Professional Experience

David Elson’s practice focuses on public law, administrative and elections litigation, complex civil and criminal commercial litigation, and governmental investigations.  He has represented educational, financial, and healthcare institutions, major corporations and corporate officers, high profile public officials and political candidates, as well as witnesses in federal and state regulatory, grand jury and other investigative proceedings.  His clients have ranged from Sambo’s Restaurants and Gold Bond Ice Cream to actress Priscilla Barnes, the Lotus Formula One Racing Team, Los Angeles Airways and Mitsubishi, and include the Los Angeles Unified School District, Azusa Pacific University, The East Los Angeles Community Union (TELACU), and Delaware North Companies.

Mr. Elson oversees the firm’s pro bono activities, which include the representation of a broad range of non-profit and charitable organizations.

Education

Stanford Law School, J.D., 1970.

Occidental College, B.A., 1967.

Memberships & Activities

Admitted to practice in California.

Member, Los Angeles County Bar Association and American Bar Association, the State Bar of California and the Association of Business Trial Lawyers.

Board Member and Chairman, Land Use Committee, Benedict Canyon Association.

Board Member, Western Center on Law and Poverty.

Past Chairperson, Community Advisory Council, Warner Avenue School.

Past Member, Indigent Defense Panel, U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.

Past Member, Litigation Advisory Group, Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles.

Representative Matters

Land Use and Public Law:

• "The Sunshine Canyon" Case
  Mr. Elson served as lead trial and appellate counsel for the City of Los Angeles in the "Sunshine Canyon" case (City of Los Angeles v. County of Los Angeles and Browning Ferris Industries), in which the City obtained a writ of mandate to void the County's approval of BFI's proposed new Sunshine Canyon landfill.
• California Desert Plan Litigation
  For over a decade, Mr. Elson represented the American Motorcyclist Association (and, in some cases, Inyo County) in a number of federal court cases involving the application of the Federal Land Planning and Management Act and the California Desert Plan, pursuant to which the Bureau of Land Management manages the 12 million acres of federal land in the California Desert Conservation Area.  The reported decisions in that litigation include American Motorcyclist Association v. Watt, 534 F.Supp. 923 (C.D. Cal. 1981); Sierra Club v. Clark, 774 F.2d 1406 (9th Cir. 1985); Sierra Club v. Clark, 756 F.2d 686 (9th Cir. 1985).
• The Yosemite Park Concession Award Case
  Mr. Elson successfully defended the federal court lawsuit which attacked the National Park Service's award of the concession to operate all visitor services at Yosemite National Park, following the divestiture of MCA's concession.
• The Asilomar Concession Award Protest
  Mr. Elson successfully tried the administrative protest proceeding which followed protests by Aramark Volume Services and two other protesters who challenged the State of California's award of a ten-year concession for the operation of the Asilomar Conference Center located on Monterey Bay in Northern California.
• The Old Town San Diego Concession Award Protest
  Mr. Elson successfully tried the administrative protest proceeding and then defended the writ of mandate petition which sought to invalidate the State of California’s award of a 10-year concession with revenues projected to exceed $300 million in Old Town San Diego State Historic Park commencing June 1, 2005.
• Occidental Petroleum "No Oil" litigation
  Mr. Elson served as lead litigator between 1985 and 1988 for Occidental Petroleum in cases filed by No Oil and other oil drilling opponents, which attacked the Los Angeles City and California Coastal Commission authorizations for Occidental Petroleum's Pacific Palisades drilling project.  Occidental was successful in each case, including No Oil v. City of Los Angeles, 196 Cal.App.3d 223 (1987).
• Roberts v. Nansay Corporation
  Mr. Elson represented the developer of a proposed new hotel, authorized under the City of Los Angeles Westwood Village Specific Plan, in Superior Court and Court of Appeal litigation arising from an opponent's series of challenges by an apartment hotel operator to the City's development authorization process.
• Stanford Ranch, Inc. v. Placer County
  Mr. Elson represented the developer of a major mixed use planned community in Superior Court and Court of Appeal litigation challenging the 1994 revised Placer County General Plan.
• United States v. Texas Data Control
  Mr. Elson represented the 50% joint venture owners of Texas Data Control in federal government contract claim litigation arising from the Resolution Trust Corporation's contract with Texas Data Control for data processing and asset management services for failed S & L's in Texas and Louisiana.  Texas Data Control and its joint venture partners obtained a jury verdict in their favor; case settled with the FDIC paying the joint venture $15 million.
• Triad Healthcare Litigation
  Mr. Elson represented the former CEO of Triad Healthcare (who previously had been CEO of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center for 20 years) in litigation brought by the State of California and the Triad Healthcare Bankruptcy Trustee arising from the State's $130 million loss on guarantees of the bond financing for Triad's purchase of two San Fernando Valley hospitals.  Obtained final judgment in Triad CEO's favor on all of the State's claims.  Mr. Elson obtained summary judgment, affirmed on appeal, against the State.  A later successful writ of mandate proceeding is reported in Marylander v. Superior Court, 81 Cal.App.4th 1119 (2000).

Major Commercial Cases:

• Representation of Florida Federal Savings in the SISCORP M.D.L Litigation
  Mr. Elson represented Florida Federal Savings (one of the nation's largest S & L's) in federal court Multi District litigation arising from the collapse of a $56 million participation loan for the rehabilitation of a commercial building located at Fourth & Broadway in downtown Los Angeles.
• Arden Mayfair Milk Rebate Cases
  Mr. Elson represented Arden Mayfair's Controller, a principal target defendant in cases brought by the SEC and private plaintiffs arising from the Controller's supervision of Arden Mayfair milk rebate payments alleged to be in violation of California milk price stabilization regulations.  Litigation included an SEC enforcement action, consolidated shareholder derivative suits in the Los Angeles Superior Court, and a separate federal court Rule 10(b) 5 class action against Arden Mayfair, its President and the Controller.
• Sambo's v. W.D.W., Inc.
  Mr. Elson represented Sambo's Restaurants, Inc., in a suit filed against its former Chief Operating Officer and his outside partner for a series of transactions used to artificially inflate Sambo's reported quarterly earnings.  The W.D.W. litigation included both Santa Barbara Superior Court and United States District Court litigation and resulted in the return to Sambo's of millions of dollars worth of real estate which had been transferred as part of a scheme to artificially inflate reported corporate earnings.
• Carnation Company v. Gold Bond Ice Cream
  Mr. Elson represented Gold Bond, one of the nation's leading  ice cream manufacturers, in a lawsuit brought by Carnation after certain products manufactured for Carnation by Gold Bond were the subject of a national recall.
• Los Angeles Airways / Hughes Litigation
  Mr. Elson represented the Los Angeles-based, former helicopter airline in litigation in California state and federal courts, and in Texas state courts, against Hughes Tool Company, Howard Hughes and the Hughes Estate arising from Howard Hughes' financing of the helicopter airlines' faltering operations.
• Gold v. Gold Realty
  Mr. Elson represented the minority shareholders in a closely-held family corporation in several years of Superior Court and appellate proceedings resulting in the 2004 dissolution of closely-held family corporations which owned nearly three dozen parcels of real estate.  The court-ordered dissolution ultimately was completed by a receiver, which Mr. Elson convinced the Superior Court and Court of Appeal was required, as reported in Gold v. Gold Realty, 114 Cal.App.4th 791.

Elections Litigation:

• O'Conner v. Superior Court
  Mr. Elson successfully represented well known campaign managers Berman D'Agostino in California Court of Appeals case reported as O'Conner v. Superior Court, 177 Cal.App.3d 1013 (1986), which established that California unfair businesses statutes do not apply to election campaign statements.
• Congressman John Anderson
  Mr. Elson successfully represented Congressman John Anderson in litigation in the Los Angeles Superior Court arising from challenges to the right of independent party candidates to obtain signatures from voters on petitions to nominate candidates for President of the United States.
• San Francisco Chronicle v. John Van de Kamp
  Mr. Elson successfully represented gubernatorial candidate John Van de Kamp in litigation brought by the San Francisco Chronicle alleging Van de Kamp political campaign advertisements violated the Chronicle's trademark rights.
• McCauley v. BFC Direct Marketing
  Mr. Elson successfully represented the target defendant, a leading political consulting/direct mail firm, in a six-week trial in which the trial court rejected the plaintiff's claims against BFC of improper reporting of political campaign expenditures.
• Johnson v. March Fong Eu
  Mr. Elson represented the plaintiff (a California Assemblyman) in a successful challenge to the potential disqualification of late "postcard" voter registrations.

Governmental Investigations and "White Collar" Crimes:

• Represented numerous financial institutions and other corporate officers, public officials, and other witnesses in federal and state regulatory, grand jury, and other investigative proceedings.
• Represented a senior Lockheed official in the Lockheed letters rogatory litigation commenced by the United States Department of Justice on behalf of the Government of Japan.
• Represented North Coast Village, a major apartment complex, in connection with the City of Oceanside's hearings into alleged improprieties in Oceanside's redevelopment election.
• Represented the President of the Frontier Hotel in Las Vegas in the "Frontier Hotel" case reported as United States v. Polizzi in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
• Represented Equity Funding CEO Stanley Goldblum in the Equity Funding prosecution.
• Represented John and Dominic Alessio in separate cases arising from alleged improprieties at the Lompoc Federal Prison Camp.
• Represented U. S. National Bank and Westgate CEO Arnolt Smith, both as a witness in ancillary superior court prosecution and in the federal criminal case brought by the Justice Department against Smith.
• Represented Orange County Assessor Jack Vallerga in People v. Vallerga, in which the Orange County Assessor was charged with conflict of interest in connection with services provided to the City of Spartanburg, South Carolina.

Environmental Crimes Litigation:

• Mr. Elson handled a number of environmental crimes cases brought by the Los Angeles City Attorney and the Los Angeles District Attorney, including the representation of corporate and/or individual defendants in People v. Turco Products (Purex); People v. Todd Shipyards; People v. Dean; People v. Cal Chrome; People v. L. A. Plating; and People v. Occidental Petroleum.