Friday, October 16, 2009
Page 3
Loyola’s Michael J. Shultz Elected Superior Court Commissioner
By SHERRI M. OKAMOTO, Staff Writer
Loyola Law School professor Michael J. Shultz has been elected by the judges of the Los Angeles Superior Court as a commissioner, officials said yesterday.
He will fill the vacancy created by the March retirement of Commissioner H.M. “Trip” Webster III.
Shultz, 44, is associate clinical director of the Center for Juvenile Law and Policy and clinical professor of law at Loyola. He told the MetNews he plans to take his oath of office Dec. 14.
As for his students, he said, his class “will be in good hands” with faculty members Cyn Yamashiro, Jojo Liu and Samantha Buckingham taking over.
“I love teaching and I love kind of being able to educate others about the art of practicing law,” Shultz declared. “I’m really proud of the accomplishments that we collectively at the faculty have made at Loyola, and I’m thankful and honored…to have been allowed to participate in the work here.”
However, he admitted, “I feel like the courtroom is really kind of where I feel most at home” and that he “truly missed it…so now I’m coming back…I’m coming home.”
He added that his goal is “to learn how to be a good judicial officer,” naming Judges Stephanie Sautner, James Brandlin and Irma Brown as his role models.
A native of Los Angeles, Shultz attended UC Santa Barbara and graduated from Loyola Law School in 1991. He was admitted to the State Bar that same year.
Shultz then spent 13 years with the Los Angeles County Public Defender’s Office, where he tried over 75 cases to a jury verdict.
Between 1998 and 2000, Shultz served as the assistant training coordinator for the Public Defender’s Office. In that capacity, he was responsible for training and supervising all newly hired public defenders.
Beginning in 2001, Shultz worked as a deputy public defender IV, responsible for representing clients charged with capital murder.
Shultz joined the Loyola faculty in July 2005.
Under local rules, vacant commissioner positions are filled by a vote of the judges from a list of candidates nominated by a court panel. Although the ranking order is not binding, all commissioners chosen in recent years have been selected in ranked order.
Following the election of Shultz, 13 candidates remain on that list in the following order:
Deputy Public Defender Nancy Pogue; Los Angeles Police Department Assistant Inspector General Nicole Bershon; Children’s Law Center attorney Emma Castro; 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; and Deputy Public Defender Lisa Brackelmanns.
Copyright 2009, Metropolitan News Company