By Judge Dwayne Moring
The San Diego Superior Court launched a local Judicial Mentor Program (JMP) last year to encourage the development of a well-qualified and diverse judicial applicant pool with a varied background of legal practice areas.
As an attorney seeking to advance your career, whether within a firm or within the legal community at large, you may feel the “overachiever” instinct to immediately accept any new assignments, cases, or opportunities within industry organizations. Taking on such additional commitments can be an effective means for motivated attorneys to set themselves apart. While “keeping your nose to the grindstone,” “burning the midnight oil,” or any other hardworking adage of your choice is arguably an occupational hazard of the legal profession, attorneys must remain mindful of their professional obligations and ethical limitations on stretching themselves too thin.
September brings back-to-school excitement to many San Diegans, including law students at our three local law schools. For practicing attorneys, fall may be a return to work after weeks of vacation, or just a return to full calendars and caseloads. The SDCBA and the New Lawyer Division provide a variety of opportunities for lawyers to take a break from their busy schedules – or dive deeper into learning – with social events, CLE, and volunteer opportunities.
Less than half of Americans approve of the way the United States Supreme Court is handling its job, according to a July 2022 Gallup poll. Just prior to the Court’s landmark decisions this year in Dobbs, Kennedy and others, only a quarter of Americans reported having a “a great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in the Court, a historic low in Gallup’s 50-year survey.
Veneeta Jaswal has known from a young age that she wanted to be a “laywer,” as she wrote in second grade when asked what she wanted to be when she grew up. It is safe to say that this future litigator would be proud to see what became of her dream.
Criminal defense lawyer Benjamin Cheeks, an attorney of nearly 20 years, says this profession “fell in his lap” while he was studying to be an engineer. He attended an engineering high school and then began college as an engineering major. In college, Cheeks took a course on the U.S. presidents, which addressed the United States constitution and how the early presidents interpreted it. From there he began taking more political science classes and eventually switched his major to political science and religious studies.
You did it! Three years of stress. Three years of late nights hopped up on caffeine. Three years of interviews, internships, rejections, and successes.
Heidi is a career advisor at California Western School of Law where she’s helped students and alumni find their career footing for the past seven and some odd years. Jocelyn is a career advisor at the neighboring University of San Diego School of Law and has been helping law students and graduates find career satisfaction for 10+ years. Heidi and Jocelyn used to be actual office neighbors back in the day and would often converse loudly to each other through their shared office wall. They recently got together on a sunny Thursday to talk about the post-grad life. Here are some points they wanted to share with new graduates waiting for bar results — read on to find out where they agreed and disagreed.
One lesson I learned from my parents is that we are put on this planet to help others. Some of the greatest lawyers spent their lives helping others: Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, and Abraham Lincoln to name a few. Nelson Mandela once said, “What counts in life is not the mere fact that we have lived; it is what difference we have made to the lives of others that will determine the significance of the life we lead.”
On July 22, 2022, the Alternative Dispute Resolution Section of the San Diego County Bar Association hosted a roundtable titled “What Litigators Want From Their Mediations.” Panelists included Nadia Bermudez, an employment attorney at Klinedinst PC; David G. Greco, a partner at RMO LLP; and Chris Hendricks, a personal injury attorney at Fox Law. The discussion was moderated by Ana M. Sambold of Sambold Law, who is chairwoman of the Alternative Dispute Resolution Section.
