Thursday, January 7, 2010
Page 3
Retired Judge Charles Lee to Join Alternative Resolution Centers
By a MetNews Staff Writer
Alternative Resolution Centers has announced that Retired Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Charles Carter Lee has joined its panel of neutrals.
ARC said yesterday that Lee—who retired in 2008 after nearly two decades on the Superior Court, including civil and criminal assignments and service as presiding judge of the court’s Appellate Division—will specialize in resolving business/commercial, construction defect, discovery, medical malpractice, employment discrimination, probate and asbestos matters.
An expert on Asian culture and a Mandarin speaker, he was named “Chef de Mission” and leader of the United States delegation at the 2008 Beijing Olympics by the U.S. Olympic Committee. Lee, 67, also acted as envoy to China’s team at the 1984 Los Angeles Games, China’s first participation in a modern Olympics.
ARC said Lee “hopes to use his unique combination of legal, diplomatic and cultural skills to resolve national and international disputes involving Chinese businesses and people.” The company’s president, Amy Newman, said the company was “thrilled” to have the former jurist on its panel, adding that Lee is “a tremendous asset for our international clients.”
Lee was appointed to the Los Angeles Superior Court by then-Gov. George Deukmejian in 1989 while a litigation partner in Tuttle & Taylor.
A Virginia native and descendant of Gen. Robert E. Lee and Revolutionary War hero “Light Horse Harry” Lee, the former judge is a U.S. Navy veteran who served in the Philippines after graduating from Washington & Lee University in 1967.
He attended law school at the University of Virginia, but took a two-year leave of absence in 1972 to study Mandarin Chinese in Taipei at the Taiwan National Normal University.
Admitted to the State Bar of California in 1976, Lee began his legal career at Latham & Watkins. He opened a sole practice in 1981, moved to Whitman & Ransom the following year and prosecuted criminal cases as an assistant U.S. attorney from 1983 to 1987 before joining Tuttle & Taylor.
In early 1984, he was named envoy to the People’s Republic of China for the Los Angeles Olympic Games. After the Soviet Union announced its boycott of the Games, Lee headed a delegation to China for talks in May 1984 which obtained China’s formal written agreement to participate in the Games.
Lee was named to the Superior Court’s Appellate Division in 2000. Two years later, the MetNews reported that he was then under consideration for a spot on the Court of Appeal. Lee later became the Appellate Division’s presiding justice.
Lee traveled to China for two weeks in 2006 to give a series of lectures in six Chinese cities regarding the California state court structure after receiving a Specialist Grant from the U.S. Department of State. In early 2008, he received a Fulbright Senior Specialist Grant to give a series of lectures in Mandarin over a two-week period at the China University of Political Science and Law in Beijing.
Lee is also licensed to practice law in New York and the District of Columbia.
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