Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Page 3
Former State Bar Board Member Ann Ravel Named FPPC Chair
By a MetNews Staff Writer
Gov. Jerry Brown yesterday named Deputy Assistant U.S. Attorney General Ann Ravel, a former State Bar Board of Governors member, as chair of the Fair Political Practices Commission.
Brown also tapped Los Angeles attorney Sean Eskovitz as a member of the FPPC; Julie Su, also of Los Angeles, as chief of the Division of Labor Standards and Enforcement, and Santa Monica practitioner Carl W. “Chip” Robertson as a member of the Board of Directors of the UC Hastings College of Law.
Ravel, 61, has overseen tort and consumer litigation at the Department of Justice since 2009, after 11 years as Santa Clara County Counsel. She also held various positions within the Santa Clara County Counsel’s office from 1976 to 1998.
She was a member of the Judicial Council of California from 2002 to 2005, and served one full term plus two short appointed stints on the Board of Governors. She also served on the Commission on Judicial Nominees Evaluation.
Munger Tolles Partner
Eskovitz, 40, a partner with Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP’s Los Angeles office, was selected by the governor to serve on the five-member commission which meets each month to hear public testimony, issue opinions, adopt regulations and decide penalties for violations of the Fair Political Practices Act.
Before joining Munger Tolles in 2005, Eskovitz was a partner with Boies, Schiller & Flexner LLP from 2003 to 2005 and an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York from 1999 to 2003. He was also an associate with Williams & Connolly LLP in Washington, D.C. from 1996 to 1999 and a law clerk to Fouth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Paul V. Niemeyer from 1995 to 1996.
Eskovitz attended the University of Pennsylvania and New York University School of Law before joining the State Bar in 2006.
Su, 41, serves as director of litigation for the Asian Pacific Legal Center in Los Angeles, where she has worked since she joined the State Bar in 1994. She is a graduate of Stanford University and Harvard Law School.
Robertson, 39, has been a principal at Warland Investments since 2010 and he has also been a member of the management committee at Sample Digital Holdings LLC since 2001. Previously Robertson was an associate at Paul Hastings LLP from 1999 to 2001.
Since 2006, Robertson has served as a trustee of the Hastings 1066 Foundation— a volunteer organization that actively generates private support for the school and offers membership to those who annually contribute $1066—and currently serves as treasurer. He also endowed the Chip W. Robertson Faculty Research Fund at Hastings, which is his alma mater.
The attorney attended UC Berkley for his undergraduate degree and holds a business degree from UCLA’s Anderson School of Management. He was admitted to practice in 1999.
Appeals Board Chair
In other news, the governor nominated Sacramento attorney Robert Dresser as chair of the Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board and Santa Ana attorney Wylie Aitken as a member of the California Arts Council.
Dresser, 69, served as an administrative law judge for the Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board from 1992 to 2001. After that, he spent one year as chief counsel and interim director of the Department of Information Technology, then five years as general counsel of the Labor and Workforce Development Agency. He has
worked as enforcement counsel for the Contractors State License Board since 2007.
Before becoming an administrative law judge, the attorney was senior board counsel for the Agricultural Labor Relations Board from 1975 to 1992.
He attended Dartmouth College and Stanford University Law School before joining the State Bar in 1969.
Aitken, 69, is a partner at Aitken, Aitken and Cohn, the law firm he founded in 1970. He is also a trustee and past president of the South Coast Repertory Theatre Board of Trustees..
The attorney, who attended law school at Marquette University before being licensed to practice in 1966, was appointed to the Arts Council in 2010 as well.
Su will receive annual compensation of $138,546, while Dresser will receive $132,179.
Compensation for the positions for which Eskovitz and Aitken were selected, $100 per diem. Robertson’s post pays no compensation.
Eskovitz is a Republican and the other nominees are all Democrats. All of the appointees, except the FPPC members, require Senate confirmation, although they may each serve for up to one year without it.
Copyright 2011, Metropolitan News Company