which authorized stronger sanctions against lawyers who engage in a broader definition of “frivolous” activity; and SB 1202, which would have allowed judges to withhold a portion of attorneys’ fees awarded in class actions until class members were paid.

That the bills died is no surprise. Assemblyman Anthony Adams, R- Claremont, author of AB 1905, even conceded during the Assembly Judiciary Committee hearing that he was “tilting at windmills.” So why the drill? Republicans say that introducing ill-fated bills is no drill — they truly believe in the proposed changes and want to at least air them for discussion.

But others might wonder whether the doomed legislation isn’t a “Hey, I tried” signal to their corporate backers. Or whether the authors are laying the ground work — again — for a ballot initiative. That’s what happened last year.

Hit-and-Run Driver Leaves Courthouse With Bill

An errant driver has taught Gordon Park-Li a thing or two about courthouse insurance.

The chief executive of the San Francisco Superior Court, Park-Li has been exchanging e-mail recently with people who manage real estate that’s owned by county taxpayers.

The damage, as captured by the  camera phone of vigilant reporter Matthew Hirsch.

He was trying to figure out who has to pay to repair a giant crack in the granite edifice near the entrance of San Francisco’s Civic Center Courthouse.

“I always thought the city was self-insured. But it turns out certain buildings are required to have outside insurance,” Park-Li said.

Park-Li said the damage appears to be the result of a driver who badly misjudged the intersection at McAllister Street and Polk around the beginning of the month.

“We reported it to the sheriffs, and I think they turned it over to their investigative unit,” he said.

Alliance Insurance Services is the lucky carrier that should expect a claim soon for granite repair. Park-Li said San Francisco’s public works department recently pegged the damage at $73,600. If repair workers find additional damage once they remove the granite, Park-Li said cost could increase another $10,000.

—  Matthew Hirsch

Cisco Blogs to Kill the Joy for Cisco Bloggers

Cisco ran into some trouble with anonymous blogging by one of its employees. In dealing with the embarrassment (and hey, potential litigation) from the revelation that the popular Troll Tracker blog was written by its own Rick Frankel, the company has made a public statement about its new policies regarding anonymous blogging.  On its own anonymous blog.

Cisco’s official blog, The Platform, has a post (official, yes, but technically anonymous, signed only by “Cisco”) called “Lessons Learned,” in which the company gives a mea-peripherally-culpa and talks about the new era of blogging rules to be enjoyed by Cisco’s 63,000 employees.

“Our recent experiences have shown us that as corporate blogging becomes more prevalent, new questions arise about transparency and etiquette,” says the Voice of Cisco. Much as we enjoyed the Troll Tracker blog, we’d have to wonder how new the question “Should I anonymously put forward opinions about court cases to which I or my company are a party?” really is. But hey, Cisco says it learned lessons.  It didn’t say it was a fast learner.