Category: News and Publications

The Insolvency Law Standing Committee of the Business Law Section of the State Bar of California recently published the “2014 ABC Desk Guide,” coauthored by Anne Smiddy of Ad Astra Law Group LLP.  Ms. Smiddy co-authored the Desk Guide with Patrick Costello, Esq. of Vectis Law Group, Diana Donabedian Herman, Esq. of McKenna, Long, Aldridge LLP, and Justin E. Rawlins, Esq. of Winston & Strawn LLP, with Peter C. Califano, Esq. of Cooper, White & Cooper as editor.  The Desk Guide provides a convenient compilation and outline of the relevant state and federal statutes and cases affecting the operation of assignments for the benefit of creditors under California law.  The practice guide is available for purchase from the State Bar of California.

Author: Herman J. Hoying

Yesterday, in response to pro bono litigation handled by Ad Astra Senior Counsel Herman Hoying, the California prison system became the first in the country to issue a policy providing guidelines for sex reassignment surgery as a treatment option for transgender inmates.  Ad Astra, along with co-counsel the Transgender Law Center and Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP, represent two transgender inmates, Michelle-Lael Norsworthy and Shiloh Quine, seeking access to adequate medical care and equitable treatment under the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.

The State’s policy comes on the heels of two extraordinary victories in the lawsuits.  In April 2015, the Northern District of California issued an unprecedented preliminary injunction requiring the California prison system to provide Ms. Norsworthy with sex reassignment surgery “as promptly as possible.”  The State subsequently released Ms. Norsworthy on parole the day before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals was set to hear its appeal of that decision.  In August 2015, the State agreed to a settlement in Ms. Quine’s case, pursuant to which it agreed to provide her with sex reassignment surgery and to revise its policies with regard to sex reassignment surgery and transgender inmates’ access to gender-specific personal property.  The Quine settlement constituted the first time any state has agreed to provide sex reassignment surgery for an inmate.

Following Ad Astra’s work on the NovelPoster v. Javitch Canfield Group matter, David Nied and Mike Dorsi filed an amicus curiae brief in the Ninth Circuit to provide the Court with input on how their decision in U.S. v. Nosal could affect civil litigants. Shortly before the hearing, a reporter reached out to Mike and David. Mike’s comments were the last word in the article that ran on October 18, 2015. Mike’s bog posts about the oral argument can be found here.