Legal Pad

Upstart Gets His Bar Governors Seat

The rebel who fought tradition and won will soon be joining the State Bar Board of Governors.

On Friday, the State Bar announced that a three-person committee had confirmed that Thousand Oaks attorney Michael Tenenbaum’s principal office is, indeed, located within the district he won the right to represent in July.

Questions had been raised — it isn’t clear by whom — about whether Tenenbaum & Associates was actually in District Six, which covers Riverside, San Bernardino, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties.

Tenenbaum, 39, ruffled feathers earlier this year by ignoring a traditional agreement in which his district’s county bar associations endorse the same candidate to ensure the seat rotates between the coastal counties and the Inland Empire.

Field Case Features 'Expert' Verbal Scuffle

Alright, a street fight almost broke out in State Bar Court this week during the trial of Santa Clara County prosecutor Benjamin Field.

There has been an undercurrent of tension throughout the proceedings, in which Field is accused of misconduct in courtrooms. But words started flying on Wednesday when Field’s attorney, Allen Ruby, tried to present a witness that State Bar Supervising Trial Counsel Donald Steedman thought hadn’t been properly vetted as an expert.

“I shouldn’t have to face an expert witness for the first time on cross-examination without notice,” Steedman told State Bar Court Judge Patrice McElroy. “We gave Mr. Ruby advance notice of who we were calling. This is a surprise witness.”

“Basically,” he said later, “it’s an ambush kind of litigation tactic.”