Wednesday, March 15, 2006
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Two Public Lawyers Join Race for Superior Court Open Seat
By DAVID WATSON, Staff Writer
A deputy city attorney and a deputy district attorney have taken out papers to run for one of the seven open seats on the Los Angeles Superior Court.
Los Angeles Deputy City Attorney Richard H. Loomis, 52, and Los Angeles Deputy District Attorney Daviann L. Mitchell, 43, took out nominating papers on Monday for the seat previously held by Judge Michael Knight, who retired last month.
Two private sector attorneys and an administrative law judge have already filed to run for the seat. A third private sector lawyer, Pasadena attorney David Crawford III, told the MetNews yesterday he will decide today whether to run for that seat or for one of the six other open seats.
Nominating papers are due today for the seven races in which the incumbent judge is not seeking re-election.
Loomis, a graduate of Boalt Hall who has been practicing law for about 25 years, said he “just decided fairly recently” to make a run for judicial office. He said he was encouraged to do so by friends who are already judges, but declined to identify them.
He said he selected the Knight seat in part because he did not want to run against a colleague.
“Eighteen is my lucky number,” Loomis quipped, referring to the ballot number of the judicial seat.
“I haven’t run for anything since eighth grade, but I lost that,” he added.
Loomis said he has practiced mostly in the labor and employment law field, spending time with both large and small firms and as a sole practitioner and representing both plaintiffs and defendants. He has been with the City Attorney’s Office for about three years, he explained, defending the city’s police department in employment litigation.
Loomis said he has yet to formulate specific campaign plans, and did not yet know whether he will hire a consultant or spend the $45,000 required to have a 200-word candidate statement printed in the official ballot pamphlet..
“It’s undetermined how much I’m going to spend at this stage, but I’m taking it seriously,” he said.
Mitchell, who works in the district attorney’s Hard Core Gang Division, could not be reached for comment yesterday.
In taking out papers, she provided the registrar with an address in Santa Clarita. According to the State Bar Web site, she was admitted to practice in 1992 after graduating from Southwestern University School of Law.
Already running for Knight’s seat are North Hills attorney Richard A. Nixon, Workers’ Compensation Judge John C. Gutierrez and Encino attorney Stephen M. Feldman.
Copyright 2006, Metropolitan News Company