Big Daddy Speaks Out (PDF)
“Lobbyist Clay Jackson finally talks about last year’s insurance initiatives”
Clay Jackson, one of the highest paid and most powerful of California’s lawyer-lobbyists, has broken the lobbyists, has broken the lobbyists’ code of silence about his relationship with a client.
The Sacramento Sting (PDF)
“A state senator goes on trial in the first test of the capital corruption probe”
Joseph Montoya was a Los Angeles social worker and a La Puente city councilman earning less than $14,000 annually when he was elected to the state Legislature in 1972.
Trapped in Time (PDF)
“A state archives exhibit takes a look back into California’s prisons”
Preserved behind glass, the big brown ledger offers compelling commentary on conditions in California prisons in the late 19th century. In elaborate, fading script, the “San Quentin Punishment Record Book, 1872-86” details lashings and floggings and other forms of punishment common in prisons at the time.
The Needles and the Damage Done (PDF)
“Sacramento tests the legacy of needle exchanges”
California’s municipal governments, struggling to combat the rapid spread of HIV infection, are seeking ways to override the statutory prohibitions on hypodermic needle exchanges.
The Lobbying Game (PDF)
“Lawyers learn to play”
Michael V. Franchetti, former state finance director and a longtime top aide to Governor George Deukmejian, practices law with his wife, Tiffany, in the San Francisco firm of Franchetti & Franchetti.
An Aide to Legislation
(PDF)
In the heat of high-stakes negotiations to forestall the bruising 1988 insurance initiative wars, a crucial meeting was held in the attorney general’s office. Into this conference of politicians, insurance, executives, lobbyists and high-powered lawyers walked a young legislative aide, wearing shorts.
In Defense of the Prosecution
(PDF)
The final week of last October was about the worst possible time for Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney Wendy Widlus’s misconduct to come to the attention of her boss.
Low Crimes in High Places
(PDF)
With campaign reform eclipsing insurance as the cause celebrate in the Capitol, politicians are scurrying to introduce measures to curb the escalating fund-raising race – and the questionable ethics that often accompany it.
No Sex Please, We’re Lawyers
(PDF)
The sexual involvement of lawyers with their clients has long been regarded in the profession as a subject best left to polite discussions of ethics and “appropriate” professional demeanor. Lately, it has also become the subject of state legislation and proposed new rules of professional conduct.
The Bill to End All Bills (PDF)
Concern about too many legislative bills has generated – you guessed it – another bill. This time the measure would limit the number of bills a legislator can introduce during a legislative session.
The Gripes of Wrath
(PDF)
As if legislative lawyers didn’t have enough to worry about, Assembly Speaker Willie Brown recently gave them one more occupational headache.
Van de Kamp’s Achilles’ Heel (PDF)
Prosecutorial discretion – the decision to file, not to file, what changes to file and how many – is surely among the thorniest of legal dilemmas. Rarely is it a matter intruding on the election of a California governor.
