Metropolitan News-Enterprise

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Page 1

Four Seek District Seven Seat on State Bar Board of Governors

By SHERRI M. OKAMOTO,
Staff Writer

Manhattan
Beach attorney Joseph R. Donnini and  Deputy Public Defender Rhonda Haymon
have filed papers to run for a position on the State Bar Board of Governors,
bringing the total number of candidates to four.

Craig E. Holden, a
partner with Lewis, Brisbois, Bisgaard
& Smith LLP, and Jeffrey Lustman, a
non-practicing attorney working as a private investigator, both had previously
announced their intention to seek the one available seat for District
Seven—which represents all of Los Angeles County—but Donnini and Haymon did not widely
broadcast their potential candidacies.

Haymon, a past representative
for the California Young Lawyers Association on the board, is seeking election
as an attorney member for the first time. She could not be reached for comment
yesterday and the voicemail message at her work phone number indicated that she
has been out of the office for some time.

Donnini is a sole practitioner
and licensed real estate broker who previously served as general counsel for
RE/MAX International in California and Hawaii. He has been
practicing for 14 years, and said yesterday that he is seeking a seat on the
board because “at this point in my career I just wanted to be able to
assist in that capacity…to help address and resolve issues on the State
Bar.”

He said his
“agenda has not really changed” from last year, when he finished
second to Gretchen Nelson, receiving a little more than 10 percent of the vote
cast.

The most important
issues Donnini said he wishes to address involve the
“more efficient use of funds,” by reducing the
size of the State Bar’s administration, increased utilization of
technology, and revising the disciplinary system.

Calls Himself ‘Outsider’

A self-described State
Bar “outsider,” Donnini said he has not
had any previous involvement with the agency aside from paying his annual dues
so his “perspectives are fresh.” He added that he hoped the voters
would consider this an asset in a candidate since Donnini
claimed the Breakfast Club had not looked upon it favorably when he inquired about
receiving its endorsement last year.

The Breakfast Club is
open on a dues-paid basis to any lawyer practicing within Los Angeles County
and has been endorsing Board of Governors candidates for nearly four decades.
Every candidate backed by the group has won a seat on the Board of Governors
since 2003, and last month it voted to support Holden.

Donnini explained that he did
not seek the Breakfast Club’s support last year or this year because
“I’m not going to try to get endorsed by someone who has a preconceived
idea of what a candidate should look like…on paper,”  with a
history of State Bar committee involvement.

He was admitted to the
State Bar in 1996, after attending Drew
University in Madison,
N.J., and Whittier Law
School. He said he has
served as an adjunct professor of law at his alma mater for the past four
years.

Haymon was elected to a
one-year term on the board in 2008, and according to her candidate statement,
her “desire and zeal to serve at the California State Bar level remains
unabated.”

If elected, Haymon’s stated goals include having the State Bar
provide “greater assistance to new attorneys,” as well as
“[g]reater interaction with the public”
and “[g]reater transparency regarding bar
expenditures.”

She is a graduate of Tuskegee University
and the Willamette College of Law in Oregon,
where she is also licensed to practice. Haymon joined
the California State Bar in 2001.

Holden, who did not
return a call seeking comment yesterday, touted his experience in State Bar
leadership in his candidate statement. He is chair of the organization’s
Council on Access and Fairness—a 25-member advisory committee which provides recommendations to the Board of Governors on
ways to increase diversity in the legal profession—and co-chair of the
Intellectual Property Litigation Committee for the Intellectual Property
Section.

He claimed that these
roles “have given me valuable leadership experience, including the
opportunity to work with the Board of Governors,” and that he
“understand[s] the varied interests of lawyers throughout the state and
this district” because he has also worked with several local bar
associations.

‘Measured Reforms’

The attorney also
promised to “advocate for sensible, measured reforms that increase public
protection and restore public trust in our profession” as well as address
court backlogs, increase training opportunities for young lawyers, encourage
pro bono work and diversity efforts, ensure “fiscal responsibility with Bar dues,” and aid in the provision of affordable
malpractice insurance.

In addition tp the endorsement of the Breakfast Club, Holden’s
candidate statement also listed Los
Angeles County Bar
Association President-Elect Eric Webber; past State Bar Presidents Howard
Miller, Holly Fujie and Sheldon Sloan; and the Women
Lawyers Association of Los Angeles as supporters.

Holden graduated from
UCLA in 1991 and UC Hastings Law School in 1994. He
gained admission to the State Bar that same year.

Whoever wins this
year’s election will assume office at the conclusion of the State Bar
Annual Meeting in September, when the three-year terms for current
representatives James H. Aguirre of Richardson & Fair, and Assistant U.S.
Attorney Angela J. Davis, end. Only one seat is available in District Seven
this year due to redistricting in 2010 to reflect shifts in the state’s
attorney population.

Five Seats Up

The 23-member Board of
Governors meets approximately eight times a year to debate organizational,
policy and professional issues. It consists of 15 attorney members elected by
their peers in geographic districts, and five seats—one for Districts
Four, Six, Seven, Eight, and Nine—are being vacated this year.

A total of five
candidates are seeking the District Four seat representing Marin, San Francisco
and San Mateo counties: Miles Cooper of Rouda, Feder, Tietjen & McGuinn; David A. DeGroot of
Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP; Forrest A. Hainline
III of Goodwin Procter LLP; Douglas S. Saeltzer of
Walkup Media; and Nancy L. Fineman of Cotchett Pitre & McCarthy
LLP.

San
Jose civil litigator Timothy D. McMahon and Mark W. Shem  of Borton Petrini LLP are facing off for the District Six seat,
representing Santa Clara Ccounty.

Four candidates are
seeking the District Eight seat—representing Orange, Santa
Barbara and Ventura counties: Pearl
G. Mann of Fullerton;
Jeffrey A. Milman of Hodes Milman LLP; Natalie Panossian,
in-house counsel for Ricoh Printing Systems America Inc.; and Santa Barbara
Deputy District Attorney Ronald Zonen.

The District Nine
seat—representing the Imperial, Riverside, San Bernardino and San Diego
counties—also has four candidates: Riverside practitioner Reina Canale; San Diego attorney Paul H. Neuharth
Jr.; Heather Linn Rosing of Klinedinst
PC; and San Bernardino lawyer Michael A. Scafiddi.

Friday was the deadline
to file nominating petitions for the seats, which will become vacant this
summer. Next Monday is the last day for candidates to withdraw their
nominations.

Ballots are scheduled to
be mailed May 2 and the voting period is slated to end June 30.

Copyright
2011, Metropolitan News Company