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June 2025

  • Valerie Chrissakis, ’96, has joined Wesierski & Zurek LLP in Lake Forest as a senior counselor. She served as a judge of the Kings County Superior Court from 2017 until retiring from the bench in February.
  • Liz DeChellis, ’12, and Laura Lewis, ’97, were named to the Sacramento Business Journal’s 2025 Women Who Mean Business list. DeChellis is a partner and program director of the Title IX group at Vander Myden Makus Corp in Sacramento, and Lewis is the Chief Legal and Government Affairs Officer at SMUD.
  • Talia Delanoy, ’05, has joined Weintraub Tobin as a shareholder in the Sacramento firm’s labor & employment group. She was formerly a partner at Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani.
  • Dylan Dewit, ’19, Matt Gross, ’18, and C.J. Ninke, ’19, have been elevated to shareholders at Porter Scott. The three classmates are the newest partners at one of Sacramento’s largest firms.
  • Scott Hengesbach, ’89, has joined Signature Resolution, an alternative dispute resolution firm in Los Angeles. He was a longtime partner and chair of the toxic tort and environmental law practice group at Murchison & Cumming LLP.
  • Jeanne Loftis, ’91, has been named executive secretary of the Association of Defense Trial Attorneys council class. A partner at Baker Sterchi Cowden & Rice in Portland, Oregon, she was recently recognized with the ADTA’s Presidential Award.
  • Alana Mathews, ’03, LL.M. ’04, has been appointed deputy secretary and general counsel at the California Environmental Protection Agency. She has served as an assistant district attorney at the Contra Costa District Attorney’s office since 2022
  • Eurik O’Bryant, ’14, has been promoted to shareholder at Kroloff, Belcher, Smart, Perry & Christoferson in Stockton, where he is a member of the firm’s trust & estate and litigation practices.
  • Laura Reich, ’04, has joined Kronick Moscovitz Tiedemann & Girard as an associate in Sacramento, bringing more than a decade of experience in labor and employment law.
  • Michael Vergara, ’88, has joined Downey Brand’s environmental and natural resources practice. Previously with Somach, Simmons & Dunn, he has three decades of experience in major regulatory, compliance, and litigation issues.

May 2025

  • Mohamed Eldessouky, ’12, was a co-counsel for a plaintiff who won a $34.7 million verdict against Walmart in an employment law defamation case in San Bernardino Superior Court. He is the founder of Eldessouky Law in Los Angeles.
  • Russell Frink, ’14, and Vance Piggott, ’13, were promoted to shareholders at Kronick Moskovitz Tiedemann & Girard in Sacramento. The former advises clients in environmental law, and the latter advises public and private sector entities in employment law.
  • Payton Hart, ’24, was sworn in as a prosecutor in the Washoe County District Attorney’s office in Reno, where she will work with the misdemeanor team.
  • Michael Mooney, ’11, has been appointed to serve as a judge on the Orange County Superior Court. He has served as a senior deputy public defender at the Orange County Public Defender’s Office since 2012.
  • Anthony Pane, ’04, was named chief counsel at the First 5 California Commission. He brings more than 15 years of legal experience in state government to the nonprofit child advocacy organization that promotes and funds early childhood development.
  • Scott Radcliffe, ’11, won a $1.12 million arbitration award in a securities fraud case involving alleged breach of fiduciary duty. He also won a defense verdict in a San Francisco Superior Court claim of negligence trial that involved the collapse of a retaining wall following an extreme rainfall. He is a partner at Alves Radcliffe LLP in Gold River.
  • Matthew Read, ’14, has been appointed chief counsel at the Governor’s Office of Land Use and Climate Innovation. From 2021 to 2024, he held multiple roles at the California Strategic Growth Council, including acting executive director and staff counsel.
  • Marshall Silberberg, ’73, was co-counsel for a plaintiff who won a $5 million arbitration award in an insurance bad faith case. A senior partner at the Law Office of Marshall Silberberg in Irvine, he also helped obtain a $7.8 million settlement for an injured cyclist in a Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit.
  • Christina Smith, ’19, and Mario Zamora, ’08, won a defense jury verdict in a Kings County Superior Court trial involving alleged gender and disability discrimination. She is a senior associate, and he is the managing partner, at Griswold, LaSalle, Cobb, Dowd & Gin in Hanford.
  • Martin Tejeda, ’00, has been appointed to serve as a judge on the Sacramento County Superior Court. With 20 years’ experience in private practice, the current court commissioner fills the vacancy created by the appointment of Judge Dena Coggins,’06, to the federal bench.
  • Tiffany Tello, ’21, has joined Delfino Madden O’Malley Coyle & Koelwer LLP, where she is a member of the Sacramento firm’s employment and litigation group.
  • Francesca Torres, ’22, has joined Boutin Jones in Sacramento and will represent clients in a variety of business and civil litigation matters, as she previously did at another local firm.
  • Ty Vanderford, ’87, was co-counsel for a defense team that won a nonsuit bench decision in Los Angeles Superior Court for a school district in a negligent supervision case. He is a partner at Vanderford & Ruiz LLP in South Pasadena.
  • Arash Yahyai, ’12, won a summary judgment in Fresno Superior Court in defense of a church that was charged with negligent supervision in an alleged childhood sexual assault. He is a litigation counsel for GuideOne Insurance in San Diego.

April 2025

  • Dylan Frehner, ’04, was appointed to a judgeship on Nevada’s Seventh Judicial District by Governor Joe Lombardo. He has served as the Lincoln County District Attorney in Pioche since 2018.
  • Ognian Gavrilov, ’08, was co-counsel for a plaintiff team that obtained an $11 million settlement in Riverside County Superior Court in a wrongful death case against a rehabilitation facility. He is a senior partner at Gavrilov & Brooks in Sacramento.
  • Amy Higuera, ’04, has joined Stoel Rives as a partner in its land use and environmental law practice at its San Francisco office. She was previously a partner at Downey Brand.
  • Jeffrey Huron, ’88, has joined Stinson LLP’s West Coast expansion and taken a litigation partner position in its new Los Angeles office in Century City. He handles high-stakes business and real estate disputes, representing clients in a wide range of industries.
  • Bryan Lamb, ’98, won a $7.9 million jury verdict in a San Francisco Superior Court false imprisonment trial involving an impaired man who was dropped off on a dangerous street by a cab driver. He is partner at Lamb & Frischer LLP in San Francisco.
  • Marcie Murtha, ’24, has joined Boutin Jones Inc. as an associate in Sacramento, where she will focus her practice on contract disputes and partnership issues.
  • Lorraine Paskett, ’95, was named the chief operating officer at First Public Hydrogen Authority in Lancaster. She brings to the new public utility more than two decades of executive leadership experience across California’s energy and water sectors.
  • Uzzi Raanan, ’92, has joined Greenberg Glusker LLP as a partner in Los Angeles. A bankruptcy attorney, he worked for Danning, Gill, Israel & Krasnoff for more than 23 years before that firm shuttered earlier this year.
  • Karen Sullivan, ’01, has joined Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani as a partner in its San Diego office. Her defense of products liability litigation in environmental toxic tort practice encompasses a wide range of cases.
  • Patrick Toole, ’97, and James Keowen,’94, were the leaders of a three-office team that won a defense verdict in a San Joaquin County Superior Court wrongful death trial involving a fatal traffic accident. Toole is a shareholder at Wanger, Jones & Helsley PC in Fresno, and Keowen is a Caltrans deputy attorney.
  • Kara Tredway, ’11, has joined Fox Rothschild as counsel in its Seattle office. She represents clients in all stages of commercial litigation, from inception through trial.

March 2025

  • Michelle Albright, ’07, has rejoined Downey Brand as counsel in the firm’s family law group. The veteran attorney most recently spent seven years working as an attorney supervisor for the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration.
  • Rachel Balchum, ’13, was promoted to partner at Burke, Williams & Sorensen LLP in San Francisco, where she is a member of the labor and employment law and litigation practice group.
  • Stephanie Cahn, ’97, was named the acting deputy general counsel of the National Labor Relations Board. She has spent her entire career in NLRB Region 21 in downtown Los Angeles since starting as a field attorney at the agency in 1997.
  • Clayton Graham, ’09, has joined Goldberg Segalla in its retail and hospitality group in Los Angeles. His practice focus includes advising and defending national developers, shopping centers, and hotels on construction matters.
  • Robert Green, ’84, obtained an $8 million settlement as co-counsel for the plaintiffs in a U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, data breach case. He is a partner at Green & Noblin PC in Tiburon.
  • Kaitlyn Saberlin, ’10, has been named the leader of Delfino Madden O’Malley Coyle & Koewler’s corporate practice group. She is a partner at the Sacramento firm.
  • Lee Sheldon, ’09, was promoted to shareholder at Littler Mendelson in San Francisco. A civil litigation attorney, he defends employers in a wide range of labor and employment disputes, including wrongful termination.
  • Trey Van Dyke ’23, has joined Kronick Moskovitz Tiedemann & Girard as an associate in Sacramento where his caseload includes resolving construction defect and interstate shipping disputes.
  • Juliana West ’19, has joined Purcell Stowell PC’s family law firm in Folsom. She has represented hundreds of clients on child custody, child and spousal support, and divorce division of assets.

February 2025

  • Derek Cole, ’99, was selected to serve as the interim city attorney for Antioch. A municipal law specialist, he is the founding partner of Cole Huber LLP and the manager of its Roseville office.
  • Dana Crom, ’90, was appointed Inyo County District Attorney by that county’s board of supervisors. A former deputy county counsel and contract public defender, she has been a prosecutor for the past decade.
  • Farima Feizi, ’22, has joined Kronick Moskovitz Tiedemann & Girard in Sacramento. She specializes in employer representation on employment law issues including wage and hour actions.
  • Monica Folsom, ’03, has been named managing partner at Delfino Madden O’Malley Coyle & Koewler in Sacramento, where she advises business clients, including non-profits, on employment law issues.
  • Randall Harr, ’82, was appointed to serve as a judge in the Moduc County Superior Court. A partner at Maire & Deedon since 2022, he operated the Law Office of Randall Harr from 2011 to 2022.
  • Albert Herson, ’84, has joined Meyers Nave in an of counsel capacity following the merger of The Sohagi Law Group with the larger Los Angeles firm. He is widely recognized as one of the leading environmental and land use law lawyers in the state.
  • Zachary Jayousi, ’24, Nicole Kuklo, ’24, Madeline Mezger, ’23, and Andrew Pereira, ’24, joined Matheny Sears Linkert & Jaime LLP as associates in Sacramento.
  • Andrew Kelly, ’11, was appointed the Kannapolis City Attorney in North Carolina. He has served as a senior assistant attorney in nearby Charlotte for many years.
  • Mike Madokoro, ’89, was appointed to serve as a judge in the Los Angeles County Superior Court. A partner at Bowman & Brooke LLP since 1999, he has been the managing partner or co-managing partner there for almost two decades.
  • Mark McCannon, ’96, has been appointed to a judgeship on the San Mateo County Superior Court. He moved over from the Alameda County Superior Court bench, where he had been a judge since 2013.
  • Erin Price ’17, has been elected partner at Fisher Phillips LLP in Sacramento, where she represents private and public employers in various aspects of labor and employment law.
  • Shaun Spillane, ’08, has been appointed chief deputy inspector general at the California Office of the Inspector General, where he has served as chief counsel since 2023.
  • Ryan Thomason, ’18, has rejoined Mitchell Chadwick LLP as senior counsel in Roseville, where his practice includes a focus on environmental land use entitlements.
  • Jennifer Willis, ’01, has joined Murphy Austin Adams Schoenfeld in an of counsel capacity in Sacramento, where she represents clients on complex construction litigation matters.

January 2025

  • Jan Aune, ’04, won a $1.5 million plaintiff jury verdict in a Contra Costa Superior Court wrongful termination, whistle-blower trial. He is the owner of the Law Office of Jan T. Aune in Burbank.
  • Kristen Cerf, ’06, was named to the Protect Access to Health Care Act Stakeholder Advisory Committee by Governor Gavin Newsom. She is the president and CEO of the Blue Shield of California Promise Health Plan.
  • Krista Dunzweiler, ’03, has been appointed chief deputy general counsel at the California Department of Corrections’ Office of Legal Affairs. She has served in another leadership position in that agency since 2019.
  • Mariam El-Menshawi, ’11, has been appointed chief of the Office of Victims and Survivor Rights and Services at the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. A state hearing officer, she is a McGeorge adjunct professor who has held several posts in the past decade at the law school’s Victim Resource Center.
  • Melissa Hurtado, ’22, has joined Kronick Moskovitz Tiedemann & Girard as an associate in Sacramento, where her duties include providing litigation support in healthcare law disputes.
  • Bryan Lamb, ’98, was co-counsel for plaintiffs who obtained a $15 million settlement in a Napa Superior Court wrongful-death case involving a traffic accident. He is co-founder of Lamb & Frischer LLP in San Francisco and Monterey.
  • Chris Maloney, ’16, has been promoted to partner at Wilson Elser Moskowitz Edelman & Dicker in San Francisco, where his practice focuses on the defense of claims related to general liability, automobile accidents, and personal injury.
  • Charles Trainor, ’77, has opened Trainor Law in Sacramento. Last year, the veteran real estate attorney completed the merger of his former firm, Trainor Fairbrook, with the Sacramento office of the national Buchalter firm.
  • Monika Troike, ’15, won a defense summary judgment for her client in a San Francisco Superior Court premises liability personal injury case. She is a partner at Jones Dyer APC in Sacramento.

In Memoriam

  • Gerald Langle, ’72, died at the age of 85 on June 16, 2025, in Lincoln. He was a well-known general practitioner in his adopted Placer County town, where he represented clients for 44 of his 51 years in legal practice.
  • Rodney Key, ’86, died at the age of 67 on April 12, 2025, in Gearhart, Oregon. He practiced law in Redding for more than 35 years, including as the owner of the Law Office of Rodney J. Key with a specialty in construction law.
  • David Hadly, ’76, died after a brief illness at the age of 81 on April 21, 2025, in Kalispell, Montana. A highly decorated Vietnam veteran, he worked for 20 years for the California State Lands Commission before retiring and moving to Montana in the late ’90s.
  • Lucinda Pocan, ’76, died after a long illness at the age of 77 on May 16, 2025, in Sacramento. A well-known community volunteer, her law practice included workers’ comp, personal injury and medical malpractice cases.
  • Kenneth Kimble, ’70, died at the age of 88 on March 3, 2025, in Hilo, Hawaii. A world traveler who spent many of his retirement years in Mexico, his longtime Roseville practice included a specialty in accounting law.
  • David Ross, ’73, died at the age of 77 on March 6, 2025, in Temecula. He owned the Law Office of David K. Ross in Stockton and practiced law for 47 years in San Joaquin County until his retirement in 2020.
  • Gayle Lau, ’74, died at the age of 79 on March 3, 2025, in Honolulu, Hawaii. His legal career included serving as a U.S. attorney assistant bankruptcy trustee for the Department of Justice. A JAG officer in the U.S. Navy Reserve, he also served on the McGeorge Alumni Association Board of Directors and was the representative of its Hawaii Chapter in the early 2000s.
  • Aaron Epstein, ’68, died at the age of 93 on March 11, 2025, in Washington, D.C. An award-winning investigative journalist early in his career, he later covered the Supreme Court for two decades for numerous major national newspapers. He lunched regularly with his law professor from the 1960s, Justice Anthony Kennedy.
  • Marcella Wilson, ’90, died of cancer at the age of 64 on March 18, 2025, in Duarte. She practiced workers’ comp law with Bollington & Scott, then was a corporate lawyer for several major insurance companies, finishing her career with Farmers Insurance.
  • Thomas Byrne, ’76, died at the age of 78 on March 24, 2025, in Santa Rosa. A former U.S. Air Force pilot, he built a respected legal career that included work as an attorney for Honeywell Avionics and later as a partner in private practice in Sonoma County.
  • Ellen Seaborne, ’85, died at the age of 80 on April 2, 2025, in Phoenix. A former elementary school teacher in California, she took her law degree to Arizona and practiced family law with Ellen M. Seaborne & Associates for 30 years in Flagstaff and Goodyear.
  • Royle Melton, ’81, died at the age of 70 on February 26, 2025, in Reno, Nevada. After working for two U.S. senators, he served as a Nevada Legislative Council Bureau attorney, a Churchill County prosecutor, a Nevada Judicial Council staffer, and a private attorney.
  • Roberta Ranstrom, ’72, died at the age of 91 on February 18, 2025, in Davis. A registered nurse, she used her law degree to practice poverty law, retiring as executive director and board member of the Legal Services of Northern California in 1999.
  • Robert Lindsay, ’74, died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 75 on July 16, 2024, in Reno, Nevada. He was a criminal defense sole practitioner whose specialties included defending marijuana law cases.
  • John Haluck, ’79, died at the age of 73 on January 18, 2025, in Roseville. A defense litigator, he held partner positions in prominent Sacramento firms, including The Diepenbrock Law Firm and Koeller, Nebeker, Carlson & Haluck, while also forging a distinguished career in the U.S. Air Force.