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NEWS > Media Coverage > Alumni in the News > 2004 Stories >
October 2005
Maryellen Herringer Joins PG&E Boards of Directors
PR Newswire (10/20/05)
PG&E Corporation today announced the election of Maryellen C. Herringer '68 to its Board of Directors and the Board of Directors of utility unit Pacific Gas and Electric Company, effective yesterday. Herringer is a director on the boards of a number of corporate and community organizations...
"Maryellen's experience as a board member and her expertise on corporate governance matters will be a great asset to our boards," said Robert D. Glynn, Jr., Chairman of the Boards...
Herringer currently serves as a member of the Boards of Directors of Golden West Financial Corporation, its subsidiary World Savings and Loan Association, and ABM Industries Inc. She also is a Trustee of Mills College, the Benilde Religious Trust and the University of California at Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive.
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Kenny Kahn Garners IRWIN Award For Most Inspirational Campaign 2005 from Book Publicists of Southern California
Yearbook of Experts (R) News Release Wire (10/18/05)
Prominent Southern California criminal defense attorney Kenny Kahn '65, author of The Carney Kid: Survival of a Young Thief, was presented an IRWIN Award from the Book Publicists of Southern California for the Most Inspirational Campaign 2005. IRWIN stands for Industry Recognition for Writers In the News and was given at the 11th Annual Irwin Awards banquet on October 5, 2005 at the Sportsmen’s Lodge in Los Angeles...
He put himself though UCLA as an undergrad and UC Berkeley Law School en route to highly successful career as a criminal defense attorney. Defending such people as Larry Flynt, Ike Turner and Andrew Daulton Lee from the famed Falcon and the Snowman movie (The Sean Penn character), Kenny took up stand up comedy in 1987 after being stabbed in court by a deranged client in a Torrance, California courtroom. He has played at the Riviera Hotel in Las Vegas and clubs throughout the country. ..
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Geesman Pulls No Punches On Energy
Contra Costa Times (10/15/05)
For a bearer of bad news, California Energy Commissioner John Geesman has a pretty pleasant demeanor -- more like Robert Redford in "The Candidate" than Jack Lemmon in "The China Syndrome."
But Geesman, 54, of Orinda, recently oversaw preparation of a report warning that "California's way of life is threatened" by unsolved energy problems and recognizing "only minimal progress" since the 2000-01 energy crisis.
That conclusion seems at odds with the more upbeat outlook of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who wrote recently that his administration had made "significant progress" in addressing energy issues...
Q What grade would you give the state for the progress that we've made since the 2000-01 crisis?
A Pat Wood, former head of (the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission), gave the state, and I believe he was including himself and FERC in this assessment as well, a D+ for response to the crisis, largely on infrastructure grounds...
We need to move forward now with investments in new efficiency, new renewables and new conventional supplies. That requires long-term contracts.
Those projects don't seem to materialize without long-term commitments that ultimately the government is responsible for approving...
One of the reasons why progress seems so slow in this area is the public only focuses on it when it's a problem, and yet the seeds of the next problem are being planted during more tranquil periods of time. And I think that's what we got into over the course of the last four years.
I doubt very seriously the public will be very tolerant if they see the same problem recurring.
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Sonnenschein Associate Swaps Bar Card for Cop Badge
The Recorder (10/10/05)
Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal associate Ashley Osborne is trading in "L.A. Law" for "Hill Street Blues."
The Boalt Hall School of Law graduate became a lawyer three years ago, after having spent five years with the Redwood City Police Department.
But once a lawyer, he found himself hankering for his days on the SWAT team. His last day as a lawyer was Friday, after which he will rejoin the ranks in Redwood City.
"What I liked about police work, I really liked the human contact," Osborne said. "At a law firm, especially at the junior level, you spend a lot of time interacting with a computer."
Osborne's decision crystallized watching the television images of unrest and looting in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. He was particularly struck by news reports of police officers walking off the job in a time of crisis.
"When I became an officer, one of my training officers said, 'You don't get paid for what you do, but what you might have to do,'" Osborne says. "And all the more, it made me realize there is a place for me in law enforcement...."
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The Arts: Documentary captures spirit, trials of Judge Henderson
San Francisco Chronicle (10/7/05)
The footage is old and grainy but the black-and-white images are distinct enough. A young man in a suit is walking through a makeshift jail in Mississippi, inspecting conditions for hundreds of demonstrators arrested during the civil rights movement.
Thelton Henderson '62 was the Justice Department's only black civil rights lawyer, serving as the eyes and ears for the Kennedy Administration during the 1960s uprising against segregation in the South. His job was to monitor local law enforcement for any civil rights abuses, a role that included investigating the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in which four girls were killed....
Henderson eventually became a federal judge in San Francisco, distinguishing himself for his bold decisions, even if it meant taking on some of the nation's most powerful political forces. Republican lawmakers called for his impeachment after he struck down Proposition 209, the 1996 measure that banned affirmative action in public contracts, hiring and college admissions in California....
"Soul of Justice: Thelton Henderson's American Journey" traces Henderson's path from his childhood in Watts, through his career as a civil rights lawyer and ultimately his role as a judge. The film focuses on some of his most newsworthy rulings, including decisions requiring the tuna fishing industry to follow laws protecting dolphins and compelling officials at one of the state's most notorious prisons to provide basic rights to inmates.
At each stage of his education and career he was one of a few, if not the only, blacks -- a reluctant pioneer....
He went to U.C. Berkeley on a football scholarship but a leg injury during a game crushed his dreams of becoming a professional athlete. Instead, he pursued a career in law, enrolling at Berkeley's Boalt Hall School of Law, one of two blacks in his class. Shortly after he graduated in 1962 he was recruited by the Justice Department's civil rights division to follow the civil rights movement in the South....
But his youth and inexperience ultimately cost him his job. When King asked him for a ride to Selma one day because he was having car trouble, the young lawyer agreed, aware of the constant threats on King's life. Local law enforcement, who were following King, seized on the fact that a lawyer for the Kennedy administration had assisted the civil rights leader. Henderson's career with the Justice Department came to an abrupt end.
"I was shattered," he recalled. "I felt a failure, just out of law school, my first job."...
Screening
"Soul of Justice: Thelton Henderson's American Journey'' will be shown at the Mill Valley Film Festival at 2:45 p.m. Sunday, the Sequoia Theater, 25 Throckmorton Ave., Mill Valley and at 7 p.m. Monday, the 142 Throckmorton Theatre, 142 Throckmorton Avenue, Mill Valley. It will also be shown at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 14, the Performing Arts Theater, 1600 Mission Ave., San Rafael. (925) 866-9559; www.mvff.com.
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University of California's Top Lawyer to Step Down After More Than 40 Years Service
AScribe Newswire (10/4/05)
After more than four decades as an attorney for the University of California -- and 20 years as its top lawyer -- James E. Holst has announced that he will be stepping down as UC's general counsel and vice president for legal affairs. He will conclude his distinguished service effective next June.
"I deeply appreciate the opportunity to have served the public mission of this great university," Holst said. "I value the experiences, support and, most importantly, the quality of the legal work of my staff who have established the position and reputation of this office over the course of these years."
Holst, 66, has been general counsel of the UC Board of Regents since December 1985. As general counsel, he is the university's chief legal officer and reports to the regents and the president of the university.
Holst's association with the university dates back to his student days. He graduated with honors in political science from UC Berkeley in 1960 and received his law degree from the UC Berkeley's Boalt Hall in 1963. The following year, he joined the Office of the General Counsel. He became chief associate counsel in 1974 and deputy general counsel in 1984.
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