Litigation
Cal. Litig. 2014, Volume 27, Number 1
Content
- Adr Update: Can Post-Award Searches Vacate Arbitration Awards?
- Another Amazing Year in the Supreme Court
- Can Use of Administrative Procedures Expedite Complex State Court Civil Litigation?
- Can We Shorten This Trial?
- Editor's Foreword Signing On: Big Shoes to Fill
- From the Section Chair
- Hypotheticals on Litigational Plagiarism:
- "I Learned About Litigating from That" In Memory of Joel a. Cohen
- Litigation Section Executive Committee Past Chairs
- Masthead
- McDermott On Demand: Ozymandias?
- Officers of a Court Do Not Plagiarize
- Past Editors-in-Chief
- Plagiarism: Naughty, Knotty
- Statements of Decision: Errors, Omissions, and Solutions
- Table of Contents
- The Perils of Punishing Public Employees for Protected Speech: Applying Pickering v. Board of Education to Posts and Pins
- Trial Lawyer Hall of Fame (2004): 62 Years in the Practice of Law
Trial Lawyer Hall of Fame (2004): 62 Years in the Practice of Law
By Kurt W. Melchior
Kurt W. Melchior
When I was first establishing my practice, many people talked about Joe Ball. When he died 13 years ago at the age of 97, his L.A. Times obituary described him as "one of the country’s most respected trial lawyers." Joe was the first inductee into the California Trial Lawyer Hall of Fame; and I remember the awe with which he was regarded by many, and the very open, approachable person I met when I was introduced to him at a State Bar convention. So it is a bit hard to write about my own journey to that exalted place, since I never thought I would be within the same frame of reference as Joe Ball. And here I am in my sixty-third year of practice myself — hard to believe!
Now, California Litigation wants my "anecdotal, inspirational and educational thoughts." Let me start with what I think it means to be a litigator — a trial lawyer.