Monthly Alumni Updates
August 6, 2010
Jerry White, ’79, spoke on “Pre-Filing Meetings with the Client” at the Sacramento Valley Bankruptcy Forum’s conference. A bankruptcy law specialist, he operates the Law Office of Gerald L. White in Folsom. Kristen Arah Koo, ’03, spoke on “Preparing the Bankruptcy Paperwork,” at the same event. She is a staff attorney for a Chapter 13 Trustee. Stephen Koonce, ’81, and Roxanne Daneri, ’75, spoke on “Motion Practice” at the same event. He is consumer bankruptcy practitioner in Sacramento, and she is business law specialist in Sacramento.
August 5, 2010
Van Irion, ’05, finished fourth among a field of 11 candidates in the race for the Republican nomination in Tennessee’s 3 rd Congressional District. He is a patent and constitutional law attorney in Knoxville.
August 3, 2010
Jeffrey Jones, ’86, Tod Fogarty, ’75, Mark Gorton, ’81, Michael Kuzmich, ’00, and Stuart List, ’89 have joined Boutin Gibson Di Giusto Hodell Inc. as shareholders following the breakup of McDonough Holland & Allen PC. Penny Brown, ’01, Kelley Lincoln, ’02, Erin Riley, ’02, and Bruce Timm, ’98, have left MHA to join Boutin Gibson in an “of counsel” capacity.
August 2, 2010
Jeanne Loftis, ’91, has been admitted to the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA). She is chair of Bullivant Houser Bailey PC's products liability practice. A veteran of more than 30 cases tried through to verdict as first chair, she represents companies in the Pacific Northwest in a wide variety of commercial and casualty cases.
August 1, 2010
Jason Meyer, ’97, co-wrote an article, “Clean Up That Mess,” that appears in the August 2010 issue of the California Lawyer magazine. He is a partner in the San Diego office of Gordon & Rees and directs the firm’s Southern California environmental and toxic tort practice group.
August 1, 2010
Joel Pegg, ’63, died at the age of 75 of cancer on in Sacramento. A former pro baseball player and U.S. Army veteran, he was a trial attorney and practiced banking law for 27 years in Sacramento until his retirement in 1992. He is survived by his wife, Faye, two daughters and a son, Grant Pegg, ’89, who is also a law school alumnus. At the deceased’s request, there will be no services.
July 30, 2010
Paul Bauer, ’99, was named a “Rising Star” by the Northern California Super Lawyers magazine. An insolvency law specialist, he is senior counsel for Walter & Wilhelm Law Group in Fresno.
July 29, 2010
Kimberly Lewellen, ’05, has joined Downey Brand LLP as an associate in its family law practice. Previously, she was an associate with Ellis, Coleman, Poirier, LaVoie & Steinheimer. She is a board member and past president of the Sacramento Law Foundation.
July 27, 2010
Brent Boger, ’85, is running in the Washington state primary election for the office of Clark County Prosecutor. A senior assistant Vancouver city attorney, he advises city officials on issues such as land development, planning and finance.
July 26, 2010
Sean McNally, ’83, was named to the State Board of Food and Agriculture by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. The Bakersfield attorney has worked for Grimmway Farms as vice president of human resources and corporate and government affairs since 1997. He is a member of the Garces Memorial High School Board of Trustees and Self Insurers’ Securities Fund, president of the Kern Adult Literacy Council and commissioner of the Commission on Health and Safety and Workers Compensation.
July 18, 2010
Carol Bremer Simon, ’81, died at the age of 58 at a hospital in Torrance. A long-time family law attorney in Manhattan Beach and Hermosa Beach, she was active in the local PTA and founded a summer camp for children.
July 16, 2010
Patrick Marlette, '78, denied Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's petition for a temporary restraining order to force the state controller to pay some 200,000 state government workers the federal minimum wage. He is a judge of the Sacramento Superior Court, who had been drawn into the state budget battle earlier in the spring.
July 15, 2010
Michael Campos, '75, was selected to the 2010 Northern California Super Lawyers in the environmental law category. As a past executive director of the California State Water Resources Control Board, the Stoel Rives LLP partner played a key role in resolving several major statewide water issues.
July 13, 2010
Rochelle Swanson, '04, was sworn-in as a member of the Davis City Council after winning election to the office in June. She is the owner of RHS Consulting, which provides a range of contracting and consulting for land use entitlements.
July 10, 2010
Sarju Naran, '01, has returned to Hoge Fenton Jones & Appel as of counsel in its employment law group and will be based in the firm's Silicon Valley office. After spending the first five years of his practice with Hoge Fenton, he was an associate at Paul Hastings Janofsky & Walker LLP in Palo Alto for four years.
July 9, 2010
Volodymyr Sayenko, LL.M. '97, was named one of the top 10 lawyers in the Ukraine in a poll of his peers by the Kyiv Post. A principal at Sayenko Kharenko, he was cited for his work in the fields of mergers and acquisition, and corporate law.
July 8, 2010
Kristy Hernandez, '03, opened her third California law office in the south Bay Area. A debt settlement specialist who has filed hundreds of successful bankruptcy cases in recent years, she also operates the Law Office of Kristy Hernandez in Sacramento and Fresno.
July 7, 2010
Michael Bernstein, '85, has taken over as president of METI , the Florida-based manufacturer of medical simulation products and educational software. Before joining the company in 2009, he was president and CEO of Innovative Health Strategies and president of Cobalt Corporation.
July 1, 2010
Vince Consul, '80, died while jogging on at the age of 57 in Las Vegas, Nevada. He began his career as a prosecutor in the Clark County District Attorney's Office and the U.S. Attorney's Office then spent 20 years in private practice with Beckley Singleton DeLanoy & List. He later formed Dickerson Dickerson Lieberman & Consul. In 2005, he became a partner with the national firm of Boies Schiller and Flexner. Active in numerous community and national legal organizations, he served four terms on the board of governors for the State Bar of Nevada and was its president in 2005-06.
June 30, 2010
Kerry St. Clair Doyle, '07, has joined McDonald Carano Wilson LLP as an associate in the firm's Reno office. Previously, she served as a deputy attorney general for the Nevada Attorney General, Bureau of Public Affairs, Public Safety Division.
June 30, 2010
Gary Branton, ’92, has opened Branton Law Office in Las Vegas. His areas of practice include employment law and consumer protection.
June 29, 2010
Mario Lovato, ’00, has opened Lovato Law Firm in Las Vegas. His previous career includes working as an associate at Lionel Sawyer & Collins.
June 24, 2010
George Ogilvie, ’88, was reappointed to the Colorado River Commission by Nevada Governor Jim Gibbons. The chairman of the commission, he is the managing partner of McDonald Carrano Wilson’s office in Las Vegas.
June 22, 2010
Robert Packer, ’76, pitched two shutouts for the defense, winning 12-0 jury verdicts in a pair of Los Angeles Superior Court medical malpractice cases. He is a principal in the Pasadena firm of Law, Brandmeyer & Packer LLP.
June 21, 2010
Daniel O’Donnell, ’95, as co-counsel for the state, helped California investors reach a $1.4 billion settlement with Wells Fargo Investments in a securities fraud case heard in San Francisco Superior Court. He is a deputy attorney general with the state.
June 19, 2010
Matthew Clark, '01 has become a partner with the law firm of Chain Cohn Stiles. Clark, a Bakersfield native, joined the firm in 2006 as an associate attorney in its personal injury litigation department. Before that he worked for five years as a litigation associate with another local firm. He serves as a board member at Clinica Sierra Vista.
June 18, 2010
Steve Geringer, ’82, won a $330,000 verdict in U.S. District Court, Eastern District of California, for an off-duty sheriff’s deputy who a jury found to be the victim of police misconduct and an unlawful arrest. He is a principal in the Law Offices of Steven A. Geringer in Madera.
June 18, 2010
Allison Wenograd, ’04, has been promoted to vice president, members services, at the American Road & Transportation Builders Association in Washington, D.C. Prior to joining the organization, she was an in-house counsel for Watsonville-based Granite Construction.
June 16, 2010
Marshall Cook, ’08, has joined California Rangeland Trust in Sacramento as in-house counsel. He was previously with McDonough Holland & Allen.
June 15, 2010
John Tiernan, ’81, was honored by the Colusa County Board of Supervisors for his service on the bench. First elected in 1992, he will retire as presiding judge of Colusa Superior Court on June 30, 2010.
June 15, 2010
Joseph Low, '97, is a member of the defense team representing Dr. Conrad Murray against a charge of involuntary manslaughter in the 2009 death of singer Michael Jackson. He is a principal in the Law Office Firm of Joseph H. Low IV in Long Beach.
June 14, 2010
Paul L. Ross Jr., '37, died at the age of 97 in Bellingham, Washington. He was a retired staff counsel for the California State Controller's Office, Inheritance & Gift Tax Division, who lived in Lynden, Washington. A former Nevada City resident, he attended evening classes at McGeorge as he began his 42-year career with the state. He also served as an officer in the U.S. Army during World War II.
June 14, 2010
Ellen Corbett, ’85, received the 2010 Consumer Excellence Award from the Consumer Action, a public interest organization. The California state senator was honored for legislative efforts involving gift card reform and bottled water labeling.
June 13, 2010
Ben Reynolds, ’08, has joined Gavrilov Law Corporation where he will handle bankruptcy and civil litigation matters. Previously, he was an associate at Murphy Austin Adams Schoenfeld LLP.
June 12, 2010
Norman Roberts, ’63, died at the age of 92 in Menomonie, Wisconsin. The former El Dorado Hills resident practiced personal injury and workers’ comp law for 20 years with two firms, Roberts & Perdue and Staiger, Santana, Yank, Molinelli & Preston, in Sacramento before retiring in 1985.
June 11, 2010
Robert G. Harvey, ’50, died at the age of 91 from congestive heart failure in Palo Alto. He was a tax counsel for more than 30 years with the state Office of the Controller and the head of that agency’s Inheritance and Gift Tax Department in Sacramento before its closure. In his retirement, he lived in Arizona and the south Bay Area.
June 10, 2010
Ronald Owens, ’89, ran unopposed in the June primary election and will assume the title of Placer County District Attorney upon the retirement of the current DA at the end of this year. A veteran prosecutor, he has served as a deputy district attorney in the office since 1990.
June 9, 2010
Mike Ramsey, ’77, won his seventh term as Butte County District Attorney, defeating Sacramento attorney Lance Daniel, ’88, and another challenger.