Law in the Family Legal Careers Commence
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A NEWSLETTER FOR THE USC LAW COMMUNITY | VOL. 2 NUMBER 1 SUMMER 2009 Law in the Family Legal Careers Alumni make USC Law a family affair BY DARREN SCHENCK Commence BY LORI CRAIG Swathed in cardinal or black and set against the backdrop of hundreds of cheering friends and family members, more than 300 law school graduates concluded their USC Law education at a rousing May 15 commencement ceremony. Delivering the keynote address, California Attorney General Edmund G. “Jerry” Brown told USC Law’s Class of 2009 that they have the ability to lead the country from breakdown to breakthrough. “Your studies in the law have taught you how LOOD B G to think, how to unravel legal problems,” said HN N O C Brown. “You’ve also learned how to learn, how to OU E Y V E reframe a problem, how to know when there is ILL ST B no problem. Go forth with the confidence that Robert Gerst ’59 with his son Michael Gerst ’09 at Members of the Loo family, from left: Cynthia ’90, Tom ’68, you can transform this society.” USC Law Commencement Wendy ’94 and Lori ’90 Brown addressed the 209 juris doctorate recipients, along with 95 foreign graduate students As Robert Gerst watched his son Michael stride across the After a stint with USC’s undergraduate admissions receiving master of laws degrees and two receiving stage in the middle of the USC campus on May 15 to accept office, Michael started his legal education. master of comparative law degrees. Among the his diploma, he was filled not only with familial but also “I had always wanted to come to USC for grad many family and friends attending the ceremony institutional pride: 50 years ago he, too, received a USC school,” he says. “I grew up a huge ’SC fan and wanted were Vice President Joe Biden and his wife, Jill, Law degree. to have some connection to USC.” who were on hand to celebrate the USC Law A retired attorney, Gerst ’59 represented professional As for the next generation of Gersts: “I’ll start graduation of a family member. Dean Rasmussen athletes such as Jerry West, Vida Blue and Tommy Davis brainwashing my nephew,” he says. acknowledged Biden, to resounding applause. early in his career. He then became a founding partner of The Gersts are only the most recent family to boast “Mr. Vice President, I invite our graduates to Weissburg & Aronson, which developed into one of the multiple USC Law alumni. The children of several USC take inspiration from you as someone who has largest law firms devoted to health care. (Today it is the Law graduates are enrolled in the law school, and some used the great gift of a legal education to launch national firm Foley & Lardner.) Gerst and his wife, Court alumni families can trace their law school roots back a lifelong career of distinguished public service,” of Appeal Justice Judith Ashmann-Gerst, are proud of three generations. Rasmussen said. their son, who is the third to become a lawyer, but the Then there are families like the Loos, in which not Student Bar President Alyson Parker ’09 first to graduate from USC Law. just one child but all of them followed in the parent’s addressed her classmates and called them “a “Michael has done a great job,” says Gerst. “He’s had footsteps to USC Law. team of superstars.” Third-year Class President a wonderful education.” The Loo sisters — Cynthia ’90, Lori ’90 and Wendy ’94 — Paula Mayeda ’09 also acknowledged her When he enrolled at USC, Robert Gerst became the can’t credit their dad, Tom ’68, for steering them to law classmates as “the most independent, headstrong, first in his family to go to law school. Little did he know school: he wanted them to become accountants. determined and, yes, stubborn group of individuals that he was starting a family tradition. “I have no recollection of talking with them before I have ever had the honor of meeting.” “I read a book about Clarence Darrow when I was they made the decision about going to law school,” says younger, and from that point on I was fascinated by the Tom, who co-founded a law firm in the 70s and today is law,” he says. “I thought it would be a field where I co-managing partner at Greenberg Traurig. could have a positive impact on people.” “But I can remember several conversations about As a USC undergraduate, Gerst played third base for the accounting!” says Lori, a partner with Brot & Gross, USC Trojans baseball team, then played semi-professional LLP specializing in family law. ball in Canada. He says ultimately he figured he had a better Asked why he urged his daughters to go into accounting, chance of being a lawyer than a major league baseball player. Tom reveals a story his daughters had never heard. “USC Law was always my top choice,” he says. “In those days, good Asian boys usually did what their Michael Gerst shares his father’s passion for USC, but fathers said. He gave me a choice of two schools, he wasn’t always certain he wanted to be a lawyer. Berkeley or USC, because the probability of meeting an USS RA “My parents had told me don’t go to law school unless Asian girl was higher,” says Loo, whose father never T you really want to be a lawyer, but all my conversations went to college but was a successful businessman. “My AN S D with their friends resulted in comments like, ‘You think father said his two uncontrollable costs were his accountant R O like a lawyer,’” he says. “When I graduated from Penn in and his lawyer. He said, ‘You do your undergraduate in J California Attorney General Jerry Brown, flanked ’05, I realized I wanted to be a lawyer, but I worked for a accounting and then you go to law school.’ by (left) USC Provost C. L. Max Nikias and USC Law year just to be sure.” (cont. to page 2) Dean Robert K. Rasmussen Cross-town Alumni Scene Faculty in Focus Student Scene USC Law Life 2 6 8 10 12 Challenge alumni scene HONOR ROLL Do you have news you would like to share for ERIC DOERING ’89 has joined Loeb & Loeb as a partner GLENN SONNENBERG ’80 received the Luis Lanier the next Honor Roll? Please send an e-mail and will be one of the first lawyers in the firm’s new Founder’s Award from Bet Tzedek, a public-interest law to [email protected]. You can also post a Beijing office. firm serving elderly, indigent and disabled residents in the class note on the USC Law website by visiting Los Angeles area. myLaw (http://mylaw.usc.edu). STEVE FOGELSON ’90 was promoted to Vice President for Legal and Business Affairs at Warner Bros. Consumer SHINTARO SUZUKI LL.M. ’08 ALLISON DOLGAS CATO ’91 Products. became a tenured faculty member has joined the faculty at California and full-time lecturer in law at Aichi Western School of Law in San Diego RAYMOND G. FORTNER, JR. ’67 was honored by Gakuin University in Nagoya, Japan. as a Professor of Legal Skills. the Board of Supervisors after announcing his retirement as County Counsel following four decades of service to PATRICK G. THOMASON ’82, MAREN CHRISTENSEN ’76, Los Angeles County. a Los Angeles County deputy executive vice president and alternate public defender, has general counsel for Universal MARC OETZEL LL.M. ’03 has received the L.A. County Bar Association’s Defense Studios, was named Entertainment Lawyer of the Year founded his own law firm in Attorney of the Year Award. by the Beverly Hills Bar Association. Cologne, Germany, specializing in entertainment, intellectual property GLENN A. WEINMAN ’81 was named Senior Vice THE HONORABLE CANDACE and corporate law and is also President, General Counsel and Secretary at American D. COOPER (RET.) ’73, teaching media law at a private Apparel. a retired presiding justice of university. the California Appellate Court, NORAH WEINSTEIN ’02 has founded handmedowns.com, has joined JAMS, the nation’s Los Angeles Deputy Public Defender LESLIE RINGOLD ’84 an online classifieds site where one can buy, sell or donate largest private provider of recently received the first-ever Compassion Award from new and “gently used” items for babies and children. alternative dispute resolution VIP Mentors, a group that matches attorneys with parolees. services, where she is now serving ROBURT YALE ’97 has returned from a year-long as a full-time mediator and arbitrator. JUSTIN SANDERS ’00 was named by Los Angeles deployment to Afghanistan as a JAG with the U.S. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to the board of the city’s Army Reserve. He has returned to his position practicing WILLIAM T. DALESSI ’48 was Community Redevelopment Agency. He previously environmental law with the Navy’s Office of General honored with the Outstanding worked as a partner with The Sanders Firm LLP and Counsel in Washington, D.C. Senior Attorney Award by the for Sidley Austin LLP and Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Long Beach Bar Association. He Hampton LLP. was presented the award by his former law partner, former Calif. Gov. George Deukmejian. Law in the Family (cont. from page 1) “It was good advice then; it’s good advice now,” he says. Remarkably, Stephen also graduated No. 1 in his class. The oldest daughter, Cynthia, is a Los Angeles “I wasn’t really aiming there, but I figured being County Superior Court referee who has an extensive number one is better than being number two,” he background in juvenile law.