Good Works
Ladera Ranch-based nonprofit Laura’s House hosted its third annual HOPE Golf Tournament Aug. 10 at Marbella Country Club in San Juan Capistrano. Sponsored by South County Auto Group, the event raised more than $70,000 for Laura’s House emergency shelter and transitional housing programs; a 24-hour domestic violence crisis hotline; legal support services; and counseling and community education programs. Laura’s House provides domestic violence education, prevention, shelter and counseling services to Southern California residents.

Aliso Viejo-based semiconductor and system solutions provider Microsemi Corp. donated $1 million to support Chapman University’s Center for Science and Technology. Opening in the fall of 2018, the center will be part of Chapman’s Schmid College of Science and Technology. It will feature both a Microsemi Teaching Electronics Laboratory and a Microsemi Software Engineering Laboratory. Over the past few years, the university has created the Crean College of Health and Behavioral Sciences, and opened a new health science campus in Irvine as well as Orange County’s first pharmacy school.

Starting Labor Day weekend, 20 local architectural, engineering, planning and design teams will come together for the annual Canstruction design-build competition at South Coast Plaza. The event, which falls in conjunction with the Festival of Children, will have 14 structures throughout the mall. Canstruction showcases structures made out of canned food. After the structures are built and put on display, all the food gets donated to local hunger relief organizations.

Milestones
Eleven of Costa Mesa-based Rutan & Tucker’s partners have been selected for inclusion in the Best Lawyers in America 2016, a peer-review publication in the legal profession. The partners include:

• Randall Babbush, real estate law;

• Robert Bower, administrative/regulatory law;

• Thomas Brockington, corporate law;

• Thomas Crane, corporate law, corporate compliance law;

• Michael Hornak, commercial litigation, bet-the-company litigation, litigation – intellectual property, and trade secrets law;

• John Hurlbut Jr., commercial litigation, bet-the-company litigation, banking and finance litigation, and real estate litigation;

• Paul Marx, tax law, trusts and estates and tax litigation and controversy law;

• Richard Montevideo, environmental/water law;

• James Morris, labor and employment law (on behalf of management) and labor and employment litigation;

• Steven Nichols, construction law;

• Ash Pirayou, government contracts.

Smiley Wang-Ekvall, a Costa Mesa law firm, also announced three of its partners have been named to The Best Lawyers in America 2016 list. They include: Evan Smiley, Philip Strok and Robert Marticello. All three received their designation in the bankruptcy and creditor-debtor rights/insolvency and reorganization law practice areas.

Aliso Viejo-based information technology management solutions company, Verismic Software, won a 2015 Cloud Computing Excellence Award for its cloud management software. The award, which is presented by TMCnet’s Cloud Computing Magazine, honors companies that offer new, innovative products to the market.

On the Move
Keith Curry, the director of the Center for Public Policy at Concordia University Irvine, was elected to the board of directors of MBIA, a New York-based holding company. Before establishing the Center for Public Policy, Curry worked as managing director for Public Financial Management, a public finance advisory firm that focuses on asset management and consulting services for cities, schools and hospitals. Curry is also a city council member for Newport Beach, where he served as mayor in 2010 and 2013.

J.D. Shafer was named senior director of community management for Irvine Company Apartment Communities. He formerly worked as general manager for Hotel Irvine. Both the hotel and apartments are owned by The Irvine Co.

Simon’s Brea Mall appointed two people to its management team. Steven Sayers now works as general manager, while Nate Weirbach serves as the director of marketing and business development. Sayers joined Simon in 2010. Weirbach also joined Simon in 2010 and served as assistant manager and assistant director of marketing in Laguna Hills.
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/law-678842-litigation-management.html