Richard Benes graduated from Yale University (B.A. 1969) and the University of Southern California (J.D. 1976), where he was Executive Editor of the law review. His 47-year career practicing appellate law in San Diego was launched by service as an extern law clerk for California Supreme Court Justice Stanley Mosk and as a research and writs attorney for the Court of Appeal for the Fourth Appellate District, Division One. After becoming a partner at Procopio, Cory, Hargreaves & Savitch, Mr. Benes formed and practiced in his own small firm, Benes & Fiorello, A P.C., and then for many years as a sole practitioner. He was among the first attorneys certified as appellate specialists in 1996 and retired from practice in 2023.

Harold (Hal) Cohen spent his entire career (more than 50 years) working behind the scenes as a judicial attorney at the California Supreme Court. 

After graduating high in his class at Harvard Law School in 1969, Hal came to the California Supreme Court for a clerkship with Justice Matthew Tobriner.  The clerkship turned into a permanent position and Hal went on to work for eight justices: Justice Tobriner, Justice Otto Kaus, Justice Joseph Grodin, Justice John Arguelles, Justice Joyce Kennard, Justice Allen Broussard, Chief Justice George, and Chief Justice Cantil-Sakauye.  There were 36 different justices and six chief justices during Hal’s tenure.  As Chief Justice Cantil-Sakauye puts it: “ ‘Hal served under 30 percent of the Court’s 117 justices, and for 30 percent of the Court’s 170-year history.’ ”  (Dear, Hal Cohen: Tributes to the California Supreme Court’s Most Extraordinary and Influential Staff Attorney (Fall/Winter 2020) 11, 18 <https://www.cschs.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/2020-CSCHS-Review-Fall-Hal-Cohen.pdf.> (as of Feb. 25, 2022) (hereafter Hal Cohen).) 

Although the details are confidential, Hal contributed directly to the drafting of hundreds of opinions and offered his brilliant insights and analysis on thousands more. As the chief supervising attorney for the entire court under Chief Justice George, Hal performed innumerable administrative tasks that helped the court run smoothly and efficiently.

When Hal retired, he stayed part-time as a retired annuitant and then continued to serve the court as a volunteer for several years without pay.  Many people say they love their job so much they would do it for free, but Hal actually did that.

Retired Chief Justice Ronald M. George described Hal “as one of the most brilliant minds that I’ve had the pleasure of encountering in any venue, and not just limited to the California Supreme Court.”  (George, Chief: The Quest for Justice in California (2013)  at pp. 635–636.)  Current Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye says that Hal “ ‘is truly a human marvel who possesses unparalleled intellect, poetry of the pen and what seems like infinite exacting knowledge of the law, chapter and verse.’ ”  (Hal Cohen at p. 18.)

There are many ways to assess the contributions of an appellate lawyer.  Although he never wrote a brief or signed an opinion, it is safe to say that no one, other than the justices themselves, have contributed more to the work of the California Supreme Court in the last half century than Hal Cohen.

The Committee on Appellate Courts is pleased to announce the 2021 recipient of the Appellate Lawyer Hall of Fame award, Wendy Lascher.

Six percent of the University of Michigan Law School’s class of 1973 were women. One was Wendy Cole Lascher, now one of California’s best-known appellate lawyers.

Wendy’s professional career began at a three-lawyer appellate firm, where she had an opportunity to handle a wide range of appeals and writs, including multimillion dollar punitive damages cases, hotly-contested divorces, complex business disputes, as well as criminal, real estate, employment, and administrative matters. In addition to representing a death penalty client before the United States Supreme Court, Wendy has appeared before the California Supreme Court, various U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeal, and in every California Court of Appeal district. Her clients range from enormous corporations to government entities to individuals caught up in the legal system.

Wendy chaired the California State Bar’s Committee on Appellate Courts, helped write the first California appellate specialization test, and chaired the State Bar’s Appellate Specialization Advisory Committee, and has served as president of both the California Academy of Appellate Lawyers and the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers. She regularly speaks about appellate law for continuing education programs, and has served for many years as co-editor of CITATIONS, the newsletter of the Ventura County Bar Association. 

In 2011, Wendy brought her practice to Ventura County’s Ferguson Case Orr Paterson. She mentors younger lawyers inside and outside the firm, reminding them that no matter how excellent their legal skills, finding time for family, friends, community, and personal life is essential. Wendy is a devoted daughter, mother and grandmother. She earned her private pilot’s license in 2018 and is working on her instrument rating.  

Dennis P. Riordan is one of the premier appellate litigators in the United States. Over more than four decades, he has argued issues of breadth and importance in criminal and civil cases in state and federal appellate courts across the country.

Before founding Riordan & Horgan with Donald Horgan in 2003, Dennis gained public attention with his thirteen-year battle through state and federal courts, including the United States Supreme Court, to vacate the murder convictions of John Spain, eventually leading to Spain’s release on a federal writ of habeas corpus. In 1985, Dennis gained reversal in the Fifth Circuit of the first “Sanctuary” conviction of a religious worker for assisting refugees fleeing wars in Central America. In 1991, he teamed with former judge and U.S. Solicitor General Robert Bork in the Second Circuit to overturn racketeering and fraud convictions in United States v. Wallach.

In 1989, California Lawyer Magazine named Dennis one of the state’s “Most Respected Lawyers.” In 1996, the San Francisco Daily Journal called him “one of the top criminal appellate specialists in California.” In 2005, while listing Dennis among the top ten lawyers in the Bay Area, the San Francisco Chronicle nicknamed him “The Last Hope.” In 2007, the New York Times described Dennis as “one of California’s top appellate lawyers . . . known as a brilliant writer of motions, briefs and jury instructions.” In his book Persons and Masks of the Law, the late Judge John Noonan of the Ninth Circuit cited Dennis Riordan as the single example of a lawyer who could make a difference on behalf of a defendant in a federal criminal appeal.

Dennis also has extensive experience in civil matters. In 2018, he successfully argued in the First District of the California Court of Appeal for the reversal of a $56 million bad faith insurance judgment in Victaulic v. American Home Insurance. As a trial attorney, Dennis recently staved off conviction for a client entrapped in an FBI sting operation, and along with co-counsel, won an acquittal at a federal bench trial for a client charged with violating the CFAA.

Dennis served on the state CALCRIM committee that rewrote California’s criminal jury instructions. He is a graduate of New York University School of Law, where he was a Root-Tilden Scholar, an Arthur Garfield Hays Fellow, and a member of the Order of the Coif. He has twice been awarded Fulbright Fellowships for the study of law in Spain, and has served as an adjunct professor at both Stanford and the University of San Francisco Law Schools.