THE MAGAZINE OF THE LOS ANGELES COUNTY BAR ASSOCIATION FEBRUARY 2019 / $5 PART 1 OF 2 PLUS Executive Coaching for RBG at Lawyers Skirball page 24 page 32 On Direct: Robert Ragland, L.A. County Public Health Counsel page 13 EARN MCLE CREDIT CCP998 Update Opening page 16 Secrets Los Angeles lawyers Christine N. Wood and Alexander Brand provide guidance regarding enactment of Senate Bill 1421, which amends the Public Records Act to permit greater access to California peace officer records page 18 FEATURES 18 Opening Secrets BY ALEXANDER BRAND AND CHRISTINE N. WOOD Newly enacted Senate Bill 1421 allows greater latitude in the public disclosure of peace officer personnel files Plus: Earn MCLE credit. MCLE Test No. 285 appears on page 21. 24 Leading Lawyers BY CYNTHIA FLYNN AND ANTHONY J. MULKERN Executive coaching is a powerful tool to help law firms manage the fast-paced pressures of the twenty-first century Los Angeles Lawyer DEPARTME NTS the magazine of the Los Angeles County 8 LACBA Matters 16 Practice Tips Bar Association LACBA delegates attend California Cost factors related to Code of Civil February 2019 Conference of Bar Associations Procedure Section 998 BY TAMILA C. JENSEN AND ALICE SALVO BY BRIAN S. KABATECK AND STEPHANIE CHARLIN Volume 41, No. 11 10 President's Page 32 Profile COVER PHOTOS CREDIT: Notorious RBG: The life and times of Ruth TOM KELLER Increasing LACBA membership is everyone's responsibility Bader Ginsburg BY BRIAN S. KABATECK BY GILLIAN H. CLOW 13 On Direct 36 Closing Argument Robert Ragland, Principal Deputy County Statutory constraints on partnership Counsel, Los Angeles County Department agreements LOS ANGELES LAWYER (ISSN 0162-2900) is published BY JEFFREY HURON monthly, except for a combined issue in July/August, by the of Public Health Los Angeles County Bar Association, 1055 West 7th Street, BY DEBORAH KELLY Suite 2700, Los Angeles, CA 90017 (213) 896-6503. Period - icals postage paid at Los Angeles, CA and additional mailing offices. Annual subscription price of $14 included in the Association membership dues. Nonmember subscriptions: 15 Barristers Tips $38 annually; single copy price: $5 plus handling. Address Legal consequences of failing to manage changes must be submitted six weeks in advance of next issue date. POSTMASTER: Address Service Requested. Send work stress and fatigue address changes to Los Angeles Lawyer, P. O. Box 55020, BY ROSS DILLION Los Angeles CA 90055. 02.19 Visit us on the internet at www.lacba.org/lalawyer E-mail can be sent to [email protected] Follow Los Angeles Lawyer on Twitter at @LALawyerMag EDITORIAL BOARD Chair THOMAS J. DALY Articles Coordinator TYNA ORREN Articles Coordinator JUSTIN KARCZAG Secretary TBD Immediate Past Chair JOHN C. KEITH JERROLD ABELES (PAST CHAIR) TOM K. ARA SCOTT BOYER NORMAN A. CHERNIN CHAD C. COOMBS (PAST CHAIR) KEITH A. CUSTIS GORDON K. ENG MICHAEL A. GEIBELSON (PAST CHAIR) SHARON GLANCZ GABRIEL G. GREEN STEVEN HECHT (PAST CHAIR) DENNIS F. HERNANDEZ HON. MARY HOUSE TIFFANY BACI HUNTER MARY E. KELLY (PAST CHAIR) KATHERINE KINSEY DIANA HUGHES LEIDEN LYDIA G. LIBERIO CAROLINE SONG LLOYD PAUL S. MARKS (PAST CHAIR) SANDRA MENDELL COMM’R ELIZABETH MUNISOGLU CARMELA PAGAY GREGG A. RAPOPORT JACQUELINE M. REAL-SALAS (PAST CHAIR) SHAIL PANKAJ SHAH LACEY STRACHAN THOMAS H. VIDAL STAFF Editor-in-Chief SUSAN PETTIT Senior Editor JOHN LOWE Art Director LES SECHLER Director of Design and Production PATRICE HUGHES Advertising Director LINDA BEKAS Senior Manager MELISSA ALGAZE Administrative Coordinator MATTY JALLOW BABY Copyright © 2019 by the Los Angeles County Bar Assoc - iation. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is pro hibited. Printed by R. R. Donnelley, Liberty, MO. The opinions and positions stated in signed material are those of the authors and not by the fact of publication necessarily those of the Association or its members. All manuscripts are carefully considered by the Editorial Board. Letters to the editor are subject to editing. 4 Los Angeles Lawyer February 2019 LOS ANGELES LAWYER IS THE OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF THE LOS ANGELES COUNTY BAR ASSOCIATION 1055 West 7th Street, Suite 2700, Los Angeles CA 90017-2553 Telephone 213.627.2727 / www.lacba.org LACBA EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE President BRIAN S. KABATECK President-Elect RONALD F. BROT Senior Vice President TAMILA C. JENSEN Vice President BRADLEY S. PAULEY Treasurer WILLIAM L. WINSLOW Vice President Of Diversity/Affiliate Outreach PHILIP H. LAM Assistant Vice President REAL ESTATE DISPUTE CONSULTING FELIX THOMAS WOO Assistant Vice President DANIEL J. BUCKLEY WARONZOF ASSOCIATES Assistant Vice President Timothy R. Lowe, MAI, CRE, FRICS KRISTIN ADRIAN Immediate Past President •economic damages •lease disputes MICHAEL E. MEYER •fair compensation •land use disputes Barristers/Young Attorneys President • JESSICA GORDON property valuation •partnership interest value Barristers/Young Attorneys President-Elect •lost profits •reorganization plan feasibility VICTORIA MCLAUGHLIN Waronzof Associates, Incorporated 310.322.7744 T 424.285.5380 F Executive Director/Secretary 400 Continental Boulevard, Sixth Floor [email protected] STANLEY S. BISSEY El Segundo, CA 90245 www.waronzof.com Chief Financial & Administrative Officer BRUCE BERRA BOARD OF TRUSTEES SUSAN J. BOOTH JESSE A. CRIPPS GARY A. FARWELL TANYA FORSHEIT JO-ANN W. GRACE JOHN F. HARTIGAN AMOS E. HARTSTON DANIEL T. HUANG RICHARD L. KELLNER JENNIFER W. LELAND EVE LOPEZ MATTHEW W. MCMURTREY F. FAYE NIA ANN I. PARK MICHAEL R. SOHIGIAN EDWIN C. SUMMERS KENDRA THOMAS KEVIN L. VICK AFFILIATED BAR ASSOCIATIONS BEVERLY HILLS BAR ASSOCIATION CENTURY CITY BAR ASSOCIATION CONSUMER ATTORNEYS ASSOCIATION OF LOS ANGELES CULVER MARINA BAR ASSOCIATION GLENDALE BAR ASSOCIATION IRANIAN AMERICAN LAWYERS ASSOCIATION ITALIAN AMERICAN LAWYERS ASSOCIATION JAPANESE AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION JOHN M. LANGSTON BAR ASSOCIATION THE LGBT BAR ASSOCIATION OF LOS ANGELES MEXICAN AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION PASADENA BAR ASSOCIATION SAN FERNANDO VALLEY BAR ASSOCIATION SANTA MONICA BAR ASSOCIATION SOUTH BAY BAR ASSOCIATION SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA CHINESE LAWYERS ASSOCIATION WOMEN LAWYERS ASSOCIATION OF LOS ANGELES Los Angeles Lawyer February 2019 5 have never worked with an executive coach. As noted in the article, “Leading Lawyers,” by Cynthia Flynn I and Anthony J. Mulkern on page 24, while relatively common in the corporate world, executive coaches are not widely used by the legal profession. In fact, my experience has been that should an attorney want to use an executive coach in a law firm setting, the attorney would be expected to pay for the expense of the coach out of pocket. A law firm normally would step up to pay for a coach or an advisor for an attorney only if that attorney was struggling. As a result, executive coaching has carried a bit of a negative connotation in the legal arena. The attitude has been that only a weak attorney would need to rely upon a coach for support. Now, I wonder how much better my experience within the legal profession might have been had I taken advantage of the services of an executive coach. I did have mentors who helped to guide and assist me. However, I was drawn to them, and they likely were willing to serve as mentors to me, because of similarities in the way we approached the practice of law. They provided excellent guidance and training but served more to affirm my choices than to act as agents of change. How refreshing it would have been to receive input from a more objective observer— though it might also have been chal- lenging and ego-deflating at times. We can all get complacent. Anyone can fall into a rut. Not many of us truly enjoy operating outside our comfort zone. Yet, how much more rewarding might our practices be if we had someone to nudge us when we get stuck, and encourage and support us when we need to reach outside our comfort zone to achieve a worthwhile goal. In some cases, a good mentor could serve this role. Also, some of us are truly self-starters, but I can see where I would have benefitted from having an executive coach. At the very least, looking back, I can see times when I might have made changes that improved my practice more quickly had there been some outside guidance. The legal profession seems to be opening up to a greater diversity of people and world views. This expansion of viewpoints should only make us more inclusive and, therefore, stronger as a profession. Hopefully, it also means that, as a profession, we are more open to alternative solutions for developing a healthy and satisfying legal practice. The practice of law remains a tough and demanding profession. We still face time pressures, economic pressures, and the expectations of our clients—great reasons to explore and adopt best practices from other fields that can help us perform better while reducing stress. n Thomas J. Daly is the 2018-19 chair of the Los Angeles Lawyer Editorial Board. He is a partner in Lewis Roca Rothgerber Christie’s Intellectual Property practice group in Los Angeles. A litigator, he focuses on strategies to obtain and protect patents and trademarks. 6 Los Angeles Lawyer February 2019 LACBA matters BY TAMILA C. JENSEN AND ALICE SALVO LACBA Delegates Attend California Conference of Bar Associations THE LOS ANGELES COUNTY BAR ASSOCIATION was among the 23 bar associations that sent delegates to the annual meeting of the California Conference of Bar Associations (CCBA) in San Diego September 13-16. The 200 delegates who attended considered 147 resolutions during the three-day conference. In the 2017- 2018 legislative year, CCBA was involved in 40 bills as a sponsor, co-sponsor, or supporter. Among sponsored bills, 13 bills in which the conference played a role were signed into law by Governor Jerry Brown, and 13 more were on the governor’s desk at the time of the conference.