LACBA Installs 2019-2020 Officer, Trustees

Monday, July 1, 2019

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LACBA Installs 2019-2020 Officer, Trustees

By a MetNews Staff Writer

More than 500 persons packed the Biltmore Bowl Thursday night to attend the swearing-in of Los Angeles County Bar Association officers and trustees. The event was sold-out three weeks in advance, and nearly 100 would-be attendees were on a waiting list. San Fernando Valley family law attorney Ronald F. Brot, founding partner of Brot Gross Fishbein LLP, was inducted as president. A reform movement within LACBA came about in 2015—protesting excessive spending which the detractors of the then-current regime of Paul Kiesel contended was eating up the reserves and putting the association on a path that would lead to bankruptcy—and Brot was a leader of it from the start. He declared in remarks after being sworn in: “We will not spend money we do not have.” Internal controversies, he said, “are in the past,” assuring those in attendance: “Our course for the future will be bright.” Brot is the third successive president tied to the reform movement; he succeeds Brian Kabateck, who remains an officer as “immediate past president,” and Michael Meyer, the 2017-18 president who departs that office.

Ronald F. Brot, sworn in as Los Angeles County Bar Association president on Thursday (though his term actually begins tomorrow), is seen delivering remarks, with his image projected on a screen in background.


Administering the oath of office to Brot is Court of Appeal Presiding Justice Lee Edmon of this district’s Div. Four, a LACBA past president.	Patrick M. Kelly—a former LACBA president and former State Bar president—delivers remarks after being bestowed with LACBA’s highest honor, the Shattuck-Price Award for outstanding service to the legal profession.


Los Angeles Superior Court Presiding Judge Kevin Brazile receives from Brot the organization’s first “Diversity Award.” Also honored were Court of Appeal Presiding Justice Elwood Lui of this district’s Div. Two as “Judge of the Year” and the law firm of Sidley & Austin for its pro bono activities.	At an event marked by conviviality and table-hopping, Los Angeles Superior Court Assistant Presiding Judge Eric Taylor is seen chatting with Lee Kanon Alpert, a former president of the San Fernando Valley Bar Association.