Corporate Department Notable Transactions

Ralph Winter and Vanessa Turner assisted Danny Sonenshine of Far West Restaurant Group with its recent purchase of three WingStop restaurants located in Orange County. Including the newly acquired locations, Far West currently owns and operates 16 WingStop restaurants in Los Angeles and Orange Counties. HBW assisted Far West with its original formation and provides day to day business, employment law and litigation assistance to Far West in connection with its operations.

Ralph Winter and Vanessa Turner represented private investors in a preferred stock venture capital investment in a privately owned company which designs and develops medical devices for heart valve replacement.

Glenn Briggs, Terrie Kading and Beth Kearney recently obtained complete summary judgment for our client, a lending services firm against claims of pregnancy discrimination, retaliation and wrongful termination in violation of public policy.

Mike LeBoff obtained complete summary judgment in favor of our clients, the sellers of property located in Emerald Bay, against breach of contract and fraud claims alleging that our clients failed to disclose known defects to the buyer when they sold the property. In addition to summary judgment, Mike also recovered an award of costs and attorney’s fees on behalf of our clients.

Karla Kraft spoke to graduates of the University of California, Irvine, Saturday Academy of Law commencement ceremonies on March 6. UCI’s Saturday Academy teaches ninth grade students from schools across the Santa Ana Unified School District about legal issues and focuses on free speech rights under the First Amendment. The goal of the program, now in its second year, is to provide educational access and opportunity to students in this underserved community.

Karla Kraft speaking at the Academy of Law commencement ceremonies at UCI.	Karina Hamilton, Director, Saturday Academy of Law; Dr. Stephanie Reyes-Tuccio, Director of Center for Educational Partnerships; Karla Kraft

HBW Coached Mock Trial Team Wins County Championship


Matt Hodel and Terrie Kading coached the Tesoro High School Mock Trial team to a perfect 9-0 season, besting 39 other teams to win the Orange County championship in the Constitutional Rights Foundation’s annual competition. Because Tesoro won the county championship, the team competed at the state Mock Trial Championships in San Jose in March, where they placed in the top ten teams in California. In addition, several of the team members won county-wide awards, including Helen Cai (Outstanding Pre-Trial Attorney), Regine Goh (Outstanding Attorney), Ryan Pallas (Outstanding Witness), and Jay Gadbois (Outstanding Witness). Helen Cai also won the very prestigious Judge Henry Moore Outstanding Orator award, as the best attorney out of approximately 275 student-attorneys. Joey Backs also won a state-wide award for his outstanding portrayal as a witness. Matt has been coaching the Tesoro High School team for seven years and Terrie has been coaching for the last two years.

Matt Hodel; Helen Cai, winner, Judge Henry Moore Outstanding Orator award; Theresa Kading; Colleen Harnett, Tesoro High School Advisor

Mike LeBoff will be a speaker at the American Bar Association’s Annual Meeting in San Francisco on August 6, 2010. Mike will present a program entitled: Negotiation for Young (and Old) Lawyers: What Every Lawyer Should Know About Making a Deal. Mike continues to co-chair the ABA’s Banking and Lender Liability Subcommittee.

Glenn Briggs and Terrie Kading attended the National Human Resources Association’s Executive of the Year dinner. Hodel Briggs Winter was a sponsor of the event, and Terrie continues to serve on the Association’s Board.

Karla Kraft is the dinner/program chair for the Association of Business Trial Lawyers, Orange County Chapter, for this year. ABTL featured the attorneys defending various Broadcom officers for its April meeting and, on June 9, San Francisco trial attorney Joseph Cotchett will speak regarding “Madoff: The New World of Financial Frauds.” For more information, please visit www.abtl.org/oc_events.htm.

Matt Hodel and Ralph Winter were recently guest lecturers at Whittier Law School, speaking on professionalism and legal ethics.

Karla Kraft served on the host committee for USC's second annual Women's Conference, which took place on March 12. Over 500 alumni, faculty, and students attended the day-long event.

Karla Kraft recently was elected as President of the University of Southern California Alumni Club of Newport and Irvine. Over 33,000 USC alumni live in Orange County.

Hodel Briggs Winter LLP was a Ying Pan Man sponsor of the Bowers Museum Annual Gala launching the Secrets of the Silk Road exhibit. Matt Hodel is a member of the Board of Directors of the Bowers Museum. For more information on the Bowers Museum, visit www.bowers.org.


HBW at the Plate

Glenn Briggs with Northwood Little League team, the Blue Claws


HBW is proud to sponsor the Northwood (Irvine) Little League. This is Glenn Briggs’ fourth season coaching. This year’s team is the Blue Claws (pictured).

Glenn Briggs also just completed another successful season as a coach of his son’s under-8 AYSO soccer team.

Perky Turkey Trotters Ninety-six clients, firm personnel and family members participated in the 2009 Dana Point Turkey Trot, which benefits the Second Harvest Food Bank of Orange County. This is the fifth year that HBW sponsored the event.

HBW in Print

Beth Kearney wrote an article entitled “California’s Electronic Discovery Act,” for the Volume IX No. 4 edition of the Association of Business Trial Lawyers’ ABTL Report.

Mike LeBoff continues to write monthly Ninth Circuit and California case law updates for the ABA Commercial and Business Litigation Committee website. Mike also serves as an assistant editor for the committee newsletter.