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Judge Turrentine, who served 40 years on the bench, dies

U.S. District Court Judge Howard Boyd Turrentine died of natural causes Friday at his home in Point Loma. He was 96.

Born Jan. 22, 1914 in Escondido, Judge Turrentine graduated from the University of Southern California Law School in 1939 and was appointed Assistant City Prosecutor in San Diego in 1940.  In 1968, he was appointed to the Superior Court by Governor Ronald Reagan and as appointed U.S. District Court Judge by President Richard M. Nixon on April 27, 1970. From 1982 to 1984 he served as chief judge of the U.S. District Court.

Judge Turrentine retired in 2007, having served 40 years and 15,255 hours on the bench. He continued to stay current with court news up until his death.

Full obituary here.

Renowned Manatt litigator Robert Zeavin dies

Robert Zeavin, co-chair of Manatt, Phelps & Phillips’ national trial practice, died on the evening of Thursday, July 29, in Salt Lake City, following a heart attack. He was 59.

Based in Los Angeles, Mr. Zeavin was a highly-regarded litigator, handling complex business litigation matters in a diverse group of subject matter areas.

In 2008, Mr. Zeavin and Manatt co-lead counsel Barry Lee secured the largest jury verdict in the U.S. for that year, in their successful representation of ICO Global Communications against The Boeing Company and its Boeing Satellite Systems International subsidiary. The jury’s award to ICO, with interest and punitive damages, exceeded $600 million for fraud, tortious interference and breach of contract.

Beyond his professional accomplishments, Mr. Zeavin’s loves were his late wife, Yadi, his daughters, Hadley and Georgia, World Cup soccer, wine, food, friends and fun. He is survived by his daughters, his brother, Michael, and sister, Lynne.

Mr. Zeavin will be remembered at a memorial celebration on Aug. 15, 1 p.m., at Elings Park in Santa Barbara (no black clothing).

Harvey Milk attorney John Wahl dies

John Eshleman Wahl, attorney for Harvey Milk and longtime gay activist, died in April of a heart attack in Palm Springs.  He was 76.

After completing undergraduate work at UC Berkeley and his discharge from the Navy, where flew radar recognizance missions over China, he attended the Hastings Law School in San Francisco and received his Jurist Doctorate degree. He was the primary counsel for the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches, winning a landmark case which insured the rights of the primarily gay and lesbian Christian church to minister to inmates at state and federal prisons. He also represented the families of the victims of the Jonestown massacre, securing and releasing funds from the Reverend Jim Jones's personal financial resources to provide transport, process, and burial services for the bodies.

In southern California, Mr. Wahl served faithfully with the Desert Business Association, the Desert Outreach Foundation (formerly the Desert Rainbow Foundation), the Golden Rainbow Senior Center, and served as secretary for the Desert Business Association Foundation.

See The Bay Area Reporter for a full tribute.

Luke McKissack passes away

Prominent criminal defense and civil rights attorney Luke McKissack has died.

During his more than 30-year career, McKissack served as the Black Panther Party's chief counsel in Southern California and was chief counsel for the American Indian Movement, defending American Indians against charges stemming from the occupation of Wounded Knee, S.D., in 1973. He was also one of two attorneys sought by Charles Manson to act as his co-counsel when a judge granted Manson permission to represent himself.

McKissack died Sunday of complications from brain cancer at his home in Los Angeles.

Full obituary here.

Lauten, famed Normandy figure and SoCal water district general manager, passes away

John H. Lauten, who helped plan the invasion of Normandy as an Army captain during World War II and later became the first non-engineer to oversee the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, has died. He was 96.

Lauten earned a law degree at UC Berkeley and spent 13 years as an assistant city attorney in Glendale after the war. He became Fresno's city attorney in 1958.

In 1963, he joined the Metropolitan Water District as a legal counsel and retired in 1977 as general manager. Known as a no-nonsense leader, Lauten championed a water reuse study in 1977 that laid the groundwork for the MWD's current water recycling program.

He died of natural causes March 22 at an assisted-living facility in Simi Valley, according to his family.

Full story at LATimes.com.

Southwestern Law School's Max Goodman passes away

Professor Max A. Goodman, one of the leading family law experts in California who served on the Southwestern Law School faculty for over four decades, passed away on December 31, 2009 at the age of 85.

Professor Goodman was a graduate of Loyola Law School and a Certified Family Law Specialist, and maintained a successful law practice in Los Angeles for over two decades. In 1966, he joined the Southwestern faculty where he quickly earned a reputation as one of the most highly regarded family law professors in the country. During recent years, he continued to teach as Professor Emeritus in Residence and had just formally retired in Fall 2009.

The recipient of numerous awards from the legal profession, Professor Goodman was honored by Southwestern for his service to the community, teaching excellence and commitment to the advancement of the law school as the Irwin R. Buchalter Professor of Law in 1988 and the Irving D. and Florence Rosenberg Professor of Law in 1994 and received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree in 2000. That year he also was named "Outstanding Friend" by the Southwestern Alumni Association, and in 1986, his former students established a major scholarship fund in his name.

Services were held on Monday, January 4 at Mt. Sinai Memorial Park. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to the Professor Max A. Goodman Scholarship Endowment Fund at Southwestern (donations may be made online at www.swlaw.edu/giving).

Click here for the full story.

Edward Sanders, Reed Smith attorney and senior advisor to President Carter, dies at 87

Edward Sanders, a Reed Smith attorney whose contributions included serving as senior advisor to President Jimmy Carter, passed away at home Monday morning at 87 years of age.

Sanders served as Senior Advisor to President Carter and the Secretary of State on the Middle East from 1978-1980. He was at Camp David when president of Egypt, Anwar Sadat, with President Jimmy Carter and Israel's Prime Minister Menachem Begin, came to an agreement and traveled with President Carter back to the Middle East the following year to finalize the treaty.

Prior to joining the Carter administration, Sanders was a partner at Irell & Manella for 28 years. Upon his return from Washington in 1980 he, along with Irwin Barnet, Russell Goldsmith, and son Michael Sanders, founded the law firm subsequently known as Sanders, Barnet, Goldman, Simons & Mosk, which merged with Crosby, Heafey, Roach & May in September 2000. Crosby Heafey later merged with Reed Smith, and Sanders became an active attorney in the firm’s Century City office.

Sanders is survived by his wife of more than 63 years, Rose Eisen Sanders. He is also survived by his son, Michael Sanders, who worked with his father at Reed Smith’s Century City office, his daughter, Susan Sanders Witkow, and four grandchildren. Services will be held this Thursday, December 10th at Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery, 6001 W. Centinela Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90045; at 2:00 p.m. in the Large Chapel.

For a full tribute to Sanders, click here.

Westcott Griswold dies at 79 after 50 years in real estate law

After over 50 years as a San Diego real estate attorney, Westcott Griswold died on September 18, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported. (here) He was 79.

Griswold, a graduate of UC Berkeley's law school, spent two years in the army before working as house counsel for Security (Safeco) Title, then 30 years at Hillyer Crake, a San Diego real estate law firm, before starting a private practice from home in 1991, the Union-Tribune reported.

His wake is this Friday, 4 p.m. to 7 p.m., at the San Diego Yacht Club.

Manatt entertainment lawyer Gerald Margolis dies of pneumonia at 65

Manatt entertainment lawyer Gerald Margolis died of complications related to pneumonia on Sept. 15, according to a firm press release. He was 65.

While fighting the physical effects of progressive muscular atrophy for the past six years, Margolis "continued to to practice law, counsel, strategize, and advise at the highest levels of the legal profession until his untimely death,: according to the press release.

Margolis represented the likes of R. Kelly, Robin Williams, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards and is credited with helping build Manatt's music practice and founding a California branch after joining the New York-based firm in the 1970s, the Los Angeles Times reported. (here)

Margolis worked on litigation and transactional work in music and film. He was also a faculty member at the USC Law School Entertainment Law Symposium and a lecturer with the Practicing Law Institute.

The memorial service will be held on Oct. 6 at 11:00 a.m. at Fox Studios' Darryl F. Zanuck Theater. Donations should got to the Challenged Athlete's Foundation.

Oldest retired Calif. judge still assigned to hear cases, Julius Title, dies at 93

Retired Los Angeles Superior Court judge Julius Title died of heart failure on Sunday, the L.A. Times reported. (here) He was 93.

Title was a real estate attorney for 20 years and then a superior court judge for 15 years until retiring in 1985. Or so he thought - he then worked as an arbitrator, special master and judge pro tem in civil disputes.

Title returned to the bench in 1997 as part of the Assigned Judges Program, which "issues temporary judicial assignment orders to active or retired judges and justices to cover vacancies, illnesses, disqualifications, and calendar congestion in the courts."

The program has 375 retired judges. Title "was the oldest retired judge assigned by the state to hear cases," a spokesperson for the Judicial Council of California told the Times.

He taught at Whittier College of Law and was faculty at the California Judicial College and the National Judicial College. Title was appointed to the State Bar Commission on Access to Justice last year.

His funeral is at 3 p.m. today at Hillside Memorial Park.

Metropolitan News-Enterprise obituary