Candidate for
Board of Trustees Member; Santa Monica Community College District

PERSONAL

I have resided in Los Angeles since 1952; in Santa Monica since 1963; homeowner in Sunset Park since 1966.Married to Bruria Finkel, artist, for 42 years. Four children and four grandchildren, all educated in Santa Monica public schools, except for the youngest, who just started walking yesterday.

CAREER

I practiced law with an emphasis on workers' rights, civil liberties and academic due process. I was elected to the Santa Monica Municipal Court and served as its presiding judge. I was elevated to the Los Angles Superior Court. In addition to being a trial judge, I presided over Mandatory Settlement Conferences in Superior Court civil cases covering Santa Monica, Malibu, Culver City and Beverly Hills. Since retiring from the Superior Court in 2002, I have been a private arbitrator and mediator. Additionally, for the past five years I have been an Adjunct Professor of Political Science at Santa Monica College. In my classes we do not read textbooks. Rather, we study unedited Supreme Court opinions and other original writings central to an understanding of American history. It prepares students for higher education at universities, if that is what they want, and for all other students it provides a basis for understanding the real world in which we live, with its ambiguities and changes, some subtle and some not so subtle. We examine the richness of living in a culturally diverse society.