Eighteen months after its former controller embezzled more than $800,000 from the organization, the Beverly Hills Bar Association is getting its financial house in order.
David Wolf, who had served as controller for four years, depleted the group’s operating fund, reserves and investments. He also left $85,000 in unpaid bills. Wolf pleaded guilty last year to three counts of creating forged checks and was sentenced to a maximum penalty of 33 months in prison.
“I’ve been involved with the Bar Association for over 20 years, and we had never gone through anything like this,” said Marc Staenberg, who became executive director of the Beverly Hills Bar Association this year. “You hear stories, but you don’t think it’ll happen to you.”
Despite the fraud, the association was able to maintain the pro bono legal programs and law school scholarships that are staples of such organizations. It was able to maintain its offerings of continuing education programs that lawyers need to take to maintain active bar status.
In a State of the Bar address last month, Staenberg told members that the association successfully obtained lines of credit and settled legal claims against the entities that approved the checks, including City National Bank and Washington Mutual.
It also settled claims with its insurance carriers while receiving more than $180,000 in emergency pledges from members.
Now, the bar has brought back its pro bono services and law school scholarships, and Staenberg said the 3,600-member association has made significant internal changes, including check handling. “We always required two signatures, but now we require the signers sign in front of one another,” he said.
He said that bank statements are now sent to the controller, the executive director, the treasurer and an outside CPA. Before, only the controller and the executive director reviewed the accounts. Also, he said, “I literally look at and improve every invoice before it’s paid. If I see there’s a past balance, I get the opportunity to raise the question. That didn’t happen before.”
Changing Ward
Cheryl Ward, a former top official at the Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office, has been named interim dean of the University of West Los Angeles’ School of Law.
At the City Attorney’s Office, Ward served as chief of the criminal branch operations, supervisor of the trial division and assistant manager of the civil liability division. In 1998, Ward served as special counsel to former Los Angeles Police Chief Bernard Parks. In 2001, she became managing assistant of the police general counsel at the City Attorney’s Office.
Most recently, Ward was one of several lawyers at the City Attorney’s Office who advised airport police on homeland security and other federal issues. She retired last year.
At the University of West Los Angeles, Ward replaces Anne Arvin, who will become a faculty member and accreditation liaison. The law school, which was sanctioned by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges in 1999, has been working to improve its accreditation status over the past several years.
Big Suit
Big Lots Inc. has been hit with a wide-ranging sexual harassment lawsuit by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on behalf of a former part-time cashier at its Long Beach store.
After investigating the claims of store worker Toya Stamps, the EEOC says in its suit that the Ohio-based retailer of overstock and other discounted items must “institute and carry out policies, practices and programs which provide equal employment opportunities for women.”
The EEOC filed suit after Stamps, who began working at the store in September 2001, complained that she had been harassed by the store manager and was let go after complaining.
“It’s our contention she was fired,” said Sue Noh, a lawyer at the EEOC’s Los Angeles office. “They claim she wasn’t.”
The EEOC, which filed suit in U.S. District Court downtown, is seeking lost wages and up to $300,000 in compensatory and punitive damages, in addition to the changes in its policies, Noh said.
Big Lots did not return calls.
Clothing Lines
Clothing retailer Charlotte Russe Holding Inc. paid $800 to a Los Angeles garment worker who was denied minimum wage and overtime while working in a downtown factory.
The garment worker at Pocket Fashion, a Charlotte Russe contractor on East Pico Boulevard, was the third to receive a payment after filing a claim with the state’s Labor Commissioner, said Christina Chung, staff attorney at the Asian Pacific American Legal Center of Southern California.
The other two workers settled with San Diego-based Charlotte Russe in June for an undisclosed amount.
In the most recent case, the Labor Commissioner found that Socorro Camacho, who filed a claim for wages in January 2004, worked six days a week for 10 & #733; hours a day. She also was paid by the piece and worked off-the-clock. Under California law, clothing companies are legally responsible for the labor practices of sweatshops with which they have contracts.
Charlotte Russe does not plan to appeal the Labor Commissioner’s ruling.
Comings & Goings
A senior trial counsel in the enforcement division of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Pacific Regional Office has joined DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary US LLP in Los Angeles. Nicolas Morgan, who was at the SEC for seven years, joins the firm’s 50-member securities litigation practice of counsel Two local partners at Latham & Watkins LLP, Alex Voxman and Paul Tosetti, represented Intermix Media Inc. in its $580 million sale to News Corp. last month.
A local lawyer at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP, Ed Perron, helped lead a 35-member team representing News Corp. in the deal Sidley Austin Brown & Wood LLP elected five local lawyers to its 600-member partnership ranks last month. Across the firm, 28 associates and counsel were named new partners.
*Staff reporter Amanda Bronstad can be reached at (323) 549-5225, ext. 225, or at
[email protected]
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