Class Notes updated on September 29, 2011 by Antoinette Picon Hewitt
The King Hall Class of 1995 is alive and kicking!
Dan Behrendt writes, “I finally got married and am living in Korea, working for Samsung Electronics after stints at Microsoft and Cheil Jedang. I ask someone if "they want fries with that" at least twice a day...”
Marci Riley kindly sent in an update on behalf of herself and her husband, Jim Riley. “Jim and I are doing well. We are still living on the peninsula and try to see our local law school friends as often as we can. Jim joined Goodwin Procter in April 2010 as a Partner in the Technology Companies Practice after working at Gunderson Dettmer for 11 years. We have two kids who keep us busy. Caitlin is 10 and Patrick is 6 and a half and I spend most of my time working at their school and driving them around to their various activities. Life is good!”
From Olga Sanchez “There's not a ton to report for me other than I got a divorce this year and took up running since the last time you asked for an update. I am coming upon 8 years as in-house counsel for the Sacramento Regional Transit District and was recently promoted to Senior Attorney. 2011 has been a roller coaster of a year for me but I am pretty content right now. I'm not sure whether anyone else has reported to you but Tim Kam was appointed to the bench in Solano County. I believe he was sworn-in in June. Also I keep in close contact with Kyungah Suk and she's doing great. She's been working on growing her mediation practice in San Francisco.”
Calvin Fan “is corporate patent counsel at biotech Illumina, Inc. in San Diego. He just returned with Dave from Burning Man.”
Charla Ota reports that “Not much has changed for me in the last few years - same job (Health Law at Hawaii Health Systems Corporation), still married, still 1 kid.”
From Jennifer Dauer, “In brief, I am now Mommy to a 16 month old little boy who is a joy, and one of the founding partners of Diepenbrock Elkin, a spin-off of Diepenbrock Harrison formed in June of this year. Life is great!”
Stephen Puccini writes that “My wife, Andrea, and I are expecting our second boy by the time this is published. We have yet to decide on a name, but he will not be Skipper!”
Minty Siu-Kootnikoff is “Living in LA (egads!) Baby just started Kindergarten . . . just about 12 years at Legal Aid.”
From the “broke out of law” file, Kathleen Winter sent this news: “Kathleen Winter's first full length collection of poems won the Antivenom Poetry Prize and will be published by Elixir Press in 2012. Her poems have appeared in The New Republic, Tin House, FIELD, The Cincinnati Review and New American Writing, and are forthcoming in AGNI, Southeast Review, and VOLT. In May, Kathleen completed an MFA degree in Creative Writing at Arizona State, where she taught composition and poetry writing. She practiced law in Northern California until 2008, when she moved to Arizona. Now she's living in Sonoma again and teaches writing at the University of San Francisco. You can read some of her poems in the online poetry journals Anti-, Verse Daily, Slope and Memorious.”
Craig Meyers gives us an update on his status as well as that of his wife, Virna, who also made the break from law, “I am still at the Attorney General's Office, criminal division. I work with Mark Johnson. Virna left the AG's office and is now a full-time author. She writes romantic suspense and paranormal romance. Her first book, a paranormal romantic suspense, Chosen by Blood (Berkley Books), came out in May and her first romantic suspense Dangerous to Her (Harlequin Romantic Suspense) came out a few weeks ago. She also has a three-book deal with Harlequin that will be published next year. Check out virnadepaul.com. We have three boys (11, 9, and 6) and still live in Davis.”
From the “on top of the world” file, Jim Scheinman writes, “I am CEO and Founder of Maven Ventures, an angel investing company in Silicon Valley, which I started after my last company Bebo sold to AOL for $850M. Emily & I are living in Los Altos Hills with our 3 wonderful children (Jacob 13, Naomi 10, and Joshie 6).”
We will forgive David Walgren for not writing in as it appears that he is the lead prosecutor on the Conrad Murray aka “Michael Jackson doctor” trial in downtown LA.
I saw Mike Schaefer and Lawrence Salisbury last year at a Padres game. Mike’s twin boys are 2 now and a handful times two but definitely adorable. He is still running his own ticket business. Lawrence is still at Majors & Fox in San Diego.
David Outwater’s new office is in Irvine. I can see the firm name “Outwater & Pinckes” on his building whenever I drive back from my daughter’s swim lessons.
I talk to Kate Manka from time to time. She is still in the Bay Area and is a great mom to two beautiful girls.
As for me, Antoinette Picon Hewitt, not much has changed. I am still a commercial litigation partner at Kutak Rock in Irvine. I live in Tustin, CA with Paul and our kiddies, Adam (7) and Jane (4). Adam is in second grade and Jane is in pre-K. I did make one huge change about a year ago when I went to a reduced hours schedule at work. I’ve had a great deal of fun this past year having 4 day weekends every weekend and spending time at my kids’ schools. These days it seems like our weekends are gobbled up with soccer, swim meets, scouting, dance, etc., so it’s nice to have some extra time. Last year, two King Hall Class of ’08 grads moved in down the street from us. We’ve enjoyed getting to know them and telling/showing them what life will be like for them down the road when they have kids.
Best wishes to all!
Class Notes Updated as of July 28, 2009
Hello King Hall Class of 1995, I hope you are well. Thanks to all those aluma who responded to my email request for updates. Here it goes:
Jill Ernst writes:
"I work part-time for a really friendly law firm in Roseville about three minutes from my home. In my "spare time", I am a taxi-driver extraordinaire for my overscheduled kids, a rabid Tahoe-va Witness on the weekends (we just made our annual float down the Truckee River with a group of friends -- I have developed very strong water gun skills), and I've been learning to play the piano, something I've always wanted to do."
From Michael Fermin :
"I am a still a Supervising Deputy District Atorney in San Bernardino County. I continue to do trials while managing the special units section (a group of 27 lawyers). My wife, Michelle Lauron, '94 is also a Deputy District Attorney in the same office. She has been working part-time for the last five years after the birth of our second child Grace in 2004. She recently has returned to full time work as Grace enters Kindergarten this fall and our oldest, Genevieve enters fourth grade.
We had the pleasure of going to the law school reception in Riverside where we met up with our former civ pro professor, now Dean Kevin Johnson, and caught up with Miguel Valdovinos '96, who is a Chief Deputy District Attorney in Riverside County. I lectured at the National Homicide Symposium this year and saw classmate Tim Kam there as well."
Olga Sanchez:
"Well, there isn't really anything new with me. I still live in Davis and still work in-house at Sacramento Regional Transit District. However, I don't know if everyone knows that our classmate
Kyungah Suk
has been serving in Macedonia in the Peace Corp. She left her job at the California Attorney General's office two years ago to join the Peace Corp. I get emails from her from time to time reporting on her work. She's been doing some great work in Macedonia. For instance, she developed a project to automate the utility billing system in the village she lives in. The last time I heard from her she had developed an English language program for a local elementary school."
Kate Manka
Kate has moved back to northern California with her husband and two girls. She is working in house.
Rebecca Bresnick writes"I am STILL not practicing law but instead am fully immersed in my life as a potter, ceramic artist, and mosaic muralist. My business partner and I moved our studio into a larger, street-front space, where we get a lot of walk in customers browsing our gallery area. Our website is: www.Clayground.biz. I'm still teaching wheel-throwing at the UCD Craft Center (just yards from the law school which I never see anymore), but mostly I'm working on public and private art commissions. My most recent (and exciting) project is creating hand-made tile to cover an interior wall at the Tower Café in Sacramento. Tim and I are still live in Winters (which we love) and our two boys will be entering 3rd grade and 6th grade (middle school) in August. I recently saw Elaine Talley-Roy and her husband Jeff and two of their children, including Joseph, and was amazed to see that the baby who was born during our first year is taller than his dad (who is pretty tall!)! If anyone comes to Winters, feel free to visit me!"
From Liz Giffin Flint:
"My big news is that I have moved from Wellington, New Zealand to Melbourne, Australia. We've been here for about a year. I work for a City Council handling their planning appeals to a local Tribunal. Probably the funniest thing about it is that I'm training a bunch of young Australian planners to handle their own appeals. Melbourne is a great city and we're enjoying it quite a bit. I leave tomorrow for a two week canoeing and backpacking trip in the Northern Territory. I moved to Melbourne after accepting my job over the telephone and never having set foot in the country so this will be my first experience seeing more of Oz. Hope all is well with my fellow alumni."
Stefan Mrakich gives us our first wedding update :
"I got married on 8/30/08. The Mrs. and I honeymooned in Turin, Italy, where some of her family resides.
I had an engagement party in Los Angeles in July 2008. Some noteworthy dignitaries attended, including
Karen Barth-Menzies
and
David B. Walgren
. I am still employed with the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office."
Charla Ota writes
"I guess I should update my personal email - it's charla.ota@gmail.com Nothing much new with me...still working for the state of Hawaii hospital system doing health law (wish I had taken that course at law school...or did I?!) Did you know that Joann Kim owns and operates a frozen yogurt store in Berkeley? It's called Yogurt Harmony, I believe. Really good yogurt, and cool enviro-friendly store environment designed by her hubby Jason."
From Jennifer Dauer of Diepenbrock Harrison comes our second wedding update:
"On December 27, 2008, I married Al Hernandez (who runs a food, wine and travel publication) in a small, sunset ceremony in Hawaii."
As for me, Antoinette Picon Hewitt, I am still living in Orange County with my husband and two kids, Adam and Jane. Adam will be 5 in a couple of weeks and Jane will be 2 the week after. Adam starts kindergarten in September, which really tugs at my heart strings. I am certain I will blink and find that my cute little boy has been replaced by a 6 ft 4, gravelly voiced teen. I am still a partner with Kutak Rock in Irvine, where I've been for going on 9 years now. Lately, I 've been focusing on commercial litigation as well as pharmaceutical products liability.
I miss Kate Manka since she left Kutak last year. I am happy to relate that Mike Schaefer and his wife had twin boys a few months ago. They are living in northern California. I've been keeping up with Dan Behrendt and Diane Taira via Facebook. They have much more exciting lives than me. Diane is still a DA and Dan has some sort of exotic job abroad as far as I can tell.
Best wishes to all of my classmates. I hope to hear from more of you next year!
Dear Class of 1995,
Greetings. Thanks to all of you who wrote in.
Chris Cheleden reports: “My wife and I moved to Santa Cruz about 3 years ago and have twin boys, Jackson and Spencer, age 8. I'm enjoying my job at the County Counsel's office doing land-use work. I found out about the job from Jason Heath ('95) and Tara Rufo ('95). Jason and I enjoy practicing with each other. Jason and Tara moved 1 year before us to Santa Cruz from Sacramento. I hope everyone is doing well.”
Brian Smith (who works down the street from me) wrote in to say that he and his lovely wife, Evette, have a second son named Preston who will turn 1 in May. He joined big brother, Clayton, who dotes on his little brother (when not otherwise occupied in bopping him with a toy or book.) Luckily, Preston is tough and stands up for himself so Brian has fun watching the intramural skirmishes. Brian notes, “Still in Orange County and still representing public school districts. Public financings are down a bit due to developers pulling back and municipal bond insurers having some issues, but business picked up in other areas, so keeping busy. Life is good.”
Suzanne Brown has this to say: “I am pleased to report that all is fine with me. My husband Ken and I got married in 2002, and we've been living happily in Sacramento.
I work as an administrative law judge for the Office of Administrative
Hearings. I'm in the special education division, where I conduct hearings and mediations in disputes between school districts and parents of disabled children. Among my fellow ALJs are
John Thawley '94 and
Ralph Venturino '94.
Elaine Talley '95 works for our office part-time as a judge pro tem.”
Rebecca Bresnick Holmes is also living happily in northern California. “I continue to live in Winters with my husband, 2 sons, dog and cat. In February of 2007 I opened a clay studio with a friend of mine, so I now have a working studio! It is also open to the public, so we have people who come in and work with wet clay, try their hand at wheel-throwing, and glaze bisqueware. We have also been involved in several large public art projects (mosaic murals) and work with schools quite a bit. It's a lot of fun and so far, we've managed to pay our rent every month! I still teach at the UCD Craft Center, substitute teach now and then, and do some desktop publishing as an independent contractor. In November I took a wonderful trip to Spain to visit with old friends and this summer our family will travel to Niagara Falls, Toronto, and upstate New York to visit my husband's family.” You can reach her at www.clayground.biz and Rebecca@clayground.biz.
Stefan Mrakich as usual provided a colorful entry. His new email address is smrakich01@sprintpcs.com. He lives in downtown L.A. and works for the LA County District Attorney, assigned to the Pomona Branch. He is currently working on a fairly bloody homicide from 1986 with rape and stabbings, etc. It is a change of pace from the less interesting cases he had been trying. It has shed new light on the felony murder rule for him. He had the pleasure of celebrating the 40 th birthday of Sue Garvey (’96) in February of last year in San Francisco. He attended with Karen Barth Menzies, Kate Ohlson Manka, Margaret Evans, Eddie Kreisberg, Steve Norman, Bhupen Amin and Peter Meier. Stefan expressed frustration at the lack of UC Davis faculty weighing in on important subjects, such as illegal war, torture, illegal wiretapping, a bill DENYING habeas corpus and an administration that doesn’t care about ordinary people. Stephen is concerned that he has not heard of any members of the faculty speaking out against these serious crimes.
Doug Purdy is another addition to the King Hall ALJs! “In January, I accepted a new position as an Administrative Law Judge with the State Personnel Board. I hear appeals from disciplined state employees, as well as discrimination and whistleblower complaints by state employees. As I have only been at it a few months, I have not fully developed a judicial style. However, I hope to combine the best elements of other judges: the linguistic elegance of Learned Hand, the no-nonsense efficiency of Judge Judy, and the compassion (minus the incoherence) of Paula Abdul. Jane and I will be celebrating our 15th anniversary in a few months, and our family is doing very well. Thomas recently turned 13 and Anna is 11. So far, so good, but Jane and I are looking for a good military school and convent as a backup plan just in case. My best regards to the rest of the class.”
Charla Ota writes in from perhaps the best location possible, Hawaii. “I am not sure when I last wrote an update, but if it was within the last 2 years my life is basically the same...I am in-house counsel for the Hawaii state hospital system, learning more than I ever thought possible about federal health care regulations...I got an email from none other than Andy Leman recently, hailing (perhaps literally, I don't know) from Alaska...he is happy there and never left following his 9th Circuit clerkship.”
James Kim writes in with good news about his family. As it turns out, he and I have children born within 16 days of each other last August. After graduating from King Hall, he attended business school at NYU and obtained his MBA. He entered the Wall Street world as an investment banker with Merrill Lynch. After a couple of years, he relocated back to California. He is now working for a small investment bank in LA, Greif & Co, doing M & A advisory work. He has been married nearly 7 years and had the aforementioned child, a boy, in August. They all live in West L.A. with their Labrador. He talked to Alex Lee recently and reports that Alex is working for a startup company that manufactures electric cars. Jim also has lunch with Victor Fann, who works in downtown for Deloitte. He heard recently from Peter (Wales) Nadan who is apparently planning on going to UCLA business school for an MBA. He also had the pleasure of running into Karen Barth a couple of years ago.
Craig Meyersprovided a blast from the past when he noted that he saw me on the game show “Greed” a few years past (in 1999, I won $10K on the show but lost out on $110K). After graduation, Craig took a job with Diepenbrock, Wulff, Plant & Hannegan in Sacramento doing business litigation and working with Jason Heath. After a year, he took a job as a Deputy AG in the criminal division in Sacramento. Jason also worked with him at the AG’s office until Jason moved to Santa Cruz (see Chris Cheleden’s note above). He writes, “ Virna and I got married the summer after graduation and now have three boys--8, 6 & 3. Virna also works with me and we both are working part time. We work on criminal appeals and state and federal habeas corpus cases. The AG's office is a great place to work and allows us time for our family. It's been a good ten years. We work with Mark Johnson ('95), David Eldridge ('94), Rachelle Younger Newcomb ('94), Julie Hokans ('96), and Mike Dolida ('96). We also worked with Stacey Boulware Eurie ('95), who is now a Sacramento County Judge. Nancy Stump Saracino ('95) also used to work here, but I haven't seen her around the building lately. On occasion, I see Amir Holmes, who got smart and left the law business a few years back and is working for a high-tech job placement firm. We hope everyone is doing well.”
Randall Davis takes the prize for most laughs generated in the fewest words. “I practice law in Eureka. I've been a partner since 2000 or something. Big woop. I like the money. The neighbor's 18 year-old son scolded my brother and I for shooting the gun off the back deck over the holidays. He said I shouldn't be shooting into the empty pasture because there could be kids or animals out there. I told him that it was Christmas and that I had family in town "What are you gonna do?" He didn't respond. I told him it would never happen again. His grandmother scolded me earlier that year for shooting fireworks into the sky. She said I could burn everything down. Since she was probably right, I apologized and told her it would never happen again. I'm biding my time.”
Peter Nyquist writes, “Life is good here in La-La land, and I've managed to stay in touch with/been unable to avoid a number of distinguished '95ers. Can you believe we've all known each other more than 15 years (remember when your parents used to throw that stuff around?). Some going ons in our life: Our two girls, Maya and Ella, are now 8 and 5. I'm having fun coaching their softball (spring) and soccer (fall) teams, not to mention being their designated taekwondo punching bag. We enjoy spending time throughout the year in Mammoth, with both kids now skiing. They talked us into getting our first pet this year -- a hamster -- and, needless to say, I'm stuck with feeding and cage cleaning duty despite our "clear" understanding. We're looking forward to Europe this summer to celebrate my dad's 70th -- our first kids' trip out of the country. We live in the same neighborhood as Karen (Barth) Menzies and her hubbie Bobby, and she's part of a growing group of ski buds that do at least one annual trip. Can't wait for that 9-hour flight! This past January, I was in Tahoe to celebrate Chris Cheleden's 40th -- I too joined the club a couple weeks later -- along with Jason Heath, Damon Silver, Jim Riley. Speaking of those guys, we've been meeting up annually (along with Jim's wife, Marci (formerly Gordon) for Neil Young's Bridge School concert at the Shoreline -- always a great event for a great cause. I see Dean Bengston occasionally through some mutual friends (we started working at the same firm out of law school) -- he's now prosecuting in the D.A.'s hard core gang unit with some saucy stories. In terms of work, I'm coming up on ten years at Weston Benshoof (not to mention Taz and my 10th wedding anniversary last year). Damn, time flies, even when you're not having fun (the work part, not the married thing!). Our Environmental Group continues to do well, and I'm working on a variety of interesting matters, mostly non-litigation these days, throughout SoCal. As you can imagine, climate change and sustainability issues are getting a lot of attention. Last fall, I was back at King Hall for on campus interviews. Things pretty much looked the same around town, except for the $50 million Mondavi Center they put in the lot where I used to park my rippin' yellow Volvo station wagon. Good times . . . .”
Diane Newman Taira reports: “I am still working for the Solano County District Attorney's Office. Work is good but life is better. I recently purchased my own home in Benicia where my kids live half time. My beautiful children, Matthew - age 9 and Megan - age 6, are happy and well adjusted despite the turmoil of the last year. I was fortunate to encounter Dennis Raglin ('95) who works for a firm in San Francisco. He was opposing counsel on a Prop 65 case I was prosecuting. I, of course, gave his client a sweet deal based on his Davis Alum status (disclaimer: for any member of the general public who may be reading this statement, I did not actually give his client any sort of deal whatsoever that was unrelated to his culpability because that would be unethical and down right unAmerican . . . though I did accept the free lunch). Dennis and I had a chance to catch up and I am hopeful that some day he will write a best selling novel about his life . . . but I'll leave that for him to tell.”
Diane sent in a couple of pictures that I am hopeful will print with this report.
Robert Harkins wins this year’s award for the fullest plate. After graduation, Bob started working at Baker & McKenzie in San Diego specializing in IP litigation. He then went to Morrison & Foerster to launch their San Diego office in 2000. Bob then transferred to their SF office when his wife started medical school at UCSF. It was then that they moved in across the street from the Grateful Dead house on Ashbury St., where they live today. He was in-house as Director of IP and Litigation at 02 Micro in 2006. In January of this year, he started as Of Counsel at Howrey in San Francisco and works as a patent trial lawyer. His wife will graduate this year from medical school and start her residency in psychiatry at UCSF. He further notes, “Somewhere along the way we had three amazing boys (Salvatore (6), Vincent (4) and Leo (3)), and we opened a coffeehouse named Coffee to the People, which is located at Masonic & Haight in San Francisco and follows a very King Hall theme of personal empowerment, serving only fair trade, organic coffee. Oh, and in 1999 I co-founded a website named MegaLaw.com, which is a free online legal research website people might find helpful, and for which any contributions or suggested edits are always welcome.” Bob can be reached at harkinsr@howrey.com. (Although with three kids, a wife starting her medical residency, running a coffee shop, running a website and oh a patent trial practice, not sure when he’d have the time to read email.!)
As for me, Antoinette Picon Hewitt, I am happy to hear that everyone sounds like they are keeping well. My husband, Paul, and I celebrated our 10-year anniversary in January and had our second child, Jane, last August. Her big brother, Adam, (3 ½) just loves her to pieces. As Brian notes above, financings and financial institutions work has dried up in certain respects but exploded in others so I am keeping busy with that at Kutak Rock here in Orange County. I am working part time until Jane turns one. I still work with Kate Manka and always love trading child-rearing advice with her. I just had lunch with Lawrence Salisbury and Mike Cayaban in San Diego a few weeks ago. Lawrence is still suing bad companies under 17200 and has two beautiful kids. Mike still works for the AG’s office down there. He and his two cute kids and lovely wife, Connie, live in North County. (Can you believe, Mike and Lawrence work basically next door to another but had not seen each other for a decade? It took me, driving down from OC, to bring everyone together! They have promised to get together once a month from here on out) Mike Schaefer got married last year to his long time girlfriend, Cheryl, in Las Vegas. They live in northern California. My former roomie, Diane Taira, was on TV last year in her position as DA talking about some bad people that she was taking down.
I will look forward to hearing from everyone next time.