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March 2026

  • Ingrid Evans, ’95, won a $47 million verdict in Los Angeles Superior Court for a plaintiff victimized by three defendants in a financial fraud elder abuse trial. She is a principal at Evans Law Firm Inc. in San Francisco.
  • Hanni Fakhoury, ’07, was appointed to serve as a judge of the Contra Costa County Superior Court. He is a partner at Moeel Lin Fakhoury in Berkeley and a former assistant federal public defender.
  • Kendall Fisher-Wu, ’18, has rejoined the labor and employment team at Boutin Jones, representing employers in various disputes, including class actions and PAGA claims.
  • Kelly Honig, '90, is serving her third term as a councilmember for the City of Westlake Village, having served as Mayor in 2020 and 2025. She is currently running for the California State Assembly in District 42 in the 2026 election.
  • Venus Johnson, ’05, has joined Jenner & Block as special counsel in its San Francisco office. As the chief deputy attorney general, she was the second-highest-ranking official in the California State Department of Justice and oversaw nearly 5,000 employees.
  • Vanessa Raven, ’13, was co-counsel for a plaintiff who obtained an $8 million settlement in a birth injury medical malpractice case. She is a senior attorney at Ikuta Hemesath LLP’s office in Sacramento.
  • Shani Roark, ’12, has been appointed to a judgeship on the Placer County Superior Court. A former Smith, Koyama & Costello attorney, she has most recently served as a court commissioner since 2024.
  • Sydney Schreiner, ’25, has joined Kronick Moscovitz in Sacramento as an associate, where she represents public and private entities in a broad range of litigation and regulatory matters.
  • Marshall Silberberg, ’73, was co-counsel for a plaintiff who obtained an $8 million award in an Orange Superior Court medical malpractice case. He is the founder of the Law Office of Marshall Silberberg in Irvine.
  • Anthony Valenti, ’12, was installed as the new president of the Placer County Bar Association at the organization’s annual dinner. He is an associate at Herrig, Vogt, and Hensley LLP in Granite Bay.
  • Stan Van Vleck, ’91, was named the Sacramento Chamber of Commerce Businessman of the Year at the chamber’s annual black-tie gala. A former attorney, he is the president of the Van Vleck Ranch in Rancho Murieta.

February 2026

  • Mark Amodei, 82, announced that he will not seek re-election to an eighth full term in the House of Representatives. The republican Carson City attorney has represented Nevada’s 2nd Congressional District since 2011.
  • Mark Ankcorn, ’93, was a member of a plaintiff team that obtained a $12 million settlement in a San Diego Superior Court consumer protection case. He is a San Diego senior chief deputy city attorney.
  • Lori Asuncion, ’05, was appointed as the new Antioch City Attorney by the community’s city council. She brings 18 years of experience in municipal law, having most recently served as the city attorney in Stockton.
  • Noah Blechman, ’98, and Peter Hirsig, ’98, were co-counsel for a team that won a defense verdict in a Napa Superior Court trial involving a fatal traffic stop police shooting. Both are McNamara Firm partners, with the former working out of its Pleasant Hill office and the latter based in Fairfield.
  • Douglas Brown, ’01, has joined Benson & Bingham Injury Law as a partner. Prior to joining the Las Vegas firm, he was a shareholder at Lemons, Grundy & Eisenberg who spent much of his legal career in insurance defense.
  • Anne Collins,’06, and Regina Garza, ’07, were elevated to equity partners at Lozano Smith LLP. Collins has built a practice focused on governance, litigation, and facilities and business matters at the firm’s Sacramento office, while Garza has been instrumental in the expansion of the firm’s municipal practice group working out of its Fresno branch.
  • Michael Crisostomo, ’22, was recognized as the Washoe County Law Library’s volunteer of the year for his pro bono work with library visitors. He is an associate at Holland & Hart in Reno.
  • Jacob Goldman, ’24, was named Bucknell University’s coordinator of compliance and student services in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania.
  • Danielle Guard, ’94, was a member of a plaintiff team that obtained a $43.3 million settlement in a Sacramento Superior Court class-action case brought by cardrooms against the state for alleged overcharges. She is a senior attorney at J. Blonien APLC in Sacramento.
  • S.J. Hammon, ’25, has joined Matheny Sears Linkert & Jaime as a litigation associate. Her practice areas will include business solutions, public entity defense, and products liability.
  • Paul Lin, ’97, has joined Morrison & Foerster LLP in Los Angeles as a partner. An expert on complex cross-border transactions, he was formerly with Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld.
  • Lawrence Marks, ’90, was co-counsel for a plaintiff who won a $4.1 million verdict in Los Angeles Superior Court in a school incident sexual molestation case. He is a senior attorney at Mardirossian Akaragian LLP.
  • Elisabeth Morris, ’00, has joined Kahana Feld as a partner in the Walnut Creek firm’s construction litigation group, where her practice focuses on general liability and complex insurance defense.
  • Casey Shorrock, ’19, has been promoted to shareholder at Somach Simmons & Dunn in Sacramento. Her practice focuses on CEQA, NEPA, natural resources, including water, and land use.
  • Curtis Vandermolen, ’20, has been promoted to senior counsel at Kronick, where his practice in Sacramento includes federal Indian law’s relationship to sovereignty and environmental issues.
  • Matt Wilber, ’95, was featured on television’s See No Evil (Season 14, Episode 5). He has served as the Pottawattamie County Attorney in Council Bluffs, Iowa, for 24 years and is a member of the National District Attorneys Association board of directors.

January 2026

  • Carl Calnero, ’84, and Will Camy, ’13, won a defense verdict in a U.S. District Court, Northern District of California case involving a fentanyl inmate death in a Sonoma County jail. Both are partners at Porter Scott in Sacramento.
  • Valerie Chrissakis, ’96, was promoted to partner at Wesierski & Zurek in Lake Forest. She is a former judge of the Superior Court of California.
  • Bruce Disenhouse, ’77, won a $4.5 million writ of mandamus defamation verdict in a decade-old Riverside Superior Court case. He is a principal at Disenhouse Law APC in Riverside.
  • Dana Fox, ’84, has joined the plaintiff firm of BD&J in Los Angeles as a partner in Los Angeles. A nationally recognized defense trial lawyer, he was a longtime partner at Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith, who tried numerous high-profile cases.
  • Uri Grant, ’19, has joined Weintraub Tobin as a shareholder in the Sacramento firm’s trusts & estates group. An experienced litigator, he represents beneficiaries, trustees, conservators, and professional fiduciaries in probate, trust, and conservatorship disputes.
  • Miranda Lathrop Barber, ’01, has been recognized by Marquis Who’s Who Top Lawyers for her work at Barber Tubis Law PC in Fairfield. Civic organizations and community managing partner, Solano County Women, Fairfield Daily Republic.
  • Timothy Lee, ’83, helped secure a $1.5 million settlement for homeowners as co-counsel in a Los Angeles Superior Court inverse condemnation case. He is a principal at the Law Offices of Timothy R. Lee in Los Angeles.
  • Robert Packer, ’76, was a member of a successful defense team that won a medical malpractice verdict in Los Angeles Superior Court in which the plaintiff sought $25 million in damages. He is a senior partner at Packer, O’Leary & Corson in Glendale.
  • Mark Potter, ’93, was a member of a plaintiff team that obtained a $15 million settlement in Los Angeles Superior Court for plaintiffs who alleged wage-and-hour violations by a major healthcare company. He is a partner at Potter Handy LLP in Friendswood, Texas.
  • Christinia D. Smith, ’19, was elevated to partner at Griswold LaSalle Cobb Dowd & Gin in Hanford. Her expertise in labor and employment law allows her to represent a variety of business clients in human resources matters in the Central Valley.
  • Robin Smith, ’89, was co-counsel for a plaintiff injured in an auto accident who won an $8.7 million verdict in a Sacramento Superior Court trial. He is the owner of the R. J. Smith Law Office in Roseville.
  • Erin Tognetti, ’11, has been elected as an income partner at Hawley Troxell’s office in Pocatello, Idaho. Prior to joining the Boise-based firm, she served three years as the senior prosecuting attorney for Bannock County.
  • Robert Vaage, ’82, was the lead attorney for an injured patient who won an $18 million verdict in a San Diego Superior Court medical malpractice trial. A principal at Vaage Law in San Diego, he is widely recognized as one of the top plaintiff lawyers in the state.

In Memoriam

  • Ronald Blubaugh, ’75, died at the age of 87 on March 21, 2026, in Sacramento. He was a chief administrative law judge for the state where he worked until age 65. His post-retirement years were spent as a volunteer attorney who won the 2011 State Bar of California President’s Pro Bono Service Award.
  • Ronald Harrison, ’65, died at the age of 90 on February 28, 2026, in Sacramento. He was a Caltrans trial attorney who represented the state in many tort actions and retired as an assistant chief counsel.
  • Patricia Mar, ’69, died at the age of 83 on February 20, 2026, in San Francisco. A prominent Bay Area figure and bankruptcy expert, she was a partner at Feldman, Waldman, and Kline and then joined the international Morrison & Foerster firm as a partner.
  • Robert Roth, ’74, died at the age of 78 on February 20, 2026, in Sacramento. A family law attorney, he was a longtime partner at Hiroshima, Jacobs, Roth & Lewis who also practiced corporation and business law.
  • Joseph Carpenter, ’85, died at the age of 75 on November 30, 2025, in Carson City, Nevada, after suffering a stroke four months earlier. He served as a legal counsel to the Nevada Supreme Court from 1985 to 2008.
  • Joseph Cooper, ’69, died at the age of 88 on January 26, 2026, in Sacramento. A well-known workers’ comp and personal injury sole practitioner, he was the former McGeorge Alumni Board member who co-founded the law school’s popular annual MCLE day program in 1996.
  • Roger S. Doyle, ’08, died of natural causes at the age of 52 on November 4, 2025, in Bend, Oregon. Licensed in California and Nevada, he spent the majority of his legal career in Nevada protecting consumers and criminal defendants.
  • Jeffry Jones, ’79, died in Carmichael on June 24, 2025, from complications following a stroke. During his long and successful career as a real estate attorney at McDonough Holland & Allen and later Boutin Jones, he was widely recognized as one of the leading real property lawyers in the state.
  • John A. Kruse ’81, died of cancer at the age of 70 on January 12, 2026, in Marshfield, Wisconsin. He built a successful practice as a family law attorney in central Wisconsin while also serving as a Marshfield Municipal Court judge.
  • Jack Nissen, ’76, died unexpectedly at the age of 82 on January 6, 2026, in Placerville. After starting his legal career at Hefner, Stark & Marois, he went into private practice and became a longtime partner at Nissen & Douglas in Gold River.