March 2003, Vol.26, No.1 / $3.00

SPECIAL 125th BIRTHDAY ISSUE

MARCH 2003, VOL.26, NO.1 / $3.00

- 125 Years - LOS ANGELES COUNTY BAR ASSOCIATION

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A MEMBER BENEFIT OF LexisNexis and the Knowledge Burst logo are trademarks, and Shepard’s and lexisONE are registered trademarks of Reed Elsevier Properties Inc., used under license. It’s How You Know is a trademark of LexisNexis, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. Matthew Bender is a registered trademark of Matthew Bender Properties Inc. © 2003 LexisNexis, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. AL5564 YOU ARE THE LOS ANGELES COUNTY BAR ASSOCIATION’S INVITED! 125TH BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION APRIL 8, 2003

Registration and The Los Angeles County Bar Association cordially invites you to join us Orpheum Tours: in celebrating the Association’s 125th birthday at a very special event at 5:30 - 6:00 p.m. the beautiful Orpheum Theatre in Downtown Los Angeles.

Reception and Dinner: ■ KEYNOTE SPEAKERS: 6:00 - 7:15 p.m. Hon. Dennis Archer, President-elect of the American Bar Association Hon. Carlos Moreno, Associate Justice, Supreme Court of California Celebration: ■ 7:30 p.m. SHATTUCK-PRICE OUTSTANDING LAWYER AWARD: The Los Angeles County Bar Association will present its highest honor, the Shattuck- The Orpheum Price Outstanding Lawyer Award, to Walter L. Gordon Jr., a trail-blazing criminal Theatre is located defense attorney who has been actively practicing law since 1937. at 842 S. Broadway ■ ENTERTAINMENT: Los Angeles The Coasters and The Drifters accompanied by Danny and the Corvettes. Plus: our own Mike Yamamoto and his band Use a Guitar, Go to Prison. Valet parking service will be ■ DINNER: provided immediately Will be catered by Tommy Tang and served in the lovely anterooms of the Orpheum in front of the theatre entrance: Reservations: $125. Judges and Government Employees: $90.00; Barristers who have practiced 5 years or $7.00 less $90.00; Public Interest Attorneys/Employees: $90.00; Seat Blocks (10 seats per block): $1,250.00. Registration by phone with Visa, Mastercard, or American Express: call (213) 896-6560 Monday-Friday 9 a.m.- 4:30 p.m. or to register online, please visit www.lacba.org/125th. Contents

Los Angeles Lawyer columns features The Magazine of the

Los Angeles County 10 President’s Page Celebrating 125 years of public 18 Where the Law Was Made in L.A. Bar Association service The course of Los Angeles’s legal history is preserved in legal By Miriam Krinsky March 2003 landmarks from Olvera Street to the Inland Empire

Vol. 26, No. 1 16 Barristers Tips By Robert S. Wolfe Celebrating 75 years of the Barristers page 18 By Margaret P. Stevens 33 Meeting Challenges: The Association’s

80 Closing Argument History of Accomplishment Our commitment to public service We can be proud of the steps the Association has taken to meet By Gerald L. Chaleff the challenges that President Jimmy Carter posed for us in 1978 77 Index to Advertisers By Patricia Phillips 78 Classiﬁeds 79 CLE Preview 40 A Landmark in Diversity Passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 provided the foundation page 49 for nurturing diversity in both the legal profession and in society at large

page 33 By Edwin Guthman

49 The Dirty Half-Dozen page 54 A group of pioneering female Loyola Law School grads look back on the changes in the role of women in their profession By Genevieve Wong

54 The Quest to Desegregate Los Angeles Schools Crawford v. Board of Education of the City of Los Angeles was a milestone in the recognition of the city’s diversity page 40 By David S. Ettinger

page 68 68 Spectacular Los Angeles Trials In Los Angeles’s legal history, every era seems to have its trial of the century By Megan A. Wagner

LOS ANGELES125YearsCOUNTY BAR ASSOCIATION LosAngelesLawyer

VISIT US ON THE INTERNET AT www.lacba.org/lalawyer Bringing Your Dreams To Realitysm E-MAIL CAN BE SENT TO [email protected]

EDITORIAL BOARD Southland Credit Union, a Member-Owned, not-for-profit Chair ABILIO TAVARES JR. financial cooperative, is committed to offering meaningful (In Memoriam) financial solutions to our Members. Our fundamental mission Chair Pro Tem as a financial institution is to maintain superior financial STEVEN HECHT Articles Coordinator performance and strength through outstanding Member service. JERROLD ABELES Above all, we offer convenience, courtesy and value in our DANIEL L. ALEXANDER financial services to fellow Members. Some of the products HONEY KESSLER AMADO ROBERT J. COMER and services available at Southland Credit Union include: CHAD C. COOMBS KEITH E. COOPER ANGELA J. DAVIS ·Southland eServices - Transfer funds, pay your bills HEATHER DAVIS KERRY A. DOLAN or view your account statements online. GORDON ENG JENNIFER E. FISHER Southland's eServices has it all. JOSEPH S. FOGEL MICHAEL E. FOX STUART R. FRAENKEL ·Direct Deposit - Have your paycheck automatically JOHN M. GALLAGHER DEAN HANSELL deposited into your Southland Checking or Savings Account KATHERINE M. HIKIDA all without having to make a trip from your home or office. MAURICE SYLVAN KANE JR. JOHN P. LECRONE HYACINTH E. LEUS PAUL MARKS ·No-Fee Checking Account - With Direct Deposit you can have PHILIP S. MILLER ELIZABETH MUNISOGLU a Checking Account with no monthly service fees. A Southland RICHARD H. NAKAMURA JR. Checking Account offers no per check charges, two free boxes KAREN NOBUMOTO DENNIS PEREZ of standard checks per calendar year and more. GERALD F. PHILLIPS EDWARD POLL GARY RASKIN ·Southland Visa® Check Card - Purchasing power that is JACQUELINE M. REAL-SALAS SUE CAROL ROKAW accepted at over 21 million locations worldwide. Your purchase KURT L. SCHMALZ JACOB STEIN will be deducted automatically from your Southland Checking R. BRUCE TEPPER JR. PATRIC VERRONE Account so there is no monthly bill to pay. MARIA D. VILLA Now that's convenient! JOEL B. WEINBERG STAFF ·Loans - From Vehicle Loans to Mortgage Loans, we have the Publisher and Editor SAMUEL LIPSMAN loan that is right for you at a great low rate. Senior Editor LAUREN MILICOV JOMIE Associate Editor ·Plus So Much More! ERIC HOWARD Art Director As a Member of the Los Angeles Bar Association, you are LES SECHLER Director of Design and Production eligible to join Southland Credit Union. Once you become a PATRICE HUGHES Member, you are a Member for life and your family members Advertising Director LINDA LONERO are then eligible for Southland Membership. If you're an Account Executive employer, Credit Union Membership is an excellent MARK NOCKELS Advertising Coordinator No-Cost benefit to add to your benefits package. WILMA TRACY NADEAU Administrative Coordinator MATTY JALLOW BABY Membership does have its privileges, Join today! For more LOS ANGELES LAWYER (ISSN 0162-2900) is published monthly, except for information, call a Financial Service Representative at a combined issue in July/August, by the Los Angeles County Bar Association, 261 S. Figueroa St., Suite 300, Los Angeles, CA 90012, (213) (800) 426-1917. 896-6503. Periodicals postage paid at Los Angeles, CA and additional mailing offices. Annual subscription price of $14 included in the We Do Business In Accordance Association membership dues. Nonmember subscriptions: $28 annually; With the Federal Fair Housing single copy price: $3 plus handling. Address changes must be submitted six Law and the Equal Credit Opportunity Act 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. Copyright ©2003 by the Los Angeles County Bar Association. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is www.SouthlandCU.org prohibited. Printed by Banta Publications Group, 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 (800) 426-1917 Editorial Board. Letters to the editor are subject to editing.

4 LOS ANGELES LAWYER / MARCH 2003 Uncovering the landlord’s hidden assets was as easy as reading the sports page.

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*The LexisNexis Total Research System “free trial offer” is available to law ﬁrms in the United States who do not subscribe to the LexisNexis online services as of 2.1.03. Additional restrictions may apply. Current LexisNexis customers should contact their account representative for information. LexisNexis and the Knowledge Burst logo are trademarks of Reed Elsevier Properties Inc., used under license. It’s How You Know and SmartLinx are trademarks of LexisNexis, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. © 2003 LexisNexis, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. AL5584 LOS ANGELES LAWYER IS THE OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF THE LOS ANGELES COUNTY BAR ASSOCIATION EMPLOYMENT DISPUTE 261 South Figueroa Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012-2503 Telephone 213/627-2727 Visit us on the Internet at www.lacba.org MEDIATION CENTER ASSOCIATION OFFICERS: President Let experienced employment law litigator MIRIAM ARONI KRINSKY President-Elect ROBIN MEADOW ROBERT D. COVIELLO Senior Vice President assist you in the resolution of your employment dispute. JOHN J. COLLINS Vice President EDITH R. MATTHAI Assistant Vice President BERNARD E. LESAGE SERVICES PROVIDED: Assistant Vice President FLAT FEE DANETTE E. MEYERS Treasurer • All day mediation CHARLES E. MICHAELS Executive Director • No charge for additional time on same day RICHARD WALCH OUR CENTRAL ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF TRUSTEES STEPHEN P. AJALAT OFFICE OR YOURS DAVID B. BABBE • Will travel within the state at no BARBARA J. BACON LINDA D. BARKER additional fee ELIZABETH M. CALCIANO SCOTT W. CARLSON LIBERAL CANCELLATION POLICY FRANK W. CHEN RICHARD E. DROOYAN • No charge if cancelled within MICHAEL S. FIELDS 72 hours of session ERNESTINE FORREST CRISTINA E. PEREZ GONZALEZ LYLE F. GREENBERG EXPERIENCE DANIEL GRUNFELD RITA GUNASEKARAN • Knowledgeable in all areas of employment BRIAN S. KABATECK law; has litigated hundreds of employment JEFFREY G. KICHAVEN matters representing both Plaintiffs DENA A. KLEEMAN JOEL W.H. KLEINBERG and Defendants PHILIP H. LAM LAWRENCE E. LEONE • No need to expend time educating JAMES C. MARTIN the mediator GRETCHEN M. NELSON JENNIFER F. NOVAK DOUGLAS WILSON OTTO OPINIONS BASED ON EXPERIENCE LISA K. KIM PAI • The value, strengths, weaknesses and ANN I. PARK AMY M. PELLMAN risks involved in a case KENNETH G. PETRULIS MARGARET P. STEVENS • Full analysis of law, facts and defenses MARIA E. STRATTON IVAN TETHER • Jury appeal/probability of a favorable COMM'R MELISSA N. WIDDIFIELD

outcome AFFILIATED BAR ASSOCIATIONS BEVERLY HILLS BAR ASSOCIATION BLACK WOMEN LAWYERS ASSOCIATION OF LOS ANGELES, INC. ROBERT D. COVIELLO CENTURY CITY BAR ASSOCIATION CONSUMER ATTORNEYS ASSOCIATION OF LOS ANGELES Mr. Coviello has been actively practicing in CULVER/MARINA BAR ASSOCIATION Orange County for over 22 years. He has EASTERN BAR ASSOCIATION OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY GLENDALE BAR ASSOCIATION personally tried over 50 jury trials and has been ITALIAN AMERICAN LAWYERS ASSOCIATION OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY lead counsel in several hundred arbitrations and JAPANESE AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION OF GREATER LOS ANGELES JOHN M. LANGSTON BAR ASSOCIATION mediations in employment related matters. He KOREAN AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA LAWYERS’ CLUB OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY is an Arbitrator on the Employment Panel of LHR: THE LESBIAN AND GAY BAR ASSOCIATION AAA and the most recent past Chair of the O.C. LONG BEACH BAR ASSOCIATION MEXICAN AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION Bar’s Labor and Employment Law Section. PASADENA BAR ASSOCIATION SAN FERNANDO VALLEY BAR ASSOCIATION SAN GABRIEL VALLEY BAR ASSOCIATION EMPLOYMENT DISPUTE SANTA MONICA BAR ASSOCIATION MEDIATION CENTER SOUTH ASIAN BAR ASSOCIATION OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA SOUTH BAY BAR ASSOCIATION OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY SOUTHEAST DISTRICT BAR ASSOCIATION (714) 557-7500 SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA CHINESE LAWYERS ASSOCIATION WHITTIER BAR ASSOCIATION www.coviello-law.com WOMEN LAWYERS ASSOCIATION OF LOS ANGELES

6 LOS ANGELES LAWYER / MARCH 2003 Is A Malpractice Insurance Crisis Looming In Your Horizon? Are You Ready?

11 carriers have withdrawn from the California market. Will your carrier be next? The changes in the marketplace are troubling. It is an unknown future. Non-renewals are commonplace. Some carriers can’t secure sufficient reinsurance to operate their professional liability programs. A major carrier was recently declared insolvent. Other carriers have been downgraded by A.M. Best. Severe underwriting restrictions are now being imposed. Dramatic rate increases are certain. It’s all very unsettling. Be Prepared. Be Informed. Lawyers’ Mutual Policyholders Are.

CHECKLIST You owe it to yourself to find the answers to these critical questions! Will your carrier still be writing professional liability policies in California at your next renewal? Will your carrier impose a substantial rate increase at your next renewal due to unstable market conditions? Will your carrier continue to insure “your type” of practice at your next renewal? Will your carrier leave the marketplace because they can’t secure sufficient reinsurance for their professional liability program? Will your carrier offer you a tail of unlimited duration if they decide to leave the market? Our policyholders don’t need to worry about these questions. Do you? Secure Your Future. Insure With Lawyers’ Mutual. Investigate Lawyers’ Mutual. Call us directly at (800) 252-2045. Find us at www.lawyersmutual.com Email us at [email protected]

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By Honey Kessler Amado and Richard Nakamura Jr. Water & Land Offices

Water, Environmental and Brownfield Redevelopment Expertise ur Los Angeles County Bar Associ- changes, to meet the needs of our increas- ation was established in 1878, a year ingly complex society, our courts looked both Richard Vogl, R.G., CHG, CEG Othat feels amazingly familiar—these backward and forward to maintain and GeoHydrologic Consultants, Inc. 125 years later—to 2003. In 1878, Britain and develop a body of law that continues to pro- 714.966.5333 Russia were involved in a protracted series of tect us and guide us. We lawyers are part- wars in Afghanistan. Rutherford Hayes, the ners in that effort. As Daniel Webster cau- Joe Odencrantz, Ph.D., P.E. Tri-S Environmental U.S. president, had been elected by only one tioned in 1847, “The Law: It has honored us; 714.966.8490 electoral vote, with the hotly con- may we honor it.” tested election resolved only by Honey Kessler And the next 125 years? Anthony Silva, R.G. Amado and Richard The Brownfield a special congressional com- That is six generations from Redevelopment Group Co. mission. Thomas Edison was Nakamura Jr. are now. Of those who will celebrate 714.966.9020 beginning his research on the the coordinating the Association’s 250th anniver- electric light, and Alexander editors of this sary, what will they say about Water & Land Offices Graham Bell was suing Western special 125th us? What will they say about 3151 Airway Avenue Union for violating Bell’s patent Birthday issue. themselves? And how will they Building H1 for the telephone. And the first say it? Costa Mesa, California 92626 motion picture was made here in Words are the currency of Fax 714.966.5222 California. our profession. On occasions such as the www.waterandland.com But the similarity of the bracket-years Association’s anniversary, it is fair to ask 1878 and 2003 belies the changes and growth whether the vocabulary of today will even that mark the intervening years. The world make sense tomorrow. “Ethnic bar asso- sank into two horrific world wars; at the end ciation.” “Minority partner.” “Affirmative of each, an international body was created action.” Will these expressions still be needed with the hope that nations could resolve con- 125 years from now? Will the charged idioms flict without war and in the context of inter- so passionately invoked today—“glass ceil- national treaties and laws. The Hague ing,” “race card”—pack the same wallop in Convention was established to enhance the 2128? If so, chalk one up for the pessimists. legal and commercial relationships among But we optimists are restless. We know nations. that democracy thrives on differences. The In our own nation, women were granted challenge, though, in the never-ending debate the right to vote after a struggle that began in is to discuss differences with discernment, not 1878 and successfully concluded in 1920. discrimination—and to be understood in that Schools were integrated when the U.S. way. Too often, the words we use prevent Supreme Court acknowledged, at the mid- that understanding. We have instead a cowboy point of the twentieth century, that separate culture stocked with lethal phrases indis- is inherently unequal. The Civil Rights Act of criminately fired like bullets: “Racist!” “Sexist!” 1964 protected the voting rights of all people “Baby killer!” When speech like this is hurled and finally eliminated tests and requirements at us, we retreat to the comfort of insipid designed to exclude African Americans from phrases, resulting in the giddiness of can- voting. We were faced with an attack on our we-all-get-along-ness or the divisiveness of country that revealed our vulnerability and you-just-don’t-get-it-ness. We deplore both as challenged us to secure our physical safety poor substitutes for the hard work, self-search- without compromising our civil liberties. ing, and self-sacrifice that democracy Edison’s electric light bulb became so demands. We know we can do better. We ubiquitous that people now must leave the have done better. Take a look at the past 125 cities to see the stars. And through all these years. ■

Honey Kessler Amado and Richard Nakamura Jr. are former chairs of the Los Angeles Lawyer Editorial Board. Amado is a certiﬁed appellate law specialist practicing in Beverly Hills. Nakamura is an appellate attorney in the Los Angeles office of Morris, Polich & Purdy, LLP.

8 LOS ANGELES LAWYER / MARCH 2003 John D. Bicknell, 1890 James A. Gibson, 1905

Walter Trask, 1910 John C. MacFarland, 1941 Sharpe Whitmore, 1970

Francis M. Wheat, 1975 Richard Chernick, 1992-93

GIBSON, DUNN & CRUTCHER LLP

We are proud to honor both the Los Angeles County Bar Association for its signiﬁcant contribution over 125 years to our profession and community, and the lawyers of Gibson Dunn who have provided extraordinary leadership to that organization. president’s page

By Miriam Krinsky

Celebrating 125 Years of Public Service From its inception in 1878, the Association has led the battle for equal justice for all

ne hundred twenty-five years is a period that stretches beyond were embraced and eventually adopted by both the state and federal any individual lifetime and spans numerous generations, yet courts in Los Angeles. Oin stellar time represents little more than an instant. A century Public education. We have successfully sponsored legislation and and a quarter can encompass great changes but also may present constitutional amendments to reduce the politicization of the judiciary recurring challenges and concerns. And so it has been in the life of in the election process, publicly defended judges when they have been the Los Angeles legal community over the past 125 years, proving subject to unjust attack, and sought to ensure that the governor and again the old adage that the more things change, the more they the public are informed of the qualifications of prospective jurists. remain the same. Administration of justice. Through our close and supportive rela- Los Angeles in the late 1870s was just beginning to expand beyond tionship with our local courts, we have worked to resolve issues of con- its Olvera Street roots. Daily life offered the city’s inhabitants count- cern to lawyers and thereby improve the effective administration of less new opportunities and horizons. Yet even as a new age dawned, justice. Angelenos remained wedded to many of the violent traditions of the Legal education. The Association and its sections have long Old West. Accused criminals were as likely to be lynched as afforded been the most prolific producers of quality continuing legal education any civilized system of justice, and racial prejudice and divisiveness programs and published articles in Southern California. And now, were rampant. In the legal profession, however, the city found lead- through the Internet, we provide members with daily case law sum- ers who struggled to ensure social change and fight for justice, epit- maries, hundreds of Web pages, and other practical information omized by the valiant but unsuccessful efforts of attorney Henry about judges and parties to litigation that are not otherwise available. Hazard to avert the Chinese Massacre—a tragedy that resulted in the Yet for all our achievements over the years on behalf of our pro- brutal killing of 20 Asians. fession, we can be even more proud of our efforts as an organization In the midst of those uncertain times, Hazard, Harvey O’Melveny, to help the poor and disadvantaged in our community who might oth- and 20 other lawyers joined together in 1878 to form the Los Angeles erwise be denied access to our justice system. Those efforts are not County Bar Association. While we do not know the complete history new, not a recent fad. They have, in fact, spanned our entire 125-year or identity of our founders, of one thing we are certain: They were all history. white men—the norm for lawyers of the day. As we turn the clocks forward and commemorate our 125th Anni- 1910s/1920s versary, we have a unique opportunity not simply to celebrate our suc- Pro bono projects. During World War I, the Association created cesses but also to cast a critical eye on our entire history. That his- its first documented pro bono project by providing free legal aid to ser- tory, as well as the opportunities afforded by the integral role we vicemen, draftees, and their families. Be- continue to play in our legal and local community, provide the back- tween 1914 and 1928, our records indi- drop for a future that we ourselves will shape. cate that more than 20,000 matters were referred to members of the Association. Things We Have Changed Investigations of the LAPD. In the Throughout our history, the Association has effectively represented late 1920s, the Association mounted one our profession, ensuring professionalism and a voice for lawyers. of the community’s first offensives We have supported legislation, helped frame regulations, and filed ami- against police brutality by initiating in- cus briefs that have increased funding for legal services for the poor, vestigations of the LAPD. increased judicial resources, and promoted the highest standards of professional conduct. We have made our views known on countless 1930s critical and ever-changing issues during our 125-year history. Legal aid. The Association promoted Miriam Krinsky is the Lawyer discipline. Concerned from its inception with main- the creation of the Legal Aid Foundation 2002-03 president of taining appropriate standards of professional conduct, the Association of Los Angeles and played a critical role the Association. Her undertook to hear complaints about lawyers until the State Bar in securing its first sources of funding. e-mail address is assumed responsibility for attorney discipline in 1927. By issuing Lawyer referral service. The na- [email protected]. hundreds of ethics opinions we have promoted the highest of pro- tion’s first Lawyer Referral and Infor- fessional standards. The civility guidelines crafted by the Association mation Service was created by the Los

10 LOS ANGELES LAWYER / MARCH 2003

Angeles County Bar Association. It now provides free legal information to more than 500,000 people each year.

1940s Federal indigent defense. The Asso- ciation created a Federal Criminal Court De- fense Committee to ensure that no indigent defendant in the federal courts went without legal representation. The Association han- dled all federal indigent cases until the creation of the government-funded Federal Public Defender in 1963. Police brutality. The Association again undertook investigations of police brutality, this time precipitating the removal of the city’s police chief.

1950s New courthouse. The Association ﬁled an action to force the building of a new courthouse for Los Angeles County because, in the words of then-President Herman Selvin, our community had “suffered far too long the handicap and disgrace of obsolete, inade- quate and dilapidated court housing.” Mental health advocacy. Junior Barris- ters began staffing the Psychiatric Depart- ment of the Los Angeles County Superior Court to serve as counsel for indigent persons—a forerunner to our mental health advocacy project that today provides assistance to 3,200 individuals annually.

1960s Federal public defender. The Asso- ciation successfully supported a bill in Con- gress to provide government funding for the creation of the Federal Public Defender. Bar Foundation. The Los Angeles County Bar Foundation was established to fund programs that improve the administration of justice and the delivery of legal services, enhance public conﬁdence in the legal profession, and increase understanding of and respect for the rule of law. Today, the foundation provides grants that help to fund approximately 20 programs annually. Housing project. The Association created a special committee to sponsor legislation directed at improving access by the poor and disadvantaged to public services and reliev- ing low and moderate income housing problems in Los Angeles. This effort, later known as the Association’s Lawyers for Housing project, sought to involve more lawyers (particularly from minority groups) in the growing ﬁeld of housing law.

1970s Marriage counseling services. The Family Law Section, in cooperation with the Los Angeles Legal Aid Foundation, arranged

12 LOS ANGELES LAWYER / MARCH 2003 In recognition of O’Melveny & Myers LLP’s 1919 past Los Angeles County Bar Presidents, Henry O’Melveny and on behalf of all of the attorneys at O’Melveny & Myers, we congratulate the Los Angeles County Bar Association’s 125 years of distinguished service. 1947 Paul Fussell

1963 Maynard J. Toll

1974 Warren Christopher to provide pro bono marriage dissolution Asset Protection Planning Now legal counseling services to the poor in our community. By the end of 1975, more than 750 Can Insulate Your Clients’ Assets referrals had been made. Neutral observers. At the urging of sev- From Future Judgments eral community agencies and representatives of minority groups, the Association began Yes, it’s true. By properly restructuring your clients’ estate plan, their assets and the providing neutral observers at the site of assets they leave to their family will be protected from judgment creditors. Here are political demonstrations and at subsequent some of the situations in which our plan can help protect your clients' assets: police bookings and jailings. One of this ■ Judgments exceeding policy limits or exclusions from effort’s broader goals was to establish lines policy coverage. of communication between law enforcement ■ Judgments not covered by insurance. and minority communities. Parole aid program. The Association’s ■ Children suing each other over your client's estate. Barristers created the Parole Aid Program— ■ A current spouse and children from a prior marriage later known as Volunteers in Parole—to assist suing each other over your client's estate. parolees in their reintegration into the com- ■ A child’s inheritance or the income from that munity through one-to-one counseling and inheritance being awarded to the child’s former spouse. guidance relationships with volunteers. Dispute resolution. The Association STEVENSTEVEN L.L. GLEITMAN,GLEITMAN, E ESQ.SQ. developed the nation’s first Neighborhood Justice Center (NJC) to provide mediation 310-553-5080 services for neighborhood and consumer dis- Biography available at lawyers.com or by request. putes. NJC’s successor organization, Dispute Resolution Services, contributes to the easing Mr. Gleitman has practiced sophisticated estate planning for 24 years, specializing for more than 12 of crowded court calendars and the improve- years in offshore asset protection planning. He has had and continues to receive many referrals from ment of the quality of life in Los Angeles major law firms and the Big Four. He has submitted 36 estate planning issues to the IRS for private let- County by preventing and defusing conflicts ter ruling requests; the IRS has granted him favorable rulings on all 36 requests. Twenty-three of those and teaching conflict resolution and violence rulings were on sophisticated asset protection planning strategies. prevention. DRS annually provides services to approximately 15,000 people throughout the greater Los Angeles area. Public Counsel. The Association joined the Beverly Hills Bar Association as a cospon- sor and financial supporter of Public Counsel, WE LOOK FORWARD TO THE a nationally recognized organization that now provides free legal assistance to more than 2,500 individuals annually. Domestic violence. The Barristers cre- NEXT 125 YEARS. ated the Domestic Violence Program, an effort that comes to the assistance of the ever-growing number of victims of domestic Pasternak, violence. Each year the program helps more than 7,800 individuals and their dependents. Pasternak& 1980s AIDS project. The Barristers AIDS Proj- Patton ect was formed and later merged with the HIV/AIDS Legal Services Alliance. Through A Law Corporation HALSA, the Association helps more than 4,500 individuals each year obtain the legal 1875 Century Park East, Suite 2200 services they need when they or members of Los Angeles Ca 90067-2523 their families suffer from AIDS or are HIV- Telephone: 310.553.1500 infected. ICDA. The Indigent Criminal Defense Facsimile: 310.553.1540 Appointments Program, which today pro- E-mail: pasfi[email protected] vides attorneys for 6,500 indigent criminal defendants, opened its doors. County courts funding. Our Association Specializing in Receiverships, Alternative Dispute Resolution, filed a lawsuit to secure additional resources and Business and Labor Litigation for Los Angeles County courts and, in the process, established the constitutional right to meaningful access to civil courts under

14 LOS ANGELES LAWYER / MARCH 2003 the U.S. Constitution. to ensure a more user-friendly court for both past decade—and lack access to a lawyer. Pro bono policy. The Board of Trustees lawyers and litigants, the elimination of “local The commission found that in meeting the adopted a pro bono policy that calls upon local” rules, and the random reassignment of legal needs of the poor California lags behind each Association member to devote at least 35 cases after the exercise of a peremptory chal- not only most states but also many foreign hours annually to pro bono representation lenge. countries. These ﬁgures present the unac- of the poor and disadvantaged. ceptable reality that of the more than four Juvenile justice. The Association reestab- Today million Californians who live in poverty, nearly lished its Juvenile Justice Committee to Criminal justice. The Task Force on the three-quarters of those who need a lawyer address two issues of critical importance to State Criminal Justice System, a knowledge- have no access to one. the juvenile justice system: 1) The need for a able and respected group of legal commu- The legal community in Los Angeles has child-sensitive Children’s Court Building to nity leaders, have assembled to address jus- historically made an immense contribution by reduce the trauma of the court process on tice system issues in the post-Rampart era and providing pro bono legal services and fund- abused and neglected children, and 2) the possible reforms to the state criminal justice ing and by supporting numerous legal service need to oppose proposed budget cuts likely system. efforts and reforms. Our Association’s 125- to force the closure of 14 county juvenile Dialogues on Freedom. On the first year history is living evidence of the positive camps and the termination of certain diver- anniversary of the September 11 tragedy, and important difference that our legal com- sion and intensive home supervision pro- approximately 150 lawyers and judges assem- munity can make. grams. bled with more than 1,000 high school stu- Much more, however, remains to be done. dents in over a dozen Los Angeles-area pub- I call on all of us to maintain the proud tradi- 1990s lic and private schools in a series of Dialogues tions established by lawyers and leaders in Juvenile courts. The Association cre- on Freedom. our community over the years and to do what ated a Juvenile Courts Task Force to play a we can to ensure that no member of our com- major role in addressing a variety of legisla- Things That Remain the Same munity is deprived access to our legal system. tive and other issues facing our dependency While many aspects of our legal community Our continued efforts will enable us to fulﬁll and delinquency courts. have changed over time, the enduring need the dream of Martin Luther King Jr., the Superior court improvement. The Blue for volunteerism and support of legal ser- inspired leader whose words were selected to Ribbon Commission for Superior Court vices remains constant.The California Com- mark this anniversary year: “Injustice any- Improvement, a project cosponsored by the mission on Access to Justice recently reported where is a threat to justice everywhere.” To- Association and the Los Angeles County that more than four million Californians live gether, we can ensure that justice for all re- Superior Court, promoted reforms designed in poverty—an increase of 30 percent in the mains the norm in our community. ■

LOS ANGELES LAWYER / MARCH 2003 15 barristers tips

By Margaret P. Stevens

Celebrating 75 Years of the Barristers On the 125th birthday of the Association, the Barristers also reaches an important milestone

he Barristers Section has two reasons to celebrate this year: the In 1967, when the Barristers changed its male-only membership Association’s 125th anniversary as well as the 75th anniversary rule, the leaders of the new and young attorneys in Los Angeles Tof the Barristers. Recently, I had an opportunity to review the expanded in diversity to include Margaret Morrow (the first female Barristers archives in preparation for this 75th year. What struck me president, 1978-79), Lee Smalley Edmon (president 1988-89), and was the incredible vision and energy of previous Barristers presidents, recently Laura Farber (1996-97), a past chair of the ABA Young officers, and committee members who accomplished so much for Lawyers Division and a recipient of an ABA Spirit of Excellence newer attorneys in Los Angeles—and continued on to careers as Award, honoring contributions to racial and ethnic diversity in the law. prominent attorneys and as members of the federal and state judiciary. Our vision for the Barristers in the twenty-first century continues The Barristers—or the Junior Barristers, as it was called ini- to build on past accomplishments, with a few additions for our 75th tially—was first formed in 1928. Charles E. Beardsley chaired the inau- year. This year, the Barristers is expanding its community outreach gural year and Edward S. Shattuck the second year. Beardsley went efforts. In preparation for Community Law Day 2003, the Barristers on to become one of the leaders of the Los Angeles legal community, teamed with the Association’s 125th Committee to enlist members and the Beardsley firm, as it was once known (now Morrison & from each of the Association’s sections to volunteer on Saturday, Foerster) has many famous alumni, including Seth and Shirley May 3, 2003, at locations throughout the city. These volunteers will Hufstedler. Shattuck is remembered today by the Shattuck-Price provide general information and answers to basic legal questions to Award, which is given to an attorney in the Los Angeles area who has the public at no charge. In addition, the Barristers joined forces with contributed to the profession to the benefit of the public, clients, and Public Counsel to reinstitute its legal assistance program for the members of the bar. This was just the beginning of the long line of homeless and at-risk families and created the Guardian Ad Litem extraordinary leaders—including current Association President Project for minors in dependency court. Miriam Krinsky, who is a former member of the Barristers Executive Acknowledging the growing need to provide support in career Committee—who helped shape the Barristers into what it is today. development, the Barristers Professional Development Task Force Although the 1920s and 1930s came long before the current vogue currently cosponsors career panels with the Association on a monthly of mission statements, the founding era archives reveal a strong basis, and the Networking Committee has also planned monthly commitment to assist newer attorneys. These efforts included appear- events with various bar affiliates throughout the Los Angeles area, a ances by famous (and infamous) attorneys as guest speakers, inter- listing of which can be found at www.lacba.org/barristers. action between Barristers and leaders of the profession, and social Our 75th year could not pass with- gatherings that, according to former chair Robert M. Barton, “brought out a celebration. This summer, we will a spirit of lasting camaraderie.” This commitment to act as a resource revisit our history and honor those for- for members has remained a theme of the Barristers, and in the mer presidents, chairs, officers, and com- 1960s was expanded to provide legal assistance to those in need. mittee members who devoted their One of the original Barristers pro bono projects, the staffing of attor- energy and time toward improving the neys for the U.S. District Court indigent defense counsel, began in profession for the new and young attor- 1960, a time when there was no federal public defender. As the 1963- neys in Los Angeles. This 75th anniver- 64 chair of the Barristers, for example, Charles G. Bakaly Jr. was on sary event will also herald the inaugura- call to take assignments from particular district judges. This was to tion of the first Barristers Award, which supplement the panel of four or five Barristers who appeared every will be presented to an outstanding mem- Monday morning at the U.S. District Court for assignment to crimi- ber of the bar who has significantly con- nal matters. In light of the billing and caseload demands on newer attor- tributed to our profession. We hope that Margaret P. Stevens, neys, this volunteer spirit is highly commendable. you can join us and share memories and president-elect of the The Barristers has remained committed to this spirit. So it is not stories on this very special evening. On Barristers, recently surprising to find Ronald L. Olson’s statement as a Barristers former behalf of the officers and committee joined Liner president (1976-77) in the archives, in which he recalled “advocating members of the Barristers, we salute the Yankelevitz mandatory pro bono service, [which] was not an idea whose time had Association’s 125 years of history and Sunshine & come in 1976-1977.” Perhaps in this century the profession will real- look forward to continued success on Regenstreif LLP. ize Olson’s vision to contribute to our community. behalf of our members. ■

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LOS ANGELES125YearsCOUNTY BAR ASSOCIATION

By Robert S. Wolfe Where the Law Was MADE IN L.A. Short tours through various parts of Los Angeles can reveal the many places where legal history occurred

he history of Los Angeles is per- their city’s legal landmarks and learn more their freedom. Thaps best characterized by the myth that the about the people who gave rise to them. A group of 10 African American cowboys, city has no history. Throughout its 221 years, made aware of the Smith family’s plan, located Los Angeles has imagined itself as a place of FIRST STOP: DOWNTOWN Smith in Santa Monica Canyon and served new beginnings and the new city of the com- • Biddy Mason Park, 300 block of him with a writ of habeas corpus for “seduc- ing century, whichever century that happens Spring. Next to the parking structure for ing persons of color to go out of the state of to be. The 125th anniversary of the Los state court employees stands the state’s only California.” The hearing began on January 19, Angeles County Bar Association is a good memorial to a habeas corpus proceeding. Its 1856, before Benjamin Hayes, a state district time to set the record straight. Los Angeles protagonist, Biddy Mason, was the subject of judge. Smith said the move was voluntary. does have a history, even if it lacks a memory a three-day courtroom battle in January 1856 Since Mason was not permitted to testify, of it. The legal history of Los Angeles involves that resembled the Dred Scott case with a Judge Hayes questioned her in chambers. multiple cultures, racism ascendant, preju- better ending. Born a slave in Georgia in She said she had been told that she would dice transcended, and people of all sorts— August 1818, Biddy Mason was acquired as hucksters, do-gooders, idealists, ideologues, a wedding gift by Robert and Rebecca Smith. Robert S. Wolfe is a supervising attorney and and eccentrics—crossing paths in a city that They later brought Mason, her children, and mediator at the California Court of Appeal in provides the gift of a second chance. While her sister to California, where they were auto- Santa Ana, where he heads the court’s Judicial traveling through case law and taking a few matically emancipated under the 1850 con- Settlement Program. In his spare time, he con- detours along the way, Los Angeles lawyers stitution. The Smiths planned to take them to ducts legal history walking tours of downtown can take a comprehensive tour of some of Texas, a slave state, where they would lose Los Angeles.

18 LOS ANGELES LAWYER / MARCH 2003 remain free, but she added: “I always feared 1879 she filed a writ petition and argued her • Calle de los Negros, 101 Freeway at this trip to Texas, since I first heard of it.” own case. By the time the supreme court Los Angeles Street. This street (named The next day, Mason’s appointed coun- granted relief,3 it was too late. Her economic after early settlers, many of whom were of sel offered to drop the case. A suspicious situation compelled her to practice law, not African Mexican descent) was the site of the Judge Hayes put him under oath and discov- study it. Foltz moved to Los Angeles in 1906, Chinese Massacre. On October 24, 1871, a ered he had been bribed $100. Hayes ordered following the San Francisco earthquake. In bystander was killed when shooting erupted that “[a]ll of the said persons of color are 1911, at age 61, she was appointed the first between two rival Chinese gangs on Calle de entitled to their freedom and are free for- woman deputy district attorney. She helped los Negros, which at the time was a street of ever.” Mason went to work as a midwife for found the nation’s first public defender’s office bars, gambling dens, and brothels. When Dr. John Griffin, who was engaged to the three years later. rumor spread of Chinese violence on whites, judge’s sister. From her earnings, she bought • Ronald Reagan State Building, Third a mob descended on the street and indis- two lots on Spring Street for $250. In 1872, her and Main. This city’s first trial of the century criminately attacked Chinese people and shot house was the first meeting site of the African began in 1911. An explosion the previous inside buildings, killing 20. Judge Ygnacio Methodist Episcopal church. Following year at the printing plant of the Los Angeles Sepulveda and the grand jury pressed for Mason’s death in 1891, the California Times had killed 20 and injured 17. Clarence legal action, but there were only eight con- Supreme Court had to resolve a family squab- Darrow headed the defense for brothers Jim victions, and all the defendants were released ble regarding tax payments on the property.1 and J. J. McNamara. Assisting him was lawyer when the California Supreme Court ruled • Olvera Street. Originally named Wine Job Harriman, favored to win as the Socialist the indictments had not established that “any Street, what is now a tourist site was renamed mayoral candidate in the December 1911 person was actually murdered.”5 The sur- in 1877 for Judge Agustin Olvera, who had runoff. The union-organizing McNamaras vivors lost their government tort claim died the year before. In 1847, Olvera was one were widely believed to have been framed because they were found to have brought of the signatories—for the Mexicans—of the by antilabor forces, but the prosecution’s evi- the trouble upon themselves.6 treaty of Cahuenga, which ended the war in dence was daunting. This systemic prejudice was not surpris- California. In 1850, Olvera was elected as Los In November 1911, District Attorney John ing. An 1854 supreme court decision, for Angeles County’s first judge. Along with Fredericks learned of a bombshell—juror example, had extended a statutory prohibition Judge Hayes, Olvera was a member, during George Lockwood had been offered $5,000 by against testimony by blacks or Indians against the lawless 1850s, of the Rangers, a quasi-vig- defense investigator Bert Franklin to vote whites to include people from China or ilante group. Another celebrated Ranger was not guilty. With Lockwood’s cooperation, the Malaya. As the court explained, their “men- Stephen Foster, Los Angeles’s mayor from prosecutors set up a sting. On November 28, dacity is proverbial…whom nature has 1854 to 1856. After gambler Dave Brown mur- both Lockwood and Franklin appeared at the marked as inferior, and who are incapable of dered another Angeleno, Foster calmed a drop point. But as police swooped in, none progress or intellectual development beyond lynch mob. Although Brown was sentenced other than Clarence Darrow also showed up. a certain point.” With no trace of irony, the to hang, the California Supreme Court stayed He explained it as a coincidence and contin- court was concerned with allowing such dis- execution. Foster resigned as mayor in order ued walking. favored races to introduce “their prejudices to lead another lynch mob that made further Three days later, the brothers pleaded and national feuds” into California.7 judicial review moot, and a grateful electorate guilty, and the town went into an uproar. Jim • Metropolitan Building, 457 South returned him to office. received a life sentence, and J. J. got 15 years. Broadway. In 1926, Lela Hutson, an African In 1929, Henry O’Melveny was one of six The labor movement was demoralized, and American, went to the soda fountain at the prominent Angelenos who donated private Harriman lost the runoff in a landslide. In Owl Drug Store to have a cup of coffee. The funds to improve Olvera Street as part of the January 1912, Darrow was indicted for waiter ignored her. When someone else campaign of civic leader Christine Sterling to attempted bribery. His defense was assisted helped her after 20 minutes, the waiter create a romanticized version of the city’s by famed lawyer Earl Rogers. Darrow gave shouted, “What did you serve the nigger for?” Mexican past. “Volunteer” prison labor was his own closing argument, which is consid- and threw coffee at Hutson. She sued Owl used to reduce costs. Sterling wrote in her ered one of the greatest of all time. He argued: Drug, recovering $500 for emotional distress.8 diary, “Every day I pray they will arrest a “I have committed one crime: I have stood for Bigotry remained endemic. Decades bricklayer or a plumber.” The renovation was the weak and the poor.” Despite what biog- later—in 1948—the Los Angeles County halted when an appellate court held that the rapher Geoffrey Cowan describes as con- Counsel filed a brief with the California city’s police powers did not include civic beau- vincing proof of guilt, it took the jury just 30 Supreme Court seeking to uphold the laws tification. The city prevailed, however, at the minutes to acquit.4 against interracial marriage, to prevent “the supreme court.2 Darrow was later tried for attempted Caucasian race from being contaminated by • Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Courts bribery of a second juror, Robert Bain. In races whose members are by nature physi- Building, 210 West Temple. Clara Foltz this trial, he was not so fortunate: The jury cally and mentally inferior to Caucasians.”9 By began studying law in a lawyer’s office at the deadlocked 8 to 4 for conviction. It is widely a 4-3 vote, the supreme court decried such age of 25 after bearing five children and being believed that Darrow made a deal—no retrial arguments for their “ignorance, prejudice abandoned by her husband. At the time, the if he left town, never to return. He never did. and intolerance.…”10 During the late 1940s, profession was restricted to “white male cit- In a historical quirk, some of the Second the Los Angeles County Bar Association twice izens,” but she lobbied the legislature to District’s judicial chambers overlook the cor- rejected resolutions to admit African change this. In September 1878, she became ner at Third and Main where Darrow made Americans. Not until January 1950 did the the first woman lawyer in California and the his fateful appearance. No plaque marks the Association, by a vote of 1,018 to 593, agree third woman lawyer in the nation. Four spot, and Darrow is remembered for the con- to integrate.11 months later, Foltz decided to go to Hastings tributions he made to the American legal tra- • Clifton’s Cafeteria, 648 South Law School but was denied admission dition that are quite unlike those that were Broadway. During the 1930s, restaurateur because of her sex. Undaunted, in February offered to Lockwood and Bain. Clifford Clinton wanted to serve Los Angeles

LOS ANGELES LAWYER / MARCH 2003 19 drunk tanks. Inebriates had been routinely level “labyrinthine structure,” with its “seem- jailed and released without trial. Sundance ingly endless” hallways and “virtually unre- put a halt to this revolving-door policy by get- stricted” access.17 ting courts to impose requirements for The maze of hallways may be less chal- prompt arraignments and probable cause lenging than the maze of the courthouse’s hearings.16 internal politics, as illustrated in another • Judge John Aiso Street, Little Tokyo. appellate opinion that is now decertified. In This is the only city street named for an appel- July 1992, the Metropolitan News published a late justice. Aiso became a superior court phony memo parodying Presiding Judge judge in 1952 and retired from the court of Ricardo A. Torres, who was said to have con- appeal 30 years later. Aiso was drafted into the ducted “gestapo-like” searches of other court- U.S. Army in early 1941. The following year, rooms and engaged in “amorous escapades 60,000 of his fellow Japanese American coun- and megalomania.” The judge’s defamation Herald Examiner Collection/ Los Angeles Public Library trymen were forcibly evacuated, first to horse suit against the newspaper was tossed out Corruption fighter Clifford Clifton shown stables at Hollywood Park and Santa Anita and because reasonable people would discern in court, 1938 then to permanent internment facilities. But “the difference between satire and sincer- Aiso remained in the army, becoming its high- ity.”18 But, as dissenting Justice Tom Crosby in other ways besides the 16,000 daily meals est-ranking Japanese American officer, serv- pointed out, the difference between satiric at his cafeteria. Stunned by the corruption in ing in military intelligence, and helping found excess and certifiable fact may not always the administration of Mayor Frank Shaw, he the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, be so clear when dealing with the Los Angeles founded CIVIC, a reform-minded coalition, California. He died in December 1987 from bench. After recounting some true court- and was appointed to the grand jury by injuries that he received during a gas station house tales, including the pistol-packing judge Superior Court Judge Fletcher Bowron. He robbery. who kept a live dog with her on the bench and petitioned the California Court of Appeal • Stanley Mosk Courthouse, 111 North the judge who prodded an attorney with a when other grand jurors stymied investigation Hill. This building’s imposing architecture dildo, Crosby concluded, “[T]he majority has but was rebuffed.12 Clinton’s minority report (often described as Mussolini Moderne) fig- rose-colored glasses on.…[S]tranger, much accused Mayor Shaw of running a protec- ured prominently in a recent premises liabil- stranger things have come from Los Angeles.” tion ring for bookies and prostitutes. In ity case. In September 1995, a woman was Although the opinion was depublished, October 1937, Clinton’s Los Feliz home was shot by her former husband outside a family Crosby’s dissent was reprinted in Harper’s firebombed. Police suggested it was a pub- law courtroom. The supreme court rejected magazine. licity stunt. the efforts of her heirs to find a dangerous Ordinary citizens have also engaged in On January 14, 1938, Harry Raymond, condition of public property out of the multi- provocative behavior at the courthouse. On CIVIC’s chief investigator, was seriously injured during a car bombing. Captain Earl Kynette, LAPD’s intelligence chief, was heard to say, “That’s too bad. Next time, we’ll do a better job.” Unused portions of the car bomb were found in Kynette’s home. He was convicted of attempted murder. Later, the supreme court expressed that it was appalled at the audacity of his threats.13 The public was also outraged. Clinton gathered 120,000 petition signatures to recall Shaw, leading one of the first recalls in American history. Judge Bowron was elected mayor in a landslide. • Pantages Theater, Seventh and Hill. This building twice figured in key legal decisions. A 1931 opinion reversed the rape conviction of theater impresario Alexander Pantages, permitting him to introduce evidence of the teenage victim’s sexual history.14 (See “Spectacular Los Angeles Trials,” page 68.) Sixty years later, following the theater’s conversion to a jewelry mart, federal prosecutors used hidden cameras to reveal a money laundry operation for Columbian narcotraf- fickers. The case involved more than $300 million. An en banc Ninth Circuit decision set parameters for secret video surveillance.15 • Skid Row. The Sundance litigation, named

for lead plaintiff Robert Sundance, signifi- Security Paciﬁc Collection/Los Angeles Public Library cantly changed the operation of Los Angeles’s Downtown’s Pantages Theater, corner of Seventh and Hill

20 LOS ANGELES LAWYER / MARCH 2003 Congratulations to the Los Angeles County Bar Association on the occasion of their 125th Anniversary.

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LONG HISTORY OF SUPPORTING THE LEGAL COMMUNITY.

LexisNexis and the Knowledge Burst logo are trademarks of Reed Elsevier Properties Inc., used under license. It’s How You Know is a trademark of LexisNexis, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. Other products or services may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies. © 2003 LexisNexis, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. AL5768 bound lanes of Alvarado Street and was hit by a speeding taxicab. The resulting lawsuit, Li v. Yellow Cab, revolutionized California tort law by introducing principles of comparative fault.20 • Charlie Chaplin Studios, 1416 North La Brea. After actor Charlie Chaplin was named in a paternity suit, both sides struck a deal—if the blood tests were negative, the lawsuit would be dropped, but Chaplin would still pay the child’s expenses. The blood test was performed, and the doctors were unani- Security Pacific Collection/ Los Angeles Public Library mous: Chaplin was not the father. So the mother did what litigants who hear bad news often do—she changed lawyers. Her new attorney was famed trial lawyer Joseph Scott. In March 1944, Superior Court Judge Stanley Mosk denied Chaplin’s motion to dismiss the Charlie Chaplin Studios paternity action. Mosk ruled that neither the mother’s stipulation nor the blood tests were April 26, 1968, Paul Cohen walked down the was criticized by the Los Angeles County Bar binding on the child. The jury should consider hallway outside Division 20 wearing a jacket Association for failing to resign before cam- all the evidence. emblazoned with the words “F*** the Draft.” paigning for attorney general. He won by a The trial was nasty. Chaplin was required His conviction for disturbing the peace was million-vote margin. to stand in front of the jury next to the mother overturned because, as Justice John Harlan and the child so that jurors could compare noted, “[O]ne man’s vulgarity is another’s SECOND STOP: CENTRAL LOS ANGELES their facial features—an exercise likened by lyric.”19 • Third and Alvarado. At this ordinary Chaplin’s attorney to a “compassionate visu- Even the judge after which the courthouse street corner, the complete defense of con- alization of the ancient masterpieces of the is named experienced a share of controversy. tributory negligence became the victim of a madonna and child.” The court of appeal, Justice Stanley Mosk was first appointed to routine automobile accident. On November however, saw this action as fixing the jurors’ the superior court in 1943. In 1958, Mosk 21, 1968, driver Nga Li cut across the south- attention on the parties’ “unspiritual and ter- SEDGWICK DETERT, MORAN & ARNOLD LLP AND AFFILIATED ENTITIES www.sdma.com

Sedgwick, Detert, Moran & Arnold LLP congratulates the Los Angeles County Bar Association LACBAfor 125 years of dedicated service to the community.

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LOS ANGELES LAWYER / MARCH 2003 23 restrial affairs.…”21 Perhaps Chaplin was not the only person involved in the suit who was capable of deadpan humor. The appellate court also agreed that the plaintiff’s story seemed improbable, but “[t]he performances of desirous and adventurous persons cannot always be rationalized.”22 In the end, the plaintiff mother won, but she did not break the bank—thus garnering a result reminiscent of the originally proposed deal. The court of appeal affirmed an order requiring Chaplin, despite his great wealth, to pay a mere $75 a week in child support.23 • Jake Zeitlin’s Bookstore, 815 North La Cienega. In the early 1960s, Los Angeles City Attorney Robert Arnebergh warned that he would bring criminal obscenity charges against anyone who sold Henry Miller’s semi- autobiographical novel Tropic of Cancer. Herald Examiner Collection/Los Angeles Public Library Bookseller Jake Zeitlin bypassed Arnebergh Aimee Semple McPherson’s Angelus Temple and secured a unanimous ruling from the California Supreme Court that the state’s • Angelus Temple, 1100 Glendale, Echo and the worst was feared. Five weeks later, obscenity laws only applied to hardcore Park. In 1926, faith healer Aimee Semple she appeared in northern Mexico. She pornography, which the Tropic of Cancer McPherson was at the height of her popu- claimed to have been kidnapped, escaping decidedly is not.24 larity. Dressed in a white gown, she preached by walking for 13 hours to freedom. Her pop- • Glassell Park. This northeast Los Angeles “illustrated sermons” (using elaborate back- ularity soared. But there were holes in her neighborhood is named for attorney Andrew drops and props) from a red velvet throne to story—and no holes in her shoes. Glassell, who served as the ﬁrst president of the more than 30,000 members of her church. Investigative reporters found compelling the Los Angeles County Bar Association when On May 18, she disappeared. She was last proof that she had secreted herself in a cot- it met on December 3, 1878. seen wading into the surf at Venice Beach, tage in Carmel with Kenneth Ormiston, a

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log onto our Web site at www.lacba.org/cle or call 213.896.6560. www.lacba.org/cle

24 LOS ANGELES LAWYER / MARCH 2003 married man who was employed at her radio station. In mid-September, District Attorney Asa Keyes charged her with ﬁling a false police report. She stuck to her story, and in January 1927, Keyes dropped all charges midway through the lurid trial. McPherson promptly went on what she called a Vindication Tour throughout the United States. But rumors of foul play abounded, including charges that the district attorney had received some $30,000 to dismiss the case.25

THIRD STOP: THE VALLEYS • Roscoe Boulevard. During the late 1800s, the Land Settlers League promoted the notion that the Mexican land grants in the San Fernando Valley were invalid, leaving the land within the public domain. By 1890, some 1,200 squatters had overrun the 60,000 acres owned by Isaac Van Nuys. The legal battle for the Valley turned upon an unusual form of documentary evidence, although it took a U.S. Supreme Court decision to validate the patent. Van Nuys fortuitously discovered that Romulo Pico (Pio Pico’s nephew) had ridden as a young boy on the first official survey. Romulo remembered that a uniquely branded white oak tree marked the southeast bound- ary. The tree was located, and a piece of it hauled into court to show the marking.26 In September 1909, in the largest recorded county transaction, Van Nuys sold his Valley holdings—47,500 acres—for $2.5 million to a syndicate headed by Los Angeles Times magnate Harry Chandler. Henry W. O’Melveny acted as the lawyer. • St. Francis Dam Site, Santa Clarita. The greatest civil engineering failure in the twentieth century resulted in criminal proceedings against water pioneer William Mul- holland. On March 12, 1928, the St. Francis Dam collapsed, releasing 12 billion gallons of water into the San Francisquito Canyon. The 10-story high floodwaters raced on a 58-mile journey to the Pacific Ocean, resulting in at

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LOS ANGELES LAWYER / MARCH 2003 25 least 500 deaths and $20 million in property DARLING, HALL & RAE LLP damage. Mulholland had inspected the dam AND earlier that day without finding anything THE HUGH AND HAZEL DARLING FOUNDATION amiss. District Attorney Asa Keyes convened a REMEMBER PAST PRESIDENTS coroner’s inquest, with Mulholland facing a HUGH W. DARLING, EDWARD S. SHATTUCK AND DONALD KEITH HALL, potential murder indictment. The prosecution’s ﬁrst exhibit was a woman’s drowned AND CONGRATULATE THE LOS ANGELES COUNTY BAR ASSOCIATION body. While no criminal liability was found, a ON 125 YEARS OF SERVICE chastened Mulholland withdrew from public life. An ancient (and then undetectable) landslide has recently been shown to have been the culprit, exonerating Mulholland posthumously. • Topanga Canyon and Roscoe. On July 16, 1970, disk jockey Don Steele drove down Valley streets in a conspicuous red car for an on-the-air promotion on radio station 93- KHJ. Two drivers raced in excess of 80 miles per hour to be the ﬁrst listener to locate him. This caused not only a fatal accident but a case that has been cited some 500 times on the tort duty of care.27 Hugh W. Darling Edward S. Shattuck Donald Keith Hall • Mayfair Hotel, Third and Garey, (1901-1986) (1901-1965) (1918-1984) Pomona. Although a suspected robber was not in his hotel room on October 27, 1960, the MATTHEW S. RAE, JR. 520 South Grand Avenue, 7th Floor night clerk was “more than happy” to let RICHARD L. STACK Los Angeles CA 90071-2645 police in. U.S. Supreme Court Justice Potter EDWIN FRESTON Telephone (213) 627-8104 EDWARD F. PEARSON, Of Counsel Facsimile (213) 627-7795 Stewart was not so happy about that. Even a Pomona hotel guest, he wrote, is entitled to protection against a warrantless search— regardless of the proprietor’s consent.28

FOURTH STOP: SOUTH LOS ANGELES • Sleepy Lagoon—Slauson and Atlantic, Maywood. On August 2, 1942, the badly beaten body of teenager Jose Diaz was found near this small pond. He died shortly there- after. Two others were stabbed that night during a free-for-all between a group of nearby partygoers and some outsiders known as the Downey boys. Goaded by lurid press accounts, the police rounded up more than 300 Mexican American youths, many because of their hair or dress. Many of the arrestees were zoot suiters, whose luxurious clothing Herald Examiner Collection/ Los Angeles Public Library Sleepy Lagoon residential area near the intersection of Slauson and Atlantic, 1942

26 LOS ANGELES LAWYER / MARCH 2003 M ORRISON & FOERSTER LLP

APPLAUDS The Los Angeles County Bar Association

FOR ITS COMMITMENT TO THE LOS ANGELES COMMUNITY AND CONGRATULATES THE ASSOCIATION ON ITS 125TH ANNIVERSARY.

Seth M. Hufstedler Samuel L. Williams Gavin Miller LACBA President, 1969-70 LACBA President, 1977-78 LACBA President, 1983-84 John M. Langston Bar First African-American LACBA Strengthened the role Association and the Mexican President; Launched Los Angeles of Corporate Counsel in American Bar Association Lawyer Magazine in its present the Association. became affiliates of LACBA. format.

Patricia Phillips Laurie Zelon LACBA President, 1984-85 LACBA President, 1995-96 First Woman LACBA President; Confirmed the Association’s The Black Woman Lawyers commitment to legal services Association of Los Angeles for those in need. became an affiliate of LACBA

MORRISON & FOERSTER LLP Lawyers for the global economySM

on the web at www.mofo.com Your Link to Court Reporting and Legal Support Services was at odds with the wartime emphasis on rationing and sacrifice. The 12 murder con- Everywhere. victions that followed these arrests were all reversed on appeal, the court finding insuf- • Certified Court Reporters • Video Teleconferencing • Interactive Realtime Reporting • Online Scheduling ficient evidence that the defendants had “mur- 29 • E-Transcript • Compressed Transcript/ der in their hearts.” • Legal Video Services Word Indexing • Fortune Liquor Store, 2208 Century, • Litigation Support • Internet Ready Inglewood. A drunk driver lost control on Conference Rooms Century Boulevard, veered into the minimall, • Process Service jumped the curb, and struck a man inside a telephone booth. According to the supreme 6222 Wilshire Blvd., 2nd Floor, Los Angeles, CA 90048 • (323)938-2461 • Fax (323)931-3016 court of Chief Justice Rose Bird, this set the Schedule service with us online at www.esquiredeposition.com stage for a jury case as to the phone compa- Esquire Deposition Services, LLC, is a subsidiary of The Hobart West Group, Inc. The logo is a registered trademark of ny’s negligence.30 As a result, one might won- The Hobart West Group, Inc. ©Esquire Deposition Services 2003. All rights reserved. Printed in the USA. der if indeed “there are clear judicial days on which a court can foresee forever.”31 • McMartin Preschool, Manhattan Beach. In August 1983, a woman complained that her two-year-old son had been sodomized by a male preschool teacher. Within a year, GREENE, BROILLET, 208 counts of child abuse were filed against seven adults. Allegations surfaced that the PANISH & WHEELER, LLP teachers belonged to a Satanic cult, peddled child pornography, and engaged in animal sacrifices. The McMartin trial stretched to WE ARE PLEASED TO ANNOUNCE THAT 1990 at a cost exceeding $15 million. It was the most expensive criminal prosecution in U.S. history. Only two defendants went to trial: GEOFFREY S. WELLS Peggy Buckey, who was acquitted, and her son, Ray, whose two trials resulted in hung HAS BECOME A PARTNER juries, after which all charges were dropped. He was jailed for five years during the trials. The criminal defendants became plain- BRUCE C. FISHELMAN tiffs in civil suits, charging that ABC television reporter Wayne Satz, whose sensational exclu- sives riveted the city, was romantically linked HAS JOINED US AS OF COUNSEL with child abuse investigator Kee McFarland, who was charged with abusive questioning techniques. The efforts of the defendants to MICHAEL J. AVENATTI recover damages foundered on the statutes of limitations and the child abuse reporting FORMERLY OF O’MELVENY & MYERS LLP immunities.32 HAS JOINED US AS AN ASSOCIATE • Montrose Chemical, 20201 Nor- mandie, Torrance. This 13-acre facility was one of the world’s leading DDT producers between 1947 and 1982. Its discharges spilled onto the Palos Verdes ocean floor (creating a A PLAINTIFF’S LAW FIRM 17-square-mile DDT hot spot), and into state and federal courtrooms. A Superfund lawsuit resulted in a record-breaking $140 million Greene, Broillet, Panish & Wheeler, LLP settlement in December 2000. As if that were not enough, it also spawned coverage litiga- 100 Wilshire Boulevard, Twenty-First Floor tion concerning the refusal by the insurers to Santa Monica, California 90401 defend33 and the coverage trigger in long-tail Tel: 310.576.1200 policies.34 It may prove as difficult and costly to clean up what Montrose has done to insur- Fax: 310.576.1220 ance law as it has been to clean up the company’s pollution. [email protected] • www.gbpwlaw.com • Florence and Normandie. On television, Rodney King pleaded, “Can’t we all just get along?” but truck driver Reginald Denny’s televised beating on April 29, 1992, at this intersection showed otherwise. Eight months

28 LOS ANGELES LAWYER / MARCH 2003 Catch train, argue appeal, grab no-carb lunch, tutor at PS123, advise client on possible DOJ merger challenge.

A typical Tuesday for W&S partner Tony D’Auria, and another opportunity to make a difference.

AT WINSTON & STRAWN, we bring energy, dedication, As part of our law firm’s 150th anniversary, we’ve created and resources to the projects we take on as members of the Opportunities Through Education, a public service program community — the same commitment we make to all of our including teacher training initiatives, tutoring, playground builds, clients. One by one, and as a firm, we’re using our time and and law school diversity scholarships. Because when you love what skills to make a difference. you do, doing a little more is like getting a seat on the express.

www.winston.com earlier, an appellate court, citing “graphic” 34 Years Experience in the Boardroom and “devastating” publicity and a political CORPORATE “ﬁre storm,” had ordered a change of venue • Member, Corporations Committee of the LAW outside the county for the criminal trial of Business Law Section, State Bar of California the LAPD officers who appeared on videotape EXPERT • Author, Lecturer, Consultant assaulting Rodney King.35 The trial court • Editor of the Southern transferred the case to conservative Simi WITNESS California Law Review Valley, where the officers were acquitted, generating new ﬁre storms. The officers were Rogers, Sheffield later convicted on federal civil rights viola- campbell,llp tions, although the U.S. Supreme Court crit- B. Keith Martin, Esq. (805) 963-9721 icized the Ninth Circuit’s de novo review and 36 caltech bsee • usc jd [email protected] lengthening of their prison terms. Denny www.high-techlawyer.com sought damages in a civil suit against the city, but an appellate court ruled that if you were hurt when not all of us were getting along, you cannot sue the LAPD for failure to protect.37 • Harry Pregerson Interchange, Harbor and Century Freeways. Federal judge Harry T. Pregerson spent much of his judicial career shepherding the Century Freeway litigation,38 so this memorial is appropriate in its own way. A consent decree brokered in 1979 by attorney John R. Phillips resulted in the Green Line light rail, 9,500 units of low-income housing, and a job apprenticeship program for 8,000 disadvantaged persons. At the July 2002 dedication, Assembly Speaker Robert Hertzberg commented, “Judge Pregerson’s mother…might be thinking, ‘To honor my son you could have built a statue.…[I]nstead, a freeway interchange you pick?’”

FIFTH STOP: THE WESTSIDE • Palisades Park, Santa Monica. An infamous ex parte communication occurred in this park on April 7, 1973, during the prosecution of the Pentagon Papers case against Daniel Ellsberg. John Ehrlichman, a counselor to then-president Richard Nixon, went from the Western White House in San Clemente to visit his mother in Santa Monica. He briefly met federal district judge Matt Byrne on a park bench to ask whether Byrne would be interested in becoming FBI director. There was one hitch: Byrne was still presiding over the trial against Ellsberg. Byrne ultimately disclosed the communication. Little more than a month later, Byrne declared a mistrial, but for other reasons, including government misconduct in wiretapping Ellsberg and breaking into the Beverly Hills office of psychiatrist Lewis Fielding. In September 1973, the county grand jury indicted Ehrlichman for the Fielding burglary. Ehr- lichman was convicted on parallel federal offenses.39 Nixon was later disbarred in New York on the ground (among others) that he “improperly engaged in conduct which he knew or should have known would interfere with the legal defense of Daniel Ellsberg.”40 And Judge Byrne did not secure the FBI

30 LOS ANGELES LAWYER / MARCH 2003 appointment. • Pico and Sepulveda. This Westside intersection also happens to be the name of an early California Supreme Court decision, Pico v. Sepulveda.41 Ygnacio Sepulveda was the Congratulations to the Los Angeles most prominent member of the Sepulveda family. In 1879, he was elected to be one of Los County Bar Association on 125 years Angeles County’s first two superior court judges, and he presided over the inquiry into of distinguished service to our the Chinese Massacre. Plaintiff Pio Pico was community. California’s last governor under Mexican rule. He remained an important member of local society, operating the city’s principal hotel, Pico House, which opened in 1870. He For nearly a half-century, the Jewish never learned to speak English. Hard times befell Pico in the 1880s, and he Community Foundation has been borrowed $62,000 from businessman Bernard Cohn, using his property as security. Pico working with members of the Los attempted to repay the loan, but Cohn refused, Angeles County Bar Association to claiming the transaction was a sale. To Pico’s surprise, his interpreter, Pancho Johnson, assist their clients with planned agreed. Pico ﬁled a new lawsuit to annul the judgment when he discovered that Johnson giving options and to help them had been bribed $2,000. The supreme court, however, refused Pico’s claim because there support a wide variety of charitable was no extrinsic fraud.42 Pico died penniless in 1894 at the age of 93. causes throughout our community. • O.J.’s House, 360 Rockingham, Brentwood. This is where Detective Mark To learn more about the services Fuhrman found the bloody glove. The city’s we offer, call 1-877-ENDOW-NOW last trial of the century was followed by a civil case that may have equally lasting legal (877-363-6966). To learn more the ramiﬁcations. Affirming a $25 million punitive award, the court of appeal allowed expert Los Angeles County Bar Association’s testimony from a sports marketer that lifetime rights to Simpson’s name were worth at least stellar record of achievements, just $25 million because “[t]he line between celebrity and infamy has almost disappeared. keep on reading! What matters most is fame and it is not ter- ribly important how you get famous.”43 • Malibu. The current skirmish involving Mark Lainer, Chairman David Geffen and beach access pales in com- parison to the battle fought by May Rindge, Marvin I. Schotland, President & CEO

6505 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90048 www.jewishfoundationla.org

Wealthy beachside enclave Malibu

LOS ANGELES LAWYER / MARCH 2003 31 25 sometimes called the Queen of Malibu. subsequently moved in with actor Dick Van CECILIA RASMUSSEN, LOS ANGELES UNCONVENTIONAL 69 (1998). Following her husband’s death in 1905, Dyke. That relationship, however, is not 26 Los Angeles Farming & Milling Co. v. Thompson, 117 Rindge resolved to keep her 13,316-acre ranch believed to have resulted in any legally sig- Cal. 594 (1897), aff’d, 180 U.S. 72 (1901). spanning Malibu and Topanga free of devel- niﬁcant developments. ■ 27 Weirum v. RKO Gen., Inc., 15 Cal. 3d 40, 47 (1975). opment. The state was equally determined to 28 Stoner v. State of Cal., 376 U.S. 483 (1964). 29 build a major coastal highway. Rindge liti- 1 Huddleston v. Washington, 136 Cal. 514 (1902). People v. Zammora, 66 Cal. App. 2d 166, 176-77 (1944). gated for 17 years and involved the California 2 Simpson v. City of Los Angeles, 4 Cal. 2d 60 (1935), 30 Bigbee v. Paciﬁc Tel. & Tel. Co., 34 Cal. 3d 49, 58 and U.S. Supreme Courts.44 With the blessing rev’g 38 P. 2d 174 (Cal. App. 1934). 3 Foltz v. Hoge, 54 Cal. 28 (1879). (1983). of these courts, the highway opened in 1928. 31 Thing v. La Chusa, 48 Cal. 3d 644, 668 (1989) (quote 4 GEOFFREY COWAN, THE PEOPLE V. CLARENCE DARROW Rindge had sought $9 million in eminent (1995). attributed to Bernard E. Witkin). 32 domain damages but recovered just $107,000. 5 People v. Crenshaw, 46 Cal. 65 (1873). McMartin v. Children’s Inst. Int’l, 212 Cal. App. 3d In 1940, she was forced to declare bankruptcy 6 Ling v. Mayor & Common Council, 47 Cal. 531 (1874). 1393 (1989); Satz v. Superior Court, 225 Cal. App. 3d 1525 (1990); see Buckey v. County of Los Angeles, 968 and sell everything. 7 People v. Hall, 4 Cal. 399, 402, 404-05 (1854). 8 Hutson v. Owl Drug Co., 79 Cal. App. 390 (1926). F. 2d 791 (9th Cir. 1992). Robert Downey Jr. soon may match 33 9 Perez v. Sharp, 32 Cal. 2d 711, 722 (1948). Montrose Chem. Corp. v. Superior Court, 6 Cal. 4th Rindge’s record for legal travails. In July 1996, 10 Id. at 733 (Carter, J., concurring). 287 (1993). 34 Montrose Chem. Corp. v. Admiral Ins. Co., 10 Cal. 4th Downey was found sleeping like Goldilocks 11 W. W. ROBINSON, LAWYERS OF LOS ANGELES 168-69 (1959). 465 (1995). in a child’s bed at a neighboring Broad Beach 35 12 Clinton v. Superior Court, 23 Cal. App. 2d 251, 252 Powell v. Superior Court, 232 Cal. App. 3d 785 (1991). home. This was less than a month after he had 36 (1937). Koon v. United States, 518 U.S. 81 (1996). been arrested for possession of heroin and 37 13 People v. Kynette, 15 Cal. 2d 731, 743 (1940). Gates v. Superior Court, 32 Cal. App. 4th 481 (1995). 38 cocaine. Three years later, Downey went to 14 People v. Pantages, 212 Cal. 237 (1931). Keith v. California Highway Comm’n, 506 F. 2d 696 prison, his probation revoked. On appeal, the 15 United States v. Koyomejian, 970 F. 2d 536 (9th Cir. (9th Cir. 1974). 39 trial judge was found not to have responded 1991). United States v. Ehrlichman, 546 F. 2d 910 (D.C. 16 Sundance v. Municipal Court, 42 Cal. 3d 1101 (1986). Cir. 1976). to undue media pressure that he had been too 40 17 Matter of Nixon, 385 N.Y.S. 2d 305, 306 (N.Y. A.D. soft.45 Zelig v. County of Los Angeles, 27 Cal. 4th 1112, 1127 (2002). 1976). Malibu also was the home to a landmark 41 18 Patrick v. Superior Court, 27 Cal. Rptr. 2d 883 (1994) Pico v. Sepulveda, 66 Cal. 336 (1885). 42 legal relationship in the late 1960s between (depublished). Pico v. Cohn, 25 P. 970 (1891). 43 actor Lee Marvin and singer Michelle Triola. 19 Cohen v. California, 403 U.S. 15, 25 (1971). Rufo v. Simpson, 86 Cal. App. 4th 573, 623 (2001). 44 People v. Rindge, 174 Cal. 743 (1917); Rindge Co. v. Although the supreme court held they could 20 Li v. Yellow Cab Co., 13 Cal. 3d 804 (1975). Los Angeles County, 262 U.S. 700 (1923). 46 21 Berry v. Chaplin, 74 Cal. App. 2d 652, 666 (1946). legally contract for palimony, the trial court 45 22 Id. at 663. People v. Downey, 82 Cal. App. 4th 899, 910 (2000). on remand found they had not made any such 46 23 Id. at 669. Marvin v. Marvin, 18 Cal. 3d 660 (1976). 47 47 agreement. Triola, who recovered nothing, 24 Zeitlin v. Arnebergh, 59 Cal. 2d 901, 923 (1963). Marvin v. Marvin, 122 Cal. App. 3d 871 (1981).

we are proud to support the Los Angeles County Bar Association

and honor LACBA on its 125th Anniversary

www.morganlewis.com

32 LOS ANGELES LAWYER / MARCH 2003 LOS ANGELES125YearsCOUNTY BAR ASSOCIATION

By Patricia Phillips

Meeting Challenges: The Association’s History of ACCOMPLISHMENT Even with all its imperfections, the Association can look back with pride in how much it has contributed to the community and the law

I n 1978, the Los Angeles “drew both applause and mutters from the he’d be in jail right now, whether he was inno- County Bar Association commemorated the audience.” That notion became reality when, cent or guilty.…In this system, you are inno- anniversary of its first 100 years. In that grand in 1984, I had the privilege of becoming the cent until proven broke.”1 year, led first by President Samuel L. Williams first woman president. Others followed: President Carter was also concerned that and then by President John Taylor, the Margaret Morrow (1988-89), Andrea lawyers at the time, in fact, may have been Association proudly looked back on 100 years Sheridan Ordin (1991-92), Laurie Zelon (1995- striving to increase litigation rather than of progress. At that time, the Association was 96), Lee Smalley Edmon (1998-99), Patricia resolve disputes. President Carter cited the largest local voluntary bar association in Schnegg (1999-2000), and our current pres- Mahatma Gandhi (himself a lawyer), who the United States, and its membership, join- ident, Miriam Aroni Krinsky. once noted, “Lawyers will as a rule advance ing in a promise made by those two leaders, On that day in May, the Association wel- quarrels rather than repress them.” President dedicated itself to making the Association a comed several special guests—including the Carter set four challenges for our profes- haven of inclusivity and reflective of the pub- governor of the state of California, Jerry sion—goals that, I think you will agree, the lic that we serve. The Association has done Brown, and the mayor of the city of Los Association has met, realistically and suc- well in fulfilling the promise made by these Angeles, Tom Bradley. Both Mayor Bradley cessfully: two distinguished presidents. and Governor Brown spoke highly of our 1. Make the criminal justice fairer, faster, That year, with the avid support of Association, but our special guest, President more sensible, and more certain. Williams, Los Angeles Lawyer magazine made Jimmy Carter, took the occasion to criticize 2. Hold the law to the highest standards of its debut. On its first cover, the magazine pre- our profession. He commented on the delays impartiality, honesty, and fairness. dicted the opening of the doors of leadership in our courts and in accomplishing our clients’ 3. Ensure that access to the legal system does of our Association to women. President-elect goals. He noted that “a child of privilege fre- Taylor made the prediction himself on May 4, quently receives the benefit of the doubt; a Patricia Phillips was the first woman presi- 1978, at the historic session at which the pres- child of poverty seldom does.” This sad com- dent of the Association in 1984-85. She is also ident of the United States, Jimmy Carter, mentary was echoed years later by Johnnie the chair of the 125th Anniversary Committee addressed the Association members. Los Cochran, when he noted in the Los Angeles and was chair of the 100th Anniversary Angeles Lawyer indicated that Taylor’s notion Times, “If [O. J.] Simpson had been poor, Committee.

LOS ANGELES LAWYER / MARCH 2003 33

not depend on political inﬂuence or economic power. 4. Reduce our reliance on litigation and speed up those cases that are litigated. What has our Association done to meet the goals set forth by President Carter? 1. Striving for a fairer, faster, sensible, and certain criminal justice system. Our criminal justice system has gone through remarkable and meritorious changes in the past 25 years. Our court has managed not only to deal reasonably with the three strikes law but also to implement a direct calendar- ing system that has resulted in a less con- gested criminal court (and consequent relief for litigators who also are engaged in criminal trials). Between 1995 and 1999, our Association has provided attorneys for over 32,000 indigent criminal defendants and continues to monitor the criminal courts to ensure that each accused is afforded all the protections available in our legal system. Our Association, and in particular its Criminal Justice Section and the PC 987.2 Indigent Criminal Defense Appointments Committee, continues to monitor and evalu- ate proposed criminal justice initiatives and legislation. Recognizing the delicate balance between public safety and the protection of President Jimmy Carter addressed the Association on the occasion of its 100th every person’s rights to due process and birthday in May 1978. assumption of innocence until proven guilty, IMMIGRATION LAW

CONSULAR PROCESSING TEMPORARY WORK VISAS LABOR CERTIFICATIONS EMPLOYER SANCTIONS (I-9) Intra-Company Transfers FAMILY RELATED PETITIONS DESIGN CORPORATE IMMIGRATION POLICIES Entertainers & Sports Professionals OUTBOUND VISA CAPABILITY EXPERT TESTIMONIAL SERVICES NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) Visas Professionals & Investors Blue/White Collar Employee Immigration Assistance

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Newport Beach Los Angeles 4685 MacArthur Court, Suite 400 6310 San Vicente Blvd., Suite 415 Newport Beach, CA 92660 Los Angeles, CA 90048 phone 949-251-8844 phone 323-936-0200 fax 949-251-1545 fax 323-936-4488 email [email protected] AV Rated email [email protected]

www.hirson.com • also in San Diego, CA • Phoenix, AZ • Las Vegas, NV • New York, NY • Wilton, CT • Toronto, Canada David Hirson and Mitchell L. Wexler are certiﬁed by the State Bar of California Board of Legal Specialization as specialists in Immigration and Nationality Law. All matters of California state law are provided by active members and/or under the supervision of active members of the California State Bar.

LOS ANGELES LAWYER / MARCH 2003 35 our Association comments on legislation with U.S. District Court to encourage lawyers to act vital legal services to those who cannot afford a view to assuring that the voters and legis- professionally in the conduct of litigation. them. Indeed, our Association, in its collabo- lators are reminded of the need to balance The underlying premise of the guidelines is ration with the Black Women Lawyers ever-increasing penalties and elimination of that a lawyer’s job is not to win at all costs but Association and the Women Lawyers procedural safeguards with the rights of the rather to aid in the resolution of disputes. Association of Los Angeles, is a substantial accused. 3. Provide equal access to legal services. provider of free family law services to low- Most recently, the Association created President Carter urged us to ensure that income residents in Los Angeles County. In the Los Angeles County Bar Task Force on access to legal services not be dependent on 1989, the Association called upon each mem- the State Criminal Justice System to address, the inﬂuence or wealth of a client or lawyer. ber to devote at least 35 hours annually to pro in the wake of the Rampart scandal, justice The Association has long supported increas- bono representation of the poor and disad- system issues and possible reforms. ing funding for the Legal Services vantaged. Oversight of these goals resides 2. Maintain the highest standards of Corporation, actively supporting proposals with the Committee on Access to Justice and impartiality, honesty, and fairness. Our in Washington, D.C., and Sacramento for the Elder Law Committee. Association has established two committees additional funding. On its own, the Association In addition to pro bono work, the As- designed to deal with the ethical problems has affirmatively taken steps to ensure basic sociation participated in the Blue Ribbon that attorneys face in their daily practice. One access to legal services through its Im- Commission for Superior Court Im- is the Committee on Professional Respon- migration Legal Assistance Project as well provement, a joint project with the Los An- sibility and Ethics, and the other is the At- as the highly successful Lawyer Referral and geles Superior Court. This commission insti- torneys Errors and Omissions Prevention Information Service. tuted reforms that resulted in a more Committee. Education of our members to The Barristers Domestic Violence user-friendly court and courthouses for prevent errors, omissions, or ethical viola- Program annually assists more than 7,000 lawyers and litigants. In conjunction with its tions; monitoring marginal situations; and victims of domestic violence to secure Judicial Evaluations Committee, the As- offering opinions in close cases are among the restraining orders. Through HALSA sociation is considered the premier reliable services that members of the Association (HIV/AIDS Legal Services Alliance), each source for information regarding judicial elec- provide to its members and, indirectly, to the year the Association helps more than 1,000 tions as well as other topics related to the public. people who are HIV infected or have AIDS (or law and the judiciary. In 1989, the Association developed litiga- their family members) obtain needed legal 4. Reduce litigation in favor of ADR and tion guidelines to improve ethical conduct services. The Association also sponsors provide means of early resolution of dis- and civility within the profession. The guide- Public Counsel, the Harriett Buhai Center putes. President Carter exhorted us to lines were adopted by the Los Angeles for Family Law, and the Inner City Law resolve problems, not create them. Although Superior and Municipal Courts as well as the Center, all of which are devoted to providing I would not agree that lawyers generally can

GREENE, BROILLET, PANISH & WHEELER, LLP A PLAINTIFF’S LAW FIRM Browne Greene Bruce A. Broillet Brian J. Panish Timothy J. Wheeler Christine D. Spagnoli Mark T. Quigley Adam K. Shea Geoffrey S. Wells

JOINS IN CELEBRATING THE LOS ANGELES COUNTY BAR ASSOCIATION’S 125TH ANNIVERSARY 1878 - 2003 AND ITS CONTRIBUTION TO THE BETTERMENT OF THE LEGAL PROFESSION AND THE COMMUNITY OF LOS ANGELES

Greene, Broillet, Panish & Wheeler, LLP Santa Monica, California www.gbpwlaw.com

36 LOS ANGELES LAWYER / MARCH 2003 be blamed for creating problems, we have certainly done and continue to do our share to resolve problems short of litigation through our Dispute Resolution Service community LLP mediation programs, school mediation programs, and court programs providing settle- Steptoe congratulates ment conferences and mediation as alterna- the Los Angeles County Bar Association tives to litigation. on its 125 years of service to the community. INCREASING DIVERSITY

President Carter did not speciﬁcally mention 633 West 5th St. Suite 700 Los Angeles, CA 90071 213.439.9400 diversity in our profession as one of his targets LOS ANGELES WASHINGTON, DC PHOENIX LONDON BRUSSELS WWW.STEPTOE.COM for the Association. However, diversity in our profession will make it possible to achieve the other goals more quickly and completely. This Association continues to recognize and integrate the diverse members of our profession and to assist in assuring that the needs of the diverse population of Los Angeles are met. The inclusivity of the Association has grown to make it, I suspect, the only local bar association in the country that counts 25 other bar associations as affiliates. Since 1978, the number of our affiliate bars has more than doubled and include the Black Women Lawyers Association of Los Angeles, the Italian American Lawyers Association of Los Angeles County, the Japanese American Bar Association, the John M. Langston Bar As- sociation, the Korean Bar Association, the Mexican American Bar Association, the South Asian Bar Association of Southern California, and the Southern California Chinese Lawyers Association. The Women Lawyers Association of Los Angeles maintains a permanent seat on the Association’s Board of Trustees. The Asso- ciation can look with pride on the scholar- ship program that it has created for minority law students. Indeed, this 125th birthday celebration is designed to recognize just how far our Association has come from its early days, when lawyers of color were excluded. Today we count lawyers of all ethnicities and backgrounds among our leaders and members.

A LEGACY OF ACHIEVEMENT The Association’s history did not begin with its 100th anniversary. Each decade has been marked by significant achievements since that December day in 1878 when 22 of the 58 lawyers in the county met to create a law library and a bar association. In the ﬁrst 10 years, the Association reinvented itself more than once but managed also to establish several standing committees covering such areas as the judiciary, grievances, and legal education. One written record tells us that in the early 1900s, despite an enthusiastic beginning, the Association suffered from apathy. Members seemed to spend their time making ﬂowery speeches about members who had departed this life. But by the 1910s, mem-

LOS ANGELES LAWYER / MARCH 2003 37 bers of the Association were providing input The Association was active in providing what the public was looking for, led to the on the content of the bar examination being free legal services for the families of those Lawyer in the Classroom program, the given in the Los Angeles District Court of serving in the armed forces during World Neighborhood Justice Center, Volunteers in Appeal. Indeed, our Association may take War I and World War II. Both wars also took Parole, the Immigration Legal Assistance some credit for enactment of the require- a direct toll on lawyers in Los Angeles County. Project, and the Lawyers for Housing Project, ment of a mandatory written exam for However, when the troops came home, the each established in the 1970s and each in entrance to practice in 1919. During the 1920s Association assisted lawyers returning to some form continuing today. the Association challenged police brutality practice. During the 1950s the Association As a member of this Association, please and the unlawful practice of law, and we engaged in public outreach designed to edu- consider what you do for it and what it does assisted in passing legislation that established cate people about the legal profession and for you. Serving our goal of professional devel- the municipal court.2 enhance the image of lawyers. In the 1960s opment, President Krinsky has instituted the The Junior Barristers was established in members of our Association reaffirmed our Breakfast with Giants program. This pro- the early 1930s, with Charles E. Beardsley as commitment to public service. President gram features giants of our profession (of its ﬁrst chairperson, and the Lawyer Referral Leonard Janofsky captured the essence of which we have many) providing insight to Service became a reality in the late 1930s. In our professional obligation when he said: all of us about the profession and the steps more recent years, the Association opposed “[T]he organized Bar is obligated to devote they took to success, as well as encouraging radio reproduction of court trials and even much of its energy to exploring and attempt- those who are beginning their careers. obtained an injunction against the Los Angeles ing to solve…important matters of urban and Standing on the shoulders of the giants who Times against media coverage of ongoing social concern.” have gone before us, the members of this court trials. This decision ultimately was The 1960s were a time of tremendous Association will continue the tradition of pro- reversed by the California Supreme Court. change for our profession. Law schools fessionalism and service that has been the The Association and the media did not encouraged women to apply. Until then, hallmark of the past 125 years. You are a part always see eye to eye. In fact, in the early women had constituted about 2 to 3 percent of this tradition. You deserve to feel a sense 1930s the Association, perturbed about con- of law school graduating classes. This per- of pride as you observe the 125th anniversary tinuing portrayals that were less than flat- centage grew rapidly during the 1960s and banners along Figueroa Street by the tering of lawyers in movies, brought such 1970s. Also during these years, after being Association’s offices. ■ pressure to bear that a studio, which had criticized for a perceived lack of support for insisted on portraying members of our noble enhancing the delivery of legal services, the 1 LOS ANGELES TIMES, Sept. 29, 2002. profession as shysters, removed a stereo- Association implemented a group legal ser- 2 We witnessed the abolition of the municipal court in typical shyster character from a movie script. vices plan. This plan, although not precisely 2001, which was also the result of a process in which the Association participated.

Harry Hathaway, 1989 John Carson, 1994

Fulbright & Jaworski L.L.P. congratulates the Los Angeles County Bar Association on its 125th anniversary and looks forward to continuing our service to the Los Angeles legal community.

865 S. Figueroa St., 29th Floor, Los Angeles, CA 90017 • Telephone 213/892-9200 • www.fulbright.com

38 LOS ANGELES LAWYER / MARCH 2003 congratulates The Los Angeles County Bar Association on 125 years of service to the legal profession and the community.

800 955 2719 | www.legaltechshow.com LOS ANGELES125YearsCOUNTY BAR ASSOCIATION

By Edwin Guthman A Landmark in DIVERSITY An insider offers a fascinating glimpse into the origins of the Civil Rights Act of 1964

he dreadful violence that rocked superintendent, Carl F. Hansen, RFK spoke to cies hire students during the summer to Birmingham, Alabama, in the spring of 1963 a large group of students at Cardozo High, enable them to remain in school. Tconvinced President John F. Kennedy to ask where he learned that many students were Congress to pass the landmark Civil Rights dropping out of school because they had to THE CIVIL RIGHTS ISSUE Act of 1964, but the administration’s involve- work to help their families. While driving Anticipating that civil rights would become a ment in the civil rights crisis began well Hansen back to his office, Kennedy expressed signiﬁcant issue during his brother’s admin- before that. In fact, the civil rights bill pre- dismay that students had to drop out for eco- istration, Robert Kennedy chose Burke Mar- sented to Congress reflected the ongoing nomic reasons. He asked Hansen how many shall, a smart and well-respected Washington concerns of President Kennedy as well as dropped out annually. attorney, to head the Department of Justice’s the character and interests of his brother, “More than 400,” Hansen said, “but we Civil Rights Division. Although Marshall did U.S. Attorney General Robert Kennedy. have a fund to help them.” not have a background in civil rights, One of most engaging hallmarks of Robert “How many students are you helping?” Kennedy selected him because of his credi- Kennedy’s character was his unrelenting com- Kennedy asked. bility on Capitol Hill. The wisdom of Ken- pulsion to act once he saw the need for action. “About 15.” nedy’s choice soon became clear as Marshall For him, it was not enough to make a speech Upon returning to his office, Kennedy began strengthening the Civil Rights Division, or express regret; he had to do something that immediately sent a letter to the Washington in part by securing additional funding from would make a difference. So it was early in the school board. In response, he received only Congress. Kennedy Administration that RFK, noticing as a form letter thanking him for his interest. So It did not take long for the civil rights he drove around Washington, D.C., that the Kennedy called a meeting of about 20 people issue to begin its slow boil. In May 1961, just public schools were beleaguered, began vis- whose judgment he valued to discuss how four months after Kennedy’s inauguration, a iting senior and junior high schools—not to best to address the issue of ﬁnancially driven give speeches, but just to talk to the students student dropouts. The result of that meeting Edwin Guthman, a Pulitzer Prize-winning and teachers. After a few visits, he began tak- was a program that paid students to stay in journalist, is senior lecturer at the Annenberg ing athletes from the two professional Wash- school by providing them with an opportunity School for Communications at the University ington teams—the Senators and the Red- to earn money through an on-campus job. of Southern California. He was special assistant skins—with him. This program served as the prototype for the for public information in the U.S. Department One day, accompanied by the school Summer Jobs Program, in which federal agen- of Justice from 1961 to 1964. DENNIS IRWIN

40 LOS ANGELES LAWYER / MARCH 2003 LOS ANGELES LAWYER / MARCH 2003 41 group of civil rights activists known as Freedom To further desegregation efforts, the Jus- order from U.S. Supreme Court Justice Hugo Riders left Washington for the South to reg- tice Department identified every Southern Black in September to ensure that Meredith ister African American voters. Although they city that was planning to desegregate its would be admitted to the university. In issued a press release upon their departure, schools for the first time in the fall 1961 se- response to the Supreme Court order, Gov- no one paid much attention as they passed mester. The list consisted of at least 10 cities, ernor Barnett announced that Mississippi through Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia including Atlanta, Georgia, and Memphis, would not “surrender to the evil and illegal without any incident. But in Anniston, Ala- Tennessee. In the summer of 1961, Burke forces of tyranny.” bama, they were attacked—several Freedom Marshall traveled to each of these cities to Robert Kennedy called the governor to Riders were badly beaten and their bus was lend federal support to desegregation efforts discuss Mississippi’s compliance with the burned. Suddenly, the American people and to encourage peaceful desegregation. He court order—specifically, the details of became aware of the Freedom Riders. The spoke with mayors, police chiefs, school Meredith’s admission to the university. His Justice Department soon learned that the board members, church people, and busi- efforts were unsuccessful. After Barnett per- FBI knew the Ku Klux Klan was planning to nesspeople—anyone who would be influential sonally blocked Meredith’s attempt to enter attack the Freedom Riders when they arrived or important in implementing desegregation. the university registrar’s office, the federal dis- in Alabama but did nothing to prevent it. He offered federal law enforcement assis- trict court held the board of trustees and top In fact, the FBI had such a close relation- tance, but also let it be known that federal officials of the university in contempt and ship with Southern lawmen that Robert assistance would be sent, whether or not issued a restraining order against the gover- Kennedy realized that he could not count on requested, if the situation grew out of control. nor that prohibited him from interfering in the bureau to help protect the Freedom The meetings were never publicized. Meredith’s enrollment. Riders, other civil rights activists, or the black The following fall, on October 1, 1962, To settle these suits, Barnett proposed a community. That meant that the Justice James Meredith was admitted to the Univer- face-saving charade. He promised, that he, the Department would have to work alone in its sity of Mississippi after a showdown between governor, would step aside and allow Mer- civil rights efforts. Kennedy dispatched John the administration and Mississippi Governor edith to register if U.S. marshals first drew Doar, assistant attorney general in the Civil Ross Barnett. In May 1961, Meredith had guns on him. But after learning that Klansmen Rights Division, as head of a team of lawyers filed a federal suit against the state of Missis- were headed to Mississippi from across the to gather data throughout the South on issues sippi, asserting that he had been denied South, Barnett called Robert Kennedy to tell such as the denial of the right to vote to admission to the University of Mississippi him that he would be unable to handle the blacks. In addition, he petitioned the Interstate simply because he was black. Meredith lost crowds and that he was withdrawing the face- Commerce Commission to abolish racial dis- in the trial court but won on appeal to the U.S. saving proposal. On September 28 or 29, crimination in interstate travel. Fifth Circuit in June 1962. Still, it took an President Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, and the

42 LOS ANGELES LAWYER / MARCH 2003 ongratulations to the Los Angeles County Bar Association, recipient in 1976 and 1977 of the Award of Merit of the American Bar Association as the Best Metropolitan Bar Association in the United States. You’ve come a long way C since the days of Christopher, Wheat, Quinn and Williams! Thanks to Rich Walch and wonderful staff. Keep up the good work. John J. Quinn, President Los Angeles County Bar Association 1976-1977 governor agreed on a plan that would have were killed. More than one-third of the mar- Alabama, awakened the nation. Meredith register in secret in Jackson, Mis- shals—160 in all—were injured, 28 were For several weeks African Americans, sissippi, while the crowds assembled in wounded by gunfire, and a state trooper was with many schoolchildren in their ranks and Oxford. But one day later, the governor called badly injured. led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., marched Robert Kennedy to urge him to postpone President Kennedy asked Governor steadily in the streets of Birmingham to Meredith’s arrival and registration. The attor- Barnett to bring the highway patrol back to protest discrimination in employment and in ney general refused and threatened that the the campus, and the president called in the places that served the public. The demon- president would appear on national televi- National Guard and the U.S. Army. However, strators sought jobs that required wearing a sion and tell the nation that the governor had except for 55 men in the Oxford unit of the tie in a local department store, nonsegre- agreed to admit Meredith secretly and then National Guard who arrived 45 minutes later, gated fitting rooms, and nonsegregated water had reneged on the agreement. Only then it took Army contingents, standing by in fountains. The Birmingham police repeat- did Barnett agree to a plan to bring Meredith Memphis, four and one-half hours to reach edly routed the demonstrators with night on the campus. the scene. At 2:00 A.M. they finally dispersed sticks, fire hoses, electric prods, police dogs, On Sunday afternoon, September 30, Dep- the mob. At 9:00 A.M. on October 1, 1962, and mass arrests. Television coverage and uty Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach Meredith, escorted by Katzenbach, Doar, photographs of demonstrators knocked down and John Doar escorted Meredith to Baxter and Chief U.S. Marshal James J. P. McShane, by streams of water from high-pressure hoses Hall, a dormitory where he would spend the completed his registration and attended his and attacked by police dogs aroused nation- night guarded by 24 U.S. marshals while first class. wide sympathy for the demonstrators and other marshals surrounded the Lyceum Even after the difficult dealings with their cause. Burke Marshall and other Justice Building where he would register the fol- Governor Barnett, the protracted efforts Department attorneys on the scene became lowing morning. However, by nightfall on required to admit Meredith to the University convinced that Congress had to pass a civil Sunday, an angry crowd had gathered and of Mississippi, and the riots at the university, rights bill. started throwing rocks. Most of the the administration did not propose federal Mississippi Highway Patrol left the campus to legislation. This did not mean that civil rights THE CRISIS IN BIRMINGHAM avoid the violence, so the U.S. marshals were was not an important topic. Robert Kennedy The turmoil in Birmingham required an left to fill the void alone. Many marshals were continued his dialogue with businessmen, immediate solution, but none was forthcom- hit by bricks, bottles, and lead pipes. In return, educators, and church leaders throughout ing. Black leaders asked President Kennedy the marshals fired tear gas into the crowd, the country to get them interested in volun- to dispatch the army, but the president which did not disburse. A French journalist tary integration. But progress was very slow. believed that martial law would not bring the and an Oxford man who was a bystander Then in May 1963 violence in Birmingham, demonstrators closer to their goals.

Hill, Farrer & Burrill LLP celebrating its 80th anniversary congratulates the Los Angeles County Bar Association on celebrating its 125th anniversary.

HILL, FARRER & BURRILL LLP ATTORNEYS AT LAW SINCE 1923

One California Plaza, 37th Floor, 300 South Grand Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90071-3147 Phone (213) 620-0460 ■ Fax (213) 624-4840 www.hfbllp.com

44 LOS ANGELES LAWYER / MARCH 2003 Congratulations to the Los Angeles County Bar Association on your 125th Anniversary!

Viggo Boserup, Esq.

BOSERUP MEDIATION www.boserup.com

Risk Analysis • Financial Modeling • Online Conference Facilities Instead, Marshall travelled to Birmingham COMPETENT REAL ESTATE BROKERAGE to try to mediate the situation. One obstacle was that black leaders did not know whom to ■ Specializing in helping attorneys and their clients buy and sell speak with in the white community to solve real estate in bankruptcy, probate, family, and real estate law the problems and white leaders did not know whom to speak with in the black community ■ Experienced negotiator with legal background to end the protests. Marshall bridged the ■ Licensed broker, California Department of Real Estate gap. He spoke with elected officials, business ■ Call for LACBA member discount people, newspaper people—anyone with influence in either community. Finally, on May 17, 1963, with extreme difficulty, he negotiated OFFICE: (818) 905-7111 EXT. 251 a truce and the demonstrations ended. OFFICE: (310) 820-2229 TODD RUBINSTEIN, J.D., BROKER ASSOCIATE Marshall promptly left Birmingham, fear- FACSIMILE: (818) 905-7299 EMAIL: [email protected] ing that the agreement was likely to disinte- grate. On the plane back to Washington, he and Joseph F. Dolan, assistant deputy attorney general, talked about the kind of federal legislation that would be necessary to resolve permanently the tensions that, while most visible in Birmingham, were present throughout the country. Upon landing, they went directly to Robert Kennedy’s office. The violence in Birmingham also had convinced Kennedy that stronger federal civil rights laws were needed. It was a late Friday afternoon, and Kennedy was scheduled to speak the next day in Charlotte, North Caro- lina. He asked Marshall and Dolan to fly with him to Charlotte and to draft a bill en route. It was on this flight that the historic Civil Rights Act of 1964 was first drafted. In Charlotte, Kennedy and I went to the hotel, where he gave his speech, while Marshall and Dolan remained on the plane to work on the legislation. They were joined by other Justice Department attorneys, including Lewis Oberdorfer, assistant attorney general in charge of the Tax Division, who had grown up in Birmingham, and Norbert A. Schlei of Los Angeles, deputy assistant attorney general in the Office of Legal Counsel. The group reached agreement on the bill’s essential elements on the return flight, with Robert Kennedy fully participating in all of the discussions. The bill was broadly designed to enforce the constitutional right to vote, which Kennedy saw as the key to racial justice, and to prohibit discrimination in employment and public accommodations based upon race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. The bill empowered the attorney general to initi- ate legal action in any area where he found a pattern of resistance to the law. Upon returning to Washington, Kennedy and the others went directly to the White House to tell Pres- ident Kennedy what they had done. The president, who also had become convinced of the need for national legislation, instructed them to draft the bill. While drafting the bill, the Justice Depart- ment’s attention was again drawn to Alabama. In January 1963, Alabama Governor George

46 LOS ANGELES LAWYER / MARCH 2003 Wallace had delivered a speech calling for “segregation now, segregation tomorrow, seg- NEUTRAL REAL ESTATE ARBITRATOR regation forever.” Five months later, the gov- • More than 30 years experience as a real estate lawyer dealing with ernor threatened to “stand in the school- industrial, commercial, office and shopping centers including purchas- house door” to prevent the admission of two es, sales, leasing, ground leasing, financing, development, joint ven- African American students to the University tures, construction, real estate brokerage, title insurance, easements and of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. Publicly, he made protective covenants. good his word on June 11, 1963, but the • 18 years as counsel to the forms committee of the American Industrial Justice Department knew that his posturing Real Estate Association, publishers of the AIR lease and purchase forms. was a charade. The governor soon backed • Real estate law and ADR lecturer on programs sponsored by the down, and the students were admitted to the California State Bar, the extension divisions of UCLA, UCI, USCB and various educational and realty organizations. university without incident. But the enduring Arthur Mazirow image broadcast throughout the nation was PENTHOUSE SUITE 1200, 3415 SEPULVEDA BOULEVARD, LOS ANGELES CA 90034-6060 that of Governor Wallace blocking the school- PHONE: 310-255-6114 • FAX: 310-391-4042 • E-MAIL: [email protected] • www.ffslaw.com house door. Again, the nation was appalled and increasingly sensitized to the need for civil rights protection.

That night, June 11, President Kennedy BEIJING told the nation in a televised address that he would send to Congress a bill that would give CHICAGO all Americans the right to be served in all public facilities, authorize the federal gov- DALLAS ernment to participate fully in lawsuits GENEVA designed to end segregation in the public schools, and protect every individual’s right HONG KONG to vote. “We face…a moral crisis as a country and as a people,” the president said. “It can- LONDON not be met by repressive police action. It can- LOS ANGELES not be left to increased demonstrations in the streets. It cannot be quieted by token NEW YORK moves or talk. It is time to act in the Congress, in your state and local legislative body and, SAN FRANCISCO above all, in all of our daily lives.” This was the ﬁrst step towards passage of the Civil Rights SHANGHAI Act of 1964. SINGAPORE IN THE HALLS OF CONGRESS TOKYO At the president’s request, Marshall met with Vice President Lyndon Baines Johnson to WASHINGTON, D.C. seek his advice on what to include in the legislation and how best to get it passed. Johnson suggested that President Kennedy thoroughly discuss the legislation with congressional leaders before presenting it to Congress, and Kennedy followed this advice. The president is proud to support the also worked to secure Republican congressional support and, unsuccessfully, to limit opposition from Southern Democrats. He marshaled support from businesspeople, reli- gious leaders, labor officials, and other groups so that Congress would be politically and pri- LOS ANGELES COUNTY vately pressured to act favorably on the civil AR SSOCIATION rights bill. B A On June 19, 1963, President Kennedy offi- 555 West Fifth Street cially sent the administration’s omnibus civil Los Angeles, CA 90013 rights bill to Congress. It included the com- T: 213.896.6000 ponents drafted on the airplane ride from F: 213.896.6600 th North Carolina, protecting the right to vote and salutes its 125 Anniversary and banning employment discrimination, and it included other provisions that had been languishing in Congress to outlaw compli- cated tests and other unfair practices that www.sidley.com had been used to prevent African Americans

LOS ANGELES LAWYER / MARCH 2003 47 from voting. The bill proposed a ban on use ATTORNEY-CPA-LITIGATION CONSULTANT of federal funds in discriminatory state or local programs and, most controversially, pro- Experienced Expert Witness Since 1957 posed ending discrimination in restaurants, stores, hotels, lunch counters, and theaters. Professor of Law and Accounting Robert Kennedy led the administration’s Special Master, Mediator, Arbitrator fight in Congress, appearing before the House AUTHOR • LECTURER Judiciary Committee on June 26 and October 15, the Senate Commerce Committee on July DAVID OSTROVE ■ ATTORNEY-CPA 1, and the Senate Judiciary Committee on July 18 and August 28, 1963. On each occasion TEL 323/939-3400 E-mail: [email protected] he argued for the bill using the evidence of FAX 323/939-3500 www.estateplanning.com/ostrove discriminatory practices collected by John Doar and other Justice Department lawyers. He included a powerful moral plea: All thinking Americans have grown increasingly aware that discrimination must stop—not only because it is legally insupportable, economically wasteful and socially destructive, but Congratulations to the above all because it is morally wrong….The Federal Government has no moral choice but to take the initia- tive. How can we say to a Negro in Jackson, “When a war comes you will LOS ANGELES be an American citizen, but in the meantime you’re a citizen of Mis- sissippi and we can’t help you?” COUNTY BAR After President Kennedy was assassinated, President Johnson put his full power behind ASSOCIATION the effort to gain passage of the bill in Con- gress. The House passed the bill first, by better than a 2-1 margin in February 1964, with on its key provisions not only intact but slightly strengthened. However, in March, as antici- pated, Senate opponents began a filibuster. Full credit for breaking the impasse in 125 YEARS the Senate and securing passage of bill often goes to President Johnson. In doing so, the importance of the Republican Senate leader- of ship is often overlooked or ignored. The filibuster by the Southern Democrats lasted from March through June. That spring, Illi- EXCELLENCE nois Senator Everett Dirksen (the Republican minority leader) and California Senator Tho- mas Kuchel (the minority whip) worked closely with Democratic Senator Hubert in Humphrey of Minnesota and the civil rights forces to secure passage of the bill. It was not President Johnson’s pressure but Senator SERVICE TO THE Dirksen’s realization that the time had finally come—that the nation needed civil rights COMMUNITY legislation—that enabled the bill to pass the Senate. Senator Dirksen broke the immobi- lizing filibuster and provided the votes necessary for the bill to pass in the Senate. The bill, as amended in the Senate, re- Weissmann, Wolff, Bergman, turned to the House, where it passed, and was sent to President Johnson for his signa- Coleman, Grodin & Evall, LLP ture. The Civil Rights Act of 1964, conceived on the streets of Birmingham, Alabama, and given life on an airplane ride to North Caro- lina, was signed into law on July 2, 1964. ■

48 LOS ANGELES LAWYER / MARCH 2003 LOS ANGELES125YearsCOUNTY BAR ASSOCIATION

By Genevieve Wong THE DIRTY Half-Dozen

With smarts, wit, grit, and friendship, a group of women lawyers blazed a trail in the 1960s for others to follow

he six came together as a group Los Angeles County and the Eastern Bar because they were practically the only women Association of Los Angeles County. Tstudents in their law school. In 1964, one of • Lola McAlpin-Grant, the ﬁrst black woman the ﬁrst collective victories of the Dirty Half- lawyer hired by the Office of the Attorney Dozen was to convince Loyola Law School to General in California. open a women’s lounge so that, in the words • Patricia Phillips, senior counsel at of one member of the group, “we could put Morrison & Foerster LLP, where she prac- our feet up.” tices family law and mediates family and Today, the women of the Dirty Half-Dozen employment cases. Phillips was the first are viewed as true pioneers. The Dirty Half- woman president of the Los Angeles County Dozen became attorneys at a time when there Bar Association and the Chancery Club. were only 6,000 female attorneys in the entire • Paula Tipton, recently retired from a civil United States. These six Loyola alumnae, litigation practice as a sole practitioner. who are close friends, graduated in 1966 and • Megan A. Wagner, a retired research attor- 1967, paving the way for the many other ney for the California Court of Appeal for the women lawyers who now are making their Second and Fourth Districts. Wagner worked mark in the legal profession. with several appellate court justices, includ- In 1969 the group was dubbed the Dirty ing Justice Otto Kaus. Half-Dozen by Hollywood composer and “I am extremely proud of each one of musician George Tipton, a husband of one of these women,” says Paula Tipton. “We have the group’s members. The Dirty Half-Dozen really developed over the years, both as consists of: women and as lawyers.” Wagner adds, “We • Janet Chubb, a high-powered bankruptcy are most of all a story of friendship. The bond attorney and a partner at Jones, Vargas in our group shares is the culmination of 35 Reno, Nevada. • Patricia Lobello, an estate planning and pro- Genevieve Wong is a writer living in the Los bate partner at Lamb, Morris & Lobello in Angeles area whose work has appeared in the San Dimas. Lobello is a former president of Los Angeles Times and the Beverly Hills the Italian American Lawyers Association of Weekly.

LOS ANGELES LAWYER / MARCH 2003 49 Enhancing lives one smile at a time.TM

Perhaps a smile enhancement program with Dr. Jack Semmens could benefit your professional image, career, or more importantly, your self-esteem? Do you feel that your professional image could enhance your earnings? Is your career stalled and in need of a push forward? Is your self-esteem worth the investment that cosmetic dentistry could provide you with? The first step in your new smile is The members of the Dirty Half-Dozen on vacation together in Italy, September 2002: to call for your evaluation. Call Dr. (left to right) Patricia Lobello, Patricia Phillips, Janet Chubb, Lola McAlpin-Grant, Semmens today. You will be pleased Megan A. Wagner, and Paula Tipton and excited that you did! JACK L. SEMMENS, DDS years of give and take, ups and downs, heart- Although Phillips is loath to find instances of DENTAL CORPORATION aches and celebrations.” gender discrimination in her career, she notes 495 NORTH LAKE BLVD., SUITE 270 In spite of the geographical distances that that when prospective employers found out P.O. BOX 1912, TAHOE CITY, CA 96145 have separated them since their time together that she had young children or noticed that (530)-583-5546 in law school in the 1960s, the members of the she was pregnant, they would question how 1(866) 831-9394 Toll Free Dirty Half-Dozen have managed to get she would divide her time between her fam- together several weekends each year. ily and her job. At the time, there was no www.jacksemmens.com (Lobello, McAlpin-Grant, Tipton, and Phillips such thing as a paid pregnancy leave, now a live in the Los Angeles area. Wagner lives in standard practice by law firms for their Orange County and Chubb in Reno.) In Sep- employees. To a lesser extent, some firms tember 2002, the women vacationed in Italy. today are giving their male employees time to Three years prior to that adventure, they spend with their newborn children. explored Paris together; a trip to Cabo San “I keep telling my daughter [who is a Lucas to watch whales from Phillips’s beach lawyer] that she needs to have her family house occurred between the two European soon,” laughs Phillips, who was pregnant trips. Usually, however, the group is consid- every year that she attended law school. “It’s erably more low-key, opting for shopping just a physical fact of life. Don’t wait till it’s too sprees at second-hand stores and lounging at late!” Lobello’s beach-side condominium. Tipton recalls that one of the Dirty Half- When the Dirty Half-Dozen spend time Dozen’s law professors, who was a partner in together, the women sometimes reminisce a well-known firm, told her, “If my firm hired about the old days when, they say, the prac- women, I’d sure hire you.” Wagner says, “I tice of law was considerably more civilized. loved it when one interviewer enthusiasti- They have also been known to suggest per- cally said that his firm had a woman’s posi- sonal options—some irreverent and some tion.” Wagner, who graduated in the top five sincere—for each other for the future or to of her class, says, “I never heard from [the explore a legal problem one of the group may firm] but, as I recall, I wasn’t interested in the have in her practice, with each of the five job anyway.” other members bringing a singular legal Tipton found that in the courtroom female expertise to the discussion. jurors seemed less comfortable than male jurors listening to a woman lawyer. Indeed, REACTIONS FROM THE PAST judges on the bench in the years when the All agree that the lot of lawyers, both men and Dirty Half-Dozen were embarking on their women, is different today than it was in the legal careers and for some time afterwards 1960s. Certainly attitudes toward women bal- were often confused to see a woman lawyer ancing their professional careers as lawyers in their courtrooms. Lobello and Tipton both with their personal roles as wives and moth- remember being addressed as “honey” by ers have changed. Phillips was one of only two judges, while their male counterparts were in the group to be married during law school called “counsel.” Chubb once was mistaken and was the only one who gave birth in two for a lawyer’s secretary, and all of the mem- of her three and one-half years in law school. bers of the Dirty Half-Dozen were faced from

50 LOS ANGELES LAWYER / MARCH 2003 time to time with a particularly vexing question by court clerks: “Are you the lawyer or the client?” Phillips, who was once called “Patsy” by a judge, adds, “There were few women litigators, and male judges and G. GOVINE CONSULTING lawyers did not quite know what to do with us. Developing the Workforce for the 21st Century If a lawyer who was a woman was an aggres- sive litigator, she was viewed as ‘strident.’ LITIGATION CONSULTANT The same behavior in a male lawyer was AND EXPERT WITNESS: viewed as effective representation of his EMPLOYMENT client.” The most direct praise, Tipton recalls, came from younger female lawyers who SPECIALIZES IN: aspired to follow in her footsteps. ✔ SEXUAL HARASSMENT Lobello smiles as she recalls the perplexed ✔ INVESTIGATIONS reaction of the dairy farmers dealing with ✔ her employer, Knudsen Dairy Company, EMPLOYMENT DISCRIMINATION: AGE, RACE, SEX when they learned that the company’s general ✔ counsel was a woman. Phillips remembers HUMAN RESOURCES AND EMPLOYMENT PRACTICES being left behind when her male colleagues ✔ bonded on camping trips that did not include WRONGFUL TERMINATION ✔ DEPOSITION PREPARATION women. ✔ While these experiences, in recollection, MEDIATION are now amusing, the Dirty Half-Dozen agree that “the universal problem” in their prime DR. GERDA GOVINE earning years was that women lawyers were 260 N. MAR VISTA, SUITE NO. 2 PASADENA, CA 91106 paid less than their male counterparts. This is not a problem that has been completely TEL: 626/564-0502 solved. In the past, the reason given for the FAX: 626/564-8702 disparity between male and female incomes 800-564-0501 in the legal profession was that most female www.govineconsults.com lawyers had husbands to support them. Ironically, while Lobello was one of the 15 highest-paid female general counsels in the country when she worked at Knudsen, she was severely underpaid compared to the compensation of the typical male general counsel. “My salary wasn’t even in the six ﬁgures,” she laughs. The only employer guaranteeing equal salaries was the government. Even so, Wagner recalls that “there were few women and certainly no black women” in government legal offices when the Dirty Half-Dozen started their careers.

PERSONAL STRENGTH Generally, the Dirty Half-Dozen took these events and conditions with a grain of salt. Phillips, Wagner, and Tipton feel that they do not really have “horror stories” to talk about. In reﬂecting on the issue of gender discrimination, about which she has been questioned many times over the years, Phillips observes, “Most of the time, whether you feel discriminated against is, to some degree, the result of how you perceive yourself. You can’t take yourself too seriously and you certainly can’t take too seriously the gaffes and comedic reactions of those who can’t imagine that a woman could be physically constituted to practice law.” She tells the story of the Ninth Circuit Judicial Conference on Gender Discrimination when, in a small breakout group, the subject was the way bench officers

LOS ANGELES LAWYER / MARCH 2003 51 addressed women lawyers. During the group’s discussion, Phillips laughed, “Hell, I’ve been trying for 20 years to get judges to call me by my first name.” The men snick- ered; the women looked at her reproachfully. The members of the Dirty Half-Dozen agree that their experiences were unique. They do not deny that the horror stories told by many other women who were law students and lawyers during the years the Dirty Half-Dozen studied law and pursued their legal careers may be more characteristic of a legal profession that had been and, in some respects, still is dominated by men. “Because of the underlying personal strength of each of these women [in the Dirty Half-Dozen], they probably would have persevered and attained their goals no matter the bars placed in their way,” says Tipton. Why the Dirty Half-Dozen escaped some of the severe prejudice experienced by women in the profession is a subject of some speculation. Wagner posits that after the Dirty Half- Dozen had already launched their careers, the explosion in the ranks of attorneys in the 1970s and 1980s might have exacerbated gender bias. She notes, “There is nothing like a little competition to stir up prejudice of any sort.” Phillips feels that there were so few women lawyers in those early days of the 1960s that they did not pose much of a threat. As the number of women lawyers grew, instances of gender discrimination seem to have increased as well. On behalf of our 2,166 members, Still, although the women of the Dirty Half-Dozen were good students, none was the San Fernando Valley Bar Association recruited in law school by a large or even midsized downtown law firm. But again, congratulates the Wagner, along with Phillips, does not believe that the lack of offers was because of their sex. Los Angeles County Bar Association “Recruiting as we know it today really only began in the 1980s when high salaries for on your 125th Anniversary. first-year lawyers came along,” Wagner says. “In the 1960s, jobs for lawyers were not as plentiful and certainly not as lucrative. People weren’t knocking down doors to get us. There were few jobs out there, and it wasn’t because I was a woman. There just wasn’t a hot market for lawyers.” Phillips—who was a member of the litigation boutique of Beardsley, Hufstedler and Kemble (later Hufstedler & Kaus) that became a part of Morrison & Foerster in 1995—adds: “Making the quick buck in your first few years of practice was not high on young lawyers’ lists. Loyalty and per- manence with a firm were truly the watch- words. I think that firms and potential lawyer A LACBA affiliate since 1930. employees were looking for something a little different then.” www.sfvba.org While all six women see the benefit in the gender-blind recruiting that exists today, they acknowledge that the job market seems sat- urated with lawyers and that, in general, all

52 LOS ANGELES LAWYER / MARCH 2003 lawyers are working much harder than they did in the 1960s. “I don’t think it’s gotten easier for women lawyers, but it may be that Steven Richard Sauer, Esq. lawyers as a rule are just harder on them- Counselor at Law selves,” observes Phillips. Phillips feels that the advent of women into the profession is at Professional arbitrator and mediator since 1974. least partially responsible for changing the focus of the profession from litigation to mediation. “People are more concerned with Settlement Impasse? resolving conﬂict and engaging in mediation, Masterful guidance when the stakes are high. not in creating problems. Resolution is key and the cost of litigation has made alternative methods of dispute resolution more attrac- 4929 Wilshire Boulevard, Suite 740 · Los Angeles, California 90010-3821 tive,” she says. Telephone: (323) 933-6833 · Fax: (323) 933-3184 · E-mail: [email protected]

MENTORING OTHER LAWYERS Because of their experiences, the women of the Dirty Half-Dozen find themselves mentoring other lawyers—male and female. During the time that McAlpin-Grant served as dean at Loyola Law School—where she Patricia Phillips coincidentally taught a sex discrimination Congratulations LACBA President law class—she helped bring lawyers to the women’s prison facility to provide free legal 1984-1985 counsel to inmates seeking divorce. Lobello to everyone mentors young women attorneys who locate their practices in the far reaches of eastern who has made Margaret M. Morrow Los Angeles County, and she actively encour- LACBA President ages these young lawyers to participate in the Eastern Bar Association mentoring the Los Angeles 1988-1989 efforts. Phillips is often consulted by students and lawyers who seek career advice. She also helps recruit young lawyers into the Los County Bar Andrea Sheridan Ordin Angeles County Bar Association and State LACBA President Bar activities. Chubb and Phillips find that most lawyers Assocation great 1991-1992 who seek their counsel come to them for professional advice that is not particularly related Laurie D. Zelon to gender bias. The problems range from for 125 years. expanding their client base to time manage- LACBA President ment and ethical dilemmas. Phillips often 1995-1996 finds herself helping others (strangers and friends) find jobs in the legal market. “Unfortunately, I don’t have jobs to offer, but Lee Smalley Edmon I talk with people about how to go about the job of job hunting, help with resume writing, LACBA President give names of friends in firms that may be 1998-1999 looking, that sort of thing,” says Phillips, who meets and gets to know every single person We are proud she recommends. Patricia Schnegg Wagner cites the gender bias study that was the subject of a Ninth Circuit Judicial to be a part of LACBA President Conference as a catalyst for change in the 1999-2000 practice in the federal courts as well as similar studies conducted by the California its history— Judicial Council and the State Bar. Nev- Miriam Krinsky ertheless, Wagner notes, “Some men just and its future. LACBA President don’t get it.” She says, “There will always be chauvinists, and women will have to endure 2002-2003 the occasional gender-related dig until we start raising our sons differently!” The women of the Dirty Half-Dozen report that all their sons are wonderful and enlightened. ■

LOS ANGELES LAWYER / MARCH 2003 53 JONATHAN BARKAT LOS ANGELES125YearsCOUNTY BAR ASSOCIATION

By David S. Ettinger The Quest to DESEGREGATE Los Angeles Schools

The Crawford desegregation lawsuit launched a long and contentious battle with an amazing series of legal twists and turns

hen the Los Angeles County Bar Association was founded in 1878, Wsegregated schools were mandatory in California. Statutory law at the time required schools to be “open for the admission of all white children” and stated that “[t]he education of children of African descent, and Indian children, shall be provided for in separate schools.”1 Four years earlier, the California Supreme Court had found the law constitutionally unobjectionable. Mary Frances Ward, an 11-year-old African American, filed suit after being barred from her local San Francisco grammar school because of her race. The school principal “politely, but firmly” refused to admit her, her mother reported.2 She lost. The supreme court concluded in Ward v. Flood that the legislature could require segregation: “[I]n the circumstances that the races are separated in the public schools, there is certainly to be found no violation of the constitutional rights of the one race more than of the other, and we see none of either, for each, though separated from the other, is to be educated upon equal terms with that other, and both at the common public expense.”3 David S. Ettinger is a partner in the civil appellate law firm of Horvitz & Levy. As an intern at the ACLU during law school, he worked briefly as a legal researcher on Crawford v. Board of Education of the City of Los Angeles.

LOS ANGELES LAWYER / MARCH 2003 55 Fifty years later, in 1924, the supreme court still had no problem with segregated schools. In Piper v. Big Pine School District, the court reviewed a statute that in the same sentence gave school districts the authority both to “exclude children of filthy or vicious habits, or children suffering from contagious or infectious diseases” and also to “establish separate schools for Indian children and for children of Chinese, Japanese or Mongolian parentage.”4 If separate schools existed for those children, the statute further provided, the children “must not be admitted into any other school.”5 Ruling in the case of 15-year- old Alice Piper, a Native American student, Copyright, 1978, Los Angeles Times. Reprinted by permission. the court said that “it is not in violation of the organic law of the state or nation…to require Indian children or others in whom racial differences exist to attend separate schools, provided such schools are equal in every substantial respect with those furnished for children of the white race.”6 By 1963, much had changed. The U.S. Supreme Court had by then held that separate schools were inherently unequal and therefore violated the constitutional rights of minority children.7 And that year the California Supreme Court, in Jackson v. Pasadena City School District, not only retreated from its prior validation of segregation but also stated that school boards had the affirmative constitutional obligation to end segregation.8 Despite the dramatic change in the law, however, segregation in Los Angeles schools was firmly entrenched. The California Supreme Court, citing a federal government study, would later note that “the Los Angeles school district was among the most segregated in the entire country.”9 Copyright, 1981, Los Angeles Times. Reprinted by permission. In August 1963, less than six weeks after the Jackson opinion, a group of minority students represented by the American Civil Liberties Union filed a class action lawsuit against the Los Angeles City Board of Education in Los Angeles County Superior Court to desegregate two high schools. Although the two schools were less than two miles apart, one had an almost entirely African American student population and the Conrad on Crawford other was almost entirely white. The lawsuit—Crawford v. Board of The Crawford case was one of the most contentious lawsuits in Los Angeles County 10 history. It was also one of the most publicized, frequently serving as a subject for Los Education of the City of Los Angeles —was Angeles Times political cartoonist Paul Conrad. Here are two of his cartoons. One later expanded to include the entire district. cartoon (top), which appeared on September 12, 1978, reflects on the frenzied pace By its end two decades later, the case would of the litigation less than two weeks before school was to start under the first manda- become one of the longest, highest profile, tory busing plan. In just eight days, the California Court of Appeal stayed the plan, and most emotional lawsuits in Los Angeles the California Supreme Court vacated the stay, and two U.S. Supreme Court justices County history. It would repeatedly occupy rejected separate requests to reinstate the stay. The other cartoon (bottom) appeared the attention of the superior court, the on March 19, 1981, after the state supreme court, which had repeatedly reversed California Court of Appeal, and both the court of appeal decisions that blocked the mandatory desegregation orders made California and U.S. Supreme Courts, some- by Los Angeles Superior Court Judges Alfred Gitelson and Paul Egly, let stand with- times hitting all four judicial levels within a out a hearing a court of appeal decision that effectively ended the case.—D.S.E. matter of days.

56 LOS ANGELES LAWYER / MARCH 2003 Although filed in 1963, the Crawford case was not directly traceable to state-mandated Gitelson’s order as inconsistent with U.S. did not go to trial until 1968. The plaintiffs separate schools. The unanswered question Supreme Court precedent.22 spent the intervening years in a fruitless was whether a board was constitutionally Nine months after the reversal of the order effort to persuade the school board to begin obligated to desegregate when racial imbal- for which he had sacrificed his judicial career, desegregating the district.11 Active litigation ance in the schools was attributable to “neu- Judge Gitelson died.23 His vindication came then replaced negotiation. tral,” or de facto, reasons such as segregated posthumously. residential patterns. In 1976, the California Supreme Court JUDGE GITELSON’S ORDER While the Crawford appeal was pending, unanimously affirmed Judge Gitelson’s order, Judge Alfred Gitelson presided over what the U.S. Supreme Court made clear that, at holding that it was “completely justified.”24 would turn out to be only the first phase of the least for purposes of the U.S. Constitution, a Unlike the court of appeal, the supreme court case. Appointed to the superior court in 1957 court could order a school board to remedy believed that Judge Gitelson’s findings “ade- by Governor Goodwin Knight, his former only de jure segregation—that is, segregation quately support the trial court’s conclusion law partner, Judge Gitelson took evidence in effected by state action. If the state had not that the segregation in the defendant school a proceeding that lasted 65 court days over a caused the segregation, it did not have to fix district is de jure in nature.”25 That was not the 7-month period.12 Among other things, the it.16 Further, the Supreme Court defined “de basis for the supreme court’s holding, how- court heard testimony from sociologists and jure” narrowly. Not just any causative link ever. educators and considered evidence of low between state action and segregation would As if to atone for its separate-but-equal test scores by minority students. The school establish a constitutional violation. Rather, opinions in Ward and Piper, the court took a board created a controversy during the trial plaintiffs had to prove that the motive behind big step beyond U.S. Supreme Court case by saying it was “agnostic” about whether the state action—whether by a state legisla- law and made it much easier for a plaintiff to African American students’ mental abilities ture or a school board—was to maintain sep- establish a right to court-ordered desegre- were inferior to those of Caucasian students arate schools. “We emphasize,” the Court gation. Relying on the California Constitution, but adding that it would be “unrealistic” to said, “that the differentiating factor between the court reaffirmed its holding in Jackson that expect the board to attain equality in achieve- de jure segregation and so-called de facto seg- it did not matter what had caused school seg- ment if the races were different in their capa- regation…is purpose or intent to segregate.”17 regation: If it existed, a school board had the bilities.13 A number of years before the U.S. responsibility to remedy it.26 The court quoted Judge Gitelson ruled for the plaintiffs. Supreme Court made proof of intentional approvingly from a study by the United States Finding that Los Angeles schools were segregation the touchstone, the California Commission on Civil Rights: “Negro children severely segregated and getting worse, he Supreme Court in the Jackson case had stated suffer serious harm when their education ordered the school board to adopt a plan to a much broader, more plaintiff-friendly rule. takes place in public schools which are racially desegregate its schools. The order was not Contrary to what its federal counterpart would segregated, whatever the source of such seg- well received. President Richard Nixon called rule later, the Jackson court held that “it is not regation may be.” The court itself similarly it “probably the most extreme judicial decree enough for a school board to refrain from concluded that “in California in the 1970’s so far” and Governor Ronald Reagan said the affirmative discriminatory conduct.” Instead the de facto-de jure distinction retains little, order was “utterly ridiculous” and one that a school board had to “take steps, insofar as if any, significance for the children whose “goes beyond sound reasoning and common reasonably feasible, to alleviate racial imbal- constitutional rights are at issue here.”27 Thus, sense.”14 It also cost Judge Gitelson his job. ance in schools regardless of its cause.”18 it was sufficient to uphold the order requiring The timing of the order could not have In reviewing Judge Gitelson’s order, the the board to prepare and implement a deseg- been worse for Judge Gitelson personally. court of appeal treated Jackson as obsolete regation plan because the trial court had He was in the last year of his judicial term, and case law and followed the lead of the more found substantially segregated schools and a his work on the case earned him an election recent U.S. Supreme Court opinions. The failure by the board to act to alleviate the challenge. Labeled the “busing judge” by his court of appeal also creatively interpreted segregation.28 opponents, Judge Gitelson was turned out of the trial court’s findings to ensure that they office by the voters. In what was not to be the would not support the order under federal ENTER JUDGE EGLY last emotionally charged statement regarding standards. The saying, “the devil is in the details,” could the case, he blamed his loss on “enough peo- Judge Gitelson had found that the Los easily have been coined for the remedy phase ple who are truly racists.”15 Angeles school board had “knowingly, affir- of the Crawford trial court proceedings after Judge Gitelson’s order had no immediate matively and in bad faith…segregated, de remand from the California Supreme Court. impact. The school board appealed the order, jure, its students” and had drawn school Finding a constitutional violation was one which stayed its enforcement. And the stay boundaries “so as to create or perpetuate thing, but, as the supreme court only too was a long one. The court of appeal did not segregated schools.”19 The court of appeal accurately observed, “[A] trial court’s task in issue its opinion until 1975, nearly five years nonetheless concluded that the findings “dis- supervising the preparation and implemen- after Judge Gitelson issued his order. close[d] [that] segregation was ignored rather tation of a school desegregation plan is an Some speculated that the appeal of Judge than intentionally fostered.”20 In its zeal to exceedingly difficult, sensitive and taxing Gitelson’s order took such an unusually long find no trace of intentional segregation, the one.”29 time because the court of appeal was waiting court also overlooked that the California The first task was to find a new judge. In for a definitive ruling from the U.S. Supreme Legislature had at one time required segre- early 1977, after reportedly going through a Court. When Judge Gitelson made his order gated schools, stating that the school district list of more than 100 different judges, the in 1970, it was unclear what a school board’s had “never been operated under a constitu- parties and the supervising judge selected duties were to desegregate a “northern” dis- tional or statutory provision that mandated or Paul Egly. Appointed to the municipal court trict—meaning one, unlike the southern permitted racial segregation in public edu- by Governor Pat Brown in 1963 and elevated school districts that had dominated the High cation.”21 With no finding of an intent to seg- to the superior court by Governor Ronald Court’s jurisprudence, in which segregation regate by the board, the court reversed Judge Reagan in 1968—a “token Democrat” appoint-

LOS ANGELES LAWYER / MARCH 2003 57 ment, some said—Judge Egly already had Quo Jure Corporation 1-888-MEMO-911 experience handling a school desegregation www.quojure.com case. Since 1972, he had been sitting by LAWYERS’ WRITING & RESEARCH [email protected] assignment in San Bernardino overseeing the litigation concerning that city’s schools. When you can’t do it yourself, but you still need a brief or In fact, on the same day the supreme court memo done—and done well, by experienced attorneys who issued its opinion in Crawford, it also affirmed are skilled writers—turn to Quo Jure Corporation. for the most part Judge Egly’s order finding segregation in the San Bernardino schools Quo Jure provides premium legal writing and research services that the school district had the constitutional to practicing attorneys. Our work has contributed to million- obligation to alleviate.30 In a recent interview, dollar settlements and judgments. Oppositions to motions for Judge Egly recalled, “I thought sooner or summary judgment are our specialty. Call for a free analysis later they’d probably come to me [with the The Winning EdgeTM and estimate. Crawford case] because I was the only one who had any experience with [desegregation cases].”31 Given the history of Judge Gitelson’s election loss, most judges did not exactly view The Phillips family salutes PATRICIA PHILLIPS Crawford as a choice judicial assignment. “I MORRISON & FOERSTER LLP knew what the problem was,” Judge Egly says the Los Angeles County Bar now. But with five years still left in his term, on its 125th Birthday and SAMANTHA PHILLIPS JESSNER “I figured I was safe.” He says, “I thought I’d ASSISTANT UNITED STATES ATTORNEY have a couple of years to recover.” That turned we look forward to joining ◆ out to be an erroneous calculation. GREGORY W. JESSNER School board members made an incor- ASSISTANT UNITED STATES ATTORNEY with the lawyers of Los rect assessment of their own. They inter-

Angeles County in this and JOHN P. P HILLIPS preted the supreme court’s opinion as making it unlikely that mandatory busing of many birthdays to come. TELEVISION PRODUCTION DIVISION PARAMOUNT PICTURES CORPORATION students would be required. In its discussion in Crawford of how to remedy segregation, the supreme court offered few specifics and much ambiguity, perhaps a result of a need to include in the unanimous opinion language that would satisfy all seven members of a philosophically diverse court. The opinion stated that courts should Congratulations to the Los Angeles County Bar defer to school boards, which would “have the initial and primary responsibility” for choos- Association on 125 years of dedicated service to ing among desegregation methods.32 Further, the supreme court offered assurance that it the Los Angeles legal community. was “by no means oblivious to the grave practical difficulties that [alleviating segregation] RETCHEN ELSON posed for school boards,” stressing that G M. N Jackson had required only that school boards take “‘reasonably feasible’” steps, and emphasizing that “‘busing’ is not a constitutional end in itself but is simply one potential tool.”33 This language led one board member to pro- nounce himself “greatly relieved…because it makes it unlikely that we’ll have any drastic action regarding integration.”34 To a highly distinguished bar The Crawford court noted, however, that association for 125 years of service to the if a school board does not implement a plan to provide desegregated education, “the court legal community of Los Angeles. is left with no alternative but to intervene” and that such intervention could include the “exer- Congratulations. cise [of] broad equitable powers in formu- lating and supervising a plan.”35 The Crawford case would soon head down this alternative MICHAEL S. FIELDS path. PRESIDENT, CONSUMER ATTORNEYS ASSOCIATION OF LOS ANGELES The school board submitted to the superior court a mostly voluntary desegregation plan. In July 1977, after a three-month trial

58 LOS ANGELES LAWYER / MARCH 2003 Albany Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP Austin

Brussels congratulates the

Chicago Los Angeles County Bar Association

Dallas on its Denver

Houston 125th Anniversary

London and its continued commitment

Los Angeles to the legal community Moscow

New York

Northern Virginia

Philadelphia

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Washington, D.C.

310.229.1000 www.akingump.com COMPUTER FORENSICS EXPERT WITNESS about the plan, Judge Egly rejected it as www.krastman.law “wholly ineffective” and gave the board 90 Certified Data Discovery days to submit a new plan that would “real- HANK KRASTMAN, PH.D., J.D. istically commence the desegregation of this ¥ Hidden/deleted file recovery Retired L. A. City Building Inspector and Mechanical Inspector, ICBO licensed for all other Municipalities. district.”36 Judge Egly remembers that he Docs, Graphics, E-mail Attorney Services: ¥ “didn’t want to cause a revolution in the city,” ¥ Internet use & Date Codes • Free case evaluations • Site inspections/Photos/Tests but that he just “couldn’t accept that plan.” ¥ Expert Witness Testimony • Background Searches The supreme court might have consid- ¥ Litigation Support • Case Support Reports ered mandatory busing to be “simply one • Building/Zoning Code Violations ¥ Full Forensic Computer Lab • Contractors License Board potential tool” for desegregation, but, in a • E. Q. - Molds district as geographically expansive as Los 909-780-7892 Associate Experts: Ken Bedirian, R.E. Broker, J.D., Eric Fintzi, Angeles, Judge Egly considered it essential. Art-Antique & Appraisals and Sam Mahseredjian, Investigator “I don’t know how else you’re going to do DATACHASERSINC.COM Tel: 818/727-1723 ¥ Toll Free: 1-866/496-9471 it,” he says now. The board thus returned to court with what the court of appeal years later would describe as “one of if not the most drastic plan of mandatory student reassignment in the nation.”37 Judge Egly ordered the plan implemented in the fall of 1978 as an “initial first step.” The Crawford litigation involved constant clashes between the plaintiffs, the school board, and numerous interveners. In addition to those conflicts, however, an intense and long-running antagonism developed between the superior court and Division Two of the Second District Court of Appeal.38 Division Two never saw a Judge Egly order it liked. “We wrote to each other,” Judge Egly says with a wry laugh, but then turns serious and remembers, even after more than two decades, that “you could feel that there was an animosity” from the court of appeal. Less than two months after being named to the case, and before he rejected the board’s voluntary desegregation plan, Judge Egly had one of his orders reversed by the court of appeal. The court held he was wrong to deny Bustop—a group of “predominantly white” parents who opposed mandatory busing—the right to intervene in the action.39 In reversing, the court of appeal also took the opportunity to issue a warning. Noting a history by courts around the country of “over- involvement” in school operations, Division Two wrote, “We have no way of predicting what turn the present litigation may take and while the trial court’s order is a model of judicial restraint, it suggests the possibility that down stream the picture may change.”40 A year downstream, after Judge Egly had ordered implementation of a mandatory busing plan, Division Two was no longer impressed with the trial court’s restraint. As the day neared for the buses to roll, there was an extraordinary flurry of legal activity. In early August 1978, Judge Egly had rebuffed Bustop’s attempts to prevent the mandatory busing plan from taking effect. Three weeks later, Bustop went to the court of appeal for relief. On September 1, 11 days before the start of school, Division Two gave

60 LOS ANGELES LAWYER / MARCH 2003 WILSON, ELSER, MOSKOWITZ, EDLEMAN & DICKER LLP

ATTORNEYS AT LAW

Patrick Kelly Roland Coleman LACBA President LACBA President 1990-1991 2001-2002

Wilson, Elser, Moskowitz, Edelman & Dicker, Patrick M. Kelly and Roland Coleman send best wishes to the Los Angeles County Bar Association, on its 125th anniversary.

1055 W. Seventh Street, Suite 2700, Los Angeles CA 90012 Tel: 213/624-3044 Fax: 213/624-8060 Visit our website at http://www.wemed.com Bustop a dramatic reprieve, staying implementation of the mandatory parts of the plan. Anita Rae Shapiro But five days after that, in equally dramatic SUPERIOR COURT COMMISSIONER, RET. fashion, the California Supreme Court vacated the stay order. Bustop rushed to the U.S. PRIVATE DISPUTE RESOLUTION Supreme Court, but first Justice Rehnquist PROBATE, CIVIL, FAMILY LAW and then Justice Powell turned down its 41 PROBATE EXPERT WITNESS request for a stay. Only eight days elapsed between Division Two’s stay order and Justice TEL/FAX: (714) 529-0415 CELL/PAGER: (714) 606-2649 Powell’s denial of Bustop’s request to halt E-MAIL: [email protected] the California Supreme Court’s vacation of the http://adr-shapiro.com stay. FEES: $300/hr The California Supreme Court’s abrupt nullification of Bustop’s court of appeal victory prompted reactions that were fierce and raw. Gloating over the sudden reversal of fortune, an attorney who was a proponent of the desegregation plan said that “the racists on the school board are drowning in their own cham- pagne.”42 On the other side, a school board member, who would later parlay her antibus- ing stand into a seat in Congress, ominously warned that the supreme court was “politically motivated and will pay,” a not-so-subtle reference to the fact that three of the justices who voted to vacate the stay would be on the ballot two months later in a retention election.43 A Los Angeles County prosecutor, who was a vocal opponent of mandatory busing, said that “the people have been swindled to a fare-thee-well” and urged opponents of the desegregation plan to implement a freeway slowdown to interfere with the buses.44 When Justice Rehnquist denied Bustop’s last-ditch stay request, he noted the difference between what the California and U.S. Constitutions demanded school boards to do. He said that state courts “are free to interpret JACK TRIMARCO & ASSOCIATES [state constitutions] to impose more strin- gent restrictions on the operation of a local POLYGRAPH/INVESTIGATIONS, INC. school board” than would be mandated by the federal Constitution and concluded, “While I have the gravest doubts that the Supreme 9454 Wilshire Blvd. Court of California was required by the United Sixth Floor States Constitution to take the action it has Beverly Hills, CA 90212 taken in this case, I have very little doubt that it was permitted by that Constitution to (310) 247-2637 take such action.”45

PROPOSITION 1 1361 Avenida De Aprisa The difference was not lost on the opponents Camarillo, CA 93010 of mandatory busing. If students were being (805) 383-8004 bused because the California Supreme Court Jack Trimarco - President was interpreting the state constitution more Former Polygraph Unit Chief liberally than the federal Constitution, the Los Angeles F.B.I. (1990-1998) remedy was to overrule the supreme court by email: [email protected] CA. P.I. #20970 changing the state constitution. Thus, while proceedings continued in the superior court Former Polygraph Inspection Team Leader to assess the desegregation plan then in effect Member Society of Former Special Agents Office of Counter Intelligence and to consider alternatives, the legislature Federal Bureau of Investigation U.S. Department of Energy placed on the November 1979 ballot a constitutional amendment—Proposition 1— designed to end mandatory busing. It passed

62 LOS ANGELES LAWYER / MARCH 2003

with nearly 70 percent of the vote.46 Proposition 1 expressly tethered the California Constitution to the federal Constitution regarding mandatory busing. Under the amendment, school boards have no “obligations or responsibilities which exceed those imposed by the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution with respect to the use of pupil school assignment or pupil transportation.”47 The school board wasted no time invoking Proposition 1, asking the superior court to end all mandatory student reassignment and busing. The court rejected the request, however. Relying on Judge Gitelson’s finding 10 years earlier of de jure segregation by the school board, Judge Egly found a federal constitutional violation that justified continuing jurisdiction and, in July 1980, he ordered a new desegregation plan that included substantial mandatory busing.48 As the time approached for implementation of the new plan, another round of frantic court-hopping began, but this time with an unexpected twist. Things started out in con- formity with the familiar pattern: The court of appeal found error in a superior court ruling, this time concluding that Judge Egly’s order had been too broad and that the school board, not the superior court, should decide which schools to include in the desegregation plan. However, when the plaintiffs then hurried to OVER 25 YEARS OF SUCCESS the California Supreme Court for relief, Judge Egly took the unorthodox step of writing his We own letter to the court. Characterizing his correspondence as a Understand “petition for instructions,” Judge Egly said that the court of appeal’s rulings were “inconsistent” with the supreme court’s opinion in Bankruptcy the case and that he was thus “[f]aced with conflicting instructions from two courts of higher jurisdiction.”49 Judge Egly says now he Clients troubled by debts? The Legal Side and believed the court of appeal justices “were We are experts at: The Human Side adversarial to the supreme court and they • Debt Restructuring Plans would do everything in their power, as they • Chapters 7, 11, and 13 Relief had done before, to keep the supreme court • Conservative Asset Protection from acting in favor of the [plaintiffs].” Refer your clients with Once again the supreme court acted confidence: quickly to reverse the court of appeal. • AV Rating Although not mentioning Judge Egly’s let- • Free Consultations ter, the supreme court stated that his order was “a valid exercise of the court’s broad • Reasonable Fees equitable discretion” and that, contrary to what the court of appeal had ruled, it was Professional, Compassionate Solutions the superior court and not the school board that had the initial responsibility for super- Laurence D. Merritt vising the desegregation plan.50 The supreme Attorney at Law court’s ruling settled matters legally, at least Phone: 818.710.3823 • email: [email protected] for the time being, but the last-minute back- Internet: www.legalknight.com and-forth decisions from the courts caused much confusion—so much so that, according Formerly with Merritt & Hagen to the Los Angeles Times, on the first day of school in 1980, “[t]housands of students woke

64 LOS ANGELES LAWYER / MARCH 2003 up not knowing where they would go to school.”51 Although siding with Judge Egly, the Even Lawyers Need Help! supreme court also told the court of appeal to expedite the school board’s appeal from his ruling that Los Angeles schools were segregated de jure and that the courts thus could Dennis Sapire, LLB PhD continue to order mandatory busing as a desegregation tool, despite the changes in Clinical Psychologist the state constitution made by Proposition 337 S Beverly Dr, Suite 212, Beverly Hills, CA 90212 • (310) 772-9100 52 1. The appellate court did reach a decision [email protected] • www.lawpsychology.com quickly, in December 1980, and, not surpris- CA Lic. PSY 18734 ingly, once more reversed the superior court. Just as Division Three had done in 1975, Help from someone who understands... Division Two rejected Judge Gitelson’s 1970 finding of de jure segregation upon which Judge Egly was relying. Although the California Supreme Court had said in dicta that Judge Gitelson’s findings “adequately support the trial court’s conclusion that the segregation in the defendant school district is de jure in nature,”53 the court of appeal concluded that the labeling of the segregation in the school district as de jure “was true ROBIE & MATTHAI only in a Pickwickian sense, and was not true at all in the sense of federal law.”54 Also, Judge Gitelson had specifically found that congratulates the school board had established “mandatory attendance areas and boundaries around its neighborhood schools so as to create or THE LOS ANGELES perpetuate segregated schools.”55 But the court of appeal denied that there was any “finding that the Board ever gerrymandered COUNTY BAR attendance zones to create or preserve segregated schools.”56 Without a finding of de jure segregation, ASSOCIATION the plaintiffs had to convince the court of appeal that Proposition 1 was unconstitu- tional. That was a tough sell. Proposition 1 cer- on tainly did not contravene the California Constitution—it was part of that constitution. And it was counterintuitive to argue that a pro- 125 YEARS vision that limited plaintiffs’ rights to what was afforded by the Fourteenth Amendment was itself a violation of the Fourteenth Amend- of ment. The court of appeal held that Prop- osition 1 was valid, concluding that “we do not believe a state constitutional amendment can be said to violate the Fourteenth Amendment EXCELLENCE by specifically embracing it.”57 DEATH BLOW in It was generally assumed that the court of appeal’s decision would be short-lived because the California Supreme Court would SERVICE TO THE step in as it had done repeatedly to reinstate a superior court desegregation order. This COMMUNITY time, however, the supreme court refused to intervene, declining to even hear the case. The hostility toward the California Supreme Court from the pro-busing side was as strong as it had been just a few years earlier from busing opponents. One community

LOS ANGELES LAWYER / MARCH 2003 65 leader said that the supreme court had “suc- cumbed to the ugly conservative mood that’s sweeping our state and this country and as a result has made a political decision that’s a RINGLER ASSOCIATES tragedy because it reaffirms separate and Manuel R. Valdez, CSSC historically unequal education for students [email protected] CA License No. 0623820 of different racial backgrounds.”58 Another Over 20 Years of Experience in Structured Settlements, Insurance, Financial Services, and Healthcare. commented that “[t]he aspirations of minority people are apparently not important to Manny J. Valdez, CSSC [email protected] the court” and that the courts “have now CA License No. 0C76457 Over Four Years of Structured Settlements, apparently been swayed by the perception Insurance and Financial Services Experience. of popular opinion.”59 1145 Linda Vista Drive, Suite 104 The supreme court’s March 1981 denial of San Marcos, CA 92069 • 1-888-471-7051 the petition for a hearing was the death blow (760) 471-7051 • Fax (760) 471-9175 for the Crawford case. Although the U.S. Supreme Court later agreed to hear the case, LAWSUIT & ASSET PROTECTION by the time it issued its opinion in June 1982— predictably finding Proposition 1 to be con- stitutional60—the litigation had ended. Within days after the California Supreme Court denied a hearing, Judge Egly removed himself from the case, with a parting shot at the school board for “short-chang[ing]” ✔ Calif/Nevada Corporations, Family LPs & LLC’s minority children and for not even “meet[ing] ✔ Offshore Companies, Trusts, Private Banking the [separate but equal] standard of Plessy v. ✔ Estate Planning, Real Estate, IRS, Tax Matters Ferguson.”61 The school board soon after sub- ✔ Financial Strategies, Investment Planning mitted an all-voluntary desegregation plan to STEVEN SEARS CPA, ATTORNEY AT LAW the superior court, which approved the plan and, in late 1981, ended its jurisdiction over Professional 949-262-1100 62 Confidential www.searsatty.com the case. In 1976, the California Supreme Court had instructed trial courts to “take into account the long-range effects” of desegregation plans so that they could reject plans that were “likely to result in a ‘one race’ or ‘all MEDIATOR minority’ school district,” although it also cautioned that “the threat of ‘white flight’” could not “be used as a smokescreen to avoid the constitutional obligations of a school dis- Wesley L. Davis trict.”63 It is debatable to what extent the mandatory desegregation plans were the cause but, over the course of the Crawford litigation, the school district’s demographics Construction changed substantially. Between 1968—when Construction the case first went to trial—and 1980, while Construction Defect the African American student population remained fairly constant at 22 or 23 percent, Land Subsidence the white student population in the district dropped from over 53 percent to under 24 per- Surface Waters cent and Hispanic students went from 20 percent of the district to over 45 percent.64 Real Estate When Judge Egly left the case, he told an audience, “The answers to these problems are Government Torts not in the courts. I used to think they were but Inverse Condemnation I don’t anymore.”65 He regrets having said that. “The court is the place of last resort” for remedying segregation, he now believes, but, he adds, “It represents the failure of our soci- TEL 949/598-9000 ■ FAX 949/598-0604 ety when you have to go to court” for the solution. ■ 15707 ROCKFIELD BOULEVARD, SUITE 205, IRVINE CA 92618 BIOGRAPHY AND FEE SCHEDULE UPON REQUEST 1 1870 Cal. Stat. ch. 556, §§53, 56, at 838-39. 2 Ward v. Flood, 48 Cal. 36, 43 (1874).

66 LOS ANGELES LAWYER / MARCH 2003 3 Id. at 52. 17 Cal. 3d 280, 310 (1976). 1382, 1383 (1978) (Rehnquist, Circuit J.) (emphasis in 4 1921 Cal. Stat. ch. 685, §1, at 1161. The statute was not 25 Id. at 285. original). repealed until 1947. 1947 Cal. Stat. ch. 737, §1, at 1792. 26 Id. (“[W]e continue to adhere to our conclusion in 46 See Crawford v. Board of Educ. of the City of Los 5 1921 Cal. Stat. ch. 685, §1, at 1161. Jackson that school boards in California bear a con- Angeles, 458 U.S. 527, 532 n.5 (1982). 6 Piper v. Big Pine Sch. Dist., 193 Cal. 664, 671 (1924). stitutional obligation to take reasonably feasible steps 47 CAL. CONST. art. I, §7(a). Despite its constitutional holding, the court did order to alleviate school segregation ‘regardless of its 48 Crawford, 458 U.S. at 533. Alice Piper admitted to school, because there was no cause.’”). 49 Text of Egly’s Letter, LOS ANGELES TIMES, Sept. 16, 1980, separate school in the district for her. Id. at 674. 27 Id. at 295, 301. at 16. 7 Brown v. Board of Educ. of Topeka, Kan., 347 U.S. 483 28 Id. at 302. 50 LOS ANGELES TIMES, Sept. 17, 1980, at 1. (1954). 29 Id. at 310. 51 Id. 8 Jackson v. Pasadena City Sch. Dist., 59 Cal. 2d 876, 881 30 National Ass’n. for the Advancement of Colored 52 Crawford v. Board of Educ. of the City of Los Angeles, (1963). People v. San Bernardino City Uniﬁed Sch. Dist., 17 Cal. 113 Cal. App. 3d 633, 637 (1980). 9 Crawford v. Board of Educ. of the City of Los Angeles, 3d 311 (1976). 53 Crawford v. Board of Educ. of the City of Los Angeles, 17 Cal. 3d 280, 287 n.2 (1976). 31 Interview with Paul Egly, retired Los Angeles Superior 17 Cal. 3d 280, 285 (1976). 10 Crawford v. Board of Educ. of the City of Los Angeles, Court judge (Oct. 21, 2002). 54 Crawford, 113 Cal. App. 3d at 646. L.A. Sup. Court No. 822854 (1963). 32 Crawford, 17 Cal. 3d at 305. 55 Crawford v. Board of Educ. of the City of Los Angeles, 11 See Crawford, 17 Cal. 3d at 287. 33 Id. at 304, 305, 309 (emphasis in original). 120 Cal. Rptr. 334, 338 (Ct. App. 1975). 12 Id. 34 LOS ANGELES TIMES, June 29, 1976, at 1. 56 Crawford, 113 Cal. App. 3d at 644. 13 LOS ANGELES TIMES, June 29, 1976, at 3. 35 Crawford, 17 Cal. 3d at 307. 57 Id. at 654. 14 LOS ANGELES TIMES, Dec. 30, 1975, at 1. 36 Crawford v. Board of Educ. of the City of Los Angeles, 58 LOS ANGELES TIMES, Mar. 13, 1981, at 1. 15 Id. 200 Cal. App. 3d 1397, 1402 (1988). 59 Id. 16 Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Bd. of Educ., 402 37 Id. at 1403. 60 Crawford v. Board of Educ. of the City of Los Angeles, U.S. 1, 15 (1971) (“The objective today remains to elim- 38 Judge Gitelson’s order was reversed by Division 458 U.S. 527 (1982). inate from the public schools all vestiges of state- Three of the Second District. All appellate proceed- 61 LOS ANGELES TIMES, Mar. 15, 1981, at 1. imposed segregation.” (emphasis added)). ings in the case after that, however, were assigned to 62 See Crawford v. Board of Educ. of the City of Los 17 Keyes v. School Dist. No. 1, Denver, Colo., 413 U.S. 189, Division Two. Angeles, 200 Cal. App. 3d 1397, 1404 (1988); Los 208 (1973) (emphasis in original) (footnote omitted). 39 Bustop v. Superior Court, 69 Cal. App. 3d 66, 69 Angeles Branch NAACP v. Los Angeles Uniﬁed Sch. 18 Jackson v. Pasadena City Sch. Dist., 59 Cal. 2d 876, (1977). Dist., 750 F. 2d 731, 736 (9th Cir. 1984). The Crawford 881 (1963) (emphasis added). 40 Id. at 73. plaintiffs appealed the superior court’s order accepting 19 Crawford v. Board of Educ. of the City of Los Angeles, 41 Bustop, Inc. v. Board of Educ. of Los Angeles, 439 U.S. the voluntary plan but abandoned that appeal in May 120 Cal. Rptr. 334, 338 (Ct. App. 1975). 1382, 1384 (1978) (Rehnquist, Circuit J., and Powell, 1983. 20 Id. at 337. Circuit J.). 63 Crawford v. Board of Educ. of the City of Los Angeles, 21 Id. at 335. 42 LOS ANGELES TIMES, Sept. 7, 1978, at 1. 17 Cal. 3d 280, 309 (1976). 22 Id. at 342. 43 Id. 64 Crawford v. Board of Educ. of the City of Los Angeles, 23 LOS ANGELES TIMES, Dec. 30, 1975, at 1. 44 Id.; LOS ANGELES TIMES, Sept. 12, 1978, at 1. 113 Cal. App. 3d 633, 642 & n.2 (1980). 24 Crawford v. Board of Educ. of the City of Los Angeles, 45 Bustop, Inc. v. Board of Educ. of Los Angeles, 439 U.S. 65 LOS ANGELES TIMES, Mar. 15, 1981, at 1.

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LOS ANGELES LAWYER / MARCH 2003 67 LOS ANGELES125YearsCOUNTY BAR ASSOCIATION

By Megan A. Wagner SPECTACULAR Los Angeles Trials

Sensational courtroom dramas involving Los Angeles legends Griffith J. Griffith and Alex Pantages led to changes in the law

os Angeles is a city of remark- brated as Earl Rogers, described as the great- Verdugo family,1 was a devout Catholic. Lable places and remarkable people—and it is est criminal lawyer of his day. “Get Rogers to The couple was vacationing at the posh a city that loves a good story. The city relishes defend you if you’re guilty” was sound advice Arcadia resort on the shore in Santa Monica. drama, both in real life and on the silver in the early years of the twentieth century. He On the afternoon of September 5, 1903, after screen, and Los Angeles history is replete was as flamboyant as his cases. He lived high, a stroll together by the ocean, Christina was with amazing tales that have captured the dressed elegantly, and was always in debt. in their room packing for the trip home. imagination of its inhabitants. Rogers’s demon was alcohol, which killed Suddenly, Griffith entered the room bran- Sometimes a Los Angeles story leads to an him, tragically, at the age of 50. dishing a gun and insisted that his wife kneel evolution in the law. Here are two such stories. It may have been their mutual struggle before him and place her hand on her prayer The first is about an early benefactor of the city, with alcohol that led Rogers to defend Colonel book. He demanded to know whether she Colonel Griffith J. Griffith, of Griffith Park and Griffith J. Griffith, a bizarre and unlikable was trying to poison him and whether she was Griffith Observatory fame, and the second is client accused of attempting to murder his faithful to him. As Christina pleaded with him about Alex Pantages, founder of the illustrious wife. Griffith was a rich man of Welsh heritage to spare her life, Griffith shot her in the face. Pantages Theaters. Both were accused of sen- who had made his fortune first in mining and Somehow she struggled to a window and sational crimes; both put forward creative and then in real estate and finance. He was a leapt two stories to the roof of the veranda ultimately successful defenses. short, pompous braggart with a reputation as below. She climbed through the window of a a brilliant eccentric. In 1896 he deeded to the THE CASE OF THE SECRETIVE LUSH city of Los Angeles 3,015 acres that today are Megan A. Wagner is a retired research attorney Los Angeles has always been known for its known as Griffith Park. His beautiful society for the California Court of Appeal in the Second celebrity lawyers. Perhaps none was as cele- wife, Christina, who traced her lineage to the and Fourth Districts.

68 LOS ANGELES LAWYER / MARCH 2003 nearby room, crying that her husband had The doctors could not explain how she had The next day, during his cross-examina- shot her and that “he must be crazy.” Christina managed to survive. tion, Christina admitted that Griffith had survived, but not without disfiguring injuries Rogers had decided to defend Griffith on always been kind to her, solicitous of her including the loss of her left eye. a theory he termed “alcoholic insanity.” He health and comfort. Then Rogers carefully Griffith fled. When he was finally arrested, kept this strategy secret until he chose to elicited that this was not the first time Griffith he “claimed the gun had discharged acci- spring it on the prosecution during his cross- had accused Christina of infidelity and dentally during a struggle after he discov- examination of Christina. After Christina’s attempting to poison him. With utmost deli- ered his wife had tried to poison him.”2 direct testimony, Rogers asked the judge to cacy he prompted her to admit the unthink- Griffith announced he would defend himself order a recess in the trial until the next day, able: When Griffith was accusatory toward against the charge of attempted her, he was drunk. He coaxed her, murder. telling her that as a loyal wife she of The scandal soon erupted in course did not want to admit her the daily newspapers, with People husband’s failings. However, she v. Griffith captivating all of Los must understand that he was suf- Angeles. Christina’s family mem- fering from a disease and needed a bers let it be known that they did chance to be cured. It may have not believe Griffith’s story. They been the first time alcoholism had obtained two highly regarded been used as a defense and referred lawyers, Isadore B. Dockweiler to as a disease in an American court- and Henry T. Gage—the latter a room. former California governor—to act Rogers asked Christina about as special prosecutors in the case. her husband’s wild accusations: Griffith later brought Rogers into “A. Yes. It was—principally from the case, perhaps after he finally drinking—that he would ask those realized the implications of facing questions. a formidable prosecutorial team. Q. Foolish questions. Questions Griffith was known as a teeto- like a drunk asks. You had never taler, and it was only Rogers’s given him any cause to believe such exhaustive investigation that things were true? revealed Griffith to be a secret A. Oh no, sir. Never, Mr. Rogers, drinker. In fact, Griffith drank never. about two quarts of whiskey a day, Q. He never had any sober sane a habit he had managed to hide reason to doubt you, did he? from Los Angeles society for years. A. I was always a pure woman and For Rogers, the clue to Griffith’s a faithful wife to him. addiction was his fingernails, Q. But he made this accusation? which were bitten to the quick. A. Yes. Rogers saw Griffith as a tortured Q. Many times? soul living a double life to hide his A. Lately— addiction. Adela Rogers St. Johns, Q. When he was drinking? Wait a the daughter of Earl Rogers, wrote moment, Mrs. Griffith. Had you in a book about her father that he ever in your life seen a drunken likened Griffith to Dr. Jekyll and man before you saw your husband Mr. Hyde.3 Indeed, Rogers’s own drunk? problems with alcohol may have A. No—not close to—never. helped him understand Griffith’s Q. At first you did not know your secret more readily than others. husband did not drink in public? The trial began on November 8, A. No sir. 1903, and the courtroom was Q. So you never saw him take a Public figure and secret drinker Griffith J. Griffith packed with avid curiosity seek- drink? ers. The case against Griffith appeared to be at which time Rogers would commence his A. Not for a long time. airtight. Christina, dressed completely in cross-examination of Christina. Rogers noted Q. So you didn’t have any idea what was the black, her face covered by a black veil, limped that he intended to take some time and was matter with him? to the stand on the arm of the gallant Gage, solicitous of the witness’s stamina under the A. No—no. Not at first. the former governor. She appeared delicate circumstances. The courtroom was agog. Q. And when you did find out as a wife must, and fragile and she told the story of the shoot- The pundits were astonished. What could you didn’t tell a soul? ing in what was often a whisper. The court- Rogers have in mind? Surely an extensive A. Only the priest. room was deathly quiet, and when Gage cross-examination of Christina could only Q. You were ashamed to have anyone know? asked her to lift her veil, the crowd gasped at prejudice Rogers’s client further, if that was A. I didn’t know what to do. the sight of her ravaged face. After looking at even possible. But Rogers saw Christina as a Q. You’d had no experience of any kind with Christina’s face, with her left eye covered by potential ally. As he told his daughter, “No drink, had you? a black patch, no one could have doubted woman ought to have to live with the knowl- A. No—no I hadn’t. that her husband had intended to kill her. edge that her husband has murdered her.”4 Q. You were bewildered and unhappy and Photo: Dept of Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, UCLA

LOS ANGELES LAWYER / MARCH 2003 69 didn’t know what to do? A. I told him—my husband—he got angry and said it wasn’t true. Q. He denied there was anything to worry about? JudgmentsEnforcedJudgmentsEnforced A. He said he did not ever take a drink, I was mistaken. Q. Now at this moment though, Mrs. Griffith, Law Office of Donald P. Brigham you do realize that it was when he was drunk or when he was still under the influence to 23232 Peralta Dr., Suite 204, Laguna Hills, CA 92653 some extent that he did these things? P: 949.206.1661 A. Yes. F: 949.206.9718 Q. After the shooting when you spoke to Mr. [email protected] AV Rated Wright and told him you were wounded to death—what else did you say? A. I said my husband shot me. Q. Anything else? A. I said he must be crazy.”5 Rogers’s questions during the cross-examination were the patient groundwork leading to this last statement. Rogers asked Christina again whether her husband seemed to be crazy, and she reiterated that he must have been. Then Rogers continued: “You knew, didn’t you, Mrs. Griffith, you know now…that your husband couldn’t have shot you or tried to kill you if he hadn’t been crazy—crazy drunk—insane from alcohol?” After she replied, “Yes—yes-”6 Rogers stopped his cross-examination and helped Christina back to her seat. Rogers brought in doctors as expert witnesses, including C.G. Brainerd, the country’s leading “alienist”—a word used at the time to ARBITRATION Comprehensive describe the first psychiatrists or brain spe- Alternative Dispute cialists. To each of the doctors Rogers posed MEDIATION&& Resolution Services an elaborate hypothetical based on his theory CONCILIATION CENTER that alcoholic insanity could do away with an intent to kill. In response to the hypothetical, Brainerd answered, “Under the terms in which you have described alcoholic Arbitration • Mediation insanity, I would say so beyond any doubt.”7 It may have been the first time in an American Insurance Code 2071 Appraisals courtroom that anyone had tried to treat alcoholism as an affliction rather than a charac- Dispute Review Boards ter flaw. Clearly, Rogers’s theory was a pre- cursor to the later well-accepted theory of Fair, equitable and accessible dispute resolution services by diminished capacity. highly skilled, experienced and industry trained professionals In his final argument, Gage ridiculed to public, private and corporate clients. Rogers’s theory of alcoholic insanity. Instead, he portrayed Griffith as a rich man trying to We pride ourselves on our exceptionally qualified panel of get off on a trumped-up theory devised by a professional neutrals as well as our excellent customer service. tricky attorney. Gage said, “A rich man has Please contact us for complete ADR solutions. committed this brutal attempt at murder. No rich man has ever been punished for such a crime in these United States. A rich man Free ADR Case Law thinks he cannot be punished.”8 State and Federal Statutes The jury, however, appeared to take Comprehensive ADR Guides Rogers’s theory of alcoholic insanity very Online Case Submission AMCCAMCC seriously. After deliberating for two days, the www.AMCCenter.com Helpful Checklists jury found Griffith guilty of attempted mur- (800) 645-4874 Communication Tools der and sentenced him to two years in the state penitentiary, with instructions that he be

70 LOS ANGELES LAWYER / MARCH 2003 Congratulations to the Los Angeles County Bar Association on your 125th Anniversary.

THE BUSINESS AND CORPORATIONS LAW SECTION OF THE LOS ANGELES COUNTY BAR ASSOCIATION PROMOTES THE SUBSTANTIVE AREAS OF BUSINESS, CORPORATE, AND SECURITIES LAW.

SAVE THE DATE!

GLENDON TREMAINE INSIDER TRADING 36TH ANNUAL SECURITIES SYMPOSIUM 2003 ISSUES REGULATION SEMINAR April 25. 2003 May 15, 2003 October 2003

For more information, call (213) 896-6560 or go to our Web site www.lacba.org ACCIDENT RECOVERY given “medical aid for his condition of alcoholic insanity.”9 ANALYSIS OR DEFENSE Rogers’s daughter tells us that Rogers Specializing in: 10 If we can’t help you, we will refer considered the verdict to be a defeat. For Accidents on Freeways, Highways, you to the BEST in accident Griffith, however, the verdict appeared to be Roads & Streets investigation and a victory. He was released from prison after reconstruction. Testifying & Consulting on: one year, sober and apparently a changed DESIGN IMMUNITY man. He devoted a good deal of his money to prison reform and helping convicts after they HUMAN FACTORS finished their prison terms.11 At first, the city ACCIDENT RECONSTRUCTION, of Los Angeles spurned Griffith’s donation for INVESTIGATION & ANALYSIS the construction of an observatory in the ROAD DESIGN, CONSTRUCTION park created by Griffith’s earlier donation of AND MAINTENANCE land. Griffith persevered, however, donating TRAFFIC ENGINEERING, more real estate and money to the city and TRAFFIC CONTROL Police Certified eventually bequeathing Los Angeles $700,000 Investigators Available CONSTRUCTION DEFECTS, SURVEYING in a trust fund for the maintenance of the & SITE MEASUREMENTS Hundreds of Cases park. Los Angeles finally acknowledged him SKID RESISTANCE ROAD and named the park he had donated Griffith REQUIREMENTS (WET & DRY) Park, as well as naming Griffith Observatory, FIELD & TEST ENGINEERING, INC. SLIPS, TRIPS, FALLS ON PARKING LOTS, Griffith Park Drive, and Griffith Park SIDEWALKS AND ROADWAYS (562) 743-77230 Boulevard in his memory.12 ROAD MATERIALS AND FAX (562) 920-9204 WET WEATHER EFFECTS THE CASE OF THE FRAMED MOVIE MOGUL ON CIVIC CENTER DRIVE Robert F. Douglas, PE 9837 Belmont Street Managing Engineer While 1929 was a bad year for the American Bellflower, CA 90706 Over 35 years of Practical Experience people, it was a complete disaster for the Pantages family. Alex Pantages, the founder of the Pantages theater chain, was convicted of rape and sentenced to life in jail. His wife, Lois, was charged with first-degree murder arising from a drunk-driving accident. The case of People v. Pantages13 fascinated the public. The rumors surrounding the case are almost more intriguing than the actual facts. At the age of 53, Pantages found himself accused of rape by a sweet-looking, 17-year- old aspiring actress named Eunice Pringle. His life and his reputation were in tatters. But had Pantages been set up by a harlot and her agent boyfriend? Had Pringle been paid to frame Pantages by Joseph P. Kennedy, the father of President John F. Kennedy, because the elder Kennedy, a competitor in the theater business, wanted to buy some of Pantages’s properties and Pantages had refused to sell them? And did Kennedy want Pantages’s theater properties to showcase the talents of Kennedy’s mistress, Gloria Swanson? The rumors and speculation swirled around Los Angeles, and particularly Hollywood, for years. Pantages had been a true American success story. He was a Greek immigrant, born Pericles Pantages,14 who made his first money in the Alaskan gold rush in the 1890s. During that period, at the age of 18, he bought his first vaudeville theater in Nome. In 1902, he moved to Seattle, Washington, and started a theater that combined vaudeville and films. This theater became the first in what was to become a nationwide chain. In 1910, Pantages moved to Los Angeles. By 1929, he was a wealthy man, running his theater empire from his

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offices above the beautiful Pantages ﬂagship theater on the corner of Seventh and Hill Streets in downtown Los Angeles. In August 1929, Pringle, a college drop- out and vaudeville hopeful from Garden Grove, California, was seen hanging around Pantages’s offices asking for an audition. She apparently had a somewhat suggestive, quasi- acrobatic song-and-dance routine involving barbells. On August 9, she walked into Pantages’s private office and within minutes was seen running out with her clothing torn, yelling that she had been raped: “The telephone switchboard operators noted that as Pringle ran past she was ripping her clothes off, not putting them on.”15 Pringle claimed that Pantages had torn her dress apart, dragged her into a broom closet, and raped her. District Attorney Buron Fitts and Chief Deputy District Attorney Robert Stewart pros- ecuted the case against Pantages. W. I. Gilbert and W. Joseph Ford, Pantages’s defense attor-

LOS ANGELES LAWYER / MARCH 2003 73 Important Announcement neys, produced witnesses at the preliminary hearing who testified that Pringle was not TRUST DEED FORECLOSURES Esquire One Publishing “Industry Specialists For Over 15 Years” the innocent that she appeared to be. They is now doing business as said she lived with her agent and that he had t Witkin & Eisinger we specialize in the Non-Judicial TM Foreclosure of obligations secured by real property Litigation One boasted of a monetary windfall connected to A the Pantages case. However, at trial, Fitts or real and personal property (mixed collateral). Our name has changed, but we’re still When your client needs a foreclosure done profession- the same attorney-owned company that objected to this testimony, and his motion to ally and at the lowest possible cost, please call us at: is committed to providing “first stop” suppress all testimony about the complaining 1-800-950-6522 resources for California litigators. Visit witness’s background was granted. The only We have always offered free advice to all attorneys. our new website to see how our growing negative information about Pringle that was book list can help enhance your pre- admitted into evidence was that she no longer trial motions, motions in limine, discov- WITKIN ery responses, auto cases or trial tactics. lived at home and that she had dropped out of school. EISINGER, LLC www.litigationone.com RICHARD& G. WITKIN, ESQ. ✦ CAROLE EISINGER Pringle appeared at trial dressed in a girl- ish frock and flat shoes with her hair tied back modestly with a childlike bow. She described in lurid detail how Pantages had “Mr. Truck” solicited lewd acts from her in exchange for booking her act and then had brutally ACCIDENT molested and raped her. The press loved INVESTIGATION and RECONSTRUCTION Pringle, proclaiming her a paragon of ✔ Court Qualified Expert Witness Regarding American girlhood and virtue. By contrast, Car vs Car, Car vs Bicycle, Truck vs Car Cases Pantages’s broken English made him sound ✔ Low Speed Accident Analysis guilty to the xenophobic press. He was con- ✔ Trucking Industry Safety and Driver Training Issues demned as a child rapist and an alien menace. ✔ Power Point Court Presentations The city was whipped into a frenzy by fire- William M. Jones 800 337 4994 brand radio preachers like P. R. “Bob” Shuler P. O. Box 398 925 625 4994 and Gustav Briegleb, who denounced the Brentwood CA 94513-0398 Pager 510 840 4627 wealthy Greek immigrant. [email protected] www.mrtruckar.com Fax 925 625 4995 No one was interested in listening to the frail-looking immigrant’s story. Pantages admitted knowing Pringle. Several weeks before the alleged rape she had performed her act as an audition for Pantages but had not been hired. Pantages surmised that Pringle had bought a theater ticket and then sneaked into his offices, tore her own clothes, and screamed rape as part of a frame-up. LL.M. in Taxation At about the same time, Pantages’s wife, LL.M. in Business Lois, was involved in a traffic accident. & Corporate Law Numerous witnesses said that she was on LL.M. in International Law the wrong side of the road when her expen- LL.M. in Comparative Law sive Stutz automobile hit a car driven by a (for international lawyers) Japanese-American gardener, Juro Rokomoto. LL.M. with concentration in Criminal Law Police officers and medical personnel responding to the scene of the accident stated Fall, Spring and Summer they could smell liquor on Lois’s breath. Admissions Available Rokomoto suffered a broken pelvis, and several of his family members were also injured For information, contact us at: P: 619-260-4596 in the accident. When Rokomoto died in F: 619-260-4515 surgery, Lois Pantages was charged with E: [email protected] first-degree murder. The team of lawyers that had been defending Alex Pantages took over Visit our website to apply online: www.sandiego.edu/usdlaw/grad Lois’s defense, and Jerry Giesler, who was lesser known than Ford and Gilbert, was

5998 Alcalá Park, San Diego, CA hired as Alex’s defense counsel. Giesler would 92110-2492 go on to become famous in his own right as university a fabled attorney for Hollywood stars. In Alex’s trial, District Attorney Fitts took full advantage of the accusations against Alex of schoolsandiego of law and his wife, emphasizing the depravity of the wealthy Pantages clan in his argument to graduate law programs the jury: The husband was an accused rapist,

74 LOS ANGELES LAWYER / MARCH 2003 and his wife was an accused mur- who presumably cannot consent, derer.16 In addition, having suc- evidence that a victim was un- cessfully excluded evidence that chaste was inadmissible. In the Pringle was unchaste, the dis- Pantages case, however, in which trict attorney stated that Pringle Pringle had maintained the rape was a virgin in his argument to was accomplished by force, the the jury, a fact that had not been California Supreme Court ruled proven at trial. He pounded on otherwise. The court held that if this theme over and over again, a statutory rape victim claims arguing at one point, “Are the that force was used to accom- American jurors of today, are plish the rape, the victim’s prior men and women of this country, chastity (or lack thereof) is put in going to stand here and let that issue because it tends to dis- man with all of his power or credit her testimony regarding authority in America cover up the use of force by the defendant. and brand with infamy, by reason In its precedential decision, the of the very power and wealth and court reasoned that the rule was strength that he has, after tak- necessary “to permit the accused ing this girl’s virginity, after Alleged rape victim Eunice Pringle to combat the showing of destroying her character, then to force.…”18 Pantages’s conviction brand her with the infamy of being a black- time of the alleged rape. The question pre- was reversed, and he received a new trial. mailer by reason of the very position he sented was whether such evidence about a Of course, the law on the admission of a holds?”17 The jury took no time convicting complaining witness was admissible in a statu- rape victim’s background has changed dra- Alex Pantages of statutory rape, and he was tory rape case. At that time, evidence of a matically over the years. However, the obser- sentenced to 50 years in prison without parole. victim’s lack of chastity was admissible in a vation made in the seventeenth century by Giesler appealed the conviction, arguing nonstatutory rape case, both to show con- Lord Matthew Hale that “[rape] is an accu- Photo: Los Angeles Daily News Collection, Dept of Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, UCLA not only that the district attorney had com- sent by the victim and to discredit her testi- sation easily to be made and hard to be mitted prejudicial misconduct in the case but mony regarding the use of force. But in a proved, and harder to be defended by the also that the trial court erred in excluding evi- statutory rape case, which involves an accu- party accused, tho never so innocent”19 was dence as to whether Pringle was a virgin at the sation of an unlawful sexual act with a minor truer at the time of Pantages’s trial than it is Crafting Litigation Strategy National Jury Project brings a wealth of courtroom experience, professional insight, and real world data to devising winning litigation strategy. • Over 5,000 cases • 25 years of experience • Successful, systematic approach • Consultants trained in psychology, sociology, communication, and law Our case involvement includes complex commercial litigation, tobacco litigation (Boeken v. Philip Morris), asbestos litigation, intellectual property (Compaq v. Packard Bell), employment (Carroll v. Interstate Brands Corp.- Wonderbread), personal injury, and criminal defense.

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LOS ANGELES LAWYER / MARCH 2003 75 6 Id. at 233. today. Advances in medical proof and DNA jury voted not guilty and Pantages was 7 Davis, supra note 2, at 8. evidence have put a completely different released from jail. 8 ST. JOHNS, supra note 3, at 236. emphasis on the rules governing evidence in Pringle died mysteriously in 1933 of 9 Id. at 237. rape trials since the Pantages case. In 1974, the “unknown causes.” Prior to her death she 10 Id. California Legislature enacted one of the apparently told Giesler that she wanted to 11 Id. at 238. 12 Davis, supra note 2, at 8. nation’s first “rape shield” laws.20 Among reveal the truth about her charge of rape 13 People v. Pantages, 212 Cal. 237 (1931). other things, the law limits the admissibility against Pantages. She also reportedly told 14 “Pericles Pantages switched his first name to of evidence of the sexual history of a victim her mother and a friend on her deathbed that Alexander after reading about Alexander the Great.” of an alleged rape. “Joseph Kennedy and [District Attorney] MICHAEL PARRISH, FOR THE PEOPLE 92 (1st ed. 2001). However, justice was apparently served by Buron Fitts had set up the phony rape, 15 PARRISH, id. 16 the supreme court’s ruling in the Pantages promising ten thousand dollars to Pringle Lois Pantages’s attorneys were able to show that Rokomoto died as a result of receiving too much anes- case. In November 1931, after Pantages had and her agent-boyfriend [Dunaev], as well thetic before the surgery for his broken pelvis, and 21 spent a total of three years in prison, the case as acting work at a major movie studio.” the charge against her was reduced to manslaughter. was retried. At the second trial Eunice Pringle That Joseph Kennedy was a Pantages com- Eventually she was convicted and placed on 10 years’ appeared in clothes similar to those she had petitor in the theater chain business probably probation. 17 worn on the day of the alleged rape. In a red fueled the rumors that Pringle’s deathbed Pantages, 212 Cal. at 250 (emphasis in original). 18 Id. at 277. dress with high heels and bright lipstick, declaration was true.22 19 1 HALE, THE HISTORY OF THE PLEAS OF THE CROWN 634 Pringle was not quite the ingenue that she had With the changes in the law that have (1st Am. ed. 1847), quoted in People v. Gammage, 2 Cal. appeared to be at the first trial. After the man- occurred over the years, the Pantages case is 4th 693, 694-95 (1992). ager of the Moonbeam Glen Bungalow Court legally unimportant. But the allure of the story, 20 1974 Cal. Stat. ch. 569, at 1388-89; 1974 Cal. Stat. ch. testified that Pringle lived with her lover- steeped in the Hollywood tradition of sex, lies, 1093, at 2320-21; EVID. CODE §§782, 1103; PEN. CODE §1127d. See Mary M. v. City of Los Angeles, 54 Cal. App. agent, Nick Dunaev, and Pringle admitted and theater magnates, still remains. ■ 3d 202 (1991) (“[T]he Legislature enacted one of the she had done so since the age of 15, the jury nation’s first ‘rape shield’ laws, limiting the admissibility seemed to view her evidence in a different 1 The Verdugo family pioneered much of Los Angeles of evidence of a complainant’s sexual history except light. When hoots of laughter broke out as after they received the 36,000 acre Rancho San Rafael, under narrowly defined conditions and prohibiting an Giesler and his assistant acted out Pringle’s the first land grant in the region from the king of Spain. instruction that an ‘unchaste woman’ is more likely to 2 Margaret Leslie Davis, The Society Wife Who Wouldn’t description of the alleged attack, demon- have consented to sexual intercourse.…”). Die: The Trial of Col. Griffith J. Griffith, L.A. DAILY 21 PARRISH, supra note 14, at 93. strating that it would have been physically JOURNAL, May 15, 1995, at 1, 8. 22 Pringle’s alleged deathbed accusation has not been impossible for the rape to have taken place in 3 ADELA ROGERS ST. JOHNS, FINAL VERDICT 224-25 (1962). independently verified. But unfounded rumors are the the tiny broom closet, the case was over. The 4 Id. at 227. stuff of Hollywood. 5 Id. at 232-33.

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78 LOS ANGELES LAWYER / MARCH 2003 CLE Preview

TAP Lecture Series Addressing ON CONSECUTIVE FRIDAYS—APRIL 4 AND 11—the Los Angeles County Bar Association Bias in will present a program titled “TAP: The Lecture Series: A Trial Advocacy Skills Course.” the Legal This is one of three courses offered in the Trial Advocacy Project (TAP). This two-session Profession lecture course provides instruction in trial advocacy, focusing on the rules of evidence ON WEDNESDAY, MARCH and closing argument. The first session covers the rules of evidence, providing a 19, the Equity in the Legal method for analyzing evidentiary issues while in trial and covering the hearsay rule, Profession Committee of character evidence, and 1101(b) evidence. The second session will cover closing the Barristers Section will present a program on arguments and how to argue the case from the start of trial. elimination of bias in the The TAP lecture series is open to any attorney, regardless of experience level. There legal profession. Speakers are no prerequisites for admission. Written course materials and a course syllabus will Ann Kotlarski, Belle Hsu, be distributed via e-mail prior to the first class. Please make sure we have your correct and Rebecca Delfino will e-mail address by e-mailing [email protected] regarding TAP: The Lecture Series. For address 1) how to questions on all three TAP courses, please review the information at www.lacba.org recognize bias in the legal /TAP. For further questions, call (213) 833-6704. This event will be held at the profession based on LACBA/LEXIS Publishing Conference Center, 281 South Figueroa Street, Downtown. gender, disability, sexual orientation, and race, and Parking at the Figueroa Courtyard Garage will be available for $7 with LACBA 2) solutions to bias validation. On-site registration will begin at 12:30 P.M., with the program continuing scenarios through dialogue from 1 to 4:30. The event code number is 1708D04. between audience and $350—LACBA members panel members. This event $500—All others will be held at the 6.5 CLE hours, including 1 ethics hour LACBA/LEXIS Publishing Conference Center, 281 South Figueroa Street, Basics of Mergers and Acquisitions Downtown. Parking at the ON THURSDAY, MARCH 6, the Business and Corporations Law Section and the Barristers Figueroa Courtyard Garage Section will present a program titled “Introduction to M and A (Boot Camp).” In this will be available for $7 with LACBA validation. On- program, speakers Arthur William Brown Jr. and Robert E. Braun will cover the nuts and site registration and a meal bolts of mergers and acquisitions, including the basics of deciding on the form of the will begin at 5:30 P.M., with transaction; key tax, securities, antitrust, and regulatory considerations; due diligence; the program continuing indemnification issues; legal opinions; fair value opinions; and other basic from 6 to 7 P.M. The event considerations. Boot camp programs cover the basics and are generally designed for code number is 180ZC19. attorneys with minimal experience or those who are seeking a refresher course in the CLE+PLUS members may relevant areas. The program will take place at Le Meridien Hotel, 465 South La Cienega attend for free (meal not included). Boulevard, Los Angeles. On-site registration will begin at 11:45 A.M. and lunch at noon, $20—Barristers Section with the program continuing from 12:30 to 2 P.M. The event code number is 808LC06. CLE+Plus members may attend for free (meal not included). Prices below include meal. members $30—LACBA members $75—sponsoring section members $40—all others $85—LACBA members 1 CLE hour in elimination $95—all others, including all at-the-door registrants of bias 1.5 CLE hours

The Los Angeles County Bar Association is a State Bar of California MCLE approved provider. To register for the programs listed on this page, please call the Member Service Department at (213) 896-6560 or visit the Association Web site at http://forums.lacba.org/calendar.cfm. For a full listing of this month’s Association programs, please consult the March County Bar Update.

LOS ANGELES LAWYER / MARCH 2003 79 closing argument

By Gerald L. Chaleff

Our Commitment to Public Service Los Angeles lawyers must continue their long and proud tradition of pro bono assistance

raditionally, lawyers have given their time and money generously Unfortunately, the commitment to public service seems to be dis- to serve their profession and their community. We have com- appearing. Whether it is the drive for increased profits, the fear of a Tmitted a huge portion of our professional lives to the assistance weakening economy, or the diminishing belief that we lawyers all owe of others through pro bono activities and pro bono organizations a duty to improve society, the principle that lawyers should participate that we establish, fund, and staff. We have made a commitment to oth- in pro bono activities is no longer emphasized as it was in the past. ers an integral part of what our profession is and who we are. Lawyers While not all large law firms have abandoned or reduced their pro bono have always been willing to come forward and perform public service, programs or activities, many have, and even more do not encourage at great expense to themselves, to assist their community and gov- their partners and associates to participate in legal service activities ernment and to protect the rights of all. or organizations. Moreover, as a practical matter the hours required Historically, lawyers in Los Angeles and the Los Angeles County of each associate and partner in a law firm do not leave much room Bar Association have been at the forefront of this tradition. The list for pro bono work. As law firms grow larger, they seem more inter- of accomplishments by Los Angeles lawyers and the Association is as ested in increasing their American Lawyer profit numbers than in pro- long as it is impressive. Los Angeles was the birthplace of the public moting service to others. This trend is so prevalent—even among the defender system, which was established in 1917. During World War smaller and midsized firms as well as the large firms—that pro bono I the Association created its first documented pro bono project, which activity or public service is no longer considered part of our obliga- involved providing free legal aid to servicemen and their families. Over tion and responsibility. the years, the Association and its members have helped create the I recognize that our profession is a business, and that we work hard Legal Aid Society of Los Angeles; Public Counsel; the Mental Health and deserve to be adequately compensated. However, there comes Advocacy Project and its predecessor, the Special Committee of the a point when the drive for that extra dollar comes at the cost of our Junior Barristers to staff the Psychiatric Department; the Indigent professional souls. The unrelenting pressure of the “hours derby” is Criminal Defense Appointments Program; the Harriett Buhai Center one of the reasons many young lawyers for Family Law; the Barristers Domestic Violence Legal Services are burned out after a few years of prac- Project; HALSA (HIV and AIDs Legal Services Alliance); the tice. We must find a way to balance the Immigration Legal Assistance Project; and others. The Association also need for a successful business enterprise established the Los Angeles County Bar Foundation to support legal with the responsibility we have to our services programs in Los Angeles County that promote efficiency in, community. and understanding of, the judicial system and provide assistance to I do not pretend to have the answer, the poor. but recent examples from the corporate In addition, lawyers in Los Angeles have individually volunteered world—such as the Enron, WorldCom, to help those seeking to adopt children, obtain divorces, and file for Adelphia, and Tyco fiascos—are trou- restraining orders. They have provided tax counseling, represented bling indicators of what can happen when individuals in unlawful detainer proceedings, and provided mediation business measures itself only by the bot- services to a wide range of people in need. tom line. Let the headlines be a warning Gerald L. Chaleff is Los Angeles lawyers also have donated time and resources to and not an example to follow. the commanding serve and improve the Los Angeles community at large. We have only It is up to each one of us to help our officer of the Consent to look to the Christopher Commission for an example of the valuable profession retain and renew the spirit of Decree Bureau of the public service that has been performed by local lawyers. When the commitment that we so often have Los Angeles Police city of Los Angeles needed help, we were there. Beginning in the demonstrated in the past. We need to Department and past 1920s, Los Angeles lawyers have participated in investigations of ensure that the concept of pro bono ser- president of the Los police department misconduct; have been neutral observers at the sites vice is valued and supported by all. Angeles Board of of demonstrations and marches; have conducted investigations of jail The consequences of failing to encour- Police Commissioners. conditions; have been members of task forces to improve the civil court age public service will not simply be more He was president of system, the district attorney’s office, and the criminal justice sys- lawyer jokes. Without an ethic of public the Association in tem; and have filed legal actions to support the courts and other service, both the profession of law and our 1993-94. public institutions. society will be diminished. ■

80 LOS ANGELES LAWYER / MARCH 2003

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