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So you have a new magazine about legal eagles and you want them to read it. What do you do first? How about a special issue proclaiming the 500 best lawyers in America, figuring that many of the 1.1 million others will check it out too. Lawdragon is the start-up mag and lawyer-rating website that raided the Daily Journal newsroom a few months ago. At the time, DJ editor Katrina Dewey (pictured) was cagey about whether she had a role in Lawdragon. Well, you might say she does. The press release for today's debut (which includes a launch party tonight at Geisha House) calls Dewey the CEO. The chief operating officer is former Daily Journal managing editor Robin Davidson. Their plan is to sell Lawdragon as the website where people needing to hire a lawyer can research the top talent. They claim to evaluate based on client feedback and extensive interviews conducted by the journalists on staff. Many of the Lawdragon 500 are invited to Geisha House. The chosen locals run from Hollywood fixer Bert Fields to Public Counsel's Dan Grunfeld to Thomas Girardi, called "the leading trial lawyer in America today — in court and behind the scenes." They don't include Gloria Allred or Bill Wardlaw.
The L.A. 64, in cop-out alphabetical order:
Khaled Abou El Fadl - UCLA School of Law
Michael Bidart - Shernoff Bidart & Darras
Maxwell Blecher - Blecher & Collins
Jake Bloom - Bloom Hergott Diemer Rosenthal & Laviolette
Andrew Bogen - Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher
Lon Bouknight - Edison International
John Branca - Ziffren, Brittenham, Branca, Fischer, Gilbert-Lurie, Stiffelman & Cook
Brad Brian - Munger, Tolles & Olson
Harry “Skip” Brittenham - Ziffren, Brittenham, Branca, Fischer, Gilbert-Lurie
Bruce Broillet - Greene Broillet & Wheeler
Morgan Chu - Irell & Manella
Jerome Coben - Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom
Robert Cooper - Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher
Paul DeMuro - Latham & Watkins
Robert Denham - Munger, Tolles & Olson
Bert Fields - Greenberg Glusker Fields Claman Machtinger & Kinsella
Samuel Fischer - Ziffren, Brittenham, Branca, Fischer, Gilbert-Lurie
Russell Frackman - Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp
John Frankenheimer - Loeb & Loeb
Thomas Girardi - Girardi & Keese
Patricia Glaser - Christensen, Miller, Fink, Jacobs, Glaser, Weil & Shapiro
Browne Greene - Greene Broillet & Wheeler
Paul Grossman - Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker
Dan Grunfeld - Public Counsel
Thomas Hansen - Hansen Jacobson Teller Hoberman Newman Warren & Richman
Kenneth Hertz - Goldring Hertz & Lichtenstein
Daniel Jaffe - Jaffe & Clemens
Martha Jordan - Latham & Watkins
Richard Kendall - Irell & Manella
Deborah Klein - Barnes Morris Klein Mark Yorn Barnes & Levine
Robert Krupka - Kirkland & Ellis
Walter Lack - Engstrom, Lipscomb & Lack
Jerome Levine - Holland & Knight
Seth Lichtenstein - Goldring Hertz & Lichtenstein
Brian McCarthy - Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom
Thomas Mesereau - Mesereau & Yu
Michael Meyer - DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary
Christopher Murray - O’Melveny & Myers
Peter Nelson - Nelson Felker Toczek & Davis
Thomas Nolan - Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom
David O’Keefe - Bonne Bridges Mueller O’Keefe & Nichols
Ronald Olson - Munger, Tolles & Olson
Brian Panish - Panish, Shea & Boyle
Kirk Pasich - Dickstein Shapiro Morin & Oshinsky
Donald Passman - Gang, Tyre, Ramer & Brown
Lee Phillips - Manatt, Phelps & Phillips
Debra Pole - Sidley Austin Brown & Wood
John Quinn - Quinn, Emanuel, Urquhart, Oliver & Hedges
Bruce Ramer - Gang, Tyre, Ramer & Brown
Donald Re - Law Office of Donald Re
Constance Rice - English, Munger & Rice
Mark Rosenbaum - ACLU of Southern California
Kelli Sager - Davis Wright Tremaine
John Schulman - Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc
Robert Schwartz - O’Melveny & Myers
Martin Singer - Lavely & Singer
Jason Sloane - Sloane Offer Weber & Dern
Stanton “Larry” Stein - Alschuler Grossman Stein & Kahan
Dan Stormer - Hadsell & Stormer
Brian Sun - Jones Day
Paul Tosetti - Latham & Watkins
Michael Tuchin - Klee, Tuchin, Bogdanoff & Stern
Robert Wyman - Latham & Watkins
Juliette Youngblood - Irell & Manella
Kenneth Ziffren - Ziffren, Brittenham, Branca, Fischer, Gilbert-Lurie