The Complete Appeal Conference in Palm Springs: Strategies from Start to Finish (2009)

Faculty:

Justice Miller is an Associate Justice with the California Court of Appeal.  He was first appointed to the Fourth District Court of Appeal, Division Two, by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in June of 2006.  Prior to that appointment, Justice Miller served on the Riverside Superior Court since 1995, where he served as Presiding Judge of the Riverside County Superior Court of California from January 1, 2003 – December 31, 2004 and the Assistant Presiding Judge of the Riverside County Superior Court from January 1, 2001 – December 31, 2002.  Justice Miller was the Supervising Judge of the Riverside County Superior Court, Desert Judicial District between 1999 and 2002 and the Assistant Supervising Judge of the Riverside County Superior Court, Desert Judicial District1996 – 1998.

Justice Miller is a member of the Judicial Council of California, Administrative Office of the Courts, San Francisco, the Commission on Access to Justice, the Continuing Judicial Studies Program Education Committee, the Science and the Law Steering Committee, the Editorial Board, California Courts Review, the Bench-Bar Coalition, the Probate Conservatorship Task Force, and the California Judges Association, San Francisco
Mid-Year Planning Committee.

Justice Miller is the Chair of the Commission for Impartial Courts, Task Force on Judicial Candidate Campaign Conduct, and the California State Bar Task Force on Lawyer Support for Legal Services,

Justice Miller is the Co-Chair of the Temporary Judges Working Group and when on the Superior Court bench, was a member of the following groups: Enhanced Collections Collaborative Court-Working Group; Trial Court Presiding Judges Advisory Committee; Presiding Judges & Court Executives Legislation Subcommittee (Co-Chair); Civil Law Education Planning Committee; Trial Court Executive Management Budget Working Group; Community-Focused Court Planning Implementation; Working Group on Term of Presiding Judge; Task Force on Judicial Ethics Issues; Consultant CJER:  Judges Guide to ADR; Civil & Small Claims Advisory Committee; Subcommittee assignments-Case Management, Small Claims, Legislative; Community-Focused Strategic Planning Steering Committee, 1997 – 1998 and the California Judges Association, San Francisco Mid-Year Planning Committee Executive Board of Directors, 1999 – 2002. He was the Vice President of that organization from 2001 – 2002.  Justice Miller also served on the Civil Law & Procedure Committee and the Public Information & Education, 1996 – 1998.

In Riverside County, Justice Miller serves on the Board of Directors for VIP Mentors, is an Appellate Member of the Self-Represented Litigants Oversight Committee, Riverside Superior Court; the Executive Committee and the Community Outreach Committee, Desert Judicial District.  Previously, Justice Miller served on the Alternative Dispute Resolution Committee; Criminal Justice Liaison Committee, Chairperson;
Jury Committee; Superior Court Appellate Department; Court Security Committee; Grand Jury Committee.

Justice Miller is the recipient of multiple awards, including the 2008 California Bench-Bar Coalition Judicial Officer of the Year, the 2007 Martin Luther King Award – Mid-Valley Interfaith Council, and the 2006 American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA) Inland County Trial Judge of the Year.

Justice Miller has extensive public speaking and teaching experience, including teaching at: the Brigham Young University, School of Law, Trial Advocacy Program; the Orrin G. Hatch Distinguished Trial Lawyer Program; Civil Law Institute, Civil Case Management; Judicial College, Civil Case Management; Presiding Judges Orientation, instructor/facilitator; Case Management Orientation Programs-Santa Ana and San Francisco; Coachella Valley Leadership Conference; and the Class II – Government, Law Enforcement and the Judicial System.

Justice Miller is also extensively involved in the community activities throughout the Inland Empire.

Prior to joining the bench, Justice Miller practiced civil litigation in Indio for seventeen years.  Justice Miller received his law degree from the Pepperdine University School of Law in 1978.

For the past fifteen years Ms. Hecht has been a research attorney for the California Court of Appeal, first for Justice Robert Timlin and presently for Justice Richli.  Prior to joining the court, Ms. Hecht spent eleven years as a litigator for Irell & Manella.  Ms. Hecht received her JD from the UCLA Law School, where she was on the Moot Court Executive Board, and her B.A., summa cum laude, from UCLA.  While in Law School, Ms. Hecht was a judicial extern for California Supreme Court Justice Frank Richardson.  Ms Hecht has taught appellate related programs for the Appellate Research Attorneys institute and the Appellate committee for the Los Angeles County Bar Association.

Michael J. Raphael is the Chief of the Criminal Appeals Section at the United States Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles, where he supervises appellate work that includes over 300 briefs and 100 oral arguments annually before the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.  Mr. Raphael personally has argued 38 cases before the Ninth Circuit, including two en banc cases in 2008.  He also has prosecuted dozens of criminal defendants in federal district court when he was a member of his office’s Major Frauds and General Crimes sections.  Mr. Raphael has conducted training for federal prosecutors on several topics, including appellate advocacy and federal sentencing.

Recently, Mr. Raphael was appointed special counsel to investigate and prosecute the leak to the San Francisco Chronicle of grand jury transcripts of athletes such as Barry Bonds that occurred during the BALCO steroid investigation in San Francisco, obtaining a full guilty plea from lawyer Troy Ellerman, who was sentenced to 30 months imprisonment in July 2007.  For this work, Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey recognized Mr. Raphael with the John Marshall Award, the highest award offered to attorneys by the U.S. Department of Justice.

Prior to becoming a prosecutor, Mr. Raphael worked in the U.S. House of Representatives as counsel to Rep. Henry A. Waxman.  He practiced appellate law and criminal defense at Sidley & Austin in Washington D.C., and served as a law clerk to the Honorable Nathaniel A. Jones of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.  Mr. Raphael is an adjunct professor at the University of Southern California’s law school, and he has been an adjunct professor at the George Washington University Law School.  He graduated from Yale Law School, where he was a senior editor of the Yale Law Journal.

Mr. Phillips is a Partner in the Litigation Practice Group of Best Best & Krieger LLP.  Before joining Best Best & Krieger LLP in October 1986, he was with the firm of Erwin, Andelson & Eldred in the Coachella Valley.  Mr. Phillips is experienced in civil litigation, appellate law, municipal, environmental and condemnation law.

Mr. Phillips has experience in all areas of civil litigation and appellate law and has handled numerous superior court and appellate court matters.  Mr. Phillips has represented public agencies and private parties in all types of municipal litigation.  Mr. Phillips has provided legal services as Deputy City Attorney to the Cities of Palm Desert, Indio, Indian Wells, Rancho Mirage, Desert Hot Springs, Needles, Cathedral City, and Coachella.  He is currently a Deputy City Attorney for City of Palm Desert, and represents the City of Indian Wells in litigation matters.

Mr. Phillips is a member of the State Bar of California, the American Bar Association, the Riverside County Bar Association and the Desert Bar Association. 

Mr. Phillips has been an instructor at Chapman University since 1983.  He graduated from Syracuse University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1973 and from Syracuse University College of Law in 1976.  Mr. Phillips has been in a civil litigation practice, as well as municipal law since 1977.

Kira L. Klatchko is a Senior Associate in BB&K’s Indian Wells office. She began studying appellate law while working as a summer law clerk at the Fourth Appellate District in Riverside.  She has experience with both state and federal appeals and has handled matters arising from all areas of civil practice, ranging from general civil procedure and municipal law to marital dissolution and probate.  Ms. Klatchko is a member of her State and local bar associations, and serves as Chair of the Riverside County Bar Association Appellate Section.  She is Vice-Chair of the Best Best & Krieger Appellate Group, and routinely lectures on topics in appellate law.

Ms. Klatchko received her B.A. in Political Science, with distinction, from the University of California, Berkeley. She earned her J.D. at the University of California, Davis, where she served as Editor-in-Chief of the UC Davis Journal of Juvenile Law & Policy, and acted as a teaching assistant in both legal research and civil procedure courses.   Ms. Klatchko’s practice centers on Civil Litigation and Appeals. Ms. Klatchko is a volunteer Mediator at the Fourth Appellate District, Division Two, is a member of the Council of Appellate Lawyers, the Ninth Circuit Pro Bono Panel, and has been a member of the Warren E. Slaughter Chapter of the American Inn of Court, as part of its Appellate Outreach Team. 

Ms. Klatchko is a proud member of numerous clubs and organizations in the Coachella Valley.  She sits on the Board of Directors for the Palm Springs Sun-Up Rotary Club, Desert Foundation of Academics, Indian Wells Athena Awards, Angel View Crippled Children’s Foundation, and several other community-based organizations.  For the past four years she has served as attorney-coach for the Palm Springs High School Mock Trial team.

Randee Barak has been a Senior Appellate Attorney at the California Court of Appeal, Second Appellate District since 1999.  Prior to coming to the Court of Appeal, Ms. Barak specialized in business and health care litigation for Sidley Austin, working in both its Litigation and Appellate Practice groups.  Ms. Barak graduated with honors from UCLA School of Law in 1992 and, following graduation, served as law clerk to the Honorable Judge Arthur Alarcon on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.  A member of the Los Angeles County Bar Appellate Courts Committee, she is the co-chair of the “Appellate Court Experience program (ACE),” a program developed in conjunction with the Constitutional Rights Foundation to educate Los Angeles County area high school students about the appellate court system.  In 2008 the Constitutional Rights Foundation honored Ms. Barak as “Lawyer of the Year for the Public Sector.”  She is the author of several articles on litigation and appellate practice.