Metropolitan News-Enterprise

 

Friday, July 21, 2006

 

Page 1

 

Behar, Campos Elected Los Angeles Superior Court Commissioners

 

By a MetNews Staff Writer

 

 Haight, Brown, & Bonesteel partner Lori Behar and East Los Angeles attorney Bejamin R. Campos have been chosen as Los Angeles Superior Court commissioners in balloting that ended yesterday.

Behar will be sworn in on July 31 to replace Commissioner Beverly Mosely, who retired June 30, and Campos will replace Commissioner Roberta Lee, officials said.

 Campos could not be reached for comment, but Behar told the MetNews she was “thrilled” with the appointment.

“It’s a great honor and I can’t wait to start,” she remarked, adding that she does not yet know what her assignment will be.

Personal Dream

She said that being on the bench, which has been a long-held personal dream, would enable her to expand beyond professional activities—which includes serving as the first woman president of Association of Southern California Defense Counsel—and do more with the community.

“At this point in my career, I really want to give something back to the community, and I just feel that this is a great opportunity to do it,” Behar commented. “In a lot of these cases I’ll be dealing with public without attorneys present. It’s going to be a new challenge. It could be anywhere—small claims, family law, criminal law—there are just a lot of new things to learn and a different way to use the skills that I have.”

Behar, who had been the top-ranked candidate on the list of nominees chosen by a judicial panel, said she would miss Haight Brown, where she began as a law clerk during her second year of law school.

After 30 years at the firm and becoming its first woman partner, she said she was “ready to make the move.”

Top-Ranked Candidates

Behar graduated from UCLA and received her law degree from Loyola Law School. Since joining the bar in 1978, she has served on the boards of Association of Southern California Defense Counsel, the Los Angeles County Bar Foundation, Dispute Resolutions, and the Litigation Section of the County Bar. Behar as also served as a judge pro tem, arbitrator, mediator, and settlement officer.

Campos, a graduate of Pitzer College and the UCLA School of Law, was admitted to the bar in 1980.

Behar and Campos, who was ranked second, were the first commissioners elected from the new list. Neither was on the previous list.

In electing commissioners, local rules say, judges are not required to following the panel’s rankings. But the election of Behar and Campos reflects the court’s long-honored tradition of electing commissioners in ranked order.

The list originally contained 38 names, but one of the candidates, Deputy District Attorney Judith Meyer, was elected a judge last month.

The remaining candidates are, in ranked order:

Deputy Alternate Public Defender Henry Hall; Deputy Public Defender John Lawson II; Deputy Federal Public Defender Michael Garcia; Deputy District Attorney Elizabeth Munisoglu; Superior Court Referee Patricia Nieto; Referee Dennis Carroll; Morrison & Foerster partner B. Scott Silverman; Deputy Alternate Public Defender Sharon L. Miller; Westside attorney Alan Rubin of Rubin & Adelson; Referee Jacqueline Lewis; Superior Court probate clearing attorney Robert S. Wada; Referee Steven Berman; Long Beach attorney Michael Pearce of Wise Pearce Yocis & Smith; and Sonneschein, Nath & Rosenthal partner Lloyd Loomis.

Also Deputy Alternate Public Defender Jon R. Takasugi; Los Angeles Deputy City Attorney Matthew C. St. George; Deputy Public Defender Kenneth H. Taylor; William V. McTaggart Jr., a professional mediator and former partner at Parker, Milliken, Clark, O’Hara & Samuelian; Stephen M. Lowry of the downtown Los Angeles firm of Russo & Lowry; Los Angeles attorney Michael Shultz; Deputy Public Defender Nancy Pogue; Los Angeles Police Department Assistant Inspector General Nicole Bershon; Children’s Law Center attorney Emma Castro; Deputy Public Defender Marguerite Downing, who is also a member of the State Bar Board of Governors; Deputy District Attorney Eloise Phillips, Michael R. Diliberto, president of Advantage Arbitration and Mediation Services, LLC; Deputy District Attorney Arunas A. Sodonis; Los Angeles attorney Faith Mitchell; Referee Shep Zebberman; Lancaster attorney William A. Clark; Richard L. Bissetti, an associate at Century City’s Magana, Cathcart & McCarthy; Downey criminal defense lawyer Michael LaPan; Hawthorne Deputy City Attorney Robert Kim; Deputy Public Defender Lisa Brackelmanns; and Deputy District Attorney Renee Korn.

 

Copyright 2006, Metropolitan News Company