Appellate Lawyer Hall of Fame

The Litigation Section seeks nominations for the Appellate Lawyer Hall of Fame Award. This award is bestowed upon attorneys who have excelled as appellate lawyers and whose careers exemplify the highest of values and professional attainment.

The deadline to make a nomination for 2025 was January 21, 2025.  The nomination period is closed.

Please click the drop down menus below to view the different criteria.

Congratulations to the 2025 Appellate Lawyer Hall of Fame Recipient: David S. Ettinger

Throughout his career at Horvitz & Levy LLP, David Ettinger has had a remarkable impact as an appellate practitioner.  He has briefed and argued many notable appeals, including more than a dozen arguments before the California Supreme Court.  In addition to his impact as a practitioner, David has a distinguished record of service in the appellate field.  As one illustration, he served on the Appellate Advisory Committee for the Judicial Council of California and the Appellate Rules Revision Project Task Force, which comprehensively revised the California Rules of Court governing appeals.  

In addition to publishing on appellate issues, David is the primary writer for Horvitz & Levy’s At the Lectern blog covering the California Supreme Court.  He is a former president of the California Academy of Appellate Lawyers, former chair of the Los Angeles County Bar Association’s Appellate Courts Committee, and has served as a lecturer in the Appellate Litigation Clinic at the University of California, Irvine School of Law. 

David is uniformly known to be generous with his time—as mentor, colleague, and volunteer in the community.  He has extensively engaged in pro bono matters, working with organizations such as the Harriett Buhai Center for Family Law (where he served for many years on the board of directors), Public Counsel, Western Center on Law and Poverty, the Alliance for Children’s Rights, and Immigrant Defenders Law Center.  David is also active in Teach Democracy, where he has met with high school students in Los Angeles and Ventura Counties to educate them about the role of appeals in our legal system.  He currently serves on the board of directors of the California Supreme Court Historical Society.

David graduated cum laude from Loyola Law School of Los Angeles in 1980.  Before joining Horvitz and Levy, he clerked for Presiding Justice Margaret J. Morris on the California Court of Appeal, Fourth Appellate District, Division Two. 

The Appellate Lawyer Hall of Fame award will be presented at a special reception on April 24 at 5:30 p.m. at the California Lawyers Association’s Litigation and Appellate Summit, at the Grand Hyatt in San Francisco. 

Congratulations to the 2024 Appellate Lawyer Hall of Fame Recipient:  Margaret M. Grignon

Margaret has been a trailblazer over the course of a highly distinguished career as an appellate lawyer and judge.  After graduating first in her class from Loyola Law School, she practiced tax law in San Diego and then in Antelope Valley.  Just seven years into practice, she was appointed to the Municipal Court in Lancaster.  Margaret eventually was elevated to the Los Angeles Superior Court and then to the California Court of Appeal, Second District, Division Five.   During her 14 years on the appellate bench, she authored over 2,200 opinions, more than 150 of which were published.  She also took an active role in shaping appellate procedure through her work on the Judicial Council’s Rules Committee and Appellate Advisory Committee.

In 2005, Margaret left the bench and joined Reed Smith LLP, leading its Los Angeles appellate team.  In 2015, she established The Grignon Law Firm with her daughter, Anne, focusing on appellate law and trial consultation.  She is widely sought-out as an arbitrator/mediator, and a frequent speaker on appellate practice. 

Margaret is a member and Past President of the California Academy of Appellate Lawyers and a fellow and former Board Member of the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers.  Since 2016, she has been listed in Best Lawyers in America, Appellate Practice, and has been recognized in Top Women Lawyers in the Los Angeles Daily Journal.  She has also generously donated her time to pro bono causes, pushed for increased diversity and inclusion in the bench and bar,  and mentored many appellate lawyers throughout her career.

Congratulations to the 2023 Appellate Lawyer Hall of Fame Recipient: Richard Benes

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.