CA Superior Court Boot Camp (5th Annual): Motions and Trial Practice (2010)

Faculty:

Before becoming a judge, Thadd Blizzard was a shareholder with Weintraub Genshlea Chediak and a seasoned litigator, handling all aspects of complex civil litigation in state and federal courts, as well as binding arbitrations and appeals.  He was head of his firm’s Litigation Section from 1998 to 2004 and currently chairs the firm’s Writs and Appeals Practice Group. 

Mr. Blizzard is Founding Chair of the Sacramento Bar Association’s Appellate Section. He has also been a settlement judge, pro tem and a judicial arbitrator for many years. Mr. Blizzard has been a litigator since 1983.   Before entering private practice, Mr. Blizzard served as a judicial law clerk for the Honorable Joseph A. Rattigan, at the California Court of Appeal, First District, San Francisco. 

Mr. Blizzard received his LL.M. from New York University School of Law where he was Law Review Editor and his J.D. from McGeorge School of Law (University of the Pacific) where he was Law Review Editor.  Mr. Blizzard is licensed to practice in California and New York and admitted to practice before the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York (1985), the U.S. Circuit Court for the Second Circuit (1987), U.S. Supreme Court (1987), the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California (1989), and the U.S. Circuit Court for the Ninth Circuit (1989).   

Mr. Blizzard is Founding and Executive Committee Member of the Milton L. Schwartz American Inn of Court and former President of the Federal Bar Association, Sacramento Chapter.  Mr. Blizzard has many published cases, multiple legal publications related to litigation and regularly speaks on litigation topics for bar associations, McGeorge School of law, Inn of Court Programs and at various other events.

Judge David I. Brown, appointed to Sacramento Superior Court on November 5, 2008, is a people person by his own admission, and a wonderful storyteller.  Serving as a jurist is the manifestation of a lifetime dream. 

From 1973 to 1978, Judge David Brown served as an associate at Rust and Armenis.  He is a founding partner of the Law Offices of Bailey & Brown where he has worked from 1978 until being appointed to the Sacramento Superior Court.  The judge earned a Juris Doctorate from the University of California, Davis, King Hall School of Law and a Bachelor of Arts degree from San Diego State University.

After 30+ years practicing civil law in Sacramento, Judge David Brown now presides over a criminal courtroom.  He delves into new issues and law with relish.  In fact, he routinely researches these new issues and law, then composes his own analysis so the next time they arise, he can refer to his own self-styled hornbook.

The judge has been a member of the American Board of Trial Attorneys and has arbitrated and mediated as well as litigated for years.  He also enjoyed serving as a temporary judge.  

Darci Burrell's dedication to advancing the rights of society's less powerful is equaled only by her devotion to the rule of law. An unyielding advocate for her clients, Ms. Burrell's innovative legal work has expanded the bounds of civil rights law. She is particularly noted for the novel application of "aiding and abetting" claims to employment discrimination cases, including one case against a psychiatrist who determined that an African American employee was unfit for duty because she kept raising claims of racial discrimination in the workplace.

Darci is a founding partner of Dickson Levy Vinick Burrell Hyams LLP. Prior to that, she was a senior associate with the employment practice group of Boxer & Gerson LLP, where she successfully litigated and tried cases on behalf of women subjected to gender discrimination and sexual harassment, people subjected to racial discrimination and harassment, people with disabilities, whistleblowers, tradeswomen and other women in non‐traditional employment, and others, against both corporations and public entities.

Darci has practiced civil rights and public interest law since she graduated from UCLA Law School in 1995, beginning with a year serving as the Ruth Chance Law Fellow with Equal Rights Advocates, a women's employment law center in San Francisco. In that position, Darci represented women and girls in cases involving sexual harassment and gender‐based discrimination. She also advocated on behalf of women in non‐traditional employment, including tradeswomen and fire fighters.

Darci then joined the NAACP Legal Defense Fund as a staff attorney, litigating class action lawsuits on behalf of, among others, female police officers, African American probation officers, and residents of a largely-Latino neighborhood fighting a new freeway extension.

Darci returned to the Bay Area in 1998 to serve as a Civil Rights Attorney with the U.S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights, enforcing laws against discrimination in education on the basis of race, ethnicity, age, gender and disability. Two years later, she joined Goldstein, Demchak, Baller, Borgen & Dardarian as a civil litigator involved in a variety of employment discrimination and wage and hour class action lawsuits.
 

Steven Davids is a Partner at Dreyer Babich Buccola Wood where his practice focuses on injury plaintiff’s work.  Previously he handled insurance defense with the firm formerly known as Weintraub Genshlea Hardy Erich & Brown. Steven has been litigating for more than 17 years.  He received his law degree from UC Davis and his undergraduate degree from UC Berkeley.

Ms. Duggan is a shareholder of Porter Scott and is currently the hiring partner.

Jennifer's legal practice focuses on business, real estate and employment litigation. She also provides general preventative advice to assist clients in avoiding litigation. Recently, Jennifer has worked on a number of cases involving unfair business practices and trade secrets.

Throughout her career Jennifer has represented a variety of private and public entity clients in a broad range of litigation matters in both state and federal courts; particularly in the areas of employment discrimination and harassment, wrongful termination, civil rights and governmental tort liability. Jennifer has also practiced in the areas of general negligence/personal injury work, auto liability, wrongful death, and ADA public accommodation and disability access law.

Jennifer has successfully argued before both the Third District Court of Appeal and the Ninth Circuit. From 2004 to 2009, Jennifer served as an adjunct professor at the University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law where she taught Civil Pre-Trial Litigation. Jennifer has participated extensively as a moderator and panelist in a number of MCLE presentations, including CEB seminars. Since 2001, Jennifer has served as an arbitrator and settlement conference judge pro tem for the Sacramento County Superior Court.

Jennifer is the past president of the Barristers' Club of Sacramento and is a current member of the Northern California Association of Defense Counsel and the Defense Research Institute. She served as an advisory board member for the University of Oregon Center for Law and Entrepreneurship from 1997 until 2004.  Jennifer served on Sacramento's No Glass Ceiling Task Force and was a founding member of the Westlake Charter School.  She is currently on the board of directors for the Positive Coaching Alliance and the St. John’s Shelter for Women & Children and was recently honored by the Sacramento Business Journal with the Women Who Mean Business (2010) award. 

Ms. Duggan graduated in 1992 with a B.A. from the University of California at Davis. While at the University of Oregon School of Law, Jennifer served as Editor-in-Chief for the Journal of Environmental Law and Litigation and was awarded the Oregon State Bar Securities Regulation Scholarship. She graduated with an emphasis in Business Law in 1996.

Ms. Goldman has won verdicts in cases involving fundamental employment rights including wrongful termination in violation of public policy, and illegal wage and hour practices. She has successfully argued before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and has written on employment law issues. She has served as a contributing editor on the National Employment Discriminations Law treatise. Ms. Goldman is a member of the National Employment Lawyers Association and Bay Area Lawyers for Individual Freedom.

Ms. Goldman has been named a Northern California "Super Lawyer" by Law and Politics Magazine and San Francisco Magazine for 2004, 2005, 2007, 2008 and 2009.

Ms. Goldman received her law degree from Hastings College of the Law in 1989 and her undergraduate degree from Yale University in 1986.

Ms. Goldman has multiple litigation successes, which are detailed on her law firm's website in her more lenghty bio (click link above) and has published on class actions and employment law in a variety of legal journals.

James P. Gray has been a trial judge in Orange County, California since 1983. Before becoming a judge, he served as a Volunteer in the Peace Corps in Costa Rica, a staff judge advocate and criminal defense attorney in the Navy JAG Corps, a federal prosecutor in Los Angeles, and a civil litigation attorney in a private law firm, in addition to being a Republican candidate for US Congress in 1998, and a Libertarian candidate for US Senate in 2004. Judge Gray has discussed issues of drug policy on more than two hundred television and radio shows and public forums all across the country. Using his experience on the bench and elsewhere, he has also authored a book on the failed War on Drugs, another Wearing The Robe, about practical and ethical issues in being a judge, and has composed a musical that encourages young people to expand their horizons and live a fuller life. Read more about Judge Jim Gray.

David Hoffman is a trial lawyer in Warner Center, Woodland Hills, who litigates state-wide handling all aspects of catastrophic injury, wrongful death, medical malpractice, malicious prosecution and insurance bad faith claims.  He is a former firefighter EMT, attended UCLA (B.A., '84) and Southwestern University School of Law (J.D. '88).  David is an emeritus member of the Board of Governors of the Consumer Attorneys Association (since '93), and has also served the Los Angeles County Bar Association with two terms on its Judicial Appointments Committee.

Check back soon for biography.

Karen P. Kimmey is a partner in the firm's Business Litigation and Intellectual Property and Technology Groups.  She represents both large and small businesses, as well as individuals, in a wide range of commercial disputes, with a particular emphasis on class actions, unfair competition claims (including claims under Section 17200), shareholder litigation, and copyright, trademark and patent disputes.

Ms. Kimmey is a seasoned trial lawyer who has successfully handled numerous bench and jury trials. 

Ms. Kimmey is a two-time national champion in speech and debate and was chosen as the top oral advocate at the Traynor moot court competition.

Germain Labat advises and represents substantial business entities and executives in complex civil litigation in state and federal courts, as well as in arbitration and alternative dispute resolution forums.  Germain’s litigation practice focuses on all manner of complex business disputes, including securities litigation, commercial litigation, corporate governance and shareholder litigation, commercial real estate litigation, and class action defense.  His wide-ranging list of clients includes both public and privately held companies in the financial services, technology, energy, retail and commercial real estate sectors.

Germain is a forceful advocate in the courtroom with significant trial experience in jury and bench trials of complex and lengthy matters, as well as in proceedings before arbitration panels and alternate dispute resolution bodies, including mediation, arbitration and private judging (for example, under California Code of Civil Procedure Sections 638 & 639, and before the American Arbitration Association and JAMS/ Endispute).  Germain is also experienced in conducting internal investigations and counseling clients and their boards of directors on pre-litigation strategy and planning. 

Judge Murphy has been a Los Angeles Superior Court Judge assigned to the Civil Courts since 1995.  Prior to that, Judge Murphy served  in a direct calendar felony court from 1993 to 1995.  Judge Murphy was an Associate Editor for the Rutter Group’s Civil Procedure Before Trial from 1997 through 2003 and has served as an editor for the Rutter Group’s Civil Procedure Before Trial, Basic Training for Litigators.  She is a member of the statewide Civil and Small Claims AOC Advisory Committee and subcommittees and working groups including the Subcommittee on Case Management, on Uniform Rules, the Pretrial Rules Working Group and the Telephone Appearances Working Group. 

Judge Murphy has been actively involved in educating judges and lawyers. She speaks frequently to bar associations and for MCLE providers. Judge Murphy leads the Best Practices discussions for Los Angeles Superior Court Judges assigned to Central Civil departments.  She is a member of the Los Angeles Superior Court Rules Committee and was elected by her peers to serve four terms on the Court’s Executive Committee. Judge Murphy is a Board Member of the Association of Business Trial Lawyers, former President of the Irish American Bar Association, and a member of the California Judges Association and the Los Angeles Superior Court Judges Association.

Prior to her appointment, Judge Murphy’s litigation experience included nationwide, multidistrict litigation with the United States Department of Justice, Civil Division, nationwide products liability litigation and local commercial litigation with Haight, Brown and Bonesteel, and employment and other civil litigation with the United States Attorneys’ Office, Civil Division, in Los Angeles. Judge Murphy served as an instructor with the Attorney General’s Advocacy Institute and a lecturer in Assistant U. S. Attorneys’ training seminars.

Alfred C. Pfeiffer, Jr. is a partner in Latham & Watkins' San Francisco office and a member of the firm's Litigation Department and Global Antitrust & Competition Practice Group. He has extensive experience in civil antitrust cases, civil and criminal government antitrust investigations and other competition-related commercial cases.

Mr. Pfeiffer has a wide range of practical experience, having won numerous trials, arbitrations, summary judgments and appeals in communications, antitrust, contract and business tort cases, as well as temporary restraining orders and injunctions in unfair competition and contract disputes and communications hearings before the California Public Utilities Commission. He has also successfully represented clients involved in investigations conducted by the US Department of Justice and the California Attorney General's office. He has advised companies regarding potential strategic acquisitions and successfully handled ADR proceedings, including mediations and arbitrations, for a variety of clients.

Mr. Pfeiffer practices across numerous industries and has been particularly active in the information technology and telecommunication arenas. He also advises companies regarding the antitrust aspects of acquisitions, joint ventures and distribution agreements.

Mr. Pfeiffer has been active for many years in the leadership of the ABA's Section on Antitrust. He is currently Co-Chair of Committee Operations, is a past Chair of the Communications Industry Committee, was editor of its newsletter The Party Line and co-authored the ABA Antitrust Section's Telecom Antitrust Handbook (2005).

Mr. Pfeiffer was cited as a leading attorney in Antitrust in the Chambers USA legal guide (2006-2010) and in the Legal 500 US guide to US attorneys (2007-2008), and was named a Lawyer of the Year by California Lawyer magazine (2000). He was also listed in the 2009 Best Lawyers in America survey in the Antitrust law category.

Mr. Pfeiffer is admitted to practice in California and is a graduate of Yale Law School, 1985.

Steven Ragland joined Keker and Van Nest in 2004, after working with Michael E. Tigar, as Of Counsel to the Tigar Law Firm in Washington, D.C. and Annapolis, Maryland.  

Steven handles a broad range of criminal and civil litigation and has particular experience and expertise in criminal defense, securities litigation, shareholder derivative lawsuits, and complex business and partnership disputes.  Steven’s clients have included individuals and corporations facing criminal allegations ranging from securities, mail, and wire fraud to drug and terrorism offenses.  He was part of the trial team for one of the first “stock option backdating” prosecutions and recently concluded a week-long evidentiary hearing on behalf of a client on California’s death row.  In the civil realm, Steven’s clients have included the CEO of a Los Cabos, Mexico resort development in a dispute with former business partners, international law firms facing allegations of attorney malpractice, and a major credit card company defending against allegations of antitrust violations.

Steven has published and lectured on a variety of criminal law issues, including the reach of the obstruction of justice statutes, defending individuals accused of terrorism offenses, and serving as an effective and committed criminal defense lawyer.  He has also written and lectured on civil law issues such as pursuing civil rights cases, using civil RICO as a tool in police misconduct lawsuits, and persuasive brief writing and motions practice.  

Steven is a summa cum laude graduate of American University’s Washington College of Law, where he was a Mussey-Gillette Fellow and served as Senior Articles Editor of the American University Law Review.  While in law school, Steven helped found the Human Rights Impact Litigation Clinic, which sought redress for harms including torture, forcible relocation, wrongful death, and genocide.  He received his undergraduate degree, with high honors, in Government from Lehigh University and held a variety of non-profit and not-much-profit-at-all jobs between college and law school.  

Steven’s varied experience before law school included working as an undercover investigator, serving as a media spokesperson for various advocacy organizations, producing a short documentary video narrated by Henry Heimlich, M.D., and editing two nonfiction comic books that are currently used in prison literacy programs and are distributed by a worldwide non-profit advocacy organization.  During those pre-legal days, Steven made appearances on media outlets such as CNN and numerous network affiliates, but his favorite was a segment picked up by The Daily Show.

Steven is a member of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, the Litigation Section of the American Bar Association, the Edward J. McFetridge American Inn of Court, and various other bar organizations.  He lives in San Francisco with his wife and two young children.

Mark Salzberg has worked as a Research Attorney for the Los Angeles Superior Court since 2000. As a research attorney, Mark’s responsibilities include review and analysis of all law and motion briefs and a submitted summary and recommendation on motions to his two judges. Knowing that law and motion is only one aspect in the litigation big picture, Mark also takes a role in case management.

Mark Salzberg received a Bachelor of Science in Microbiology from Cornell University in 1984 and a Juris Doctor from the University of San Diego in 1990. While in law school, Mark interned at the Bronx District Attorney's Office and externed with the San Diego Superior Court.

From 1990 through 1997, Mark worked at Harrington, Foxx, Dubrow and
Canter, specializing in Product Liability defense and is the only attorney to work in all four offices of that firm. Representative clients include Kraft, Navistar International Transportation Corp, Sears, The Raymond Corporation and Clark Equipment Company.

Leaving litigation to experience other aspects of life, Mark participated in 5 long-distance, multi-day, fund raising bicycling events in the summer of 1997 and then went to work for the company that produced those events. Hardly a career attorney, Mark uses the flexibility afforded him to travel extensively, read fanatically and compete in triathlons.

Frank Scollan is partner in the Los Angeles office of Allen Matkins Leck Gamble Mallory & Natsis, LLP. His practice centers on real estate litigation, business disputes, CEQA litigation, construction defect cases and land subsidence matters. Frank has represented numerous developers, from individuals to national corporations, in disputes involving CEQA, government approvals, partnership and business disputes, construction matters, environmental issues and related real estate issues including purchase and sales disputes. He has brought and defended a wide variety of writ of mandate proceedings, including CEQA actions. Frank has represented homeowners and developers in cases involving land subsidence, and published an article on recovering landslide damages under homeowners’ policies. Frank has also represented federal equity receivers appointed in SEC actions to recover assets for defrauded investors. Frank has extensive trial experience, including a five week trial for a national developer to recover government fees.
Mr. Scollan obtained his B.A. from the University of California at Berkeley and his law degree from Boalt Hall School of Law at the University of California.

Judge Sinanian was appointed to the Los Angeles Superior Court in June 2002.  Since his appointment, he has served in a variety of assignments including, criminal law, family law, probate, long cause criminal trials, and is presently assigned to a civil department in the Stanley Mosk Courthouse.  In 2007, he served as the supervising judge of the Burbank Courthouse.  He is a member of the California Judicial Council Access and Fairness Advisory Committee and was recently appointed to the California Judges Association Executive Board and the Los Angeles County Bar Association, Litigation Section Executive Board.  He is currently a member of the Los Angeles Superior Court Civil & Small Claims Committee, Bench & Bar Committee and the Community Outreach Committee.   He has served on the Los Angeles Superior Court Executive Committee, ADR Committee, and the Access and Fairness Committee.  Prior to his appointment to the bench, Judge Sinanian was employed as a Deputy Attorney General in the criminal and civil divisions of the Attorney General’s Office, California Department of Justice.   He litigated cases in state and federal courts including, the California Court of Appeal, Second Appellate District, the California Supreme Court, and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Judge Ulmer compiled a sterling record in 23 years as a trial and appellate lawyer at two of San Francisco's pre-eminent law firms -- McCutchen, Doyle, Brown & Enersen and Latham & Watkins. His legal skills annually won him recognition from his peers as a "Northern California Super Lawyer," as well as other awards.

Dick graduated from Stanford Law School with honors in 1986, and won his first trial while still an associate at McCutchen. In 1995, Dick joined Latham & Watkins where he worked closely for former U.S. District Judge Barbara Caulfield and handled complex cases for some of the world's most innovative high-tech and biotech companies including Adobe, Affymetrix, Apple, Genentech, Lexmark, National Semiconductor, Raychem and Roche.

In ACRA v. Lexmark, Dick defended an innovative recycling program used to keep printer cartridges from being discarded in landfills. He won both in federal district court and then on an appeal to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The case received extensive national publicity.

In another federal court case, Enzo Biochem v. Affymetrix and Roche, Dick defended a cutting-edge diagnostic device called a "gene chip" which is poised to revolutionize patient drug treatment protocol.  Doctors use this chip to tell from a patient's genes whether she will absorb drugs at low, normal or high rates and allows for a more precise dosage regimen.

Dick also briefed and argued more than a dozen appeals to the courts. He has the rare distinction of having two appellate decisions (both wins) published on the same day. One of these, Schectman v. Pillsbury, is frequently cited in California cases involving stolen documents.

Dick's 23-year practice spanned intellectual property, antitrust and unfair competition, appeals and writs, automotive distribution, contracts, employment law, fraud, licensing, international arbitration, prison reform and professional malpractice. The unusually large breadth of experience has served Judge Ulmer well in his time on the bench.

Just months into his judicial tenure, Judge Ulmer was elected by his fellow judges to the Executive Committee, a small group of judges that sets policy for the Court. He is humbled that 50 of his colleagues have given him their endorsement for his June election for Superior Court.