Alumni in the News

May 2003

9th Circuit Judge Bucks Three Strikes Rules
The Recorder, 5/30/03

Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Harry Pregerson ['50], the oldest active member of the court and a stalwart of the court's liberal wing, is defying recent Supreme Court precedent in some of California's three strikes cases.

In several recent appeals of three strikes sentences for nonviolent third offenses, Pregerson has dissented from unpublished affirmances. Since judges are not normally free to ignore Supreme Court rulings, Pregerson's stare-down with stare decisis is remarkable.

"In good conscience, I cannot vote to go along with the sentence imposed in this case," Pregerson wrote in one typical dissent.

"I think the Three Strikes law should only be applied to a defendant whose criminal history, including his last offense, demonstrates that he needs to be taken off the streets because he poses a realistic threat to the health and safety of the community," Pregerson explained Tuesday. "There are cases where a long term in prison is justified and cases where it is not."…

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Robert McManigal, 102, Had Law Career Spanning 75 Years
The Recorder, 5/29/03

Robert Moore McManigal ['28], the oldest practicing member of the California State Bar, died May 21. He was 102 years old.

In his 75-year legal career -- which began when Calvin Coolidge was the president of the United States and Ford Model Ts were one of the nation's most popular cars -- McManigal practiced intellectual property law in house and founded his own firm. Along the way, he inspired a half-dozen relatives to pursue careers in law.

"He spawned a legal family based on his love for his own job," said grandson Dwight Stirling, a solo attorney in Belmont Shore. "The law was both his pastime and his profession."

Stirling described McManigal as full of energy and constantly thirsty for information. "That's the key for his longevity," said Stirling. …

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Industry Watch: With Honors
Daily Journal Extra, 5/27/03

The Lawyers Club of San Diego honored California Court of Appeal Justice Judith McConnell ['69] with its Lifetime Achievement Award at its annual dinner March 16.

The award was for McConnell's legal and judicial career and for her work promoting equality for women in the legal community.

Habeas Law In Trouble
San Francisco Daily Journal, 5/27/03

SACRAMENTO—Susan Deering spent 23 years behind bars for killing her abusive boyfriend, yet jurors never heard a word about battered women's syndrome before they convicted her of second-degree murder in 1980.

Today, expert evidence on battering is admissible in all criminal cases where it's relevant, the result of a state statute passed in 1992. The law broke new ground, but for Deering it arrived too late.

"Susan's trial judge later gave us a declaration that said if the jury had received expert evidence of battering and its effects, she would have been convicted at most of manslaughter," said Tara Borelli, Deering's 26-year-old habeas attorney. "In 1981, manslaughter carried a maximum sentence of eight years."

The injustice of such situations was not lost on state lawmakers. In 2001, they passed a measure that for the first time allowed women such as Deering to seek habeas corpus relief by submitting evidence of battered women's syndrome. …

"There is a serious lack of resources," said Olivia Wang ['01], a 27-year-old Boalt Hall graduate who coordinates habeas efforts for battered women in Northern California. "When 1473 was passed, there was no support to implement the law. Right now we're chugging along with zero funding."

A staff attorney with the San Francisco-based Legal Services for Prisoners with Children, Wang explained that "in these cases, having an evaluation by an expert witness is the crux of the case. But the sheer cost of contacting with experts is an impediment to filing the petitions." …

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Busy S.F. Corporate Lawyer Prizes his Volunteer Work
San Francisco Chronicle, 5/27/03

When Joshua Ridless ['97] was in high school, all he wanted to do after school was play lacrosse and hang out with his pals. But his father pushed him into spending his afternoons helping disadvantaged kids with math and science.

To his surprise, Ridless liked it.

"It was incredibly rewarding," he said, recalling how he was able to see beyond his cozy suburban Connecticut neighborhood. "Just being able to see kids learn with your help."

Today, Ridless, 32, is a San Francisco lawyer with a steady corporate practice, representing small and midsize firms in all types of transactions.

But he also makes time to help—at no charge—the Booker T. Washington Community Service Center, a group in San Francisco's Western Addition and the oldest African American nonprofit in the Bay Area. …

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Documentary Profiles Jurist's Impact on Bench
The Recorder, 5/19/03

Most judges leave the bench with a trunk full of memories and a long list of opinions bearing their byline. But Judge Thelton Henderson, who has sat on the Northern District for more than 20 years, will also have a documentary film about his life.

An excerpt of the work-in-progress was screened last week at The Impact Fund's 10th anniversary celebration at San Francisco's Argent Hotel. Abby Ginzberg, a board member of the nonprofit legal organization, is producing the documentary, tentatively titled "No Place in Civilized Society: The Life & Times of Thelton Henderson ['62]."…

While a documentary about a judge might not sound like the most riveting of films, Henderson's life story is hardly run of the mill. Recruited by Robert Kennedy's Justice Department during his third year at Boalt Hall School of Law, Henderson began his career enforcing voting rights in the South at the height of the civil rights movement. There, he struck up acquaintances with civil rights activists Medgar Evers and Martin Luther King Jr. …

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Supreme Court Solicitations
Legal Times, 5/19/03

Whenever the U.S. Supreme Court invites the solicitor general's office to express the government's views on a pending case, it is a reminder of the important role the SG plays at the high court.

Rarely, if ever, does the Court reach out to any other law office for its opinion on whether or not it should grant review in a case. And most of the time, when asked, the solicitor general's advice carries great weight: In the last three terms, the Court has followed the SG's invited recommendation 74 percent of the time.

But these days, the special bond between the office and the Court appears stronger than ever.

The Court has asked Solicitor General Theodore Olson ['65] for his views in an unusually high number of cases in which the government was not already involved—23 so far this term—a sharply higher number than the recent average of 16 per term. If past patterns hold, as many as a half-dozen more invitations could come before the end of the term. …

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He May Shy From Tanks but Not the Massed Media Forces
Los Angeles Times, 5/18/03

One day in the early 1970s, as the Vietnam War dragged on and the antiwar movement gathered steam, students at the University of Pennsylvania seized the campus quadrangle and barricaded themselves behind its iron gates.

Mayor Frank L. Rizzo sent in the Philadelphia police. Just so there would be no misunderstanding, the cops rolled up in a Sherman tank with a 75-millimeter cannon.

"Everyone sort of assumed it wasn't loaded, but no one wanted to find out," Michael H. Page ['91], a former Penn philosophy major who was among the demonstrators that day, recalled recently. "We declared victory and left."

Page now is a lawyer at Keker & Van Ness in San Francisco, surrounded by high-tech clients instead of antiwar activists. But when he signed on to defend Grokster, the five-person company behind a controversial online file-sharing network, he ran into the courtroom equivalent of a Sherman tank: the massed force of the major record companies, music publishers and Hollywood studios. …

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Lopez Says He Won't Seek 3rd Term on School Board
The San Diego Union-Tribune, 5/15/03

Trustee Ed Lopez ['91] says he will not seek a third term on San Diego's Board of Education next year.

Lopez's departure throws open a seat on a board that has been bitterly divided over the education reforms of Superintendent Alan Bersin. Lopez has consistently voted in the 3-2 majority in support of Bersin, so the election for Lopez's successor could tip the balance of power.

"Two terms is a lot. Certainly in the course of public education, eight years is a long time, and I'm very proud of our reform efforts," Lopez said. …

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The Nation's First Transgender Law Center Opens Doors in S.F.
The Recorder, 5/15/03

A new legal aid organization dedicated to serving California's transgender communities celebrated its official launch Wednesday.

The nonprofit Transgender Law Center, based in San Francisco, is the first statewide legal organization for transgender people in the country. The center has been quietly operating since September, but Wednesday marked its official unveiling.

Christopher Daley ['01], the center's co-director, said the organization will provide a centralized and much-needed resource for transgender people throughout California. …

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CPDA Names Barbara B. Fargo Public Defender of the Year 2003
U.S. Newswire, 5/13/03

Barbara B. Fargo ['74], a Santa Clara County Deputy Public Defender, has been named the 2003 Public Defender of the Year by the California Public Defender's Association. This award recognizes the California public defender who best exemplifies the commitment, creativity, legal ability, intelligence and energy that public defenders bring to representing the indigent.

In 1971 when Barbara Fargo went to law school at the University of California, Berkeley she knew that she wanted to be a public defender. The prison reform movement was active and prison riots commanded the headlines; the names of the prisons "Attica," "Soledad" evoked powerful feelings. Fargo felt "that the system was skewed against defendants; that the system was not responsive to the needs of the people."

She joined the Santa Clara County Public Defender's Office in 1976 and has been there ever since. She has handled everything from misdemeanor trials to supervising the Special Trials Unit which handled all the special circumstance murder cases, most of the other murder cases, and other complex litigations cases requiring extensive preparation. Fargo has lectured widely throughout California to criminal defense lawyers on how to litigate a variety of cases over the last 17 years. She also worked as head of the office's Research, Law and Motion Department authoring winning briefs in many major cases. …

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A Judge Who Went from Activist to S.F. Jurist
The San Francisco Chronicle, 5/9/03

You might expect Judge Ronald Quidachay ['73] to play it safe on the bench since he has applied for a promotion to the state appeals court.

But the Superior Court judge threw a curve Thursday when he struck down San Francisco's "Care Not Cash" initiative, last year's voter-approved Proposition N that provides the homeless with services instead of welfare cash.

Jeffrey Bleich ['89], a San Francisco lawyer who has appeared before the judge several times, said Quidachay is known for calling decisions the way he sees them.

"I'm not surprised that he would use his best judgment, regardless of the personal consequences," said Bleich, who is president of the San Francisco Bar Association. "He will make the decision that he believes is correct under the law, even if it is unpopular." …

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The 101 Most Influential Minorities in Sports
Sports Illustrated, 5/5/03

87: Keven Davis ['82], 45, Lawyer

Davis has represented the Williams family for more than a decade and advises Venus and Serena on major deals. In 2000 he negotiated Venus's $40 million Reebok deal, the biggest endorsement contract ever for a female athlete.

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Best Evidence
JD Jungle, April/May 2003

In 1995, Barry Scheck ['74] became known to anyone with a TV set as a member of O.J. Simpson's legal Dream Team. His area of expertise: the still-nascent use of DNA evidence to demonstrate an alleged criminal's guilt or innocence. Since then, Scheck has emerged as the world's most recognized legal authority on the subject, and his Innocence Project, the group he founded with fellow attorney Peter Neufeld, has championed the use of DNA testing to expose a stunning number of wrongful convictions. The group's work has contributed to a widespread reconsideration of the death penalty and, arguable, a reappraisal of the entire criminal justice system. ...