Team Fenton & Keller Supports Easter Seals
Fenton & Keller was a proud sponsor of the First Annual "Walk With Me Monterey Bay" event held by Easter Seals of Central California at at San Carlos Beach Park on Saturday September 24, 2011. Through their participation in the walk, Fenton & Keller and its employees raised over $5000 for Easters Seals. This event is a major fundraiser for the local Easter Seals office, which provides critical services locally to persons with disabilities and their families. Fenton and Keller is grateful to all those who supported and participated in this effort.
Fenton & Keller Wins 2011 Business Excellence Award
On July 28, 2011, the Monterey Peninsula Chamber of Commerce honored Fenton & Keller with the Chamber’s 2011 Business Excellence Award in the Professional Services category. The award was presented at the Chamber’s annual Business Excellence Awards Dinner at the Monterey Conference Center. The Event is held annually to increase public awareness of the vital role businesses play on the Central Coast and to honor businesses that have achieved excellence in their field. Winners were selected in multiple categories by a vote of the Chamber’s member businesses. Other Business Excellence Award winners included Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula in the Health and Senior Services category, Cardinale Moving and Storage in the Service to Residents category, MY Museum - Monterey County Youth Museum in Recreation, Entertainment, & Events category, and Boys & Girls Clubs Of Monterey County in the Nonprofits category.
Brian Turlington Elected Film Commission President
The Board of Directors of the Monterey County Film Commission has elected Fenton & Keller attorney Brian E. Turlington as the Film Commission's President. A Director for the past three years, Brian looks forward to his new role as an officer. The Film Commission is a nonprofit organization established and funded in part by the Monterey County Board of Supervisors. It works to attract and facilitate on-location film production in Monterey County for economic development, with an annual average of $3 million coming to local communities from the motion picture, television, and related industries. The Film Commission also provides local educational opportunities related to the film industry through its educational lectures and presentations on job opportunities in the film industry with its Focus on Film lecture series and Reel Jobs presentations. Information on the Film Commission is available at:
http://www.filmmonterey.org.
Dennis G. McCarthy joins Board of Directors of United Way Monterey County
Fenton & Keller is pleased to announce that attorney and shareholder Dennis G. McCarthy has been elected to the Board of Directors of United Way Monterey County ("UWMC"). The mission of UWMC is to engage the community and focus resources to improve lives in Monterey County. UWMC's 2009-2010 campaign raised $3,475,200.00 which stays in our local community to improve the health and welfare of our citizens through projects such as free tax assistance and 2-1-1 designed to assist residents to easily connect with a wide variety of health and human services. Dennis will serve an initial three-year term with UWMC.
New Attorneys Join Fenton & Keller, Employment, Civil
Litigation Groups
Fenton & Keller is pleased to announce that Michael Burns and Katherine Hogan have joined the firm as associate attorneys in the firm’s growing employment law and civil litigation groups.
Mr. Burns is a 2005 graduate of U.C. Berkeley – Boalt Hall School of Law and has practiced as an attorney in Monterey since then. Michael’s practice is focused on civil litigation, with an emphasis on labor and employment, business, and personal injury law. While in law school, Michael served as executive editor of the Berkeley Journal of Employment and Labor Law. He also clerked for the National Labor Relations Board, the Santa Clara District Attorney’s Office, and the United States Department of Homeland Security. Michael brings with him a depth of experience representing clients in employment cases.
Ms. Hogan was raised in Carmel and is a graduate of Notre Dame High School in Salinas and the University of Notre Dame. She was a 2002 graduate of U.C. San Francisco – Hastings College of Law. As a law student, Katherine clerked for the National Labor Relations Board and volunteered with legal aid organizations. Before returning to the Monterey Peninsula, Ms. Hogan worked in private practice with a Sacramento employment law firm and then managed a legal services office in the Central Valley, providing a broad range of legal expertise in employment and workplace issues.
Brian Call Joins Fenton & Keller
Fenton & Keller is very pleased to announce that Brian D. Call has joined the firm as a shareholder. Brian, who has practiced law in Monterey for almost 30 years, has extensive experience representing clients in a wide variety of real estate and business transactions, including entity formation, business sales, syndications, and complex real estate transactions. Brian has also advised numerous clients in connection with non-profit corporate formation and governance issues. Brian has been active with many local non-profit entities, including involvement with the Monterey History & Art Association (past President and Board member), Carmel Mission Foundation (Board member) and Friends of Carmel Aquatics (Board member, founder and past President). Brian will be focusing on assisting clients with business and real estate transactions, entity formation and governance issues.
Congratulations!
Fenton and Keller is pleased to announce the Monterey County Women Lawyers presentation of the inaugural Lady Justice Lifetime Achievement Award for Legal Advocacy and Community Service to partner Jacqueline P. McManus. Cathleen M. Giovannini, Esq., President of the Monterey County Women Lawyers Association presented the award.
This award commemorates Jackie’s contributions as legal advocate for a wide range of clients, including many non-profits, and her long standing record of community service in Monterey County. Charles Keller, Esq., praised Jackie for her legal advocacy and exceptional skill as an attorney. Mary Adams, President of United Way Monterey County, recognized Jackie for her service to a number of community organizations including United Way, Junior League of Monterey County, Boys and Girls Club, Girls, Inc. and the Monterey County Women Lawyers Association.
Jackie has been with Fenton at Keller for 19 years and practices employment law. She is currently on the Executive Committee of United Way Monterey County serving as Vice Chair of the Alexis de Tocqueville Society. Ms. McManus is a regular contributor to the Monterey Herald with a weekly column entitled ”Workplace Law.”
Board of Supervisors Appoints
Brian Turlington to Workforce Board
The Monterey County Board of Supervisors recently appointed Fenton & Keller attorney Brian E. Turlington to the Monterey County Workforce Investment Board (WIB). The WIB was established under the federal Workforce Investment Act of 1998 to provide planning and oversight of County activities for the development of a quality workforce for the economic benefit of employees, businesses, and the community. The WIB receives and directs disbursement of federal funds provided to Monterey County for a variety of employment and training services and programs. Each year, the WIB serves over 215 employers and assists over 1,000 people to secure employment through a variety of programs such as the One Stop Career Centers in Salinas, Seaside and King City. The WIB also provides labor market information for the hospitality, healthcare, agriculture, construction, and other industries. The WIB is comprised of community leaders appointed by the Board of Supervisors representing business, labor, education, and other segments of the community. “I am pleased that Brian Turlington has joined the Monterey County Workforce Investment Board,” said Joanne Webster, Director of Human Resources for Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula and First Vice Chair of the WIB. “I look forward to his participation in developing and supporting our workforce development goals.” Mr. Turlington’s appointment is for a three-year term.
City of Watsonville Approves New Home for CASA
The Watsonville City Council recently approved a new home for Court Appointed Special Advocates of Santa Cruz County (CASA). CASA is a nonprofit organization that screens, trains, and supervises adult volunteers to serve as mentors and advocates for children in the foster care system in Santa Cruz County. CASA currently serves nearly 200 children annually from its small quarters in a former hospital. CASA’s new facilities will be located in a vintage 2-story home on Freedom Boulevard that CASA purchased at a foreclosure sale in 2009. After a planned renovation, the new facility will provide a more comfortable meeting environment for the children CASA serves and will have the capacity to meet the needs of the children and CASA’s operations well into the future.
To operate at the new location, CASA applied to the City of Watsonville to change the land use designation and zoning of the property from residential to commercial and to obtain a variance from parking restrictions. Environmental review and preparation of a negative declaration under CEQA were required before the City could take action on the project. The Watsonville City Council approved the general plan amendment, rezoning, variance, and negative declaration on February 23, 2010. Renovation of the new facility will begin as soon as building permits are obtained. Opening is tentatively scheduled for fall of 2010.
CASA is one of many community organizations that Fenton & Keller supports through financial contributions and/or by providing pro bono legal services. David Sweigert of Fenton & Keller advised and assisted CASA in navigating the entitlement and CEQA process leading up to the Watsonville City Council’s approval of CASA’s new home.
Ron Scholl Retires From Fenton & Keller
Ronald F. Scholl, a former Fenton & Keller shareholder, has retired from the firm after practicing for 35 years as a civil litigator. A highly respected member of the Monterey County litigation bar, Ron joined the firm’s predecessor firm, Hoge Fenton Jones & Appel, in 1974 and was a founding member of Fenton & Keller in 1993. Ron graduated from Loyola Law School in 1974 after having received a bachelor’s degree in engineering from the University of Texas, a master’s degree in engineering from Northwestern University, and after working for ten years as a research and development engineer. Ron’s law practice focused on general civil litigation, arbitration, and mediation. With his engineering background, Ron's cases were generally those that demanded mastery of complicated technical subject matter, including products liability, environmental, and construction defect litigation.
“During his long career with the firm, Ron distinguished himself as one of the preeminent construction litigators in Monterey County and on the central coast,” said Chuck Keller, Ron's former partner at Hoge Fenton Jones & Appel and Fenton & Keller. “Ron’s quiet, dispassionate, and exacting analytical skills were equally effective in the courtroom and in matters of firm management and continuing legal education. We will sorely miss his wise counsel.”
Ron intends to remain active in pursuing both his legal and personal areas of interest. He hopes to be of continuing service to the court and to the legal community as a consultant and as a court appointed or stipulated referee in traditional and e-discovery disputes, contested partition actions and other situations requiring neutral decision making intervention. Ron is also a volunteer Court Appointed Special Advocate for abused and neglected children through CASA of Monterey County.
On a more personal level, Ron will continue to enjoy the special pleasures of playing with his three young grandchildren and of pursuing his newly acquired interest in ocean kayaking, while maintaining his less physically taxing interest in selected areas of computer science.
Ron and Diane, his wife of 40 years, live with their golden retriever, Lily, in Carmel Valley.
Charles R. Keller: “Best Lawyer in America”
Fenton & Keller is pleased to announce that Charles R. Keller has been chosen as the “Best Lawyer in America” in the “Alternate Dispute Resolution and International Arbitration” category in the upcoming edition of The Best Lawyers in America® 2010.
Best Lawyers has become universally regarded as the definitive guide to legal excellence in the United States, in part because Best Lawyers is based on a peer-review survey in which over 13,000 leading attorneys throughout the U.S. and Canada vote on the legal abilities of other lawyers in their specialties.
Charles R. Keller has also been chosen as a Super Lawyer annually for many of the past years. The Super Lawyers selection process is a rigorous, multiphase process, including peer nominations and evaluations, combined with third party research. Selections are made on an annual, state-by-state basis to produce a list of lawyers that have attained high peer recognition and have meet ethical standards as outstanding attorneys. This list is intended to be used as a resource for attorneys and consumers searching for legal counsel.
Fenton & Keller Client Prevails in Litigation Against California Coastal Commission
Fenton & Keller’s land use litigation team recently secured a significant victory for a client when the California Court of Appeal for the Sixth District reversed the California Coastal Commission’s approval of a permit for development of a nearly 10,000 square foot structure on scenic Kasler Point in Big Sur. The firm’s client, a long-time advocate for vigorous protection of fragile coastal and marine resources in Monterey County and elsewhere, argued that the project violated provisions of the California Coastal Act and Monterey County‘s Local Coastal Program (LCP) for the protection of scenic, biological, and water resources in the Big Sur area.
In a published opinion filed December 30, 2008, the Court of Appeal unanimously ruled to overturn the Coastal Commission’s approval of a coastal development permit for the large structure. (See McAllister v. California Coastal Commission (2008) 169 Cal.App.4th 912.) The Court of Appeal ruled that the Coastal Commission improperly approved the project within environmentally sensitive habitat areas (ESHA), including Smith's blue butterfly habitat (seacliff buckwheat) and coastal bluff scrub habitat. The Court of Appeal determined that the LCP incorporated the Coastal Act's prohibition of non-resource dependent uses such as a single family residence in ESHA. In a letter brief filed after completion of the appellate briefing, the Coastal Commission took the position for the first time that denial of the project would have been an unconstitutional taking of the applicant’s property, even though the administrative record contained no evidence that the Coastal Commission considered the taking issue in approving the permit. The Court of Appeal found the Coastal Commission improperly relaxed standards prohibiting development in ESHA to avoid a taking “without making the necessary findings to justify doing so.” Those findings would require the Coastal Commission to consider whether denial of the permit would constitute an unconstitutional taking and, if so, whether a smaller building could reduce damage to protected resources.
Fenton & Keller attorneys John Bridges and David Sweigert handled the litigation and appeal with the assistance of other members of the firm’s litigation and land use teams.