Message from the NLD Community Outreach Co-Chair

Happy April NLD Members,

As the New Lawyer Division’s Community Outreach Co-Chair, I could not be any more excited to be writing this month’s message from the board during April which is celebrated all over the world as Global Volunteer Month. As lawyers we are dedicated to serving our clients and to advancing the interests of our community. This April, the New Lawyer Division (NLD) would like to celebrate the power of each of our NLD members and our San Diego public service organizations who continue to tackle society’s greatest challenges to build stronger communities through acts of pro-bono service and volunteerism. Read More

Conflicts – More Than Just Adverse Parties

The State Bar of California just released two separate and sobering reports about its own failure to open any public discipline investigation of Los Angeles attorney Thomas Girardi, despite more than one hundred complaints against him between 1982 to January 2021. These reports highlight not only failures at the State Bar, but also underscore the need to carefully consider a sometimes-overlooked aspect of the conflict-of-interest rules. Read More

Message from the Editor

It has been my privilege and honor to produce For The Record as your editor-in-chief these past two years. This publication is uniquely founded on being created by new lawyers for new lawyers. Together, we have created more than 150 articles over the past two years tailored specifically to the needs, likes, and interests of our community. If you missed any past editions, you can visit our full archive.  Read More

Is a Bumblebee a Fish? How Linguistics Can Help Lawyers Interpret the Law

Is a bumblebee a fish? This question, explored in a recent California ruling, exemplifies the importance of deciphering linguistics in interpreting the law. On this topic, the Appellate Practice Section of the San Diego County Bar Association hosted a Web CLE course on October 28, 2022, entitled: “Corpus Linguistics as a Tool for Appellate Advocacy.” The featured presenters were Tammy Gales, Associate Professor of Comparative Literature, Languages, and Linguistics at Hofstra University, and James Heilpern, Esq., Senior Fellow of Law & Corpus Linguistics at Brigham Young University Law School. The course focused on historic and ongoing issues with the traditional approach to linguistics in the law and how the use of corpus linguistics — the study of language through “corpora” or large bodies of data showing how words are used in a real-life context — provides judges and lawyers useful tools for statutory interpretation and appellate argument that more efficiently achieves the goal of having uniformity between the legal and textual meaning of language. Read More

Tips from the Bar: Lara Worm

After 10 years as a federal prosecutor, Lara Worm pivoted from law and co-founded Bivouac Ciderworks, a hard cider taproom and restaurant in North Park. Read More