Legal Pad

Judge-to-be Sandoval (Allegedly) Ruins Editor's Drink

San Francisco’s Fog City Journal posted a very entertaining albeit heavy-on-the-inside-city-politics blog item today that painted Superior Court Judge-to-be Gerardo Sandoval in a rather unflattering light.

Lame-duck county Supervisor Sandoval apparently attended an election victory party for progressives last Thursday (perhaps making up for the fact that he didn’t show up at his own celebration on Election Night). When FCJ editor Luke Thomas confronted him with a difficult question about a recent zoning vote that the publication believes was motivated by patronage, Sandoval allegedly said, “Get lost!” and poured his beer into Thomas’s cocktail.

Then, according to the blog item, which was written by a different FCJ staffer, Thomas told Sandoval, “Do it again, Gerardo, so the whole world can see what an ass you truly are.”

At which time Thomas snapped this photo, which shows an extremely nonplussed (and yet, we must point out, sporty-looking) Sandoval.

We here at Legal Pad can't vouch for the FCJ's account of that party because we were neither invited nor present (sniff!) at the event, but we do feel a civic duty to show the public photos of dressed-down judges looking angry.

—  Jessie Seyfer

Ruling Threatens Judges' Perks

County-provided judicial benefits, including car allowances, pension contributions and training reimbursements, may soon be perks of the past.

The Fourth District Court of Appeal on Friday revived (.pdf) a taxpayer's challenge to the generous package of benefits that Los Angeles County provides to Superior Court judges. The sweeteners are improper, the panel said, because they were never approved by the Legislature. And only the Legislature, the unanimous three-justice panel said, has the authority to set judicial compensation.

The decision is a victory for Washington, D.C.’s Judicial Watch, which argued that Los Angeles County’s policy of offering state judges the same benefits as salaried county employees “an unconstitutional gift of public funds.”

A Federal Appellate Judgeship? Nah, No Thanks

Legal news from around the web:

Supreme Court or bust: The blog of our sibling publication, Legal Times, has an interesting tidbit about former L.A. U.S. Attorney Debra Yang in its highlights of the U.S. attorney firings report. Legal Pad wonders: Who turns down an invitation to sit on a federal appellate court? (Someone who can make several times the salary of an appellate judge in private practice, we guess would be the answer.)

This goes double for crowded elevators: The Wage and Hour blog busted some judges who were talking shop -- loudly -- outside the California Judges Association convention last week in Monterey. We're glad to know that some judges are personally troubled by class action settlements that yield big bucks for attorneys and next to nothing for class members, even as they seem to rubber-stamp away.

Politics is bad for business -- unless it's my politics: News reports (originally from Legal Pad and Cal Law) about Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe partner Dean Criddle's $5,000 contribution to the Proposition 8 campaign sparked a debate at the firm about gay rights, free speech and common workplace courtesy, according to Above the Law.

—  Scott Graham