Greg Smith Releases First Television Ad in City Attorney Race

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Page 11

SNIPPETS (Column)

Greg Smith Releases First Television Ad in City Attorney Race

Greg Smith, a candidate for Los Angeles city attorney, yesterday released his first television ad, entitled “Fought For Me.” The 30-second spot, the first of any of the city attorney candidates, highlights Smith’s career winning verdicts against the city for racial discrimination and whistleblower retaliation.

The ad began airing last night on broadcast stations in Los Angeles, and will continue through the March 5 primary election, a Los Angeles Times blog reported Smith campaign consultant John Thomas as saying. Thomas told the Times that the campaign expects to spend “in the high seven figures” on the media buy.

The ad consists of brief appearances from four of Smith’s former clients and their families, repeating the theme, “Greg Smith fought for me.” The Times reported that while the public safety workers appearing in the ad are real, the uniforms, badges and even the patrol car are rented movie props, according to Thomas.

Smith appears in the ad, saying that he has spent his entire career fighting corruption and discrimination and as city attorney he will fight for all families.

The Times reported that Mike Feuer campaign spokesman Dave Jacobson said that Smith’s ad “should be called ‘How Greg Smith got rich suing L.A. taxpayers’. ... L.A. needs a city attorney who will protect the city treasury, not raid it for personal gain.” It also reports that Trutanich consultant Rick Taylor said Smith “fought for four people against 4 million Angelenos. When he fights, he fights L.A.”

Neither Feuer nor Trutanich has begun TV advertising, although both campaigns told the Times that they expect to.

•Charles W. Cox has joined Alston & Bird LLP’s litigation team as a partner in the firm’s Los Angeles office, the firm announced Friday.

Cox focuses on representing clients in complex commercial litigation, including stockholder litigation, class actions, derivative suits and matters related to mergers and acquisitions.

He has represented numerous leaders in the accounting, manufacturing, health care and gaming industries, and provides counseling on corporate governance issues and represents executives and officers in disputes and investigations, the release said.

Cox currently serves as a member of the board of directors of the Disability Rights Legal Center and the St. Paul the Apostle School Foundation. He previously served as a member of the National Council of the Federal Bar Association, according to the release.

He earned his law degree from the University of Michigan, his masters from Georgetown University and an undergraduate degree from the United States Naval Academy. Prior to earning his law degree, he served as a naval submarine officer in the Pacific for three years, the release said.

Cox comes to Alston & Bird from the Los Angeles office of Latham & Watkins.

•Randye B. Soref has joined Polsinelli Shughart’s Los Angeles office, according to a release issued by the firm yesterday.

Her practice areas include bankruptcy, loan enforcement, creditors’ rights, corporate workouts, reorganizations and commercial litigation.

Soref has represented various parties in bankruptcy and litigation proceedings, including all classes of creditors, solvent and insolvent financial institutions, trustees, creditor committees and patient care ombudsmen, the release said, noting that she has had extensive involvement with health care and municipality related bankruptcy cases as well as domestic and foreign commercial banks, investment banks, other lending institutions and distressed debt investors in connection with acquisition and/or disposition of distressed real estate.

She earned her law degree from the California Western School of Law and her undergraduate degree from Hofstra University.

•The Miller Law Firm has released the newest edition of its legal treatise, “Handling Construction Defect Claims: Western States” (4th Edition, 2013) this month, according to a release issued yesterday by the firm.

The book is published by Wolters Kluwer. The current edition was co-authored by Thomas E. Miller, founder of the San Francisco-based firm, senior partner Rachel M. Miller, and partner Matthew T. Miller.

Covering the states of California, Arizona, Utah, Colorado, Nevada, Oregon, Washington and Hawaii, the 1200+ page treatise also features the contributions of experts including defense lawyers Bruce Lorber and Steven Polito.

The release quotes Frank H. Wu, chancellor and dean of UC Hastings College of the Law as saying:

“More than a scholar’s treatise, it is the first resource for construction defect plaintiff and defense attorneys; as well as mediators, arbitrators and judges… the most salient issues confronting consumers and experts alike are addressed by the premier practitioner in this complex field of contract and tort claims. Together with the complementary discourses from California’s leading construction defect attorneys, Miller’s treatise comprehensively, if not definitively, spans nearly three decades of litigation and analyses effectively enabling both student and practitioner.”

•The American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys, a professional organization devoted to furthering the practice of estate planning, has announced a free webinar for attorneys interested in enhancing their business prospects.

The webinar is scheduled for Feb. 13 at 2:00 p.m. The program will include a discussion of the 11 core systems for success in estate planning law firms.

Attorneys Robert Armstrong and Sanford M. Fisch, founders of the American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys, will be discussing how to maximize efficiency within a law practice and generate reliable income streams.

Armstrong and Fisch, along with New York Times bestselling author Michael Gerber, are co-authors of “The E-Myth Attorney,” a guidebook for revitalizing struggling law practices.

Armstrong and Fisch founded the academy as a means to share their innovative, results-oriented practices with a wider audience.

Membership in the academy is not required to attend the webinar.

More information regarding this event can be found at http://www.aaepa.com/2013blueprint/.

•KCET-TV will broadcast an interview of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor by actress/activist Eva Longoria about Sotomayor’s new book, “My Beloved World,” several times in the next few days.

During the interview, taped recently at the Saban Theatre in Beverly Hills, the jusice “spoke of her humble beginnings in the Bronx housing projects, her struggles to learn English and to overcome financial hardships, as well as her courageous choices and inspiring successes,” the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund said in a press release yesterday.

Longoria, a MALDEF board member, “was the perfect choice to moderate,” MALDEF said. “Her tireless advocacy efforts have helped Latinas build better futures for themselves. She has established her own foundations and works with leading minority rights organizations, such as MALDEF, to make a difference in the Latino community.”

The program airs on KCET tonight at midnight, Friday at 1:30 p.m. and 8 p.m., and Sunday at 4 p.m. It also airs nationally on the Link TV network tonight at 5:30 p.m. PST/8:30 p.m. EST and Friday at 8:30 p.m. PST/11:30 p.m. EST.