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Friday, Mar 29, 2024

Bar Association Night Honors Best of the Bench

The San Fernando Valley Bar Association honored local judges during its annual “Judges’ Night” dinner on Feb. 22 at the Warner Center Marriott in Woodland Hills. More than 300 people turned out for the event, including most of the bench officers in the Valley, Elizabeth Post, executive director of the bar association, told the Business Journal. Rep. Brad Sherman, D-San Fernando Valley, was also in attendance. “We host (this event) to honor not just individual judges but to recognize the hard work judges do year-round,” Post said. “We support the bench and what they do.” The bar presented its Judge of the Year award to Elizabeth Lippitt, who has served on the Los Angeles Superior Court for 17 years. Lippitt started her law career as an assistant district attorney for the City of Los Angeles, then spent three years on the L.A. Municipal Court before being promoted to the superior court. The bar also presented awards to L.A. Superior Court Presiding Judge Daniel Buckley and U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Geraldine Mund. Buckley received the bar’s Administration of Justice award, while Mund was honored with the Stanley Mosk Legacy of Justice Award. “The position of judge is one that engenders respect and prestige, but it also requires an awful lot of hard work, diligence and patience,” bar association President Alan Kassan said in a statement. “Given the challenges of budget cuts, courtroom reductions and increasing filings, (L.A. Superior Court) bench officers are required to handle huge dockets.” Van Nuys Reopening The Van Nuys East Courthouse at 6230 Sylmar Ave. is open – for the most part – after a burst pipe caused a flood that forced it to shut down for nearly a month. The courthouse reopened most of its operations on Feb. 20, though the cafeteria, the jury assemblyroom and departments C, D and Q remained closed. Though the cafeteria has reopened in the month since, Department C and Q as well as the jury assemblyroom are still operating out of the Van Nuys West Courthouse at 14400 Erwin St., according to L.A. Superior Court Public Information Officer Mary Hern. A few other offices, including the second-floor district attorney’s office, are closed as well. “Those two courtrooms and some other offices are still inaccessible – they’re in a containment area,” Hern said. “Otherwise, everything else is back to normal.” The leak was discovered on Jan. 27; it was caused by a burst pipe on the fourth floor, authorities said. ‘Super’ Lists Fourteen San Fernando Valley lawyers have been named among the top 100 attorneys on Super Lawyers Magazine’s 2018 “Super Lawyers” list for Southern California. The list includes medical malpractice attorney Bruce Bunch, founder of Law Offices of Bruce M. Bunch in Westlake Village; David deRubertis, founder of Studio City-based employment litigation practice deRubertis Law Firm; Melinda Ebelhar, an appellate attorney at Woodland Hills firm Benedon & Serlin; family law practitioner Ellen Friedman Tinero, a founding partner at Tinero Aharonov and Associates in Encino; Arash Homampour, personal injury attorney and founder of Homampour Law Firm in Studio City; Glen Kulik, a sports and entertainment attorney and a founding partner of Kulik Gottesman Siegel & Ware in Sherman Oaks; appellate attorneys Lisa Perrochet and David Axelrad of Horvitz & Levy in Burbank; Mark Phillips, an estate planning and probate attorney at Goldfarb Sturman & Averbach in Encino; Norman Pine, appellate attorney and founding partner of Sherman Oaks-based Pine Tillet Pine; Jeffrey Kobulnick and Nicholas Rozansky, both of Brutzkus Gubner Rozansky Seror Weber in Woodland Hills; Linda Miller Savitt, an employment litigation attorney and founding partner of Ballard Rosenberg Golper & Savitt in Encino; and George Seide, a family law attorney and founder of Law Office of George Seide in Calabasas. Elbelhar, Tinero, Perrochet and Savitt were also listed among the top 50 “Women Super Lawyers” for Southern California, along with bankruptcy attorney Robyn Sokol of Brutzkus Gubner Rozansky Seror Weber and Carol Newman, a business litigation lawyer at Alleguez & Newman in Woodland Hills. Super Lawyers Magazine, a property of Thomson Reuters, selects its annual lists of “Super Lawyers” from a candidate pool that is nominated by managing partners, a research team for the publication or another third party. They are evaluated within the context of 12 categories that represent peer recognition and professional achievement, such as their verdicts and settlements and scholarly writings. Law reporter Helen Floersh can be reached by phone at (818) 316-3121 or by e-mail at [email protected].

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