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Los Angeles Lawyer April 2018 EXPERT WITNESSESSEMIANNUAL THE MAGAZINE OF THE LOS ANGELES COUNTY BAR ASSOCIATION GUIDE TO APRIL 2018 / $5 EARN MCLE CREDIT PLUS 2017 ETHICS LACBA’S NEW ROUNDUP EXECUTIVE page 22 DIRECTOR page 8 L.A. Superior Court Today page 13 DREAMers Decision page 52 SHAKE, RATTLE, andROLL Los Angeles lawyers Jean M. Boylan and Barbara R. Gadbois discuss public works contracting procedures and how they vary when local or state agencies declare emergencies page 16 FEATURES 16 Shake, Rattle, and Roll BY JEAN M. BOYLAN AND BARBARA R. GADBOIS California's Public Contract Code lays out statutory guidance allowing award of public works contracts that can bypass standard competitive bidding rules in case of an emergency 22 2017 Ethics Roundup BY JOHN W. AMBERG AND JON L. REWINSKI Fair reporting privilege, demand letters, getting paid, and sharp practices and their consequences were among the ethics issues affecting California lawyers last year Plus: Earn MCLE credit. MCLE Test No. 277 appears on page 25. 30 Special Section Semiannual Guide to Expert Witnesses Los Angeles Lawyer DEPARTME NTS the magazine of the Los Angeles County 8 LACBA Matters 13 Practice Tips Bar Association Past challenges, new initiatives Los Angeles Superior Court's innovative April 2018 fuel a resurgent LACBA response to financial stress BY STAN BISSEY BY THE HONORABLE DANIEL J. BUCKLEY Volume 41, No. 2 10 On Direct 52 Closing Argument COVER PHOTO: TOM KELLER Adam Siegler California DREAMing: a nationwide INTERVIEW BY DEBORAH KELLY injunction saves DACA BY MARY E. KELLY 12 Barristers Tips Bitcoin taxation: IRS Notice 2014-14 is just the beginning BY J.D. REES LOS ANGELES LAWYER (ISSN 0162-2900) is published monthly, except for a combined issue in July/August, by the Los Angeles County Bar Association, 1055 West 7th Street, Suite 2700, Los Angeles, CA 90017 (213) 896-6503. Period - icals postage paid at Los Angeles, CA and additional mailing offices. Annual subscription price of $14 included in the Association membership dues. Nonmember subscriptions: $38 annually; single copy price: $5 plus handling. Address changes must be submitted six weeks in advance of next issue date. POSTMASTER: Address Service Requested. Send address changes to Los Angeles Lawyer, P. O. Box 55020, Los Angeles CA 90055. 04.18 VISIT US ON THE INTERNET AT WWW.LACBA.ORG/LALAWYER E-MAIL CAN BE SENT TO [email protected] EDITORIAL BOARD Chair JOHN C. KEITH Articles Coordinator SANDRA MENDELL Assistant Articles Coordinator TYNA ORREN Secretary RENA KREITENBERG Immediate Past Chair TED M. HANDEL JERROLD ABELES (PAST CHAIR) TOM K. ARA EMPLOYMENT LAW REFERRALS SCOTT BOYER CHAD C. COOMBS (PAST CHAIR) Paying Highest Referral Fees (Per State Bar Rules) THOMAS J. DALY GORDON K. ENG DONNA FORD (PAST CHAIR) Honored to receive regular employment referrals from STUART R. FRAENKEL over 100 of Californiaʼs fi nest attorneys MICHAEL A. GEIBELSON (PAST CHAIR) SHARON GLANCZ Stephen Danz 877.789.9707 GABRIEL G. GREEN & Associates STEVEN HECHT (PAST CHAIR) Main offi ce located in Los Angeles and nearby offi ces in Pasadena, Orange County, Inland Empire & San Diego DENNIS F. HERNANDEZ JUSTIN KARCZAG Stephen Danz, Senior Partner 11661 San Vicente Boulevard, Suite 500, Los Angeles, CA 90049 MARY E. KELLY (PAST CHAIR) KATHERINE KINSEY JENNIFER W. LELAND CAROLINE SONG LLOYD PAUL S. MARKS (PAST CHAIR) COMM’R ELIZABETH MUNISOGLU CARMELA PAGAY GREGG A. RAPOPORT JACQUELINE M. REAL-SALAS (PAST CHAIR) LACEY STRACHAN THOMAS H. VIDAL STAFF Editor-in-Chief SUSAN PETTIT Senior Editor JOHN LOWE Art Director LES SECHLER Director of Design and Production PATRICE HUGHES Advertising Director LINDA BEKAS Senior Manager MELISSA ALGAZE Administrative Coordinator MATTY JALLOW BABY Copyright © 2018 by the Los Angeles County Bar Associ - ation. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is pro hibited. Printed by R. R. Donnelley, Liberty, MO. Member Business Publications Audit of Circulation (BPA). The opinions and positions stated in signed material are those of the authors and not by the fact of publication necessarily those of the Association or its members. All manuscripts are carefully considered by the Editorial Board. Letters to the editor are subject to editing. 4 Los Angeles Lawyer April 2018 LOS ANGELES LAWYER IS THE OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF THE LOS ANGELES COUNTY BAR ASSOCIATION 1055 West 7th Street, Suite 2700, Los Angeles CA 90017-2553 Telephone 213.627.2727 / www.lacba.org LACBA EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE President MICHAEL E. MEYER President-Elect BRIAN S. KABATECK Senior Vice President TAMILA C. JENSEN Vice President PHILIP H. LAM Assistant Vice President JESSE A. CRIPPS Assistant Vice President JO-ANN W. GRACE Assistant Vice President ANN PARK Treasurer JOHN F. HARTIGAN Immediate Past President MARGARET P. STEVENS Barristers President JEANNE NISHIMOTO Barristers President-Elect JESSICA GORDON Executive Director STANLEY S. BISSEY Chief Financial & Administrative Officer BRUCE BERRA BOARD OF TRUSTEES KRISTIN ADRIAN HON. SHERI A. BLUEBOND SUSAN J. BOOTH RONALD F. BROT TANYA FORSHEIT JENNIFER W. LELAND MATTHEW W. MCMURTREY F. FAYE NIA BRADLEY S. PAULEY ANGELA REDDOCK DIANA K. RODGERS MARC L. SALLUS MICHAEL R. SOHIGIAN EDWIN C. SUMMERS III KENDRA THOMAS KEVIN L. VICK WILLIAM L. WINSLOW FELIX WOO AFFILIATED BAR ASSOCIATIONS BEVERLY HILLS BAR ASSOCIATION CENTURY CITY BAR ASSOCIATION CONSUMER ATTORNEYS ASSOCIATION OF LOS ANGELES CULVER MARINA BAR ASSOCIATION GLENDALE BAR ASSOCIATION IRANIAN AMERICAN LAWYERS ASSOCIATION ITALIAN AMERICAN LAWYERS ASSOCIATION JAPANESE AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION JOHN M. LANGSTON BAR ASSOCIATION THE LGBT BAR ASSOCIATION OF LOS ANGELES MEXICAN AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION PASADENA BAR ASSOCIATION SAN FERNANDO VALLEY BAR ASSOCIATION SANTA MONICA BAR ASSOCIATION SOUTH BAY BAR ASSOCIATION SOUTHEAST DISTRICT BAR ASSOCIATION SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA CHINESE LAWYERS ASSOCIATION WOMEN LAWYERS ASSOCIATION OF LOS ANGELES Los Angeles Lawyer April 2018 5 n last month’s “From the Chair” column, I wrote of the risk to attorneys in taking on clients who may be convicted Iin the court of public opinion, as illustrated by the col- lateral damage (e.g., negative press, loss of other clients) that some of film producer Harvey’s Weinstein’s former attorneys reportedly suffered. Clients certainly are entitled to choose their lawyers based on their own criteria. But I find troubling the apparent mindset of much of the public—and especially the media—that attorneys should be punished for representing unpopular clients. After all, even unpopular people have a right to (and are perhaps most in need of) competent representation, and this mindset seems to threaten both that right and the independence of lawyers in doing their jobs. I am even more troubled by recent stories about a diff erent threat to the independence of lawyers trying to do their jobs. The lawyers at issue are judges, and those who have made unpopular rulings have come under heavy pressure in recent days. Threats to judicial independence are nothing new, of course. Many will remember the story of “the switch in time that saved nine.” (For those who don’t: In 1937, after much New Deal legislation was struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court on 5-4 decisions, President Franklin Roosevelt pushed legislation to pack the Court with six new justices, and it was Associate Justice Owen J. Roberts’ sudden “switch” to supporting the New Deal that averted this court-packing plan.) However, as Michael Wines reported in a recent article for The New York Times, “political attempts to reshape or constrain state courts have risen sharply in the last 10 years…propelled by polarization and a fading of the civics-book notion of governmental checks and balances.” The latest example is the response of Republican legislators in Pennsylvania to the decision of that state’s supreme court to strike down the tate’ss congres- sional district map as a Republican-drawn gerrymander. This response included threats to flout a court order to turn over map-drawing data and to file ethics complaints against, and even impeach, Democratic justices. As reported by Wines, “impeachment—or at least, impeachment threats and attempts—have become a common tool to pressure courts in recent years.” While efforts to punish judges for disfavored rulings appear to skew Republican, there is at least one recent example in which the political left has adopted this approach. Aaron Persky, a superior court judge in Santa Clara County, is facing a major recall effort based on his sentencing of Brock Turner, the former Stanford University student convicted of sexual assault in 2016. Some victims’ rights and women’s rights activists say the sentence was far too lenient. Others counter that the sentence was recommended by the probation department (not a sentence Judge Persky came up with himself), that Turner was also sentenced to lifelong registration as a sex offender, and that the California Commission on Judicial Performance cleared Persky of misconduct. The point here is not to adopt a position on the sentence itself. It is to say that it is bad policy for liberals and conservatives alike to try to remove a judge just because you dislike one of his or her rulings. We must be vigilant in ensuring that judges remain independent and do not become tools either of another branch of government or of any political or ideological movement. n John Keith is the 2017-18 chair of the Los Angeles Lawyer Editorial Board. He practices business litigation with the law firm of Fenigstein & Kaufman in Century City. 6 Los Angeles Lawyer April 2018 LACBA matters STAN BISSEY Past Challenges, New Initiatives Fuel a Resurgent LACBA SETTLING IN as LACBA’s new executive what we can do to bring them back. Both surveys ask important director, I was re minded of my first week questions that will help drive the internal and external discussions as the new executive director of the towards a better county bar and a more exhaustive survey that will California Judges Association (CJA) 14 serve as the groundwork for serious, long-term strategic and aspira- years ago.
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