Ethics: All You Need to Know 2016

Gayle Eskridge, the principal of ESKRIDGE LAW, has been a litigation and trial attorney since 1988, representing individuals, corporations and partnerships, employees and employers, investors and developers, and municipalities. With broad litigation and trial experience, Ms. Eskridge has managed hundreds of cases and now dedicates her practice to employment, business, and real estate litigation.

Ms. Eskridge is a mediator certified by the Los Angeles County Bar Association Dispute Resolution Services, Inc. Ms. Eskridge is also a Settlement Conference Officer for the Los Angeles Superior Court, a Member of the Los Angeles Superior Court Mediator Panel, a member of the American Arbitration Association Mediator and Arbitrator Panels, a Professional Member of the Southern California Mediation Association, a Mediator with the National Institute for Advanced Conflict Resolution, and an Associate Mediator with Mediate.com. Ms. Eskridge has conducted over 175 mediations.

Ms. Eskridge is admitted to practice in all the courts of the State of California, including all of the United States District Courts in California. Ms. Eskridge holds a Juris Doctorate degree from National University School of Law. Her legal studies were distinguished by three American Jurisprudence Awards – in Constitutional Law, Real Property Law and Remedies, and by an F. Lee Bailey Moot Court Award.

During law school, Ms. Eskridge worked full time as a Senior Contract Administrator at a major aerospace company handling multi-million dollar contracts, both government and foreign. Ms. Eskridge was the first woman Senior Contract Administrator at any division of Teledyne, Inc. and was also the youngest person ever to be promoted to the position of Senior Contract Administrator at any division of Teledyne, Inc. Despite working full time during law school, Ms. Eskridge passed the California Bar Examination on the first attempt.

Prior to joining Hinshaw & Culbertson LLP in February 2004, Ms. Chang was a senior associate at the national law firm of Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, Los Angeles, where she focused on complex business litigation. Prior to Manatt, Ms. Chang was a senior associate with Baker, Keener & Nahra, a boutique Los Angeles trial firm, where her practice focused on litigation of high exposure and high profile matters. Ms. Chang has also served a stint as Vice President of Claims for a surety company, and was an intern for the Taipei-based law firm Lee & Li.

In May 2012, as the NAPABA representative, Ms. Chang met with President Barack Obama and senior Obama administration officials on the issue of judicial vacancies and the resulting crisis in the federal courts.

Ms. Chang has received recognition and commendations from a number of organizations, including the State of California Governor’s Office, California State Board of Equalization, the Speaker of the California State Assembly, the County of Los Angeles and the Office of the Los Angeles City Attorney.

Kevin Mohr has been a professor at Western State College of Law for twenty-two years where he teaches Contracts, Intellectual Property, Law Practice Management, and Professional Responsibility.

Prior to becoming a law professor, Mr. Mohr first clerked for United States District Judge John S. Rhoades of San Diego and then practiced intellectual property law in Los Angeles. Professor Mohr is a former Chair and Special Advisor to the State Bar’s Committee on Professional Responsibility and Conduct (COPRAC), and is currently the Consultant to the State Bar of California’s Special Commission for the Revision of the California Rules of Professional Conduct. He was Chair of the State Bar’s Special Task Force that drafted rule 3-100, which provides a narrow exception to the attorney’s duty of confidentiality, permitting a lawyer to disclose confidential information to prevent a crime that is likely to result in death or substantial bodily harm. Professor Mohr is a member and former President of the Peter M. Elliott Inns of Court. In addition to being a member of the L.A. County Bar’s Professional Responsibility and Ethics Committee, Professor Mohr is Chair of the Website and Technology Committee of the Association of Professional Responsibility Lawyers (“APRL”) and a contributor to the ABA Annotated Model Rules of Professional Conduct. Professor Mohr frequently lectures and writes about ethical and conflict of interest issues in the practice of law and is a standing contributor to the State Bar of California and various local bar associations.

He received his B.A. from Harpur College, his M.S. from the University of Wisconsin and his J.D. from Yale Law School.

Jon L. Rewinski's practice includes all phases of civil litigation before state, federal and bankruptcy courts. In his 30 years of practice, Jon has tried or arbitrated dozens of cases. Jon has experience in a wide variety of areas, including antitrust, securities litigation, franchise law, class action litigation, corporate dissolutions, derivative actions, intellectual property, and other tort and commercial matters.

Jon has also represented a securities brokerage firm in regulatory and DOJ investigations and litigation following the collapse of a hedge fund; a securities brokerage firm in a regulatory investigation over alleged revenue sharing arrangements with mutual funds; a securities brokerage firm in the first enforcement proceeding asserted by the SEC under the USA PATRIOT Act; a major accounting firm in an SEC/DOJ investigation concerning the collapse of an audit client; representing an airline in consolidated class actions alleging a conspiracy to fix the prices of passenger tickets; Microsoft in antitrust litigation asserted by certain competitors and consumer groups; Philip Morris USA Inc. in Lanham Act proceedings over the unauthorized use of its registered marks in Internet sales; and the manufacturer of a concrete admixture in class actions and mass actions alleging purported construction defects.

Jon also regularly teaches seminars and publishes articles on legal ethics and professional responsibility. Since 2002, Jon has co-authored an annual review of California ethics decisions published in Los Angeles Lawyer. He is a former member of the California State Bar's Standing Committee on Professional Responsibility and Conduct and a former Chair and member of the Los Angeles County Bar's Professional Responsibility and Ethics Committee.

Joel A. Osman, senior counsel at Parker Mills LLP, concentrates his practice on litigation and trials. Prior to joining PM in 2014, Mr. Osman was principal of Osman & Associates a private law firm in South Pasadena.

Prior to setting up his private practice, he managed a similarly named entity which was part of staff counsel to Travelers Indemnity Company. For Travelers, he was responsible for all aspects of managing its Southern California liability practice, its multi-million dollar budget and 54 employees engaged in defense of Travelers insureds in all manner of general liability, auto, fire and subrogation matters.

Previously, Mr. Osman was a senior partner at Anderson, McPharlin & Conners LLP in Los Angeles. In his career, he has represented clients in cases involving professional liability, general liability, product liability, construction defect and commercial litigation, trying numerous jury trials to verdict. He has focused much of his interest on the defense of lawyers and legal ethics.

His current professional activities include membership in the Los Angeles County Bar Association’s Professional Responsibility and Ethics Committee (where he was the chairperson for the 2008-2009 year). Mr. Osman has recently been appointed to serve a three-year term as a member of the State Bar’s Committee on Professional Responsibility and Conduct.

David Brandon is a partner at the Los Angeles office of Morris Polich & Purdy LLP. He practices in the areas of professional liability, commercial litigation and appeals, representing clients in claims involving fraud, breach of fiduciary duty, breach of commercial contracts, securities fraud, professional liability and intellectual property disputes. Mr. Brandon has taught Appellate Advocacy and Professional Liability Law as an adjunct professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles for over 15 years.

He serves on the Los Angeles County Bar Association’s Professional Responsibility and Ethics Committee, the California State Bar Committee on Professional Liability Insurance and is Program Vice-Chair of the Professional Liability Committee of the Defense Research Institute. Mr. Brandon has spoken to groups of business people, attorneys and law students on topics including the preservation of electronic evidence, ethics, claims prevention and the identification of fraudulent claims.

Mr. Brandon received his undergraduate degree from California State University, Northridge and his J.D. from Loyola Law School. He was admitted to the bar in 1982.

John Amberg is an experienced litigator who has tried dozens of cases to successful conclusion in courts and arbitrations. He handles a broad range of commercial and product liability disputes for clients in the aircraft, banking, computer software, credit card processing, food and beverage, medical device, and retailing industries, among others, as well as fiduciary and professional liability disputes for lawyers and other professionals. His creative strategic thinking, seasoned judgment, and responsiveness to his clients’ needs have gained him the confidence of litigants in major cases.

Mr. Amberg has been an arbitrator for the Dispute Resolution Service of the Los Angeles County Superior Court, and is an arbitrator for the Los Angeles County Bar Association Mandatory Fee Arbitration Panel. He is former chair of the California State Bar’s Committee on Professional Responsibility and Conduct and former chair and a current member of the Los Angeles County Bar Association’s Professional Responsibility and Ethics Committee. He serves as an expert witness on legal ethics and malpractice issues. A former managing partner of the Los Angeles office, Mr. Amberg chairs the firm’s Ethics Committee.

Prior to joining the firm, he completed a judicial clerkship for the Honorable Douglas W. Hillman of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan. After graduating from Princeton University and the University of Michigan Law School with honors, Mr. Amberg was a law clerk to U.S. District Judge Douglas W. Hillman in the Western District of Michigan.

Judge Michael Marcus (Ret.), who received his B.A. from the University of California at Berkeley in 1964 and his J.D. in 1967 from the UCLA School of Law, brings an extraordinarily broad legal background and experience to mediations, arbitrations and discovery reference.

Before becoming a full-time neutral in January 2002 with ADR Services, Inc., he was a very successful trial lawyer, a former law firm partner and a judge. He has also taught at law schools, is a legal author and a bar leader.