Metropolitan News-Enterprise

 

Thursday, February 7, 2013

 

Page 11

 

SNIPPETS (Column)

Judicial Council of California Announces Technology Task Force

 

The Judicial Council of California yesterday announced the members of its new Technology Planning Task Force, which is charged with addressing and making recommendations on the governance, strategy, and financial support for judicial branch technology.

“A comprehensive and collaborative technology plan update and redesign, grounded in the technology needs of the courts, is the key to branch technology progress and funding,” said Santa Barbara Superior Court Judge James E. Herman, who will chair the new task force, in a news release from the council.

The other members of the task force are Court of Appeal Justices Judith Ashmann-Gerst of this district and Terence L. Bruiniers of the First District; Superior Court Judges Daniel J. Buckley of Los Angeles, Ira R. Kaufman of Plumas, Marsha Slough of San Bernardino, and Robert James Moss of Orange; Superior Court executive officers Sherri R. Carter of Riverside and Jake Chatters of Placer; Superior Court chief information officers Brian Cotta of Fresno and Robert Oyung of Santa Clara; attorney James R. Kalyvas of Foley & Lardner LLP; and Charlene Ynson, clerk/administrator of the Fifth District Court of Appeal.

Chief Justice Tani G. Cantil-Sakauye authorized the creation of the new task force, which will report directly to the Judicial Council’s broader technology committee.

The State Bar of California said yesterday it had filed disciplinary charges against a Los Angeles attorney accused of misappropriating more than $500,000 from a Chinese couple who had hired him to help them gain U.S. citizenship for themselves and their child.

Justin Moongyu Lee is facing seven counts of misconduct, including failure to maintain client funds in a trust account, failure to inform a client of a significant development, breach of fiduciary duty and failure to pay client funds promptly. Lee, 56, is also accused of not disclosing to the couple personal and professional conflicts that surrounded his plans to invest their money, according to the State Bar’s news release announcing the charges.

The Los Angeles Superior Court has announced that effective Feb. 11, new Judge Joseph R. Porras will be assigned to Department 3 of the East Los Angeles Courthouse, and effective March 4, Judge Brian F. Gasdia will move to Department R from Department Y of Norwalk Courthouse.  Judge Debra Cole Hall takes Gasdia’s place in Department Y, where she moves from Department 7 of the Downey Courthouse.

The court also confirmed that Judge Philip H. Hickok’s last day in Department R of the Norwalk Courthouse was Feb. 1, and that he retired on Monday.

Attorney Paul Hoffman of Harris, Hoffman and Harrison LLP will give a one-hour lecture at Western State College of Law at Argosy University on Feb. 19 at 4 p.m., the university announced in a news release yesterday.

The lecture, co-sponsored by the American Society of International Law, will serves as the inaugural event of the Institute for Global Law and Policy at Western State.

Hoffman will discuss the Supreme Court case Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum, in which he served as lead appellate counsel on behalf of 12 Nigerian nationals who filed suit in a United States district court against three international oil companies for allegedly aiding the Nigerian military in torturing and killing civilians who protested oil exploration in Nigeria.

Hoffman is a former legal director of the ACLU Foundation of Southern California, former chair of the board of Amnesty International USA and the international executive committee of Amnesty International worldwide, as well as an adjunct professor at UC Irvine School of Law.

Western State College of Law is located at 1111 N State College Blvd., Fullerton, CA 92831.

The event is open to the public at no charge.  

For more information or to RSVP, contact Christy Alvarez at calvarez@wsulaw.edu or 714 459-1168.

 

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