CALIFORNIA WESTERN SCHOOL OF LAW - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Attorney at Law, San Diego, California
Job Titles:
- Attorney at Law, San Diego, California
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- Associate Director for Public Services and Educational Technology, California Western School of Law Library
Job Titles:
- Professor of Law Emeritus / Department
California Western's associate dean for academic affairs from 1997-2001 and vice dean from 2015-2017, Professor Cox is a national authority on sexual orientation and the law, and women and the law. She has written numerous articles on interstate recognition of marriage and civil unions of same-sex couples. As a commissioner on the Madison Equal Opportunities Commission in Wisconsin, Professor Cox helped draft one of the earliest domestic partnership ordinances in the country. She has published articles on obtaining recognition for alternative families in journals such as the National Journal of Sexual Orientation Law and the Southern California Review of Law and Women's Studies.
Cox is past chair of the Association of American Law Schools (AALS) Section on Women and the Law and the AALS Section on Gay and Lesbian Issues, and former deputy director of the AALS. She chairs the Board of Directors and the Executive Committee of the national Freedom to Marry organization, and completed six years on ABA Accreditation Committee in June 2011.
Job Titles:
- Attorney at Law, San Diego, California
Job Titles:
- Reference Librarian, California Western School of Law Library
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- Trustee
- Retired United States Navy Vice Admiral
- Senior Executive Service
- Vice Admiral, JAGC
Bruce MacDonald is a retired United States Navy vice admiral who last served as the 40th Judge Advocate General of the United States Navy from July 2006 to August 2009. Prior to that, MacDonald served as the Navy's Deputy Judge Advocate General and Commander, Naval Legal Service Command from November 2004 to July 2006. Over his 31 year Navy career, he served in numerous operational and international law assignments, both at home and abroad. He retired from the Navy in October, 2009.
In March, 2010, MacDonald was appointed to the Senior Executive Service by Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, and served for three years as Convening Authority for the Office of Military Commissions. He joined Applied Technical Systems, a data analytics, management, software development and services company, in April 2013, where he served as its President and Chief Executive Officer until June 2016. In October 2018, he accepted an appointment as Vice President, Institutional Advancement at his alma mater, California Western School of Law where he served until February 2021.
MacDonald graduated from the College of the Holy Cross in 1978 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English. He received his degree of Juris Doctor from California Western School of Law in 1987 and his Master of Laws degree from Harvard Law School in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1992.
Job Titles:
- Associate Director of Academic Achievement
Job Titles:
- Attorney at Law, San Diego, California
Job Titles:
- Associate Professor of Law
Job Titles:
- Attorney at Law, San Diego, California
Charles Grebing is one of San Diego's leading legal malpractice attorneys. Not only does Grebing defend attorneys and law firms against malpractice claims, he has also represented officers, directors, brokers, agents, architects, and engineers accused of errors and omissions.
Grebing has tried more than 100 cases in federal and state courts. His practice areas include complex civil and business litigation, and professional liability litigation. Grebing has received an AV Preeminent© rating (highest legal competence) from Martindale-Hubbell and has been listed in the Best Lawyers in America© for nearly 20 years. He is a member of the American College of Trial Lawyers, an association of lawyers and judges experienced in the trial of cases who are dedicated to the improvement of the standards of trial practice. Grebing is a past president of CAL-ABOTA, the California regional chapter of the American Board of Trial Advocates. He is recognized as a Certified Legal Malpractice Specialist by the California State Bar, and was one of the original 14 certified legal malpractice specialists in San Diego.
Job Titles:
- Attorney at Law, San Diego, California
Job Titles:
- Chief of Staff
- Director
- Chief of Staff & Director for Institutional Research / Department / Dean
Christopher Baidoo is the chief of staff and director of institutional research. He has worked at California Western since 2011. Prior to becoming chief of staff, he served in various roles, including the assistant dean of enrollment management.
Christopher is a magna cum laude graduate of California Western School of Law. While in law school, he served as executive editor of the California Western International Law Journal, law clerk at the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and extern to the Hon. William C. McCurine at the United States District Court for the Southern District of California.
Job Titles:
- Attorney at Law, San Diego, California
Job Titles:
- Clara Shortridge Foltz Professor of Law
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- Attorney at Law, Oceanside, California
D. Russell Hymas'04 is the managing partner and attorney at Christensen & Hymas where he specializes in representing seriously injured persons involved in automobile, bicycle and motorcycle accidents as well as premise liability claims. An experienced negotiator and litigator, Hymas assists clients with settlements, arbitration awards, and judgments. Prior to joining Christensen & Hymas, he worked for an international law firm in San Diego, where he worked on complex litigation and transactional matters. Hymas co-authored The Utah Bicycle Accident Handbook and has received numerous industry awards and recognitions.
Job Titles:
- Attorney at Law, San Diego, California
Job Titles:
- Attorney at Law, San Diego, California
Job Titles:
- Attorney at Law, San Diego, California
Job Titles:
- Justice Earl Warren Professor of Law & Associate Dean for Research & Faculty Development
- Visiting Professor at the University of San Diego School of Law
Yeager has been a visiting professor at the University of San Diego School of Law, University of Illinois College of Law, Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law, and the University of Florida College of Law. He is admitted to the California Bar.
Expertise
Copyright Law, Federal Securities Regulation
Job Titles:
- Dean Steven R. Smith Professor of Law
Job Titles:
- Attorney at Law, San Diego, California
Job Titles:
- Attorney at Law, San Diego, California
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- Attorney at Law, Ramona, California
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- Chief Justice Roger J. Traynor Professor of Law & Vice Dean for Academic Affairs
Job Titles:
- Trustee
- Provost and Senior Vice President of San Diego State
Dr. Salvador Hector Ochoa is Provost and Senior Vice President of San Diego State University. Prior to serving in this capacity, he was professor and dean of the College of Education at The University of New Mexico (2014-19); Dean of the College of Education at The University of Texas Pan American (2007-2014); and an associate professor of educational psychology at Texas A&M University, where he was the program co-coordinator of the Educational Diagnostician Program and served as the Director of Training of the Doctoral School Psychology Program.
Ochoa's scholarship has focused on bilingual psychoeducational assessment and educational programming issues pertaining to Latinx student, and he has had input on these issues at both the state and national levels. He has been on several Texas Education Agency's committees and also served on a U. S. Department of Education Expert Advisory Panel for the Study of English language learners with special needs.
Over the span of his career, Ochoa has procured $3.7 million in grants, authored more than 30 publications, made more than 60 nationally refereed presentations, and been published in a number of journals. He has also published two books.
Ochoa served as an Associate Editor of the American Educational Research Journal: Teaching, Learning and Human Development (2004-06) and has been an editorial board member for several other journals. He has received several professional honors from Texas A&M University.
Job Titles:
- Trustee
- Senior Partner With Mayer Brown LLP in Washington
Duane W. Layton is a Senior Partner with Mayer Brown LLP in Washington, D.C. and the Global Head of its International Trade Law Group. His practice concentrates on international dispute settlement, including disputes before the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Geneva, Switzerland; international trade and investment law; and international trade negotiations and policy.
Prior to joining Mayer Brown in 2006, Layton headed the International Trade Litigation Group at another prominent law firm in Washington, DC. From 1994 to 1999 he was Senior Counsel at the US Department of Commerce, where he received numerous honors and awards, including "Attorney of the Year" in 1998, and similar awards in the Office of the Chief Counsel for Import Administration in 1988 and 1996.
Layton is a 1982 graduate of California Western (cum laude) and a 1983 graduate (LL.M), with high honors, of Cambridge University in England. He is ranked as one of the Top 30 International Trade Practitioners in the US by Best of the Best USA and recognized in the Guide to the World's Leading International Lawyers, Legal 500, Super Lawyers and The International Who's Who of Trade & Customs Lawyers. In 2013, Layton's lead role on a successful challenge on behalf of the Government of Indonesia before the WTO involving clove cigarettes was named the "Global Dispute of the Year: International Litigation" by American Lawyer. His published works on international trade law and international dispute settlement appear in numerous books and journals, including the Stanford Journal of International Law, the Journal of World Trade, and Business Law International.
Job Titles:
- Attorney at Law, San Diego, California
Job Titles:
- Associate Professor of Law
- Painting a Picture of Artist O - 1 Visas under the Trump Administration, the Briefs ( January 2020 ) .
- Professor
Professor Emily Behzadi's research and teaching interests are in the fields of art and cultural heritage law. With a background in art history, Professor Behzadi's research focuses on the interdisciplinary connection between the law and the arts within a national and international framework. Her scholarship centers on the intersection of cultural heritage law, human rights, and social justice. Most notably, her published works explore the use of cultural heritage as not only a medium of expression, but a medium of marginalization. Throughout her scholarship, Professor Behzadi has examined how acts of plunder, destruction, and even sometimes the erection of objects of cultural heritage serves as a tool of oppression and even persecution. Professor Behzadi is the Chair of the Cultural Heritage Section of the American Society of International Law, the Vice Chair of the International Division of the ABA's Forum on the Entertainment and Sports Industries, and an Executive Committee member of the AALS Art Law Section.
Prior to joining the faculty at California Western School of Law, Professor Behzadi was an Adjunct Professor at Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University College of Law and Barry University, Dwayne O. Andreas School of Law. As an attorney, Professor Behzadi practiced in the areas of art and entertainment law, including intellectual property, contracts, immigration, and civil litigation. Professor Behzadi has served on numerous panels for such organizations as the American Bar Association and Association of American Law Schools. Professor Behzadi was recognized as one of the ABA's "40 Top Young Lawyers" and one of the Orlando Business Journal's 40 under 40.
Emily Behzadi, Cuban-Americans must effect change for separated immigrant families, Sun Sentinel, September 17, 2018.
Job Titles:
- Attorney at Law, San Diego, California
Gayle M. Blatt '85 is a partner at Casey Gerry Schenk Francavilla Blatt & Penfield, LLP where she heads the firm's pharmaceutical and class action practices. Blatt has played a prominent role in national pharmaceutical and medical device cases over the past decades. In addition to other experience in high profile national pharmaceutical litigation, she served as liaison counsel for the plaintiffs' steering committee in In re: Hydroxycut Marketing and Sales Practice Litigation, which recently settled in the Southern District of California, and currently serves as co-liaison counsel for In re: Incretin Mimetics Products Liability Litigation.
Blatt also has extensive class action litigation experience, including serving as co-liaison counsel in In re: Sony Gaming Networks and Customer Data Security Breach Litigation; as class counsel in Villa v. City of Chula Vista addressing the city's tax collection on mobile telephone services; as class counsel In re: Apple and AT&T iPad Unlimited Data Plan Litigation in the Northern District of California; and with a class action filed against Chase Bank of violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act for placing automated calls (robocalls) to consumer cell phones without their consent.
Blatt also is recognized by her peers for her work with serious personal injury cases. She has received the Consumer Attorneys of San Diego "Outstanding Trial Lawyer" award three times; has been recognized in Super Lawyers from 2007 through 2014; recognized three times on the Super Lawyers' list of Top 25 Women Lawyers in San Diego; included in the San Diego Daily Transcript Top Attorney list; and listed annually in the Best Lawyers of America.
Job Titles:
- Attorney at Law, Carlsbad, California
Job Titles:
- Associate Professor of Law
- Professor of Law / Director of Clinical Externship Program / Department
Hannah Brenner Johnson just completed service as the Vice Dean for Academic Affairs from 2019-2022 and is currently on sabbatical/research leave for the 2022-2023 academic year.
Professor Brenner Johnson's research sits at the complex intersection of law and gender. She studies institutions and systems (i.e., colleges/universities, prisons, the legal profession and the courts) and the disparate power dynamics that often exist within.
Specifically, she studies the perpetration of sexual violence, and the related reporting, investigation, and adjudication, in closed and quasi-closed institutional settings like prisons, the military, immigration detention centers, and institutions of higher education. Her initial interest in researching these systems stems from her involvement as a co-principal investigator on a National Science Foundation grant that explored the reporting of sexual violence by women in prison.
Professor Brenner Johnson is an expert on issues of inequality in the legal profession. Her early work in this area considered, empirically, the ways in which the media portrays nominees to the United States Supreme Court, through a gendered lens. Her co-authored article that emerged from this research, "Rethinking Gender Equality in the Legal Profession's Pipeline to Power: A Study on Media Coverage of Supreme Court Nominees," was selected as a winner of the 2012 AALS New Voices in Gender paper competition. Her subsequent peer-reviewed essay, "Expanding the Pathways to Gender Equality in the Legal Profession," published in Legal Ethics, calls for innovative solutions to the rampant inequality that continues to plague women lawyers.
More recently she has been engaged in research surrounding the stories of women who were shortlisted, but never selected, to the United States Supreme Court. Her co-authored book on this subject, Shortlisted: Women in the Shadows of the Supreme Court, was first published by New York University Press in May 2020. The book was released in paperback in February 2022. The book has received high praise from scholars and practitioners alike. Named 2020 Exemplary Legal Writing by the Green Bag Almanac, the book was described by the Library Journal as "An excellent contribution...and essential for anyone who values diversity."
Professor Brenner Johnson is also the co-author of the casebook, Gender, Power, Law & Leadership (West Academic 2019). The book has its origins in a seminar she designed over a decade ago and continues to teach at California Western.
Her work has been cited by the Delaware Supreme Court, in briefs before the United States Circuit Courts, by numerous scholars in law and other disciplines, as well as in popular media like CNN, Forbes, Huffington Post, Wall Street Journal, Ms. Magazine, Los Angeles Times, and the Detroit Free Press.
Professor Brenner Johnson teaches across the law school curriculum and her courses intersect with her research interests: Torts I, Gender, Power, Law & Leadership, and the Clinical Externship Seminar. She has previously taught undergraduate courses in both Political Science and Women's Studies departments.
Before joining the faculty at California Western, Professor Brenner Johnson was on the faculty at Michigan State University College of Law, where she served as director of externship programs, and co-director of the Frank J. Kelley Institute of Ethics and the Legal Profession. At Michigan State, she was also a core faculty member of the Center for Gender in the Global Context and a member of the Research Consortium on Gender-Based Violence. Professor Brenner Johnson also served as the first executive director of the Center for Women in Law at the University of Texas School of Law.
Job Titles:
- Associate Professor of Law
Job Titles:
- Attorney at Law, San Diego, California
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- Attorney at Law, Los Angeles, California
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- Professor of Law / Director, International Legal Studies Program / Department
- Professor of Law and Director of International Legal Studies at California
James Cooper is Professor of Law and Director of International Legal Studies at California Western. Since 1998, Professor Cooper has directed Proyecto ACCESO, a judicial technology transfer project funded by governments, foundations, and international agencies, raising more than $US 5 million for this initiative. As a consultant to the U.S. Department of State, the Organization of American States, the Inter-American Development Bank, U.S. Agency for International Development, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, the Bolivian President's Office for the Constituent Assembly negotiations, Mexico's Executive Branch (Los Pinos), Paraguay's Senate, and a number of other governments, international agencies, regional aid organizations and technical cooperation agencies, Professor Cooper advises on leapfrog technologies and leads reform projects. Additionally, he has been a member of the U.S. government's delegation to the World Intellectual Property Organization.
Professor Cooper also directs the Chile Summer Program for the Consortium for Innovative Legal Education. He has been a Visiting Professor at UC San Diego's Earl Warren College, a Visiting Scholar at the Center for Iberian and Latin American Studies at UC San Diego, a Visiting Professor at Franz von Liszt Institute at Justus Liebig University in Giessen, Germany, and a Short Term Visiting Scholar at the University of Macau. Cooper is a co-director of the International Post Graduate Program with University of Heidelberg, University of Chile, and CEDEP in Asuncion, Paraguay and a member of the academic staff of Heidelberg Center for Latin America since 2004. A Cambridge University-trained Barrister and Solicitor, he started his career with Baker & McKenzie, facilitating international business transactions and has been a member of the faculty at the University of Strathclyde Law School in Glasgow, Scotland and the University of Toronto Faculty of Law.
Professor Cooper's public policy work has been commissioned by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation and the Friedrich Ebert Foundation of Germany. His scholarship has appeared in leading journals in North America, South America, and Europe. He contributes to newspapers, television, and radio news programs including El Mercurio, Globe and Mail, Miami Herald, Providence Journal, Sacramento Bee, San Francisco Chronicle, San Diego Union Tribune, Marie Claire, National Public Radio's Marketplace, Latino U.S.A., and The World, Canadian Broadcast Corporation's As It Happens and Newsworld, Irish Radio, Bloomberg Law, NBC News, Univision News, and Fox News. Professor Cooper has directed and produced documentary films and public service announcements for the BBC, Channel Four (UK), and the Bolivian, Chilean, German, and U.S. Governments.
A frequent speaker, Cooper has given presentations at the Directors Guild of America, Hague Appeal for Peace, Mondaneum, United Nations Congress on Public International Law, United Nations Permanent Forum for Indigenous Issues, Commonwealth Club of California, COMICON, Auditoria Democratica Andina, National Council for Juvenile and Family Court Judges, Rotary Club, World Bank, a joint session of the Paraguayan Congress, the House of Representatives Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere, and the World Affairs Council. Professor Cooper has been profiled in The Wall Street Journal and in The Washington Post and featured in the Daily Mail, New York Times, South China Morning Post, Time Magazine, and USA Today.
After more than two decades of disruption work in the legal sectors of Latin America, Professor Cooper's work has recently focused on the legal regulation of emerging technologies. He co-founded the One World Blockchain Alliance, a network that debuted at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland and has been an advisor to blockchain companies in Asia. Professor Cooper has also written extensively on FINETCH. Some of his opinion pieces have been published in The Taipei Times, The International Business Times, The Business Times of Singapore, The Hill, Yahoo Finance, and Coindesk. Professor Cooper is a member of Protocol's Braintrust.
James M. Cooper, The Continuing Challenges Posed by Intellectual Property Piracy and the Opportunities for Taiwan (仿冒智慧財 產權 帶來的持續挑戰 和對台灣的機會) in New Thoughts on the Current Issues and Future Trends of Law (本書書名是 法律探微今與明的新學思) (edited by Mau-Lin Shr & Pei-Fen Tsai) (published in Mandarin by Linking Publishing Company with sponsorship by the Taiwanese National Ministry of Justice
James M. Cooper, Mecanismos para la efectividad de la persecución penal de las empresas en los Estados Unidos, in El Derecho Penal Continental y Anglosajón en la Era de la Globalización: Responsabilidad penal empresarial (2017).
James M. Cooper, The Yasuní Ishpingo-Tambococha-Tiputini Initiative: Creative Problem Solving in Amazonia, in Amazonia: National Politics and Interests: Environment and Law 54 (James M. Cooper & Christine Hunefeldt eds., 2013).
Intellectual Property Rights and the Rise of a Consumer Society in China, in The Legal Protection of Consumers: Developing the Market Economy in China (Fernando Dias Simões, ed.) Routledge Books (forthcoming, 2019)
Legal Pluralism and the Challenge to Human Rights in the New Plurinational State of Bolivia, 17 Washington University Global Studies Law Review 1
The United States, Mexico, and the War on Drugs in the Trump Administration, 25 Willamette Journal of International Law & Dispute Resolution 234 (2018)
Jason Bazar is Co-Chair of the firmwide Tax Transactions & Consulting practice at Mayer Brown, which he joined in 2001 and became a partner in 2006. He advises corporate, banking and investment fund clients on the tax aspects of financing and business combination transactions.
Jason regularly advises clients on the tax aspects of cross-border and domestic financing transactions, including leveraged financings, asset-based loans, securitizations and other structured financings, as well as lease transactions. In the capital markets area, Jason counsels clients on the tax aspects of debt, equity and hybrid securities offerings, U.S. and non-U.S. financial instruments and other capital markets transactions.
He earned his BA from James Madison University and in addition to a JD from California Western earned an LLM in Tax from New York University.
Job Titles:
- Attorney at Law, San Diego, California
Job Titles:
- Trustee
- Chairman Emeritus and Member of the California Western Board of Trustees
Jeffrey D. Lewin is Chair Emeritus and Member of the California Western Board of Trustees on which he has served since 1991. In 1975, he graduated from California Western with honors, served on the law review and was the national champion in the Giles Sutherland Rich Patent Moot Court Competition. After graduating from California Western, Lewin served as a trial attorney in the Antitrust Division of the United States Department of Justice and founded the Sullivan Hill, Lewin, Rez & Engel law firm (and its predecessors). Until his retirement from the practice of law at the end of 2017 for 40 years, Lewin prepared and tried serious business lawsuits for sophisticated clients in state and federal courts throughout the United States, wrote and published several legal articles, and gave lectures and presentations about US law in the United States and abroad. In addition, for 20 years, he mentored and trained more than 40 foreign lawyers in US litigation.
Lewin was a member of a number of local and national professional legal organizations and the Steering Committee of the UCSD Economics Roundtable. Although Lewin no longer practices law, he consults with lawyers about effective dispute resolution.
Job Titles:
- Attorney at Law, San Diego, California
Jeffrey S. Isaacs is a 1968 graduate of California Western where he was Editor-in-Chief of the school's Law Review. Currently, Isaacs provides mediation services as part of the West Coast Resolution Group-a division of the National Conflict Resolution Center. Previously, Isaacs served as of counsel with Procopio, Cory, Hargreaves & Savitch, where he was a member of the firm's bankruptcy and commercial litigation practice, before retiring in January 2015 after 46 years with the firm. Isaacs has been recognized as Bankruptcy Court Mediation Panel Mediator of the Year as well as among the top lawyers in San Diego for bankruptcy and debtor/creditor rights.
He is a past president of the San Diego Volunteer Lawyer Program and the San Diego Bankruptcy Forum, and served as treasurer and vice president of the San Diego County Bar Association and its foundation. Prior to his election to the Board of Trustees, Isaacs served as a member of the law school's Council of Visitors for many years.
Job Titles:
- Clara Shortridge Foltz Professor of Law
Job Titles:
- Attorney at Law, San Diego, California
Job Titles:
- Attorney at Law, San Diego, California
Job Titles:
- Attorney at Law, San Diego, California
Job Titles:
- Associate Dean for Research and Faculty Development
- Justice Earl Warren Professor of Law & Associate Dean for Research & Faculty Development
Job Titles:
- Attorney at Law, San Diego, California
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- Attorney at Law, San Diego, California
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- Attorney at Law, Vista, California
Job Titles:
- Attorney at Law, San Diego, California
Kenneth L. Greenman '71 is a founding partner of Greenman, Lacy, Klein, O'Harra and Heffron. Greenman has practiced estate planning, trust, wills, and probate law exclusively for more than 25 years-with special focus on complex trusts and estates-and has held Martindale-Hubble's AV Preeminent rating for more than 20 years. He is a member of the United States Supreme Court Bar, the California State Bar, the United States Courts of Appeals for the Ninth, Seventh, and Fifth Circuits, and the United States District Courts for the Central and Southern Districts of California.
Currently chair emeritus of the Board of Trustees, Greenman served as editor-in-chief of the California Western Law Review and received American Jurisprudence Awards in wills and trusts, corporations, and conflicts of law while in law school. He also received the Dean's Award - Outstanding Law Student, and graduated with honors. Upon graduation, Greenman was selected as a United States Attorney General Honor Law Graduate Fellow, serving in the Department of Justice's U.S. Supreme Court appellate section.
Job Titles:
- Louis & Hermione Brown Professor of Law
Job Titles:
- Attorney at Law, San Diego, California
Job Titles:
- Assistant Dean for Academic Achievement
Job Titles:
- Professor of Law / Declining Law School
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- Assistant Director of Academic Achievement
Job Titles:
- Attorney at Law, San Diego, California
Job Titles:
- Attorney at Law, San Diego, California
Job Titles:
- Attorney at Law, San Diego, California
Job Titles:
- Attorney at Law, San Diego, California
Job Titles:
- Attorney at Law, San Diego, California
Job Titles:
- Attorney at Law, San Diego, California
Job Titles:
- Attorney at Law, San Diego, California
Mark P. Mandell ‘77 is chief executive officer of Square One Development in San Diego, also serving as the company's legal counsel and director of finance. Mandell began his practice in real estate transactional law in 1977, focusing on acquisition, development, finance, and entitlements.
Mandell served on the board of directors at San Diego National Bank from 1992 to 2009, and has founded and managed numerous businesses (not related to real estate) over the years.
Job Titles:
- Dean Emeritus and Professor of Law Emeritus
Michael J. Whitton is San Diego managing partner at Troutman Sanders, LLP, where he advises and counsels public and private companies, real estate investment trusts, and lending and financial institutions on a variety of complex real estate and business transactions throughout the country.
Whitton is considered one of the leading experts in transactions and other legal matters involving golf courses/country clubs, marinas, hotels, and other resort properties. He has received numerous accolades for his work, including being named one of 10 "Best Attorneys in the Golf Industry" by Golf, Inc. in 2011 and 2012.
Job Titles:
- Associate Professor of Law
Patricia "Patty" Becker '76 is president of Becker & Associates. With a 35-plus-year career in gaming, she has held numerous executive positions, all of which were firsts for women. Becker is recognized as a mentor, leader, and advocate for women and was a founding member of Global Gaming Women, where she now serves as vice chair and Education Committee co-chair.
Becker was the first woman to be inducted as a Counselor into the International Association of Gaming Advisors and holds the distinction of being the first and only woman to serve on the Nevada Gaming Control Board. She actively served in the American Bar Association; Nevada Gaming Foundation for Educational Excellence; the National Council on Problem Gambling; and the Board for SWAN (Service Women's Action Network), which is the nationally recognized voice for women in the military. Becker is licensed to practice law in Nevada, California, and Colorado and has argued more Nevada Supreme Court gaming cases than any other attorney. She was recently honored for her career in gaming by induction to the Gaming Hall of Fame.
Job Titles:
- Professor of Law
- Professor of Law / Department
Professor Gudel came to law from a background in philosophy. After earning degrees at the University of Chicago, he taught philosophy and humanities for five years at the Illinois Institute of Technology, the University of Chicago, and Ohio State University. After law school, Gudel, practiced at the Chicago firm of Schiff Hardin & Waite, where he specialized in labor and employment law, and general litigation.
Job Titles:
- Assistant Professor of Law
Job Titles:
- Attorney at Law, San Diego, California
Job Titles:
- Attorney at Law, San Diego, California
Job Titles:
- Deputy Public Defender, San Diego, California
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- Attorney at Law, Encinitas, California
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- Attorney at Law, La Jolla, California
Robert K. Scott '75 is a trial attorney who has practiced law in California for more than 45 years, specializing in all aspects of insurance "bad faith" litigation. Scott has obtained multi-million dollar judgments, favorable appellate decisions, and arbitration awards, as well as substantial out-of-court settlements on behalf of his clients. He is now mediating cases for the Superior Court and independently.
Scott is co-author-with colleague and former California Trial Lawyers Association President Douglas K. deVries-of "Establishing Insurance Bad Faith" in the Insurance Settlement Handbook. He previously served as chairman and member of the executive committee of the board of trustees of Irvine Regional Hospital and Medical Center and a member of the board of trustees of the Irvine Cancer Center. Additionally, Scott has served on the board of the American Bar Association Tort and Insurance Practice subcommittees on disability, health, and life insurance. He is a frequent author and speaker on insurance-related matters.
Job Titles:
- Attorney at Law, San Diego, California
Job Titles:
- Attorney at Law, San Diego, California
Job Titles:
- Attorney at Law, San Diego, California
Roy M. Bell '74 is senior counsel at Troutman Sanders LLP, where he focuses his practice on complex business civil litigation and trial work. Bell serves as special outside counsel to Oxbow Carbon and Minerals and the Oxbow Group, overseeing major issues, litigation, and negotiations relating to their worldwide operations.
Bell served two tours in the Western Pacific during the Vietnam Conflict where he earned two Navy Commendations, the Navy Achievement Medal, the Vietnam Unit Medal of Gallantry, and six Vietnam Campaign Medals. He graduated from California Western with honors in 1974, and was valedictorian. Bell was as lead articles editor for the California Western International Law Review, and is chairman emeritus of the Board of Trustees, having served for more than 25 years.
Job Titles:
- Attorney at Law, San Diego, California
Job Titles:
- Attorney at Law, San Diego, California
Job Titles:
- Attorney at Law, San Diego, California
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- Associate Professor of Law
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- Judge of the Superior Court, North County, Vista, California
The Honorable James Mangione
Judge of the Superior Court, North County, Vista, California
teaches/coaches in the Moot Court Honors Board Program, Trial Skills Training for Distinguished Advocates
Job Titles:
- Associate Director for Advocacy Empowerment and Faith, Pepperdine Caruso School of Law
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- Attorney at Law, San Diego, California
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- Attorney at Law, San Diego, California
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- President, Todd Bulich Real Estate Company
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- Trustee
- General Counsel & Corporate Secretary for the Ledcor Group of Companies
Tom Lofaro is General Counsel & Corporate Secretary for the Ledcor Group of Companies, where he is responsible for directing the overall delivery of legal services across the enterprise. In addition to leading the long-term direction of Ledcor's legal team and developing and executing the department's strategic plan, his primary day-to-day responsibilities include general oversight of company litigation, negotiating and managing construction contracts and commercial transactions for the company's business units, and assisting executive management in developing business strategies to meet company objectives.
In the community, Tom also serves as a member of the Policy Advisory Board for the Burnham-Moores Center for Real Estate at USD. He is a past Chairman and a member of the Board of Directors of the Century Club of San Diego, the host organization for the PGA Tour's annual Farmers Insurance Open and served as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Rady Children's Hospital Foundation. He also volunteers his time as a Temporary Judge for the San Diego Superior Court.
Job Titles:
- Attorney at Law, San Diego, California
Job Titles:
- Attorney at Law, San Diego, California
Job Titles:
- Dean Steven R. Smith Professor of Law