I am writing my column fresh home from the Western San Bernardino County Bar Association’s installation dinner, feeling uplifted by the stories I just heard from attorneys celebrating their colleagues.
It was an evening of honoring good hearts and good work — and in three cases, good legacies.
Marbi Burnette, who retired from the San Bernardino District Attorney’s Office in August, was named the Jennifer Brooks Lawyer of the Year. And Myrna Thomas was named Legal Assistant of the Year.
This year the lifetime achievement award became the Charles Althouse Lifetime Achievement Award. We learned this: Once the officers decided to name the award for someone, “literally within seconds everyone started calling out this name.” The name is associated with the great work Althouse has done as a lawyer, the great service he’s given the community, and the kindness that defines his lifetime achievement as a human being.
The first Althouse award went posthumously to Brendan Brandt of Varner and Brandt, LLP. People were always commenting about what an approachable and non-lawyerly lawyer he was, his brother said, adding, “He was always prepared. He was always on time. His pleadings were always flawless. He was fearless in his depositions. He was fair with opponents, courteous to personnel and respectful of attorneys who had gone before.”
The second Althouse award went to William Shernoff of Shernoff Bidart Echeverria, LLP. Ricardo Echeverria started his introduction of Shernoff with this: “When my torts professor heard I was going to work for Bill Shernoff, he wanted my autograph.”
Shernoff is credited with creating a tort. It was born from a simple disability case in 1974: Egan v. Mutual of Omaha. The case went to the California Supreme Court five years later and is now the most cited case on disability, Echeverria said. It made Shernoff the pioneer of bad-faith insurance law.
Twenty-five years ago Shernoff argued for Holocaust victims. What a story this is. A 22-year-old man saw his parents, his bride and his 1-year-old child go to the Auschwitz gas chambers under Hitler’s reign. The family had life insurance policies, but the insurance office mandated beneficiaries produce death certificates. Fifty years later Shernoff took the family as clients. He was able to get a statute passed to extend the ability to sue the insurance company, and then he was able to get settlements for his clients and other Holocaust survivors and their families.
Many of the WSBCBA’s officers and directors, including President Michael A. Scafiddi, are continuing in their post from 2020-21, because of the pandemic circumstances.
Never have I heard the words “good heart” said so many times at one event. Congratulations to all.
And just for fun…
Bumper-sticker worthy quotes from the night:
- “It doesn’t matter what law school you went to. It matters what you made of your opportunities.”
- “Be a stiletto in a room full of flats.”
- “Practice holistic lawyering. Practice compassionate lawyering.”
- “There are only 52 Fridays in a year. Never waste one.”
- “Always treat the other person as if their heart is broken, because it probably is.”
- “Speed kills — justice is not in a hurry.”
- “Walk humbly, seek justice and do good.”
