Page 1
Hertzberg, Murphy, Braun to Be Honored by METNEWS As 2022 ‘Persons of the Year’
By a MetNews Staff Writer
|
|
|
|
|
ROBERT HERTZBERG |
MARY ANN MURPHY |
BRENT BRAUN |
State Sen. Robert Hertzberg, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Mary Ann Murphy, and attorney Brent Braun have been selected by the Metropolitan News-Enterprise as “persons of the year” for 2022.
They will be feted at the 33rd Person of the Year Dinner, to be held Jan. 27 at a private club in downtown Los Angeles.
The black-tie event did not take place in 2021 or this year owing to the pandemic.
Also to be honored will be the 2020/2021 persons of the year, former Los Angeles County Bar Association President Harry L. Hathaway, Nowland C. Hong, a founder of the Southern California Chinese Lawyers Association, and veteran San Fernando Valley trial lawyer John L. Moriarity.
METNEWS Co-Publisher Jo-Ann W. Grace noted the award has been conferred every year starting in 1983 when Court of Appeal Justice (later Presiding Justice) Mildred L. Lillie, now deceased, was the honoree, although last year, the 2000 honorees were re-designated as persons of the year given the infeasibility of holding a dinner.
The dinners have been held since 1988 when Los Angeles Superior Court Executive Officer Frank Zolin was the honoree and the emcee was former Los Angeles Superior Court Presiding Judge (then television judge) Joseph Wapner (both deceased). In past years, public officials have presented plaques or scrolls to the honorees. Grace announced that in light of six persons being honored, there will be a change in format to avoid an overly long program. Six attendees will be asked each to present a tribute paid to one honoree.
Hertzberg is a former Senate majority leader and former speaker of the Assembly. Admitted to the State Bar in 1979, the graduate of the University of California, Hastings College of the Law has been the author of “innumerable pieces of significant legislation,” many dealing with the criminal justice system, Grace said.
She noted that Murphy has not only earned plaudits as a “stellar” jurist, but has been an active figure in the local legal community, serving as president of the Irish American Bar Association while on the bench and being an honorary member of the Italian American Lawyers Association. Just last week at the IABA’s dinner meeting when the person who was to sell drink tickets was late, she pitched in, assuming that role, Grace related.
Braun, a former FBI agent in Los Angeles and past chair of the Los Angeles County Bar Association’s Judicial Elections Evaluation Committee, now leads “The Chancellors,” a group of attorneys and other professionals who raise money for the City of Hope, Grace said, terming the assistance the group lends the cancer research and treatment facility “invaluable.”
With the addition of Hertzberg, Murphy and Braun, there have been 69 “persons of the year.” Persons of the year” have included two California chief justices, four Court of Appeal presiding justices (and three future presiding justices), six Los Angeles Superior Court presiding judges, three assistant presiding judges of that court, two U.S. District Court judges, four State Bar presidents (and one future president of that group), five Los Angeles County Bar Association presidents, two district attorneys, two law school deans, two sheriffs, two county supervisors, a state attorney general, a county public defender, and a Los Angeles city attorney.
Former Los Angeles District Attorney Robert H. Philibosian, now of counsel to Sheppard Mullin, will emcee the event for the 26th time.
Copyright 2022, Metropolitan News Company