Class Notes updated March 2013, submitted by David Lorie
Jung Park and her husband opened their own after school academy in Pasadena, Nova 42, in May 2012, specializing in speech and debate training, college counseling, SAT prep and writing counseling in Pasadena. She reports that many of her speech and debate students are interested in law, so being an attorney really comes in handy! Jung says she can't believe how quickly time is passing by: her youngest, Liam, turned four on February 12th and had a huge dinosaur-themed party at the L.A. Natural History Museum a few weeks later. Danny turned 10 and had a fun laser tag party. They are avid Disneyland-goers, complete with annual passes. Jung is not doing as much standup comedy lately since her business keeps them so busy. She did a few shows at a local yacht club and at an industry conference in Palm Springs but no big clubs. She's still writing material and will try to get back into it soon. Feel free to say hi at jung@nova42.com.
Several significant events in the Tade household in 2013. Mark Tade has been advanced to Director, Employee Relations at U. S. Steel's largest facility in Gary, Indiana, consisting of four plants employing about 6,000 employees. He leaves his current assignment in the St. Louis area and will relocate with his family to Northwest Indiana in June. With the move, his wife Cathy will be leaving her position as an instructor at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, and taking her talents to University of Illinois, Chicago, where she has been admitted to the PhD program and will be involved in research and teaching. Their daughter Lily (Perfect Tender class of '96) graduates from high school in May, and she will attend Indiana University - Purdue University at Indianapolis in the Fall, where she has been admitted into the honors program at the Herron School of Art and Design as a Chancellor's Scholar (Mom and Dad are very proud!) Their son John is looking forward to starting 8th grade at his new school in Indiana next fall.
Josh Cohen’s oldest, Sinclair, graduated from UC Santa Cruz (go slugs!), and worked on the Obama and Eric Swalwell campaigns, and leaves April 3 for Azerbaijan for the Peace Corps. Wesley, who was born during orientation week of law school, is a freshman at Davis. And Julia who was born during second year summer is a junior in high school and wants to be a chef. Janet started a landscape design business and is doing great, although she’s not ready for Josh to retire. In December of 2011, Josh joined Wendel Rosen Black & Dean in Oakland, a firm of 55 attorneys with a much broader practice spectrum than my prior firm. He’s still in the trenches litigating intellectual property and business disputes, and gets to trial every now and again.
Marvin Mizell served as President of the San Diego County Bar Association from Dec. 2011 to Dec. 2012. He was the first African American male, and the second African American overall, to do so since the SDCBA was founded in 1899.
Jeff Kravitz has been appointed the new Dean of the Lorenzo Patiño School of Law-charged with trying to save it from doom-wish him luck-his paying job is his own practice in Carmichael focusing on Professional License defense.
David Lorie has left the expat bug behind him (for now). After six years working in Argentina and Costa Rica, he's been living in Oakland since 2006. He's currently working at LeapFrog and hopes you have several of the company's products in your house. He and his wife, Kena, have two boys, a 4 year old and a 4 month old baby, and he is in awe of all of the Perfect Tender parents.
Class Notes Updated September 2011
Submitted by Andreas Garza
Jeff Kravitz is running for election to the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors.
Marvin Mizell will be sworn in as President of the San Diego County Bar Association this December 2nd.
David Muellenhoff is happily working as in-house counsel for a nonprofit and celebrating the completion of my wife's groundbreaking doctoral dissertation on Latino college student graduation. We'll be founding a nonprofit shortly to implement some of her ideas. We're also celebrating our daughter's graduation from UC Santa Cruz. Thankfully she's jumping right into a Masters' program so the job market isn't an issue yet. I am active in housing issues, serving as Vice-Chairman of our local public-housing authority and on the board of a regional housing nonprofit agency. I remain active in the firearms rights movement and am an honorary board member of the Calguns Foundation, a nonprofit civil-rights organization. My wife and I try to attend Boomershoot ( www.boomershoot.org) every year. Life's good.
Anthony Pagkas: Well, here's my situation; my wife, Charissa, and I have two wonderful daughters. Stella is 9, and Kyra is 3. We had a great time this summer in Rhodes, Greece, where most of my family lives. My solo practice in San Jose has grown. I have a great partner, Chris D'Anjou, and we do civil litigation (both sides), criminal defense, a little family law, and we've been representing nightclubs for several years. I am also co-owner of a restaurant/lounge called MYTH Taverna* Lounge in San Jose. We opened in July and it's been amazing. We're working on two more locations.
And from Andy and the Garza clan: The lovely Miss Stacy has been working for a few years now at Shenandoah Vineyards in Amador County and invites anyone in the area to drop by for a tasting. Caleb has entered 4th Grade and the wonder twins, Sophia and Jonah are in 1st Grade. I am now in my third year of a one year tour at the Military Department, on leave from the California Attorney Generals. For the Garzas, life is good.
Many thanks to those who responded with their latest news. For those who lurk out there, somewhere, I hope things for you are well. Even if I’m not soliciting for an update, I’d still like to hear from you whenever you have time.
Well, from what I can tell, we’re twelve years out and rather content.
-Class Agent Jennifer Novak '96
Marc Alcser should take an award for still being with the same firm (Straddling Yocca) since school. He reports that life is good for the family (Lisa, Alexa, Halle). He surfs, works and serves as Chief for his YMCA Indian Princess tribe.
It sounds a little like Andreas Garza, who feels like he’s “living in a Norman Rockwell painting.” Although he’s had to readjust from army to civilian life, he’s watching Caleb, Sophia and Jonah grow “like weeds,” as they play T-ball, attend kindergarten and generally drive their parents nuts. He invites people to visit the Shenandoah Winery near Plymouth, California, where Stacy is now working part-time.
Chad and Lisa (Taylor ’97) Carlock report a relatively quiet and good life. Chad’s in solo private practice in downtown Davis (see www.chadcarlock.com ). Lisa works part-time for King Hall’s Career Services. They have a son in second grade and a 3 ½-year old daughter.
Scott Hewett is also a solo practitioner. He reports that there’s not much news, but Troy and Reese are well, playing soccer and biking.
Kathleen (Quinlan) Brown practices construction defect litigation as in in-house attorney for Travelers. She lives in Sacramento with husband Devin, daughter Maddy and German Shepherd Baliff (still going strong from law school days); they spend most of their free time up in the mountains.
If you want to feel old, Mark Tade says that his daughter Lily (Perfect Tender, Class of ’96) is now 13 and finishing 7 th grade. Mark continues as the Employee Relations Manager for the 2400 employees at U.S. Steel in Granite City, Illinois. He, along with Cathy, Lily and son, John have been traveling to Thailand, Mexico and various locations in the U.S. when he’s not working hard and being a proud dad.
Along similar lines, Tracy Edwards reports that son Tyler is a fine young man (apparently he doesn’t cry as much as he did at Perfect Tender) who now plays freshman football and wrestles. Tracy seems to be raising her own sports team, as daughter Miranda plays soccer and dances, while son Payton plays baseball, soccer and runs track. Tracy still serves as CEO of the Redding Rancheria. She offers probably the most interesting King Hall alum news: she’ll soon be participating in a community “Dancing with the Stars” fundraiser.
Katherine Porter Ragusa lives in San Francisco with husband Rick, daughter Ella (9) and son Max (6). She continues to work as Senior Counsel at Wells Fargo, where she advises the company’s Wealth Management Group nationally on trust and estate issues.
Across the bay, David Lorie and wife Kena just bought a house in the Oakland/Rockridge area. In January, he went to work for GoFish ( www.gofishcorp.com).
Just to complete the internet links, Marvin Mizell was recently elected to the San Diego County Bar Association’s Board of Directors ( www.sdcba.org, click on board of directors). He’s been practicing criminal law with the California Attorney General’s Office for almost ten years. He has successfully argued capital cases in the California Supreme Court and in the Ninth Circuit.
Laura Heyck is also among those fine folks in state service, working for the State Agricultural Labor Relations Board in Sacramento. Laura just had her first baby, a girl, Claire, last summer.
To wrap things up, I’ve seen Miguel Valdovinos recently and he is well. He is still at the Riverside County D.A.’s Office, but has moved up into administration. He and wife Hilda just celebrated the birth of their first baby, Natalie, and having seen the photos, I assure you that she’s beautiful.
Finally, there are those who didn’t share news, but I’d still like to include them in the “alive and well” category: Bijal Vakil, David Owen, Clifford Wang, Jung Park, Josh Cohen and Jennifer Grange. I’ll include Tracy Winsor here as well, as we bumped into each other at the State Bar’s Environmental Law Negotiations Competition in April for which Tracy wrote an incredible fact pattern based on a rather nasty case she recently handled. It was fun to see Tracy and, overall, a good time. Thank you to everyone who responded with news. I enjoyed hearing from everyone and look forward to hearing more in the future.