Litigation
Aug. 6, 2002
Consumer Attorneys Stage Annual Vegas Celebration
Everyone who's anyone in the Southern California legal community knows the Consumer Attorneys Association of Los Angeles' annual Las Vegas convention will celebrate its 20th anniversary this year at the Venetian Hotel from Aug. 23-25.
Everyone who's anyone in the Southern California legal community knows the Consumer Attorneys Association of Los Angeles' annual Las Vegas convention will celebrate its 20th anniversary this year at the Venetian Hotel from Aug. 23-25.
This popular event is the second-largest meeting of litigators in the country, smaller only than the American Trial Lawyers Association's annual convention.
Approximately 1,000 association members are preregistered to attend. And the numbers grow daily as word of this year's speakers and panels spreads and friends remind one another that it's time once again to head to Vegas.
The group expects more than 1,600 members to attend - about the same number as last year.
"As far as the Las Vegas event is concerned, it is the best attended, most exciting event that everyone looks forward to attending every year," says David Olan, an association member who has his own practice in Los Angeles.
Attorneys who brave the desert heat to attend say the rewards are worth the trip. It gives them a chance to accumulate continuing education credits painlessly while listening to panels of nationally famous trial lawyers speak about how each has made his or her name in the field.
In the 20 years the event has been running, it also has become the place for Southern California litigators, new and old, to gather and swap notes about work while enjoying their downtime in Sin City.
"It is great to get together with old friends and meet new ones," Olan says. "Any typical Saturday, people are attending the seminar with standing room only, while others are milling around the vendors' area talking and getting insights into experts and other litigation support vendors."
The panel sessions begin early Friday morning and feature such power players as Amy Fisch Solomon of Los Angeles' Girardi & Keese and Patrick McNicholas of Los Angeles' McNicholas & McNicholas.
"I'll be in a mock trial performing as a plaintiff's attorney, which should be a lot of fun," McNicholas says. "This convention is one of the most widely attended educational seminars in the state and is an excellent way not only to receive your MCLE credits but also to promote professionalism and camaraderie in the plaintiffs' bar and the defense bar."
McNicholas will wind down after Friday's session at a private cocktail and dinner party hosted by his firm at the Rio Hotel.
Close friends use this convention as a way to catch up in between grueling trial schedules. Brian Panish, partner with Santa Monica's Greene, Broillet, Panish & Wheeler, went to high school with McNicholas. Panish will take part in a panel on jury selection issues Saturday afternoon.
"The group expects a big turnout this year. All the lawyers will be there partying it up and listening to speakers," Panish says.
Full-time mediator Eugene Moskovitch, with Alternative Resolution Services, says the convention is a great place for mediators to meet litigators and potential clients. He has attended the event for the past three years. This year, he will participate, for the first time, in a panel on employment mediation.
"It's a really great setting to speak with all types of people in the legal field," Moskovitch says.
Unlike many of his fellow attendees, Moskovitch has a special tie to the city: He was married there, at the chapel in the Riviera Casino & Hotel, 11 years ago.
"We weren't married by someone dressed up to be Elvis Presley, but it was definitely Vegas," he says.
For anyone who might get in the mood to tie the knot that weekend, Moskovitch says a Vegas courthouse is open 24 hours a day to file marriage licenses.
For those not planning to get hitched, Saturday evening traditionally features a silent auction with a festive theme. This year, the association will unveil a new color scheme to celebrate the convention's 20th anniversary - burgundy and platinum.
Cocktails will mingle with auction items donated by members and by vendors as convention goers wend their way among tables laden with goodies such as a certificate for a two-week stay in attorney Michael Bidart's home in southern France's Basque country.
"This year's hot item will be a weeklong cruise in the Caribbean," says Jill McDonell, a co-chair on the auction committee and an association board member.
"We have lots of sports tickets for suite boxes at the Staples Center, UCLA tickets, Dodgers tickets, tickets to [the] Hollywood Bowl, numerous vacations, Super Bowl tickets, fencing lessons and more," adds McDonell of the Law Offices of Steve Heimberg in Century City.
Last year's cruise to the Greek Islands sold for more than $10,000. All proceeds from the auction benefit the Consumer Attorneys Public Education Fund, a nonprofit organization that educates the public on consumer rights.
And while the convention-organized events are entertaining, for many the most important business will be conducted after official convention hours.
"You see people in social situations you normally don't see them in," says Philip Michels, a sole practitioner in Los Angeles.
Olan agrees.
"The whole thing is like a hardware store," he says. "It has all sorts of goodies, and you always pick up some information or news or contact that's of value and take it back home."
Christina Landers
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