Wednesday, January 28, 2015
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Deputy D.A. Ipson Confirms He Is Running for Judge
By a MetNews Staff Writer
Deputy District Attorney Steven Ipson confirmed yesterday that he intends to run for Los Angeles Superior Court judge next year.
The MetNews reported yesterday that Ipson had filed a Fair Political Practices Commission form that allows him to raise money for a campaign. The prosecutor, who was unavailable for comment Monday, said that he definitely intends to be a candidate for an open seat.
After more than 20 years as a prosecutor, he said, he has “a lot of experience trying criminal cases, and observing judges in a lot of different courtrooms” and believes he has the necessary experience.
He is presently assigned to Pasadena, where he appears in the courtrooms of Superior Court Judge Jack Blumenfeld and Commissioner Collette Serio.
He was previously deputy-in-charge of the Victim Impact Program in Alhambra, a post he held from 2007 until last year. Before that he worked in the family violence and central trials units.
Admitted to the State Bar in 1991, he worked at a small civil firm in Diamond Bar, doing mostly insurance defense, and then did some criminal defense work before joining the District Attorney’s Office in 1994.
“I won’t say I didn’t like [civil law] but “I was more interested in criminal law.”
He said he had tried close to 100 cases to verdict.
The campaign is in its nascent stages, he said. He has retained David Gould as his campaign consultant and treasurer, he said, and is just beginning to raise money and will have an active website in a day or two.
He said he has not figured out how much money he will need for the race.
In other news, a civil attorney who has also filed with the FPPC said he was only beginning to explore a possible candidacy.
Jeffrey Carter said he was aware that civil attorneys tend not to do well in Los Angeles County judicial races, which are dominated by incumbent judges, prosecutors, and subordinate judicial officers. But after three years as a judge pro tem, he said, he felt he should at least “look carefully” at running, and will make a decision late in the year.
Carter explained that his legal background includes “a lot of corporate work,” in New York and Philadelphia as well as Los Angeles, including mergers and acquisitions, securities, levered buyouts, and commercial litigation in state and federal courts.
He said he has also done “hundreds” of mediations in the commercial and real estate fields.
Copyright 2015, Metropolitan News Company