Metropolitan News-Enterprise

 

Wednesday, August 6, 2003

 

Page 1

 

State Bar Names Five Local Lawyers to JNE Commission

 

By KENNETH OFGANG, Staff Writer

 

The State Bar Board of Governors has named 14 new members to the Commission on Judicial Nominees Evaluation, including five from Los Angeles County, a State Bar spokesman said yesterday.

Retired Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Christian Markey Jr., Deputy District Attorneys Serena Murillo and Terry L. White, retired Los Angeles Assistant City Attorney Julie Downey, and Beverly Hills litigator Hollis McCray-Clark will join the commission in February to serve two-year terms.

The appointments were made in closed session when the board met in Los Angeles July 26, but the names have not previously been made public.

In addition to naming the new members, the board reappointed 20 members, including Century City attorney Priscilla F. Slocum and Christopher K.D. Leong, a Los Angeles-based attorney for the California Department of Real Estate, the bar spokesman said.

San Francisco attorney Mark I. Schickman will be the new chairman of the commission, succeeding Abbe McCall. Schickman, a partner in Perkins Coie, is currently vice-chair of the commission.

The JNE Commission is charged by Government Code Sec. 12011.5 with conducting confidential evaluations of all persons whose names have been submitted to it by the governor as potential judicial appointees. Except in the last 90 days of a term, the governor cannot name any person as a judge unless they have been evaluated by JNE or unless JNE has failed to complete an evaluation within 90 days of the person’s name being submitted.

In addition to the five from Los Angeles County, the new commission members are Arthur Bernstein of San Jose; Dennis Coupe of Granite Bay in Placer County; Robert S. Gerber and Erika Hiramatsu of San Diego; William Kopeny and Ronald Russ of Irvine; William Needham of Eureka; Ian Sweedler of San Francisco; and Brian Tatarian of Fresno.

Besides Schickman, Slocum, and Leong, the reappointed commission members are Felix Aquino of Fresno; Joyce Andrews, Edmundo Moran, and Lisa Cummins of San Jose; Richard Armendariz of Buena Park; Beverly Baker-Kelly, Andrew Sweet and Kim Hunter of Oakland; Louise Biddle and Diane Roth of Riverside; Henry Doering of San Francisco; Thomas Hughes Jr. of San Diego; Todd Irby of Newport Beach; Michael Knish of San Bernardino; Phillip Lindsley of Bonita; Teresa Tan of Berkeley; and Susan Walenta of El Cerrito.

Irby will succeed Schickman as vice-chair.

 

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