The Riverside County Bar Association’s Nominating Committee has nominated the following members to run for the RCBA offices indicated below, for a term beginning September 1, 2014. Please be on the lookout for a ballot to arrive in your mail. Election results will be announced at the RCBA General Membership meeting in June.
The following biographies have been submitted by each candidate:
As President-Elect for 2013-2014, Mr. Firetag will automatically assume the office of President for
2014-2015.
Kira L. Klatchko is the only Certified Appellate Specialist in Riverside County and a partner at Best Best & Krieger LLP. Ms. Klatchko currently serves as Vice President on the RCBA Board. She was Chair of the RCBA’s Appellate Law Section from 2006 thru 2009 and its Co-Chair in 2010. Ms. Klatchko served several terms as a contributing member of the RCBA’s CLE Committee and has chaired and organized numerous events for the RCBA, including programs on family law appeals, stays and supersedeas, oral argument, writs, and limited civil appeals. She also presents an annual program on appellate law for new admittees attending Bridging the Gap.
Ms. Klatchko was appointed to the California State Bar Standing Committee on Appellate Courts in 2009, and is currently serving as its chair. She is a volunteer mediator at the Fourth Appellate District, Division Two, and also conducts private mediations, and mediations through the Riverside County Court’s Civil Mediation Panel. Ms. Klatchko has been named to the list of Super Lawyers’ “Rising Stars for Southern California” in appellate law every year since 2009. She is also co-author of the “California” chapter of the Appellate Practice Compendium (ABA 2012), an insider’s guide to appellate practice.
In 2010, the City of Palm Springs, along with Athena International and the Palm Springs Chamber of Commerce, named her Young Professional of the Year in recognition of her professional accomplishments and her work with numerous community-based nonprofits, including Angel View, a non-profit dedicated to serving children and adults with disabilities.
Ms. Klatchko was born and raised in Palm Springs and returned home to practice law after graduating from the UC Davis School of Law. She received her B.A. in political science, with distinction, from UC Berkeley and her M.B.A. from the Executive Management Program at the Peter F. Drucker and Masatoshi Ito Graduate School of Management at Claremont Graduate University.
Jean-Simon Serrano is an associate with the Riverside law firm Heiting & Irwin where he has practiced plaintiff’s personal injury law since shortly after his admission to the bar in 2006. Jean was President of the Riverside County Barristers, served one year as Director-at-Large for the RCBA, one year as Secretary of the RCBA and is the current Chief Financial Officer. Jean has also been a member of the Leo A. Deegan Inn of Court for the past five years and is a member and contributing writer of the RCBA Publications Committee. He has been named a “Southern California Rising Star” by Super Lawyers for three consecutive years (2012-2014) and was recently selected as one of the “Top 10 under 40” by the National Academy of Personal Injury Attorneys.
Having spent four years on the RCBA’s Board of Directors, Jean-Simon looks forward to the opportunity to continue on as Vice President.
I am honored to be nominated for Chief Financial Officer of the Riverside County Bar Association (“RCBA”). I am a Deputy County Counsel for the County of Riverside where I practice exclusively in the area of public entity defense. I received my undergraduate degree and J.D. locally.
I am currently Secretary for the RCBA and was elected to the position in June 2013. I previously served as Director-at-Large from 2012-2013. I am also an Executive Board Member of the Leo A. Deegan Chapter of the American Inns of Court (“Inn”) and was elected to the position in May 2012.
After graduating from law school and passing the bar exam in 2000, I began practicing law at the San Bernardino Offices of Lewis D’Amato Brisbois & Bisgaard LLP (now Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith LLP), one of the largest law firms in California. While at Lewis Brisbois, I was mentored by many local attorneys. I practiced primarily in public entity defense before moving to Riverside County Counsel.
Since 2005, I have been an active member of the RCBA. I am currently the chair of RCBA’s Mentoring Program Committee, as well as a member and contributing writer of the Bar Publications Committee.
I am also co-chair and member of the Continuing Legal Education Committee of the RCBA. The committee meets monthly in order to discuss, plan, and organize upcoming mandatory continuing legal education (MCLE) events which do not fall within one of the many sections of the RCBA. These MCLEs include the yearly Bridging the Gap program as well as presentations on the difficult to obtain specialized credits: ethics, substance abuse, stress relief, and elimination of bias. This year, starting in April, we will present a series of MCLEs focusing on civil procedure before trial, beginning with client intake and concluding with basic trial preparation and conclude the series in March 2015. Our committee has arranged luncheon sponsors for all these MCLEs so that lunch will be provided to attendees of this series.
Since 2010, I have been a member of the Inn. I have been honored to be a member of teams led by the Honorable Tom Cahraman (2010–2011, 2013–2014), Honorable John Vineyard (2011–2012), and Honorable Jacqueline Jackson (2012–2013.) At the final meeting of the Inn’s 2011–2012 program year, I was presented with the Louise Biddle Award. The award is given to an outstanding attorney for professionalism and dedication to the legal community and who exemplifies the goals of the Inn. The award is in memory of Louise Biddle, former executive director of the Inn and the RCBA.
I welcome the opportunity and privilege to serve the Riverside County Bar Association, and the legal community, as Chief Financial Officer.
Thank you for your vote!
Diana Renteria is an attorney in Riverside, California receiving her law degree from Western State University in 1995. After practicing as a corporate attorney for a construction firm and as an associate for Thompson and Colegate, LLP, she had her own law practice from 2005 through 2014. As a solo-practitioner, she represented clients in the areas of Family Law (Dissolution, Child Custody, Child Visitation, Support issues, Property Division), Probate, Guardianship, Name Changes, Step-Parent Adoptions, Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”) Defense, Dependency, and some Civil Litigation. In January 2014, she accepted a position with the Superior Court of California, County of Riverside as their newest Family Law Facilitator. Her office is located at the Hemet courthouse.
Diana Renteria is at current board member for the Riverside County Bar Association Lawyer Referral Service (2006), Inland Counties Legal Services, Inc. (2010), and Riverside Legal Aid, formerly known as Public Service Law Corporation, Inc. (2004).
As a member of the Junior League of Riverside, Inc. (“JLR”), she has held positions in fund development, training development, and with the State Public Affairs Committee of California (“SPAC”). SPAC is a highly coveted two-year position permitting a member to travel and participate in the legislative process on behalf of women, children and their families throughout the state of California. This position is the legislative arm of JLR, providing skills and training of drafting and advocating legislation regarding violence prevention, health, education and family support. During her 2009 term, Ms. Renteria, as the Legislative Liaison, was instrumental in drafting sponsored legislation regarding Perinatal and Mood Anxiety Disorder (aka post-partum depression education bill). This legislation was known as AB 159 with Assemblymember Pedro Nava’s office of Santa Barbara. The bill eventually transpired to make May the month to “Speak Up, When you are Down, “a campaign and educational tool to teach women to speak up if they are feeling depressed after having a newborn.
In her career, she has contributed articles to the Riverside County Lawyer Magazine, and was recently quoted in The Press Enterprise newspaper regarding ADA lawsuit abuse and legislation sponsored by Senator Bob Dutton, R-Rancho Cucamonga, regarding his bill SB 1198 (March 3, 2012). This bill would permit business owners to correct minor infractions and defer “drive-by plaintiff’s and their attorneys” large monetary compensation.
As a RCBA Board of Director Member at Large, Diana Renteria serves on the By-Laws Committee and Special Events/Fundraising. Events organized or assisted by Diana Renteria are as follows: Bowling and Beer (June), Farrell’s Night (September), Wine MCLE Event (May) and Surf Camp (July).
She is a member of the California Bar, Riverside County Bar. She has participated in the Leo A Deegan Inn of Court (1999-2000), and was a board member of the Bridle Creek Homeowner’s Association (2009-2011) and a JLR member since 2006 and a JLR board member in 2011-2013. She is listed as alumni for University of California, Riverside, and Sigma Kappa Sorority. Along with her daughter, Marina, she is a member of National Charity League, Inc. Diana Renteria lives in Riverside with her family, Gary Kaye, Marina, age 15, and Sebastian, age 13.
For almost 20 years, I have been proud to call myself a member of the Riverside County Bar Association. The Riverside County legal community has been my home ever since I first came to town as a law clerk for the District Attorney’s Office in 1996. Since that time, I have been lucky enough to have experienced almost everything the practice of law has to offer.
Since 2011, I have been an Assistant District Attorney for the County of Riverside. I am currently tasked with the countywide administration of the District Attorney’s Office and my duties include: meeting the human resources needs of 700 employees and more than fifty volunteers; development and control of an annual budget that exceeds $100 million; coordination of our office wide information technology efforts; management of our physical facilities, including offices in Riverside, Banning, Murrieta, Indio, and Blythe; and, the supervision of the clerical support division of the office. I am fortunate enough to direct the Training and Writs & Appeals Units of the office. I also have the distinction of being the DA’s Office representative whenever the Office is a party in a civil action. This is my second stint in the office, having begun my career here as a trial prosecutor.
Before returning to the DA’s Office, I had my own state and federal criminal defense practice with offices in Riverside and Murrieta, and temporary space in Indio. In addition to becoming certified as a specialist in criminal law by the State Bar of California’s Board of Legal Certification, I had the opportunity to serve as a Judge Pro Tem in the Court’s Temporary Judge Program.
These relatively unique experiences (as a law office administrator, a prosecutor, a defense attorney, a civil plaintiff, a civil defendant, and a judge pro tem) have provided me with the opportunity to not only sit on both sides of the aisle, but also to have an understanding of what our judges see when we appear before them.
I have tried to give back to the legal community that has given me so much. I currently serve as a Member-At-Large on the Board of Directors of the Riverside County Bar Association. I am an active board member, but I am especially proud of my participation on two committees: the RCBA Building Renovation Committee and the Technology Committee. As a member of the Building Committee, I relish the opportunity to remodel our “classic” RCBA building, where I had offices for ten years, and restore it to its former glory. As a member of the Technology Committee, I am pleased to announce that we have upgraded our website home page (www.riversidecountybar.com), making it more user friendly, and we have reinvigorated our Twitter presence (@RCBA_Bar), becoming a model for social media messaging. I have previously served as President of the Leo A. Deegan Inn of Court and served on its executive Board for many years, Chair of the Criminal Law Section of the RCBA, and as a member of the advisory committee of VIP Mentors (also known as “Volunteers in Parole”). I am also pleased to participate every year in the RCBA Bridging the Gap program, speaking to younger attorneys on the practice of criminal law.
I live with my wife and two children in the city of Riverside. My wife is actively involved with local non-profits, including the California Citrus State Park, and serves as a board member of the local chapter of the National Charity League. She has previously served two terms as President of the Riverside County Law Alliance and as a board member for the Junior League of Riverside.
If I am provided with the continuing opportunity to serve each of you on the RCBA Board, my goal will be to make sure that our Board never forgets our Mission: to serve our Members, our Communities, and our Legal System. I would be honored to serve as your secretary and would welcome the opportunity to continue to serve on the RCBA executive Board. Thank you for your previous trust, and I look forward to your support.
Sophia Choi is a Deputy County Counsel for Riverside County and has been with the office since 2006. She graduated from Notre Dame High School in Riverside as Valedictorian. She received her BA degree from the University of California, Los Angeles with highest Latin honors. She was a member of the Alpha Kappa Delta Sociology Honors Society and served as the General Manager for the Southern California Korean College Students Association. Sophia Choi received her JD degree at the age of 22 from Southwestern University School of Law in the SCALE two year JD program and was Co-Editor in Chief for the Advocates. She received the CALI Excellence for the Future Award in Constitutional Perspectives. During law school, Sophia did an externship with the California Attorney General’s Office in the Criminal Appeals, Writs, and Trials Division.
Having a strong interest in community involvement, Sophia had formerly served as a board member of the City of Riverside’s International Relations Council. As the Korea liaison for the Lunar Fest Committee, she organized the involvement of Korean groups for Korean cultural dances, tea ceremonies, and other activities to bring Asian cultural awareness to the Riverside community through the Lunar Festival held in Downtown Riverside. She was also the Co-Founder and President of the Asian Pacific American Lawyers of the Inland Empire. She has received special recognition from the City of Riverside, being honored as a recipient of the HRC Riverside Heroes Award by the Human Relations Commission and Mayor Ron Loveridge for her community involvement. Sophia has served as a board member of the Korean Prosecutors Association and serves as its Secretary.
Sophia Choi has been active in the Riverside County Bar Association for several years. She is a contributing writer of the Riverside County Bar Association’s Bar Publications Committee, for which she has written numerous articles, including judicial and attorney profiles and featured articles. She has also been the Co-Chair of the Law Day Committee, through which efforts were made to contribute to the general public of the Riverside County community. Sophia participated as a scoring attorney in the Mock Trial program for several years. She further served as the Director-at-Large for the Riverside County Barristers Association and is a board member of the Leo A. Deegan American Inn of Court. Sophia Choi would love the opportunity to serve the Riverside community through the Riverside County Bar Association. Riverside has been her home since the age of seven, and she would love to work actively to contribute to the advancement of the Riverside County Bar Association. Please vote for Sophia Choi.
Melissa Cushman is an associate at Best Best & Krieger LLP’s Riverside office in the Environmental and Natural Resources practice group, where she has practiced since her admission to the bar in 2006. She represents clients in both state and federal court in litigation, specializing in cases brought under the California Environmental Quality Act, the National Environmental Policy Act, or the Endangered Species Act, and also provides advisory services relating to those acts. At BB&K, Melissa helps interview and select incoming attorneys as part of the Recruiting Committee, is an associate liaison for the Associate Development Committee, and acts as a mentor (both official and unofficial) to junior associates and summer clerks.
Melissa is also an active member of the RCBA and other local organizations. She is a member of the Leo A. Deegan Inn of Court; the RCBA Publications Committee, for which she also a contributing author; and the RCBA Continuing Legal Education Committee, where she helps plan upcoming MCLE events. She also mentors new attorneys as part of RCBA’s Mentoring Program and participates in mock trial scoring. In addition, she is a member of the Greater Riverside Chambers of Commerce’s Leadership Riverside Class of 2014, treasurer for the Inland Empire chapter of the Association of Environmental Professionals, and on the editorial board for Eastern Water Law and Policy Reporter. She co-teaches or lectures in environmental classes at University of California, Riverside, Extension Center; California State University, San Bernardino; La Verne Law School, and University of California, Los Angeles.
Melissa has deep ties to Riverside, with the Cushman family having lived in Riverside for more than one hundred years. While she was born here, her family moved to Nashville, Tennessee when she was small, and she grew up there, but visited Riverside annually to see family. She returned to the area for college, graduating magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Pomona College, with a B.A. in Anthropology. After living in Argentina then Italy, where she taught English as a Second Language, she came back to California again and attended law school. After surviving the commute from Riverside to Los Angeles for three years, she received her Juris Doctorate degree from USC’s Gould School of Law in 2006. She lives in a historic home in downtown Riverside with her husband, Lt. Col. Eddy Palacios, daughter Alexie, and a menagerie of cats and dogs.
Melissa says, “I very much appreciate the great work that the RCBA does and would love to be able to contribute as part of its Board of Directors. Thank you for your consideration!”
DW Duke (David W. Duke) is an experienced trial attorney, writer and noted lecturer. He has authored five published books including the popular book Palestine and The Duke Legacy. He has also written dozens of articles on various legal topics ranging from real estate law to human rights.
DW received his bachelor of arts from the University of Michigan and his Juris Doctor from Washington University School of Law. He is a member of the California Association of Realtors Strategic Defense Panel and lectures regularly to members of the real estate industry. DW manages the Inland Empire office of Spile, Leff & Goor, LLP and is the principal of The Law Offices of DW Duke.
DW has been active in the Riverside County Bar Association for many years and is the chair of the Human Rights Section. He is the President of the Institute for Children’s Aid and a member of the Board of Directors of Stop Child Executions. He is also the president of the Meadowview Homeowner Association in Temecula, California.
DW holds a fourth-degree black belt in taekwondo with the World Taekwondo Federation in Seoul, Korea. He is an accomplished musician who plays keyboards and guitar. DW lives with his wife Laura in Temecula, California, where they are active in human rights and numerous civic and charitable organizations.
Admissions:
Stefanie Field is a Senior Counsel at Gresham, Savage, Nolan & Tilden, A.P.C. who specializes in litigation. She has been a member of the RCBA since 2000. She is currently a member of the RCBA Publications Committee, Mock Trial Steering Committee and Technology Committee. She also chairs the Business Law Section. She has also been active in the Leo A. Deegan Chapter of the American Inns of Court for a number of years. Ms. Field is proud to practice law in the Inland Empire and welcomes the opportunity to further contribute to the legal community and the RCBA.
In addition to her involvement with the RCBA, Ms. Field is also an active member of the community. Ms. Field would have the advantage of bringing her experience on other boards to the RCBA. She has been involved in several other organizations and has been an active participant on those boards of directors. For example, she is on the Board of Directors for Corona Rotary and she has been the Finance Director for the Junior League of Riverside, Inc., a nonprofit that has been active in our community since 1928. Her experience sitting on other nonprofit boards would make her an ideal candidate for the RCBA Board and Ms. Field would welcome the opportunity to use her experience to benefit of the RCBA.
As general background, Ms. Field graduated from the Georgetown University Law Center in 1995 and was admitted to the California Bar in February 1996. She has represented corporate clients and public entities in both state and federal courts in matters relating to business disputes (contract and tort actions), CEQA writ petitions, probate litigation, product liability and toxic tort actions, tort claims, CERCLA contribution claims, and claims for unfair business practices under California Business and Professions Code Section 17200. Her practice focuses on civil litigation and appellate matters.
As a lawyer for over nineteen (19) years, Chris has handled transactional and litigation matters in employment law, real estate, land use, title review, bond (re)financing, public finance, and school and church development.
After receiving his Juris Doctorate from the University of San Diego cum laude in 1993, he obtained his initial training as an associate working with the trial lawyers in the San Diego law firm formerly known as McInnis, Fitzgerald, Rees & Sharkey. In 1998, he worked as in-house counsel for the Insurance Company of the West. Since 2002, he has worked as the principal of his own law practice: Single Oak Law Offices in Temecula
Chris has been a member of the Riverside County Bar Association since 2010. Since that time he has participated as a panel member during a day of “Access to the Courts” for the public and as scoring attorney in the High School Mock Trial competitions. Last year, he accepted the position of co-chair of the Solo/Small Practice Section of the Riverside County Bar Association. As a director-at-large, Chris would strive to enhance several facets of the ongoing enterprise:
Chris also serves as a director on the governing board of Rancho Community Church in Temecula. He and his family volunteer at the homeless outreach on 4th Street in Downtown San Diego and at the Doors of Faith Orphanage north of Ensenada. He recently retired from coaching in competitive youth soccer. He has lived in Temecula with his wife and their two teenage daughters since 2003.
I have been admitted to practice in California since 1983, and am a shareholder in the firm of Holstein, Taylor and Unitt, where I have worked since 1985. I handle civil cases, with an emphasis on appellate practice. I serve as an arbitrator and mediator for the Riverside courts. I am a native Southern Californian. I earned a BA in History and Political Science from U.C. Riverside in 1980, and a law degree from King Hall School of Law, U.C. Davis in 1983.
I have been a member of the RCBA since 1984. I have participated in the civil litigation and appellate sections, taught continuing education seminars, and written for the Riverside County bar magazine. I was privileged to be the 2006 recipient of the San Bernardino County Bar Association Florentino Garza Fortitude Award.
I am currently serving as chair of the steering committee for Project Graduate, a joint venture of the Riverside Courts, County and Bar to help foster youth graduate from high school and develop a plan for their future. My past community service includes: member of the Riverside County Workforce Investment Board; board member, Community Access Center, an organization that advocates for people with disabilities; leadership role in the Just Wage Coalition, helping to develop a living wage policy for the Catholic Diocese of San Bernardino; member of the Civil Bench-Bar Committee of the Riverside Superior Court, developing strategies to deal with overcrowded civil court dockets; and, member of the RCC Citizens Bond Oversight Committee, working to assure proper use of construction bond funds. I am a member of the Leadership Riverside class of 2011.
I believe my experience and record of service to the bar and community will serve me well in helping to guide our bar association in serving the needs of the membership, and advocating for greater access to justice for our community. I would appreciate your vote.
