Metropolitan News-Enterprise

 

Monday, June 20, 2016

 

Page 1

 

‘Reform’ Slate Won LACBA Elections by Huge Margins, Results Show

 

By a MetNews Staff Writer

 

Candidates critical of recent management of the Los Angeles County Bar Association and aligned with the recently formed Council of Sections won the bar’s annual elections by huge margins, final results released Friday showed.

LACBA identified the winning candidates last Monday, but had not previously disclosed vote totals. The numbers show that the self-identified reformers won the contested races by margins of more than 2 to 1.

LACBA reported that 10.55 percent, or 1,880 of 17,822 eligible members, voted.

For president-elect, Michael Meyer, a real estate attorney who chairs the Los Angeles offices of DLA Piper, defeated Michael K. Lindsey, a corporate and transactional lawyer at Steinbrecher & Span and the incumbent senior vice president, by a final tally of 1,273 to 448. There were 145 blank ballots and 13 write-ins.

Lindsey was the choice of the association’s Nominating Committee, while Meyer was nominated by petition.

Meyer becomes LACBA’s second-in-command on July 1—the current president-elect, Margaret Stevens, becomes president on that date—and automatically moves up to the presidency a year later.

In the contest to succeed Lindsey as senior vice president, Philip H. Lam, intellectual property counsel to Los Angeles City Attorney Michael Feuer, defeated David K. Reinert, a deputy district attorney and the current vice president. Lam received 1,284 votes to Reinert’s 436, with 151 blanks and eight write-ins.

Tamila Jensen, a sole practitioner and former San Fernando Valley Bar Association president defeated Annaluisa Padilla, an immigration attorney, for the post now held by Reinert. Jensen gained 1,180 votes to 535 for Padilla, with 158 blanks and six write-ins.

Stevens said in a statement:

“The current trustees and I are happy to welcome the incoming class to LACBA leadership. We have engaged in a vigorous debate these last several months, and now it is time to work together to address the challenges facing our association.  All of us extend our thanks to Mike Lindsey and Dave Reinert who have served a number of years as trustees and officers, devoting hundreds of volunteer hours to LACBA.”

Members elected council-backed candidates Bradley Pauley, chairman of the Appellate Courts Section, and Ronald Brot, who chairs the Family Law Section, as at-large trustees. Also elected was litigator Diana K. Rodgers, who was a Nominating Committee choice.

Defeated were James “Jim” P. Clark and Miguel Tomas Espinoza.

Elected to represent sections were John F. Hartigan and Marc L. Sallus—both of whom were Nominating Committee choices also endorsed by the council—and William L. Winslow. Nominating Committee choice Roxanne Wilson was defeated.

Elected to represent affiliated bar associations were council-backed Richard Lewis and Edwin Summers III, and Angela Reddock, a Nominating Committee selection. Defeated were Oscar Rene Gutierrez and Princeton H. Kim.

The council did not have a full complement of candidates in the last two categories because one of its candidates withdrew and another was disqualified for not meeting eligibility requirements. The council-backed candidates outpolled the Nominating Committee choices in those races by significant margins, suggesting that many members gave up their right to vote for three candidates in each category and backed only the council-endorsed contenders, or wrote in the name of a third choice.  

Final results of the trustee voting were:

Trustees At-Large

Bradley S. Pauley             1,160

Ronald F. Brot                  1,159

Diana K. Rodgers                614

James “Jim” P. Clark          571

Miguel Tomas Espinoza     544

Total Write-ins                   338

Blank Ballots                      154

 

Trustees by Section Membership

John F. Hartigan              1,377

Marc L. Sallus                 1,353

William L. Winslow       1,205

Roxanne M. Wilson          698

Blank Ballots                     173

Total Write-ins                    17

 

Trustees by Affiliated Bar Association Membership

Richard Lewis                1,166

Edwin C. Summers III   1,077

Angela Reddock               638

Princeton H. Kim             614

Oscar Rene Gutierrez      614

Blank Ballots                    180

Total Write-ins                   81

 

Copyright 2016, Metropolitan News Company