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Friday, Mar 29, 2024

New Bar President Wants to Diversify the Bench

Kira Masteller, a trust and estate planning attorney for Encino law firm Lewitt Hackman, has been named the San Fernando Valley Bar Association’s new president. In her new position, Masteller has several goals for the Tarzana organization, which has a history of 84 years and currently has 2,000-plus members. “What I want to do is keep our bar as relevant as possible,” Masteller said. “I want to appeal to young people as well as seasoned attorneys, who have been members for years. I want to keep people in front of one another and not lose anyone to digital.” She hopes to increase the number of events where people can meet face-to-face to discuss business opportunities, legal needs in the community and the future of local law. She plans on scaling back educational programs as the internet has made much of that information available to everyone. However, she will continue outreach to middle schools, high schools and junior colleges to mentor teenagers and young adults interested in pursuing a law career. “We are always looking to diversify the bench,” she said. “We want judges on the bench of all ages, genders and races.” A large portion of her job consists of listening to others’ ideas, helping them create a plan of action and pushing that plan through a committee to accomplish a goal, such as starting a new law enforcement program for kids. In addition to her work at the bar and Lewitt Hackman, Masteller also founded her own networking group called Women in Network, which consists of female business professionals who meet once a month to share marketing ideas and business opportunities as well as discuss ethical issues and the challenges of work and life balance. Westside Expansion HFL Law Group has expanded its practice into Century City after signing a one-year office lease at 1880 Century Park East. The Encino firm handles litigation on both the plaintiff and defense sides in the practice areas of probate and trust, financial elder abuse, business, real estate and intellectual property. “We were overfull at the Encino office and needed more space,” said HFL Associate Michael Fedalen. “When deciding where to take the space, we looked at where clientele has been coming from and especially lately, elder abuse clients have been coming from the Westside.” The new office has two to three attorneys there at a time and one support staffer. However, Fedalen said he wishes they leased a little bit more space as the past month has been so busy, the firm is considering further expansion. “We may be able to pick up more space where we are or may look for a bigger space at the end of the year (lease),” Fedalen said. Founded by Patrick Huang and Fedalen’s father James Fedalen in 2008, HFL currently has a couple big intellectual property cases in the works, where the attorneys are preparing for filing trademarks and copyrights. In addition, the firm is receiving more financial abuse and trust litigation cases as it continues to grow in the Valley as well as Los Angeles. In August, Partner James Fedalen was named the San Fernando Valley Business Journal’s Attorney of the Year at the 2016 Trusted Advisors Awards, which honor the work of local attorneys, accountants, bankers, insurance brokers and wealth managers. Editorial Board Thomas Daly, partner at Lewis Roca Rothgerber Christie, has joined the editorial board of Los Angeles Lawyer magazine, the publication for the Los Angeles County Bar Association. “The editor mentioned to me that there were not any editorial board members who had an intellectual property background, and it would be nice to have someone with that background and experience,” Daly said. “I went ahead and put in my application and was appointed to the board by the new L.A. County Bar president.” Since graduating from Loyola Law School of Los Angeles in 1985, Daly has been practicing intellectual property law. He started with legacy firm Christie Parker & Hale in Glendale and continued with the company after its merger with Phoenix-based Lewis Roca Rothgerber in the beginning of the year, creating Lewis Roca Rothgerber Christie. As part of the new firm’s intellectual property group, Daly focuses on helping clients obtain and protect patents and trademarks for chemical processes, medical devices and pharmaceuticals. On the board, Daly is responsible for looking for relevant content that might be of interest to the bar, encouraging people to contribute articles to the magazine as well as edit those articles so they meet standards of the publication. The magazine caters to the more than 20,000 members of the association. Staff Reporter Stephanie Henkel can be reached at (818) 316-3130 or [email protected].

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