Metropolitan News-Enterprise

 

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

 

Page 3

 

Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Garcia Plans Run for Judge

 

By STEVEN M. ELLIS, Staff Writer

 

Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher R. Garcia will run for a seat on the Los Angeles Superior Court next year, a spokesperson for his campaign said yesterday.

The spokesperson, a representative of consulting firm Cerrell Associates Inc., said that Garcia—who is also a deputy Los Angeles city attorney—has retained the firm’s services for the 2010 election.

Garcia is a member of both the City Attorney’s Identity Theft & Fraud Unit and the Major Frauds Section of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District, and prosecutes identity theft, government benefit fraud and piracy of intellectual property.

A part of the U.S. Attorney’s Office since April of last year, he joined the City Attorney’s Office in 1999 and previously worked in that office’s Consumer Protection Section, its Ethics, Training & Legislation Section and in Central Trials.

During his current assignment with the City Attorney’s Office he has been a member of the Choice Point Task Force, the Electronic Crimes Task Force, the Southern California High Tech and Identity Theft Task Force and the California Financial Crime Investigator’s Association.

In 1999, Garcia began serving as an adjunct professor of law at Glendale University College of Law, and since then has taught legal research and writing, trial advocacy and introduction to cyber-crimes.

He has also served since 2000 as a judge pro tempore on the Los Angeles Superior Court. Although he was not available for comment, in materials provided to the MetNews he estimated having presided over approximately six small claims and unlawful detainer cases per year in San Pedro, Torrance and Long Beach.

Garcia attended college at UC Berkeley, and worked on tort litigation matters as a law clerk for Lawler, Felix & Hall in Los Angeles after graduating from Harvard Law School in 1982.

However, he joined his family’s business the following year—R.G. Construction Co. in San Pedro—where he handled bidding and contract negotiations, and obtained building permits and inspections as a construction supervisor.

Garcia stayed in construction for three years, but after admission to the State Bar in 1986 he joined Rucker & Clarkson in Westwood as an associate, litigating complex commercial matters.

He later joined Cox, Castle & Nicholson in Century City, where he also litigated complex civil disputes, but in 1989 he returned to Rucker & Clarkson and litigated real estate, securities, antitrust and insurance bad faith matters.

Garcia entered solo practice in Glendale in 1991, concentrating on real estate, construction, landlord/tenant, personal injury and criminal defense matters until he joined the City Attorney’s Office in 1999.

He served as director of the Asian Pacific Prosecutors’ Association from 2000 to 2001, and was a member of the Superior Court’s Dispute Resolution Services from 1994 to 1998. Garcia also served as a crash settlement officer for the Superior Court in Glendale from 1994 to 1998.

 

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