Tuesday, August 29, 2017

LACBA ACS's Fall Programs

  • Tuesday, September 12, 2017, 4:30-6:00 p.m.
State of the Court
At Ronald Reagan State Building, Employee Lounge.
No Registration necessary. No CLE credit.
This is our traditional state of the court meeting to kick off our 2017-2018 term.  Justice Dennis Perluss, Interim Administrative Presiding Justice, and Joseph Lane, Clerk and Executive Officer of the Court, will address our section on the state of the Second District.  We also will discuss upcoming programs. This is a great opportunity to ask questions about the workings of the Court from individuals who know most about it.

  • Thursday, October 19, 2017, 5:00-6:30 p.m. Reception to follow.
Judging the Judge: A Candid Conversation Between Judge Alex Kozinski and Professors Ronald Collins and David Skover on Appellate Judging and the Politics of Law
At Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, 125 South Grand Avenue, Pasadena
Registration not yet open. CLE credit offered.
In their latest book, The Judge: 26 Machiavellian Lessons (Oxford University Press, 2017),  Professors Collins and Skover raise a provocative question: What flows from the proposition that law is politics, or that Supreme Court decision-making in controversial cases is greatly influenced by  partisan beliefs? That is, ever more people (in and outside of the law) believe that judicial power is a form of political power. If so, what then? The answer: the maximization of judicial power, which is where Machiavelli comes in by way of the 26 power-maxims urged by the authors. And appropriately so because today both liberals and conservatives routinely criticize their ideological opponents on the bench for acting politically. Some legal experts even posit the impossibility of apolitical judges. It is against this conceptual backdrop that Judge Kozinski will engage the authors in a spirited dialogue about partisan politics and the art of appellate judging, primarily at the Supreme Court level. (Q&A afterwards)  
Panelists:
Judge Alex Kozinski, United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.  
Professor Ronald Collins at the University of Washington Law School 
Professor David Skover at Seattle University School of Law

  • Tuesday, November 14, 2017, 4:30-6:00 p.m.
Dispositions:  Getting What You Really Want
At Ronald Reagan State Building, Employee Lounge.
Registration not yet open.  CLE credit offered.
The dispositional language controls the appellate outcome and all proceedings on remand, but most appellate briefs overlook it. An appellate justice and an appellate court attorney will explain civil and criminal dispositional options and offer sample language. The presentation will equip attorneys to request precise dispositional
language that best serves their client in order to maximize wins, control
losses, and minimize time and expense in proceedings on remand. Is
an unqualified reversal (and a new trial) really best for the client? Or
Image result for what you really really wantwould reversal with directions for limited proceedings on remand be better? Or is it possible to get a reversal directing the final disposition?
Or will the court modify and affirm the judgment with no further trial court hearing on remand? Can the disposition include restitution for losses caused by the erroneous judgment or order? This course will answer these questions and prepare practitioners to ask for what they
really want on appeal.
Panelists:
Justice Martin Tangeman, Court of Appeal, 2d Dist., Div. 6
Katy Graham, Senior Appellate Court Attorney, 2d Dist., Div. 6