News
Judges and Judiciary
Feb. 25, 2002
Diverse Three Vie for Retiring Judge's Spot
LOS ANGELES - An elder law attorney, a prosecutor and an administrative law judge are vying in the March 5 primary for the seat held by retiring Judge Michael Pirosh.
Joseph "Joe" Deering, Hank Goldberg and Donald Renetzky are three of 21 candidates running in the primary for seven seats on the Los Angeles Superior Court bench. The election is the first since the Municipal and Superior Courts unified in 2000, making it the first countywide election for all state court judicial seats.
If none of the three men receives a majority of the votes, there will be a Nov. 5 runoff between the two top vote-getters.
Deering, 55, is a partner at Deering, Walther & Sands in Santa Monica, where he has practiced law for more than 30 years. He currently handles elder law cases, a focus that he thinks sets him apart from the field of prosecutors and other types of litigators that usually populate the races for judgeships.
"I come from a slightly different background than most folks," Deering said.
Deering also is an educator who has taught business law and founded a paralegal training program at California State University, Los Angeles, and is a former president of the Santa Monica Bar Association.
He is a 1971 graduate of Hastings College of the Law.
Goldberg, 39, believes that his work for 15 years as a deputy district attorney and one year as a civil litigator have given him the breadth of experience needed for the job.
"There are few lawyers, even experienced ones, that are qualified to be judges that have the experience handling the wide variety of cases that I've handled," Goldberg said. "I would be prepared ... to handle anything that came my way, whether it was a DUI or a special circumstance murder case."
Earlier in his career, Goldberg left the district attorney's office for a year to do civil litigation at the firm of Pettit & Martin. But after a year, Goldberg said he wanted to return to public service.
Goldberg is a 1985 graduate of Loyola Law School. He has assisted in the prosecutions of O.J. Simpson, Sara Jane Olson and those connected to the Rampart scandal, he said. He currently works in the office's training division.
Renetzky, 66, touts himself as the only one in the field who already is doing the work of a judge. He is an administrative law judge for the Workers Compensation Appeals Board in Van Nuys.
"I listen to testimony. I hear witnesses testify. I have a court reporter, and I am a trial judge," he said. "That sets me apart from everybody else who is running."
Earlier, Renetzky worked for two decades as a sole practitioner in Sherman Oaks doing plaintiffs' work including personal injury and workers' compensation cases. From 1964 to 1967, Renetzky was an assistant city attorney in Glendale.
He is a 1963 graduate of the USC Law School.
Renetzky's son, Craig Renetzky, also is running for judge. The younger Renetzky is competing against law school owner Larry H. Layton and fellow Deputy District Attorney Richard Naranjo for the seat vacated by Judge Richard E. Spann.
The Los Angeles County Bar Association rated Deering and Goldberg "Well Qualified" and Donald Renetzky, "Qualified."
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Erin Carroll
Daily Journal Staff Writer
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