San Diego City Attorney
Jan Goldsmith has been an attorney since 1976 specializing in business litigation. He was appointed San Diego Superior Court Judge in 1998 and retired in December of 2008 to assume the office of San Diego City Attorney. Mr. Goldsmith spent his first 6 years on the Bench handling criminal and civil trials and his final years assigned to an independent civil calendar.
Prior to his appointment, Mr. Goldsmith served three terms in the California State Assembly representing the Northern San Diego City District stretching from Mira Mesa to the Escondido border. During his career in the Assembly, he held various leadership positions including Majority Floor Leader, Member of Rules Committee, Chairman of the Banking and Finance Committee and Vice Chairman of Judiciary. Jan has taught as Adjunct Professor of Law at three San Diego law schools on subjects including municipal government law and prosecution of political crimes. He also served as Mayor of Poway.
Mr. Goldsmith graduated magna cum laude from University of San Diego in 1976. He is married to Christine, and they have raised three children, now ages 28, 25 and 20.
San Diego Councilman, District 5
On June 3, 2008 Carl DeMaio was elected to the San Diego City Council to represent District 5. DeMaio made history as a non-incumbent taking a Council seat by the widest margin in a primary-winning 66% of the vote.
Prior to winning his seat on the City Council, DeMaio was best known in San Diego as the City Hall Watchdog. He helped uncover the city's financial and ethical problems. After years of prodding city leaders to enact reforms, a frustrated DeMaio decided to run for City Council.
DeMaio's pledge to the voters was simple: Clean Up City Hall. His platform includes balancing the budget, reforming the pension system, fixing crumbling infrastructure, and restoring ethics and accountability to every level of city government.
Refusing to shed his watchdog roots, DeMaio pledges "to continue to serve as the eyes and ears of the taxpayers on the City Council."
Outside of his work as a local government watchdog, DeMaio was a businessman who founded two multi-million dollar companies by the age of 30. In 2000, he founded the Performance Institute, a non-partisan, private think tank dedicated to reforming government through the principles of performance, transparency, competition and accountability. DeMaio built the organization into the largest government reform think tank in the nation and the leading authority on performance-based management in government, law enforcement, non-profits and schools.
In 2003, DeMaio founded the American Strategic Management Institute (ASMI), which provides training and education in corporate financial and performance management. DeMaio sold both companies to Thompson Publishing Group in late 2007 so he could focus his efforts on turning the City of San Diego around.
Carl DeMaio is an active member of the community helping with numerous non-profit organizations in San Diego. He serves as Chairman of San Diego Citizens for Accountable Government, helping sponsor ballot initiatives and voter education efforts each election.
DeMaio also serves on the Board of Directors of the SAFENOWProject - a non-profit dedicated to creating, promoting and advocating for community-based strategies and resources to eliminate child sexual abuse. DeMaio also is active in raising money for a number of charitable causes, including Rotary, Mama's Kitchen, and the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.
DeMaio has put constituent service as a top priority in his Council office and is working to improve the quality of neighborhoods in his District, which include Rancho Bernardo, Carmel Mountain Ranch, Sabre Springs, Mira Mesa, Scripps Ranch, San Pasqual Valley, and Sorrento Mesa.
Dr. John Eastman is the former Henry Salvatori Professor of Law & Community Service and former Dean at Chapman University's Dale E. Fowler School of Law, where he had been a member of the faculty since 1999, specializing in Constitutional Law, Legal History, and Property. He is a founding director of the Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence, a public interest law firm affiliated with the Claremont Institute that he founded in 1999. He has a Ph.D. in Government from the Claremont Graduate School and a J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School, and a B.A. in Politics and Economics from the University of Dallas. He serves as the Chairman of the Board of the National Organization for Marriage.
Prior to joining the Chapman law faculty, Dr. Eastman served as a law clerk to the Honorable Clarence Thomas, Associate Justice, Supreme Court of the United States, and to the Honorable J. Michael Luttig, Judge, United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and practiced law with the national law firm of Kirkland & Ellis. Dr. Eastman has also represented numerous clients in important constitutional law matters and has argued before the Supreme Court. On behalf of the Claremont Institute Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence, he has participated as amicus curiae before the Supreme Court of the United States, U.S. Courts of Appeals, and State Supreme Courts in more than one hundred cases of constitutional significance, including Boy Scouts of America v. Dale, Zelman v. Simmons-Harris (the school vouchers case), Kelo v. New London, Ct. (eminent domain), and Van Orden v. Perry (the 10 Commandments case). He has also appeared as an expert legal commentator on numerous television and radio programs, including C-SPAN, Fox News, PBS, NewsHour, and The O'Reilly Factor.
San Diego City Attorney
Jan Goldsmith has been an attorney since 1976 specializing in business litigation. He was appointed San Diego Superior Court Judge in 1998 and retired in December of 2008 to assume the office of San Diego City Attorney. Mr. Goldsmith spent his first 6 years on the Bench handling criminal and civil trials and his final years assigned to an independent civil calendar.
Prior to his appointment, Mr. Goldsmith served three terms in the California State Assembly representing the Northern San Diego City District stretching from Mira Mesa to the Escondido border. During his career in the Assembly, he held various leadership positions including Majority Floor Leader, Member of Rules Committee, Chairman of the Banking and Finance Committee and Vice Chairman of Judiciary. Jan has taught as Adjunct Professor of Law at three San Diego law schools on subjects including municipal government law and prosecution of political crimes. He also served as Mayor of Poway.
Mr. Goldsmith graduated magna cum laude from University of San Diego in 1976. He is married to Christine, and they have raised three children, now ages 28, 25 and 20.
Former San Diego Superior Court Judge
Hon. Michael B. Orfield (Ret.) was a jurist for 20 years, mostly as a civil independent calendar judge. His experience and expertise as a civil judge spread widely across such diverse areas as catastrophic personal injury, medical and legal malpractice, product and construction defects, breach of warranties, easements, breach of contract, wrongful death and a variety of business disputes. His strength as a mediator "...comes from being able to call upon a broad plain of knowledge, coupled with an attention to detail, empathy for the participants, and a conviction that the resolution should be their own."
Judge Orfield retired as a member of the statewide Continuing Judicial Education Committee, and still has a passion for teaching. He currently teaches "Trying the Complicated Case: From Trial Readiness to Verdict" as well as the LexisNexis Jury Instruction computer program for both civil and criminal jury instructions. He has also taught "Leading Organizational Change" as well as the week long "Civil Overview for Judges".
Judge Orfield was appointed by Chief Justice Ronald George to the original Task Force on Civil Jury Instructions and then to the Advisory Committee on Civil Jury Instructions. Justice George also appointed him a member of the prestigious Judicial Council of the State of California. Judge Orfield has served as a member of the Judicial Council Presiding Judges and Court Executives Advisory Committee and the Judicial Needs Advisory Committee.
Judge Orfield has served on the Board of the San Diego Humane Society and chaired the North County "Bridging the Gap" program for new lawyers. Before transferring to the Vista Courthouse, he co-moderated the San Diego County Bar Association Bridging the Gap program.
In 1972, Judge Orfield earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Biology from the University of California at San Diego, and obtained his law degree from California Western School of Law in 1977. Judge Orfield also completed one year of graduate study in Microbiology and Immunology at Duke University in 1974.
General Manager, San Diego Municipal Employees Association
Mike joined MEA in 2009 as a negotiations consultant, and became General Manager in October 2009. Mike implements policies as directed by MEA's Officers, Executive Committee and Board of Directors. He also helps develop legal, political and strategic direction for the organization. In addition, Mike oversees staff, works with MEA's legal counsel on legal and negotiation matters and communicates with the City Council and other City officials regarding MEA business.
From 1998-2002, Mike worked as the Government Affairs Director for the San Diego City Fire Fighters Union. Mike then served as the San Diego City Councilmember for the Second District from 2002 to 2005.
Mike graduated from UCSB with degrees in business economics and environmental studies in 1992. He then completed his master's in Environmental Economics at Duke University in 1994.
Arbitrator, American Arbitration Association & Former Deputy Director, Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP), U.S. Department of Labor
Bob Gaglione is an Arbitrator for the American Arbitration Association based in San Diego, California. He also teaches law and politics courses at several universities in Southern California.
From 2019-2021, Mr. Gaglione was a Presidential appointee serving as Deputy Director of the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) at the U.S. Department of Labor.
Mr. Gaglione has over 30 years of legal experience, including most recently, serving as founder and principal of Gaglione Law Group in San Diego, CA, where he practiced civil litigation including business, employment, insurance, real estate, and tort litigation. He previously served as a partner at the law firm of McInnis, Fitzgerald, Rees & Sharkey – one of San Diego’s largest law firms at the time.
For more than a decade, Mr. Gaglione has been as a member of the American Arbitration Association National Roster of Neutrals and Panel of Arbitrators. He served as an Arbitrator or Mediator in close to 100 cases before he went to work for the Department of Labor. .
Mr. Gaglione was elected by his peers to a three-year term on the San Diego County Bar Association Board of Directors from 2011-2014. He is a founding Director of the San Diego Chapter of the Federalist Society and a Chair of the Board of Advisors of this chapter. Mr. Gaglione is a Past President of the Todd American Inn of Court and a past Chair of the Bar History Committee and Litigation Section of the San Diego County Bar Association. He has also served on the Board of Directors of the San Diego-Imperial Council of Boy Scouts of America.
Mr. Gaglione is AV-rated by Martindale Hubbell and has been featured in Best’s Directory of Recommended Insurance Attorneys, Law & Business Directory of Environmental Attorneys and Who’s Who in American Law. Mr. Gaglione has been included in the San Diego Daily Transcript Top Attorneys, was named a Super Lawyer numerous times, and has made the list of Top Lawyers in San Diego Magazine.
Mr. Gaglione has taught law and political science courses at DeVry University, Keller Graduate School of Management, and JP Catholic University. He is also a frequent lecturer at the University of San Diego School of Law, San Diego State University, and California Western School of Law.
Mr. Gaglione hosted a radio show known as Independent Counsel: the news from a legal perspective for over seven years. He is also a frequent legal commentator on radio and television news programs.
Mr. Gaglione received a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from the University of Southern California and a Juris Doctor degree from the University of San Diego School of Law. He is a member of the California, District of Columbia, and New York Bars. He is also admitted to practice before the United States Supreme Court, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, and all United States District Courts in California.
San Diego City Attorney
Jan Goldsmith has been an attorney since 1976 specializing in business litigation. He was appointed San Diego Superior Court Judge in 1998 and retired in December of 2008 to assume the office of San Diego City Attorney. Mr. Goldsmith spent his first 6 years on the Bench handling criminal and civil trials and his final years assigned to an independent civil calendar.
Prior to his appointment, Mr. Goldsmith served three terms in the California State Assembly representing the Northern San Diego City District stretching from Mira Mesa to the Escondido border. During his career in the Assembly, he held various leadership positions including Majority Floor Leader, Member of Rules Committee, Chairman of the Banking and Finance Committee and Vice Chairman of Judiciary. Jan has taught as Adjunct Professor of Law at three San Diego law schools on subjects including municipal government law and prosecution of political crimes. He also served as Mayor of Poway.
Mr. Goldsmith graduated magna cum laude from University of San Diego in 1976. He is married to Christine, and they have raised three children, now ages 28, 25 and 20.
Executive Director, First Amendment Coalition
A lawyer and journalist, Scheer was editor and publisher of The Recorder, a daily legal newspaper in San Francisco, publisher of Legal Times, a Washington, DC-based weekly on law and lobbying, and CEO of callaw.com and law.com. Scheer practiced appellate law in Washington, DC, both in the U.S. Justice Department and in private practice. He was a partner in the Washington, DC firm of Onek, Klein & Farr, and was general counsel to the National Security Archive. Scheer has argued appellate cases in most of the federal courts of appeal and in the U.S. Supreme Court.
Scheer has received the Eugene S. Pulliam First Amendment Award (from the national Sigma Delta Chi Foundation) and the James Madison Freedom of Information Award (from the Society of Professional Journalists). Scheer’s articles on First Amendment issues and related issues have appeared in numerous publications, both print and online, including the Sacramento Bee, Slate.com, Huffington Post, San Jose Mercury News, Salon.com, Orange County Register, San Francisco Chronicle, the San Diego Union-Tribune and the Los Angeles Daily Journal.
Scheer received his JD in 1978 from Harvard Law School, where he was a member of the Harvard Law Review. He received his BA at Amherst College, graduating magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa.
San Diego Councilman, District 5
On June 3, 2008 Carl DeMaio was elected to the San Diego City Council to represent District 5. DeMaio made history as a non-incumbent taking a Council seat by the widest margin in a primary-winning 66% of the vote.
Prior to winning his seat on the City Council, DeMaio was best known in San Diego as the City Hall Watchdog. He helped uncover the city's financial and ethical problems. After years of prodding city leaders to enact reforms, a frustrated DeMaio decided to run for City Council.
DeMaio's pledge to the voters was simple: Clean Up City Hall. His platform includes balancing the budget, reforming the pension system, fixing crumbling infrastructure, and restoring ethics and accountability to every level of city government.
Refusing to shed his watchdog roots, DeMaio pledges "to continue to serve as the eyes and ears of the taxpayers on the City Council."
Outside of his work as a local government watchdog, DeMaio was a businessman who founded two multi-million dollar companies by the age of 30. In 2000, he founded the Performance Institute, a non-partisan, private think tank dedicated to reforming government through the principles of performance, transparency, competition and accountability. DeMaio built the organization into the largest government reform think tank in the nation and the leading authority on performance-based management in government, law enforcement, non-profits and schools.
In 2003, DeMaio founded the American Strategic Management Institute (ASMI), which provides training and education in corporate financial and performance management. DeMaio sold both companies to Thompson Publishing Group in late 2007 so he could focus his efforts on turning the City of San Diego around.
Carl DeMaio is an active member of the community helping with numerous non-profit organizations in San Diego. He serves as Chairman of San Diego Citizens for Accountable Government, helping sponsor ballot initiatives and voter education efforts each election.
DeMaio also serves on the Board of Directors of the SAFENOWProject - a non-profit dedicated to creating, promoting and advocating for community-based strategies and resources to eliminate child sexual abuse. DeMaio also is active in raising money for a number of charitable causes, including Rotary, Mama's Kitchen, and the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.
DeMaio has put constituent service as a top priority in his Council office and is working to improve the quality of neighborhoods in his District, which include Rancho Bernardo, Carmel Mountain Ranch, Sabre Springs, Mira Mesa, Scripps Ranch, San Pasqual Valley, and Sorrento Mesa.
Dr. John Eastman is the former Henry Salvatori Professor of Law & Community Service and former Dean at Chapman University's Dale E. Fowler School of Law, where he had been a member of the faculty since 1999, specializing in Constitutional Law, Legal History, and Property. He is a founding director of the Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence, a public interest law firm affiliated with the Claremont Institute that he founded in 1999. He has a Ph.D. in Government from the Claremont Graduate School and a J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School, and a B.A. in Politics and Economics from the University of Dallas. He serves as the Chairman of the Board of the National Organization for Marriage.
Prior to joining the Chapman law faculty, Dr. Eastman served as a law clerk to the Honorable Clarence Thomas, Associate Justice, Supreme Court of the United States, and to the Honorable J. Michael Luttig, Judge, United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and practiced law with the national law firm of Kirkland & Ellis. Dr. Eastman has also represented numerous clients in important constitutional law matters and has argued before the Supreme Court. On behalf of the Claremont Institute Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence, he has participated as amicus curiae before the Supreme Court of the United States, U.S. Courts of Appeals, and State Supreme Courts in more than one hundred cases of constitutional significance, including Boy Scouts of America v. Dale, Zelman v. Simmons-Harris (the school vouchers case), Kelo v. New London, Ct. (eminent domain), and Van Orden v. Perry (the 10 Commandments case). He has also appeared as an expert legal commentator on numerous television and radio programs, including C-SPAN, Fox News, PBS, NewsHour, and The O'Reilly Factor.
San Diego City Attorney
Jan Goldsmith has been an attorney since 1976 specializing in business litigation. He was appointed San Diego Superior Court Judge in 1998 and retired in December of 2008 to assume the office of San Diego City Attorney. Mr. Goldsmith spent his first 6 years on the Bench handling criminal and civil trials and his final years assigned to an independent civil calendar.
Prior to his appointment, Mr. Goldsmith served three terms in the California State Assembly representing the Northern San Diego City District stretching from Mira Mesa to the Escondido border. During his career in the Assembly, he held various leadership positions including Majority Floor Leader, Member of Rules Committee, Chairman of the Banking and Finance Committee and Vice Chairman of Judiciary. Jan has taught as Adjunct Professor of Law at three San Diego law schools on subjects including municipal government law and prosecution of political crimes. He also served as Mayor of Poway.
Mr. Goldsmith graduated magna cum laude from University of San Diego in 1976. He is married to Christine, and they have raised three children, now ages 28, 25 and 20.
Former San Diego Superior Court Judge
Hon. Michael B. Orfield (Ret.) was a jurist for 20 years, mostly as a civil independent calendar judge. His experience and expertise as a civil judge spread widely across such diverse areas as catastrophic personal injury, medical and legal malpractice, product and construction defects, breach of warranties, easements, breach of contract, wrongful death and a variety of business disputes. His strength as a mediator "...comes from being able to call upon a broad plain of knowledge, coupled with an attention to detail, empathy for the participants, and a conviction that the resolution should be their own."
Judge Orfield retired as a member of the statewide Continuing Judicial Education Committee, and still has a passion for teaching. He currently teaches "Trying the Complicated Case: From Trial Readiness to Verdict" as well as the LexisNexis Jury Instruction computer program for both civil and criminal jury instructions. He has also taught "Leading Organizational Change" as well as the week long "Civil Overview for Judges".
Judge Orfield was appointed by Chief Justice Ronald George to the original Task Force on Civil Jury Instructions and then to the Advisory Committee on Civil Jury Instructions. Justice George also appointed him a member of the prestigious Judicial Council of the State of California. Judge Orfield has served as a member of the Judicial Council Presiding Judges and Court Executives Advisory Committee and the Judicial Needs Advisory Committee.
Judge Orfield has served on the Board of the San Diego Humane Society and chaired the North County "Bridging the Gap" program for new lawyers. Before transferring to the Vista Courthouse, he co-moderated the San Diego County Bar Association Bridging the Gap program.
In 1972, Judge Orfield earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Biology from the University of California at San Diego, and obtained his law degree from California Western School of Law in 1977. Judge Orfield also completed one year of graduate study in Microbiology and Immunology at Duke University in 1974.
General Manager, San Diego Municipal Employees Association
Mike joined MEA in 2009 as a negotiations consultant, and became General Manager in October 2009. Mike implements policies as directed by MEA's Officers, Executive Committee and Board of Directors. He also helps develop legal, political and strategic direction for the organization. In addition, Mike oversees staff, works with MEA's legal counsel on legal and negotiation matters and communicates with the City Council and other City officials regarding MEA business.
From 1998-2002, Mike worked as the Government Affairs Director for the San Diego City Fire Fighters Union. Mike then served as the San Diego City Councilmember for the Second District from 2002 to 2005.
Mike graduated from UCSB with degrees in business economics and environmental studies in 1992. He then completed his master's in Environmental Economics at Duke University in 1994.
San Diego Annual Dinner
The Public Pension Crisis: Legal Updates on the Challenges and Potential Solutions for the City of San Diego
Carl DeMaio, John C. Eastman, Jan Goldsmith, Michael Orfield, Adam Van Susteren, Michael Zucchet
The San Diego Lawyers Chapter hosted this panel discussion on "The Public Pension Crisis" on...
The Public Pension Crisis: Legal Updates on the Challenges and Potential Solutions for the City of San Diego
San Diego Chapter
San Diego, CAEthics & Transparency in California’s Courts