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Past Events
     
 

2011 Beacon of Justice Award
Ronald L. Olson
Partner - Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP

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Ronald L. Olson is a partner in the Los Angeles office of Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP. He has practiced law with the firm since 1968. Ron Olson is a director of Berkshire Hathaway, Edison International, City National Corporation, The Washington Post Company, and Western Asset Trusts. He serves as a director of several non-profits, including the RAND Corporation (formerly chair), the Mayo Clinic, the California Institute of Technology, and Nuclear Threat Initiative. He was Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Claremont University Center and Graduate School from 1984 to 1994, Founding Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Southern California Public Radio from 1999 to 2004 and a director of the Council on Foreign Relations from 2002 to 2010. Ron Olson has been the lead partner in numerous high-profile cases.

Ron Olson received his B.S. degree from Drake University in 1963, his J.D. degree from the University of Michigan in 1966, and a Diploma in Law from Oxford University, England, in 1967, at which time he was the recipient of a Ford Foundation fellowship. In 1967, Mr. Olson was an attorney for the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice and in 1968 clerked for Chief Judge David L. Bazelon, United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

Mr. Olson was formerly Chairman of the Standing Committee on Federal Judiciary (1991-92), Chairman of the Litigation Section (1981-82), and Chairman of the Alternative Dispute Resolution Committee (1976-86) of the American Bar Association, and was Vice President of the Board of Governors of the State Bar of California (1986-87). He is a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers and the American Law Institute. Mr. Olson has received a number of awards for public service and pro bono activities

 

2010 Beacon of Justice Award
Justice Miriam A. Vogel (Ret.) and Justice Charles S. Vogel (Ret.)
Los Angeles County Superior Court

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Charles S. Vogel has spent the last 50 years lawyering, judging, lawyering again, judging again, and now arbitrating and mediating with JAMS. After nine years in private practice in Pomona, Chuck was appointed to the Municipal Court in 1969, then elevated to the Superior Court in 1971, where he served as Supervising Judge of the Law Departments. In 1977, he returned to private practice first at Nossaman, Krueger & Marsh, then at Sidley & Austin, and during the ensuing years served as president of the State Bar of California, the Los Angeles County Bar Association, and the Association of Business Trial Lawyers. In 1993, he returned to the bench, this time the Court of Appeal where he served for 11 years, including stints as Presiding Justice of Division Four and as Administrative Presiding Justice of the Second Appellate District. In 2004, he retired from the Court of Appeal to join JAMS, where he now serves as an arbitrator and mediator. One of his most defining characteristics is the ease with which he has been able to move between the bar and the bench with a perspective few can match.

Miriam A. Vogel got a slower start, graduating from law school at 35 but then she too alternated between lawyering and judging, practicing law for 10 years, judging for more than 22 years, and now practicing law again at Morrison & Foerster LLP. After a year in a prestigious clerkship with the late Justice Robert S. Thompson in Division One of the Second Appellate District, Miriam practiced civil and appellate law with Maiden, Rosenbloom, Wintroub, Vogel & Fridkis. She was appointed to the Superior Court in 1986, where she too served as Supervising Judge of the Law Departments. In 1990, she was elevated to the Court of Appeal, to the same division where she had clerked in 1975. During her 18 years on the Court of Appeal, she authored more than 2,700 opinions, including many with far-reaching effects. In 2008, she returned to private practice as Senior of Counsel with Morrison & Foerster where she is a member of the firms appellate group, writing briefs in the same crisp style in which she wrote so many memorable opinions.

 

2009 Beacon of Justice Award
Chief Justice Ronald M. George
California Supreme Court

Chief Justice Ronald M George was recognized for his unprecedented commitment to access to justice for all the citizens of California particularly those lower income Californians. He is renowned for working tirelessly to modernize Californias court system and make it more service-oriented. Throughout his career as a lawyer and on the Bench, the Chief Justice has frequently authored publications and lectured at educational programs. He has won praise for his dedication to the rule of law. Chief Justice George has promoted the availability of legal representation to those who cannot afford it. He has encouraged law firms to devote hours to pro bono activities and helped to launch the Californias legal self-help website. His tremendous ongoing efforts to improve our legal system and make its benefits available to all exemplify the ideals behind the Beacon of Justice Award.

 

2008 Beacon of Justice Award
Justice Arthur Gilbert
California Court of Appeal
Second District

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Justice Arthur Gilbert was recognized for his exemplary service and significant contributions to the quality of justice, legal scholarship and legal education. The quality of his writing earned him the title of the Court of Appeal’s “poet laureate.” For over two decades Justice Gilbert has taught justices and judges the philosophy of judging, the art of crafting opinions and the effective performance of their jobs. He has served as faculty, speaker and panelist for numerous educational and judicial conferences and received the Bernard S Jefferson Award for his many contributions to legal education. He created the Legal Philosophy Curricula for California’s Continuing Judicial Studies Program and the California Judges College. Justice Gilbert has taught Anglo American Jurisprudence to judges throughout the world, including Hungary, Russia and Serbia.

 

2007 Beacon of Justice Award
Shirley and Seth Hufstedler
Morrison & Foerster
Los Angeles

Shirley and Seth Hufstedler were recognized for their lifelong commitment to justice and the distinction with which they served. Throughout their lives, they set the standard for service whether on the bench or within the bar. They served the community at the highest levels of public service and as champions for women and minorities in the legal profession. They are consistent and caring nuturers of the numerous lawyers who lives they touched. They are known as risk takers and trailblazers in all they have accomplished.



2006 Beacon of Justice Award

Justice Earl Johnson
California Court of Appeal
Second District

Justice Earl Johnson was recognized for his distinguished record as an appellate court justice, having served the California Court of Appeal, Second District for 24 years. His more than 600 published and nearly 3000 unpublished opinions have led to numerous awards and earned praise from California’s leading scholar, the late Bernard Witkin. As a scholar and teacher, Justice Johnson co-authored 17 books and over 50 articles, including landmark books on legal services for the poor, Justice and Reform, and, Toward Equal Justice. He has been an innovative leader for over four decades in bringing justice to the poor, from heading the country’s Legal Services Program in the 1960’s to chairing the California Commission on Access to Justice in 2002. He established the National Equal Justice Library now housed at Georgetown University Law Center. Justice Johnson is respected and admired by the legal community and epitomizes all that the Award represents. He has inspired and mentored many within the legal community; he has opened the doors of justice to many more.

 

2005 Beacon of Justice Award
Presiding Justice Norman L. Epstein

California Court of Appeal
Second District

Justice Norman L Epstein’s commitment to excellence, his generosity and collegiality are legendary. For nearly 30 years, Justice Epstein served the bench with distinction and the legal community with honor. First appointed to the Municipal Court in 1975 by Governor Reagan, he was elevated to the Superior Court in 1980 by Governor Brown, and subsequently appointed to the California Court of Appeal, Second District, by Governor George Deukmejian. In 2005 he was appointed Presiding Justice of Division Four by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Justice Epstein is also highly regarded as a scholar, author, teacher, mentor and community leader. He is respected for his knowledge and application of civil and criminal law. He served as Dean of the California Judicial College and Chair of the Litigation Section of the Los Angeles County Bar Association.

 

2003 - 50th Anniversary of the Main Library Building

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In 2003, the first Friends event celebrated the 50th anniversary of the LA Law Library's Main Library Building by naming it in honor of Presiding Justice Mildred L Lillie. Justice Lillie had an extraordinary career that spanned 55 years and included many “firsts.” In 1942, she became one of the first women to serve as an assistant US attorney in Los Angeles. In 1947, she was appointed the Municipal Court and two years later was elevated to the Superior Court. She was the youngest judge and the first woman ever assigned to sit in criminal court in Los Angeles County. In 1958 she became the first woman appointed to the California Court of Appeal, Second District and served with distinction for 44 years until her death in 2002. Justice Lillie was a legal scholar, skilled at writing, decisive, determined, and indefatigable; she was dedicated to fairness and to the law.