Metropolitan News-Enterprise

 

Tuesday, November 6, 2001

 

Page 1

 

Superior Court Commissioner Glenda Veasey to Run for Judge

 

By a MetNews Staff Writer

 

Los Angeles Superior Court Commissioner Glenda Veasey has taken out papers to run for Los Angeles Superior Court judge.

“I’m just leaving my options open,” Veasey said yesterday, explaining why she had obtained filing documents for four different seats—those now held by Judges Richard Spann, Michael Kanner, David Finkel, and Reginald Dunn.

Kanner and Finkel have said they won’t run for reelection, Spann is reported to have told a number of people that he won’t run, and Dunn hasn’t taken out papers. Dunn told the MetNews recently he probably would run for another term, but could not be reached yesterday for comment on whether his plans had changed.

Incumbents and their challengers have until 5 p.m. tomorrow to file declarations of intent to run, while those seeking open seats have until next Tuesday.

Veasey said she won’t run against an incumbent judge, particularly Dunn, whom she described as “an old friend.” She said she put a call in to the judge to find out whether he was going to run, but hasn’t heard back from him yet.

Veasey was made a commissioner three years ago.

Veasey is well known in legal circles, having served on the State Bar Board of Governors, the California Judicial Council, the Commission on Judicial Nominees Evaluation, and the board of the National Bar Association, and as president of the  John M. Langston Bar Association and the Black Women Lawyers Association of Los Angeles.

She was a supervising attorney at Early, Maslach, Price & Baukol, which does defense work for Farmers Insurance Co., at the time of her commissioner appointment. A graduate of California State University, Dominguez Hills and USC Law School—she received an MBA as well as a law degree in 1981—she started her career doing criminal defense work, later joining the Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office as a civil litigator in 1989.

She spent two years with Wright, Robinson, McCammon, Osthimer & Tatum before spending 61/2 years with Early Maslach in its Los Angeles and El Segundo offices.

As a bar governor, Veasey chaired the board’s Labor Committee during its contentious 1992 negotiations with employees represented by the Service Employees International Union. She later chaired the Committee on Courts and Legislation while it considered the State Bar’s response to the Pettit & Martin shooting in San Francisco.

She was one of four candidates for the State Bar presidency in 1994, losing to Fresno lawyer Donald Fishbach on the final ballot. She also served on the Judicial Council Advisory Committee on Racial and Ethnic Bias in the Courts, appointed by former Chief Justice Malcolm Lucas, on which she urged the council to address public perceptions that the system discriminates against minorities.

The MetNews also learned yesterday that Workers’ Compensation Judge Donald Renetzky has taken out papers to run for 13 different seats.

In addition to those of Kanner, Finkel, and Spann, Renetzky received documents to run for the seats of Judge Michael Pirosh—who is retiring in January and isn’t running for another term—and those of incumbents Irving Feffer, Ann I. Jones, Patti Jo McKay, Deirdre Hill, Gibson W. Lee, Charles W. Stoll, Andria K. Richey, and Randolph Rodgers.

Renetzky also took out papers to run for the seat of Judge Richard Charvat, apparently unaware that the incumbent retired yesterday, which means that no election will be held for the seat until 2004.

Renetzky could not be reached for comment.

 

Copyright 2001, Metropolitan News Company