Margo L. Lewis has been appointed to a judgeship in the San Diego County Superior Court by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, it was announced Wednesday.
She has served as a partner for Moore, Lewis, Schulman & Moore since 2000. Previously, she was an attorney and partner for Lewis & Schulman from 1997-2000.
Lewis served the San Diego Community College District as an adjunct faculty member for the Legal Assistant Program in Family Law in 1995. She was a sole practitioner from 1995-1997 and a partner at Galam, Lewis & Pope from 1994-1995 and Galam, Hurt, Lewis & Pope from 1993-1994.
Lewis earned a Juris Doctorate degree from California Western School of Law and a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Iowa. She fills the vacancy created by the disability retirement of Judge John L. Davidson.
Baker & McKenzie has elected Colin H. Murray as managing partner of its San Diego office. His practice focuses on securities and white-collar defense, complex business litigation and intellectual property litigation.
Murray's recent cases include successfully representing Rady Children's Hospital in a $100 million federal civil rights case and obtaining a defense verdict after three-week jury trial arising out of dispute between a Taiwanese media company and its distributor.
In addition to his new responsibilities in San Diego, Murray will continue as chair of the office's litigation and dispute resolution practice group. In 2007, he served as chair of the North America Investigations and Business Crimes group. Murray joined Baker & McKenzie in 2000 after serving as a trial prosecutor in the San Diego County's district attorney's office.
Townsend and Townsend and Crew partner Kenneth E. Jenkins has been elected vice president of the San Diego Intellectual Property Law Association (SDIPLA).
Jenkins, a life sciences patent prosecution and litigation partner, has served as a board member of SDIPLA the past two years.
"San Diego is a major technology center in the U.S.," Jenkins said. "This area is particularly important as an incubator of new ideas and technologies being developed by both academic institutions and technology based companies. The SDIPLA will continue to play a valuable role in helping San Diego's IP law community protect the high value intellectual property generated in this region."
One of Jenkins' priorities as vice president will be to continue to increase the organization's membership ranks.
Thomas Jefferson School of Law welcomed its first group of faculty fellows this week for the inaugural year of the school's new Teaching Fellowship Program. The group consists of Anastasia Boles, Liz McCuskey and Patricia Shepard.
"We received more than 100 applications for the 2010-2011 academic year, so the process was very competitive," said professor Linda Keller, chair of the faculty appointments committee at Thomas Jefferson. "I'm confident that all three fellows will make significant contributions as teachers and scholars. We are delighted to have them join us as TJSL faculty fellows."
The purpose of the fellowship, according to Keller, is to provide the fellows with an opportunity to move from practice to law teaching and scholarship and to supplement the tenured/tenure-track faculty who teach Legal Writing I with fellows from diverse backgrounds. The fellowship program is designed to provide mentoring and training to promising teachers in order to continue to provide Thomas Jefferson students with high quality instruction.
Best Best & Krieger LLP has hired Adriana R. Sanchez as an attorney in its special districts practice. She will be a third-year litigation associate at the firm and will work on cases involving special districts, and eminent domain and environmental law.
She graduated from the University of San Diego School of Law in May 2007. While a student, Sanchez interned at law firms in London and Barcelona. Fluent in both Spanish and Italian, Sanchez clerked for the Casa Cornelia Law Center in San Diego, where she worked with immigrant victims of domestic violence and other abuse victims.
Sanchez is an active volunteer in the San Diego community and sits on the board of directors for the San Diego Downtown YMCA.
The San Diego Legal Secretaries Association awarded its annual Virginia Caperton Memorial Scholarship to San Diego students Crystal Cho of Sage College and Jessica Avila of Hoover High School.
In addition, Legal Secretaries, Inc. (LSI) awarded its Eula Mae Jett Scholarship to Cho (first alternate at the college level) and local student Alexis Ronney of Patrick Henry High School (second place at the high school level). Both of these LSI scholarship applicants were sponsored by the San Diego Legal Secretaries Association (SDLSA).
Both SDLSA and LSI award scholarships to high school, college and re-entry level applicants who desire to pursue or advance their career in the legal field. For further information regarding the scholarship programs, visit their websites at sdlsa.org and lsi.org or contact lgreiner@cox.net.
Procopio, Cory, Hargreaves & Savitch successfully represented pro bono client San Diego Armed Services YMCA against litigation that threatened to shut down the annual fireworks display on the San Diego bayfront.
The Coastal Environmental Rights Foundation claimed that any fireworks displays over water require a permit and California Environmental Quality Act analysis. In late June, the Coastal Environmental Rights Foundation filed complaints against the city of San Diego, alleging their La Jolla fireworks display would violate state environmental law. The same day, the group threatened the same for the San Diego Bay Independence Day fireworks display.
The Procopio team that represented San Diego Armed Services YMCA included partner Robert G. Russell, senior counsel Walter E. Rusinek and associate Kevin M. Davis. Procopio partner John J. Lormon led the team.
Latham & Watkins attorney Bob Howard successfully represented the La Jolla Community Fireworks Foundation in its case on a pro bono basis. A San Diego Superior Court judge last week denied the environmental group's temporary restraining order seeking to halt the Fourth of July fireworks show in La Jolla. The judge ruled there was insufficient evidence of irreparable injury to the environment.
