Metropolitan News-Enterprise

 

Tuesday, March 8, 2005

 

Page 3

 

Munger Tolles Attorney Is Elected Superior Court Commissioner

 

By a MetNews Staff Writer

 

Anthony B. Drewry, staff counsel at Munger, Tolles & Olson, has been elected a Los Angeles Superior Court commissioner.

Ballots counted yesterday gave Drewry, 58, a runoff victory over retired Commissioner John Murphy in voting to succeed Roberta H. Kyman, who died in December.

Drewry, a civil litigator who has practiced since 1972, said it would probably take three to four weeks to complete his responsibilities at the firm before taking the bench. He said he expects to discuss his assignment with Presiding Judge William A. MacLaughlin next week.

Although he has spent his entire career on the civil side, he said he has “no preference whatsoever” with regard to an assignment. “I’m just delighted to serve the public.”

Drewry has been at Munger, Tolles for the past four and one-half years. He moved there from Richards, Watson & Gershon, where he spent the bulk of his career, 19 years, doing public entity litigation—a staple of the firm’s practice—and other types of litigation.

After graduating from UCLA School of Law, he began at the now-defunct civil defense firm of Shield and Smith and spent seven years there.

While he has “excellent colleagues” at his present firm, he told the MetNews, he said he is “really looking forward to this next part of my professional life.”

Murphy, who graduated from University of San Fernando Valley College of Law, which he attended at night while working in the clothing business, and who currently hears cases on assignment in Lancaster, previously lost runoffs to Maren Nelson, Brian Petraborg, Harvey Silberman and Anthony Trendacosta. Each of his opponents was ranked No. 1 on the candidate list at the time of the voting, based on evaluations by a panel of judges.

Murphy was ranked No. 14 going into the first round of the most recent vote, having moved up after each election.

As Murphy’s situation indicates, judges are not bound by the rankings. But no candidate has been elected out of ranked order since the previous list was established in 2001.

The election of Drewry moves Referee Steff Padilla into the top spot for the next election. A court official said yesterday that no date for the vote has been set.

Several commissioners could be selected in the next vote, since two commissioners retired last month and a third was appointed a judge by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. A fourth commissioner is due to retire at the end of the month.

Following Padilla on the list are Santa Monica attorney James N. Bianco; Century City attorney H. Jay Ford III; Referee Pamela A. Davis; Lancaster attorney and former Referee David Bianchi; Court of Appeal attorney Mary Lou Katz; Alliance for Children’s Rights attorney Amy M. Pellman; Los Angeles attorney Graciela Freixes; Santa Monica attorney Susan Weiss; Referee Alan H. Friedenthal; Los Angeles attorney David J. Cowan; Long Beach attorney Tamila Ipema; and Murphy.

 

Copyright 2005, Metropolitan News Company