Tuesday, October 9, 2012
Page 3
Kelly, Crispo, Horan Named 2012 MetNews ‘Persons of the Year’
By a MetNews Staff Writer
Incoming State Bar President Patrick M. Kelly and retired Los Angeles Superior Court Judges Lawrence W. Crispo and Charles Horan will be recipients of the Metropolitan News-Enterprise’s “Person of the Year” awards for 2012, it was announced Friday.
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PATRICK M. KELLY Incoming State Bar President |
LAWRENCE W. CRISPO Retired Superior Court Judge |
CHARLES HORAN Retired Superior Court Judge |
MetNews co-publisher Jo-Ann W. Grace commented that the honorees are “popular and admired throughout the legal community.”
As it happens, all three have a love of music. Kelly was a back-up guitarist with the Beach Boys, and Horan, also, is an accomplished guitarist. The gregarious Crispo often bursts into song at events and is a member of Legal Voice, a chorus comprised of lawyers, judges, and legal support staff members.
State Bar Presidency
Kelly, Western region managing partner of Wilson Elser, will take office on Oct. 13 as State Bar president. He is a former Los Angeles County Bar Association president and has served as a member of the Commission on Judicial Performance.
“A list of all of his bar activities consume considerable space,” Grace remarked, noting that Kelly has “an intense commitment to the legal profession and our court system, and has worked tirelessly to bring benefit to both.”
Kelly received his law degree from Loyola Law School in 1969 and was admitted to the State Bar in January, 1970. He has been with his present firm since 1980.
Decade on Bench
Crispo, now in private dispute resolution, served on the Superior Court from 1994-2004. He was a deputy Los Angeles city attorney from 1961-62 and was in private practice from 1962 until his appointment to the bench.
He was a president of the Italian American Lawyers Association and the Wilshire Bar Association and was a vice president of the State Bar, in addition to serving as a national trustee of the American Inns of Court and president of the Loyola Law School Alumni Board of Governors.
“Larry has a quick wit, a positive outlook, a love of humanity, and takes in stride the gibes about his singing,” Grace remarked.
‘Paul Revere’
She termed Horan “the Paul Revere of the judiciary,” noting his “early calls of alarm that moneys were being siphoned for development of a statewide computer system at the cost of courtrooms being shuttered.”
Now, she remarked, “the computer project has been abandoned and everyone realizes he was right.”
Grace said it is appropriate that Horan be honored “for his alertness and his courage, for speaking out, for felling Goliath.”
Horan in 2009 formed and, while still on the bench was prime mover behind, the Alliance of California Judges—a group critical of the Administrative Office of the Courts and responsible for reforms in its operations.
The jurist retired in 2011 upon reaching the age of 60.
Horan was appointed to the Glendale Municipal Court in 1988 and elevated to the Los Angeles Superior Court two years later.
A graduate of USC Law School, he was admitted to practice in 1976 and served as a deputy Santa Monica city attorney, then as a deputy district attorney.
Annual Dinner
Profiles of the honorees will appear in a special section of the MetNews in early January, 2013. They will be presented scrolls and plaques at the 25th annual “Person of the Year” dinner, to take place on Jan. 25, 2013.
“The private club at which the dinner will be held, like other private clubs, does not permit mention of it other than in invitations,” Grace said, but noted where it will not be held.
“We will no longer be staging dinners at the Jonathan Club,” declared.
Former Los Angeles District Attorney Robert H. Philibosian, of counsel to Sheppard Mullin, will for the 16th time emcee the event.
Previous Honorees
Former persons of the year include the late Court of Appeal Presiding Justice Mildred Lillie, 1983; the late California Supreme Court Justice Stanley Mosk, 1984; the late Court of Appeal Presiding Justice Lester Wm. Roth, 1985; the late Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Kathleen Parker, 1986; then-Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Billy G. Mills (since retired), 1987; then-Los Angeles Superior Court Executive Officer Frank Zolin, 1988 (since deceased); then-Court of Appeal Justice Lynn “Buck” Compton (since deceased), 1989; Court of Appeal Justice Miriam Vogel (now senior of counsel to Morrison & Foerster) and then-State Bar President Charles Vogel (now an arbitrator/mediator with JAMS), 1990; Court of Appeal Presiding Justice Vaino Spencer (now retired), 1991; Court of Appeal Presiding Justice Joan Dempsey Klein, 1992; then-Los Angeles Superior Court Presiding Judge (now Court of Appeal Presiding Justice) Robert Mallano, 1993; Court of Appeal Justice Norman Epstein (now presiding justice), 1994; then-California Attorney General (now Congressman) Dan Lungren, 1995; California Chief Justice Ronald George (now retired), 1996; Los Angeles Superior Court Judge (then-Assistant Presiding Judge) Victor E. Chavez, 1997; U.S. District Court Judge Ronald S.W. Lew, 1998; and Los Angeles Sheriff Lee Baca, 1999.
Others are then-Judicial Appointments Secretary Burt Pines, 2000; then-State Bar President Karen Nobumoto, 2001 (now retired); Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich, 2002; then-Los Angeles County Supervisor Yvonne Burke; then-State Bar President John Van de Kamp and then-Los Angeles County Bar Assn. President John Collins (now retired), 2004; then-Los Angeles Superior Court Presiding Judge William MacLaughlin and then-Assistant Presiding Judge J. Stephen Czuleger, 2005; the late political consultant Joseph Cerrell, U.S. District Judge George Schiavelli of the Central District of California (now in law practice and mediation) and Court of Appeal Presiding Justice Paul A. Turner, 2006; San Fernando Valley attorney and civic leader Lee Kanon Alpert, then-Los Angeles County Bar Assn. President Gretchen Nelson, and Philibosian, 2007; then-Los Angeles Superior Court Presiding Judge Charles W. McCoy and then-Assistant Presiding Judge (now Presiding Judge) Lee Edmon, 2008; Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley, Los Angeles County Public Defender Michael P. Judge (since retired), and Los Angeles City Attorney Carmen Trutanich, 2009; trial attorney and bar leader Jack Denove, then-Southwestern Law School Dean Bryant Garth, and Lawyers Philharmonic conductor and attorney Gary S. Greene, 2010; and California Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye and former California Gov. George Deukmejian, 2011.
Copyright 2012, Metropolitan News Company