Appellate Practice Webinar Series

Faculty:

Mr. Shatz is certified as an appellate law specialist by the California State Bar Board of Legal Specialization and is a member of  the Appellate Practice Group in the Los Angeles office of Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP.  He has briefed hundreds of civil appeals, writs and petitions to the U.S. Supreme Court, U.S. Courts of Appeals, California Supreme Court and California Courts of Appeal, covering a variety of practice areas.  Mr. Shatz frequently contributes appellate law articles to periodicals including CEB’s Civil Litigation Reporter, Los Angeles Lawyer, California Lawyer, and the Daily Journal.  He is the Chair of the Los Angeles County Bar Association’s Appellate Courts Committee and the Vice Chair of the California State Bar's Committee on Appellate Courts.  He has been named by Los Angeles Magazine and Law & Politics Magazine as one of Southern California’s “Super Lawyers” in the field of Appellate Law, 2004-2010.

Mr. Shatz also served as Law Clerk to the Honorable Robert J. Johnston, United States Magistrate Judge for the District of Nevada and as Extern to the Honorable Dorothy W. Nelson, United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.  Mr. Shatz graduated magna cum laude from Pepperdine University School of Law, and was an Associate Editor of the Pepperdine Law Review and an Assistant Editor of the California Supreme Court Survey.

Robin Meadow joined Greines, Martin, Stein & Richland LLP as a partner in 1994, after 23 years as a trial and appellate lawyer in a major commercial firm.  He has successfully defended lender liability actions before both juries and appellate courts.  Robin continues to focus his practice on business disputes involving such areas as real estate, title insurance, partnerships, professional malpractice and intellectual property, and in all of these areas his appellate work has resulted in groundbreaking decisions.  Robin co-authored the Second District Court of Appeal's protocol for electronic briefs (since adopted by other districts), and he filed the first electronic brief ever accepted by that court.  Robin has shared his expertise with the legal community through countless articles and lectures on business litigation and appellate law.

Robin has been a member of the California Academy of Appellate Lawyers since 1988, serving as its president in 2005-2006, and is a Fellow of the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers.  He is listed in 'The Best Lawyers in America' and was named one of the 'Top 100 Southern California Super Lawyers for 2006.'

In addition, throughout his career Robin has been active in the organized bar and community organizations.  Among many other activities, he served as the president of the Los Angeles County Bar Association (2003-2004); as the chair of many Association committees, including its Appellate Courts Committee (2001-2003); as the president of Public Counsel (the nation's largest pro bono legal services organization); and as the president of Hathaway Children and Family Services (a nationally-recognized multi-service organization focusing on vulnerable children and their families).  He has also served for many years on the Board of Directors of the ACLU Foundation of Southern California.

Robin is a graduate of the Boalt Hall School of Law (J.D. 1971, Order of the Coif) and the University of California, Berkeley (1968).

Mr. Berger is one of California’s preeminent appellate lawyers and is co-chair of Manatt’s Appellate Practice Group. 

Mr. Berger has argued four cases before the United States Supreme Court, as well as cases before appellate courts throughout California, numerous federal courts of appeal and other state supreme courts.  He is also the frequent author of amicus curiae briefs in various appellate courts, particularly the U.S. Supreme Court, pressing client interests in important pending cases.

One of the top land use and condemnation lawyers in the United States, his appellate cases have involved planning, zoning, eminent domain, various kinds of business litigation, landslides, contract, due process, equal protection, defective construction, nuisance, insurance and environmental law.

Education

University of Southern California, LL.M., 1968 (in real property).

Yale University, Graduate Law School, 1968. Ford Fellow for work in Urban Law.

University of Southern California, Graduate Law School, 1967.
Title Insurance and Trust Company Fellow for work in Real Property Law.

Washington University School of Law, J.D., 1967.  Brandeis University, 1964. 

A sample of Mike's Appellate Matters (see Mike's bio on Manatt website - link above- for a lengthier list of representtive appellate matters).

■Tahoe-Sierra Preservation Council v. Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, 535 U.S. 302 (2002) (whether a land use moratorium is a taking of property must be decided on a case-by-case basis).

■City of Monterey v. Del Monte Dunes at Monterey, Ltd., 526 U.S. 687 (1999) (right to Seventh Amendment jury trial and Fifth Amendment compensation for regulatory taking).

■Preseault v. ICC, 494 U.S. 1 (1990) (federal “rails-to-trails” statute is valid under the Commerce Clause; however, compensation may be sought in the Claims Court under the Just Compensation Guarantee).

■First English Evangelical Lutheran Church v. County of Los Angeles, 482 U.S. 304 (1987) (Constitution requires just compensation for regulatory taking of property).

■Metropolitan Water Dist. v. Campus Crusade for Christ, 2007 WL 2079776 (2007)(restricting role of condemnation trial judge to gatekeeper on value issues).

■Mt. San Jacinto Community College Dist. v. Superior Court, 40 Cal. 4th 648 (2007) (determination of date of value in eminent domain cases).

■Regency Outdoor Advertising v. City of Los Angeles, 39 Cal. 4th 507 (2006) (compensability of blocked billboards).

■People ex rel. Dept. of Transportation v. Southern California Edison Co., 22 Cal. 4th 791 (2000) (computation of interest due for prejudgment possession in eminent domain).

■City of Manhattan Beach v. Superior Court, 13 Cal. 4th 232 (1996) (where deed is ambiguous, extrinsic evidence may be used to demonstrate fee transfer).

■State Farm Fire & Cas. Co. v. Von Der Lieth, 54 Cal. 3d 1123 (1991) (third-party negligence is a covered peril under an “all risk” homeowners' insurance policy).

■City of Los Angeles v. Decker, 18 Cal. 3d 860 (1977) (government attorneys owe duty to litigate fairly and not to mislead jury).

■South Coast Regional Commission v. Gordon, 18 Cal. 3d 832 (1977) (requirements for vested rights under state coastal legislation).

■Kottschade v. City of Rochester (8th Cir. 2003) 319 F.3d 1038, cert. pending (whether ripeness rules need correction is for Supreme Court to decide).

■Sinclair Oil Co. v. County of Santa Barbara (9th Cir. 1996) 96 F.3d 401 (use of ripeness and abstention doctrines in regulatory taking and substantive due process land use cases).

■Hendler v. United States, 952 F.2d 1364 (Fed. Cir. 1991) (physical invasion of property by government is a taking, regardless of good intentions of government; U.S. is responsible for actions of state officials acting pursuant to U.S. authority).

■National Advertising Co. v. City of Raleigh, 947 F.2d 1158 (4th Cir. 1991) (property owner has immediate cause of action for regulatory taking as soon as ordinance affecting property is adopted).

■Glosemeyer v. Missouri-Kansas-Texas R.R. (8th Cir. 1989) 879 F.2d 316 (constitutionality of 16 USC §1247[d] re rails-to-trails conversion of abandoned railroad rights-of-way).

■Sinaloa Lake Owners Assn. v. City of Simi Valley (9th Cir. 1989) 882 F.2d 1398 (arbitrary government action gives a property owner a cause of action for violation of substantive due process).

■Safeco Ins. Co. v. Guyton (9th Cir. 1982) 692 F.2d 551 (all-risk homeowners policy provides coverage if a cause of the loss is covered, even though another cause of the loss is excluded).

Memberships & Activities

Admitted to practice in California and Missouri. Member, United States Supreme Court Bar, United States Claims Court Bar, Ninth Circuit Bar, Eighth Circuit Bar, Seventh Circuit Bar, Sixth Circuit Bar, Fourth Circuit Bar, Second Circuit Bar, First Circuit Bar, Federal Circuit Bar.

Certified Specialist, Appellate Law, The State Bar of California Board of Legal Specialization.

Member, State Bar of California; Member, Appellate Courts Committee, 1978-1982; Chair, 1981-1982; Member, Condemnation Committee, 1985-1988.

Member, California Academy of Appellate Lawyers; President, 1980-1981.

Fellow, American Academy of Appellate Lawyers, 1997-present.

Member, American College of Real Estate Lawyers, 1988-present.

Member, Center for American and International Law; Member, Advisory Board, Municipal Legal Studies Center, 1989-present; Vice-Chair, 1998-2004; Chair, 2004-present.

Adjunct Professor of Law, LL.M. program in Real Property Development, University of Miami School of Law, 1996-present.

Member, Owners Counsel of America.

Member, Advisory Board, California Land Use Law & Policy Reporter.

Member, American Bar Association; Real Property, Probate and Trust Law Sections; State and Local Government Law.
 

Honors & Awards

Named by Los Angeles Magazine and Law & Politics Magazine as one of Southern California’s Super Lawyers 2004-2008, the Best Attorneys in Southern California, and one of the “top 100” in that survey.

Named one of The Best Lawyers in America, 2006-2010.

Named as one of the “Lawdragon 3000 Leading Lawyers in America,” 2006.

Named by California Lawyer as one of California’s “Lawyers of the Year,” 1998.

Named by Los Angeles Business Journal as one of 100 most prominent business attorneys, 1995.

Recipient of Harrison Tweed Award for Special Merit in Continuing Legal Education, for career contributions to post-admission legal education, American Law Institute – American Bar Association, 1989.
 

Publications, Partial List

Contributing occasional author, column on land use law for the Los Angeles Times, Aug. 1991-present.

Contributing author, monthly column: Takings and Land Use, for Los Angeles Daily Journal and San Francisco Daily Journal, Jan. 1991-present.

Contributing author, column on property law for the California Real Estate Journal, Jan. 1998-present.

Contributing author, column on property law for The Nation’s Building News (published by the National Association of Home Builders), December 1993-present.

“What Is Fairness, Anyway?” Planning, October 2006, p. 12.

Co-Author, “Shell Game! You Can’t Get There From Here: Supreme Court Ripeness Jurisprudence in Takings Cases at Long Last Reached the Self-Parody Stage,” 36 Urban Lawyer 671, 2004.

Co-Author, “To Steal or Not to Steal? That is the Question,” 55 Land Use Law & Zoning Digest 13, November 2003.

“What’s ‘Normal’ About Planning Delay?” in ABA Taking Sides on Taking Issues: Public and Private Perspectives, Chapter 11, (Roberts, ed.), 2002.

“The Shame of Planners,” 54 Land Use Law & Zoning Digest, no. 6, p. 6, June 2002.

“Vindicating the Rights of Private Land Development in the Courts,” 32 Urban Lawyer 941, 2000.

"Supreme Bait & Switch:  The Ripeness Ruse in Regulatory Takings," 3 Wash. U.J.L. & Policy 99, 2000.

Wendy C. Lascher, Esq. is a Certified Specialist in Appellate Law, California Board of Legal Specialization.  She has handled more than 300 state and federal appeals and has argued in the United States Supreme Court, the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the 7th and 9th Circuits, the California Supreme Court, and the California Courts of Appeal.  She is a board member of the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers, a past president of the California Academy of Appellate Lawyers, and a former chair of both the State Bar's Appellate Courts Committee and the Board of Legal Specialization's Appellate Law Advisory Committee.

Ms. Lascher graduated from Stanford University in 1970 and from the University of Michigan Law School in 1973.  Among her landmark cases are In re Marriage of Pendleton and Fireman (2000) 24 Cal.4th 39, the first California case to hold spouses may waive spousal support in a properly drafted prenuptial agreement, Morehart v. County of Santa Barbara (1994) 7 Cal.4th 725; clarifying appealability of judgments on separately tried issues, and Sanchez v. Hillerich Bradsby (2002) 104 Cal.App.4th 703, holding that although the game of baseball includes an inherent risk a player may be hit by a batted ball, where a bat increases the risk above that inherent level, a player does not as a matter of law assume the risk of being hit by a batted ball.  Ms. Lascher teaches appellate law at the Santa Barbara and Ventura Colleges of Law.  She is a past president of the Ventura County Bar Association, and has been editor of its magazine, CITATIONS, for several years.

Mr. Schulman's practice involves appeals, representation of public entities, representation of attorneys and law firms, and complex commercial litigation.  

He has been a Certified Appellate Specialist since 2003, is a member of the California Academy of Appellate Lawyers, and Vice Chair of the Appellate Practice Section of the San Francisco Bar Association.

Mr. Schulman joined FLK in 2008 after practicing for many years as a litigation partner in a prominent San Francisco law firm. He is AV Peer Review Rated and has been selected as a Northern California Super Lawyer each year since 2004.

Mr. Schulman received his J.D. in 1983 from Boalt Hall School of Law, University of California, Berkeley, Order of the Coif.