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select one of the following topics:
- ON FAMILY
- A NARRATIVE PROFILE
- CURRICULUM VITAE
- GIVING TO STATE, COUNTY AND COMMUNITY
- CLIENT AND PROFESSIONAL REFERENCES
- WHAT LIES AHEAD: THE STATE BAR COMMITTEE, THE PRACTICE AND THE FAMILY
- A NARRATIVE PROFILE
ON FAMILY
Too many people do not believe gays and lesbians may--or even should--have families. Whether based in religious convictions or ideas of what is "in the best interests" of the child, here is living proof that that belief is wrong. It is not a tenet of any religion, nor in anyone's best interests, for a child not to have (or to be deprived of contact with) a stable, loving parent--adoptive or otherwise.
Doug and daughter Emma stop at Big Sur, after visiting one set of grandparents and on the way to visit the other
Doug and daughter Emma stop at Big Sur, after visiting one set of grandparents and on the way to visit the other
For more information on this topic, visit:
- "Always Our Children," A Pastoral Message to Parents of Homosexual Children and Suggestions for Pastoral Ministers
- Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays,Los Angeles Chapter
- Gay and Lesbian Adolescent Social Services ["GLASS"],Los Angeles
- Family Pride Coalition [formerly the Gay and Lesbian Parents Coalition International]
- Raising Today's Teens [The Marion Foundation]
- Dignity/USA: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered Catholics
DOUGLAS PAUL BEDARD--A NARRATIVE PROFILE
Doug was born in a former whaling town in Massachusetts in 1955, the same year Disneyland opened in Southern California. The family's oral history relates that Doug's "English Terrier" attitude toward solving problems comes from his mother's life being threatened during her pregnancy, due to his father's union organizing activity. When he was four, the family relocated to northern California, where he was raised and educated through college. Apparently subconsciously aware that he was going to become an attorney, he began performing in childrens' theatre productions at age 10. He studied voice for several decades, making a recording and performing in a chamber choir for the nation's music educators in Honolulu during junior high school.
The theatre productions continued while Doug completed high school at the Jesuit-run Bellarmine College Preparatory, during which he also performed with the San Jose Civic Light Opera (where he received "Ginny Awards" for some of his roles in its musicals). The Jesuits seemed disappointed that he chose not to enter their Order (he had, after all, been an altar boy and graduated from their school, first in his class). Instead, after winning the National Forensic League's California State Championship in Extemporaneous Speaking, the Bank of America Fine Arts Scholarship Award, and a California State Scholarship, he enrolled at Leland Stanford Junior University in 1973.
He worked with his father, as a precision machinist, before and during his studies at Stanford. He helped finance his education by working as a short-order breakfast cook. Useful insights into his personality come from knowing that he played the baritone horn in the Stanford Band for two years, studied Polish, and took a course on Feminism and Capitalism from Angela Davis. On the more normal front, he was a resident advisor in the dorms, assisted in reviving the Ram's Head student theatrical organization (producing its second show, Fiddler on the Roof ), and played Harold Hill in The Music Man and King Henry II in The Lion in Winter. He obtained a bachelors degree in Economics in 1977 (also completing the requirements for a second bachelors in Film and Broadcast Communication).
Doug decided to attend a law school far from home, because of the advice he received from an attorney he met while performing Gilbert & Sullivan productions with the Stanford Savoyards: test yourself during your first year of study, doing nothing but law school work, and you will learn just how good you can be at what you want to do. Thus, he traveled across country to study at what was then the 15th top law school in the nation (and now ranks highter), Boston University School of Law. He followed the advice he had received from that attorney at Stanford, finishing his first year fifth in a class of 100 and thus securing a position on the Law Review staff during his second year at B.U. During his third year he was appointed a Note and Case Editor of the Review. He published an article in the 1979 B.U. Law Review (One More for the Road: Civil Liability of Licensees and Social Hosts for Furnishing Alcoholic Beverages to Minors), and graduated cum laude in May 1980.
Admitted to the California Bar in December1980, Doug chose Los Angeles as the place to begin his legal career, having worked here as a summer law clerk for a major firm between his second and final years of law school (see the Curriculum Vitae below for the details of his legal practice history). He began his practice working on drug products liability, oil and gas litigation and entertainment matters (assisting in the representation of Marlon Brando in his suit against the Salkind brothers over the first Superman film). Later, having joined a smaller firm in order to get more responsibility and faster jury trial experience, he was among the first litigators assigned to combat insurance fraud, in 1983 winning his first of many jury trials: a suspected insurance fraud case. He developed an expertise in insurance coverage (including health, life, homeowner and auto insurance policies), as well as in uninsured motorist law. He held seminars for attorneys and adjusters on the handling of UM claims, loss of consortium claims, and civil litigation in general. He wrote and administered anti-discrimination policies and procedures at two firms where he was a partner, before hanging out his own shingle as a sole practitioner in 1996.
Doug met his ex-wife while they were both singing at St. Paul the Apostle Church in Westwood. They married in September 1982, and their daughter Emma was born in the fall of 1983. As they explained to their daughter when they separated in mid-1991, sometimes parents can't stay together when there is not enough love--but that the love these parents have for their child did not end with the parents' separation. Later that year, Doug settled just outside of West Hollywood, where he and Emma became fixtures in the community--playing in the park every weekend, walking through town to shop at local markets or get snow cones at the old Mongolian Barbecue, renting videos for their family time together, and stopping to look at the dogs and cats at the local pet store. Emma now lives full-time with her dad every week during the school year, spending weekends with her mom.
Through it all, Doug continued to sing in church groups, to volunteer as a judge pro tem in small claims and landlord-tenant courts, to show up on stage now and then (recently as Atticus Finch in a children's theatre production of To Kill A Mockingbird ) and to provide over ten years of free legal services to those living with AIDS, through the Los Angeles County Bar Association's Barristers' AIDS/Hospice Program (now known as HALSA). His recent appointment to a three-year term on the State Bar Association's Committee on Sexual Orientation Discrimination (effective October 3, 1999) marks the beginning of a new direction in his community service and involvement.
CURRICULUM VITAE
Attorney at Law
California State Bar Number 93500
Telephone and Facsimile (310) 360-7508
e-mail bedardesq@aol.com
¥ EMPLOYMENT
January 1996-Present: Law Office of Douglas P. Bedard, Los Angeles, California
Sole practitioner (and affiliated with Berger, Kahn, Shafton, Moss, Figler, Simon & Gladstone, Marina del Rey, CA, August 1998-June 1999). Practice includes representation of individual and institutional clients in:
- trusts and estates, wills, and domestic partnerships
- real estate, commercial and residential unlawful detainer
- general civil litigation, summary judgments, jury trials and appeals (including discrimination based on race, health status and sexual orientation)
- business litigation (including professional liability and contract)
- personal injury
- bankruptcy creditor representation
- business transactions and contract negotiations, buy-out and related settlement agreements, incorporation/LLC/partnership agreements
- film production and distribution
- business compliance with harassment and discrimination laws
- insurance coverage opinions, and carrier and agent representation in unfair business practices, fraud, contract breach and bad faith litigation (under fire, auto and errors and omissions policies).
Jury verdicts since January 1998: defense of commercial breach of contract and negligence suit against air conditioning contractor (municipal court 10-2 verdict: no contract breach; net judgment for client based on attorney fee/cost provision in contract) and defense of insurance agent malpractice and negligence claim (superior court 12-0 verdict: no liability).
Appellate matters briefed and argued since January 1998: defense jury verdict upheld on appeal in staircase design/restaurant liability claim.
November 1991-January 1996: Of Counsel and Shareholder (from 1994), Spray, Gould & Bowers, Los Angeles/Tustin/Ventura, California
Responsible for training, coordinating the work of, and supervising, attorneys and paralegals, in arbitration and trial handling and presentation, discovery, and motion practice, at a major, long-established insurance defense firm, on insurance defense, coverage and various other litigated matters. Personally handled jury and court trials, judicial and binding arbitrations and other litigation tasks on such matters, and in real estate and contract litigation. Designed and implemented anti-harassment and discrimination policies and procedures, trained attorneys and staff in all offices in same, and investigated and resolved complaints.
July 1985-November 1991: Associate and Shareholder (from 1987), Solish, Jordan & Wiener, Los Angeles, California
Co-managing partner of 25-attorney general practice and insurance defense firm, with specialty in franchisor representation and franchise litigation for major multinational franchisors including The Southland Corporation. Regional representation of same during Chapter 11 proceedings. Administrative duties included all business matters of the firm, plus designing, implementing and training attorneys, shareholders, paralegals and other staff on anti-harassment and discrimination laws, policies and procedures. Personally handled arbitrations and jury and court trials. Prepared written materials and conducted client and attorney seminars on civil discovery, uninsured motorist and loss of consortium matters.
Appellate matters briefed and argued include successful reversal of trial court determination of partnerships in real estate transactions; affirmance of summary judgments terminating franchise agreement and barring suit by a plaintiff engaging in intentional misconduct; affirmance of jury verdict of fraud in real estate transactions; petition for review to the California Supreme Court on discovery issues in uninsured motorist matters; and successful preliminary writ oppositions on pleadings rulings (in a sexual harassment matter) and on sanctions orders.
¥ PUBLISHED JUDICIAL OPINION
Kimmel v. Goland (1990) 51 Cal.3d 202 [793 P.2d 524, 271 Cal.Rptr. 191].
Amici Curiae with Solish, Jordan & Wiener in a matter defining the scope of the litigation privilege in the context of "noncommunicative" conduct, and relating same to the law governing when an attorney may be sued for malicious prosecution.
March 1982-July 1985: Associate and Principal (1984), Knapp, Petersen and Clarke, Universal City, California
Handled arbitrations and trials in insurance coverage, first party and third party matters, including appellate-level work, in state and federal courts.
August 1980-March 1982: Associate, McCutchen, Black, Verleger & Shea, Los Angeles, California
Appellate matters include a successful writ petition following denial of summary judgment on a personal injury claim.
Litigation associate at large general practice firm, assisting major corporate clients on automotive, oil and gas, and prescription drug product liability suits, and handling discovery and other litigation tasks for established entertainment industry figures.
¥ EDUCATION
1977-80: Boston University School of Law (J.D. cum laude )
Member and Note and Case Editor, Boston University Law Review.
1973-77: Leland Stanford Junior University (B.A. Economics)
Published One More for the Road: Civil Liability of Licensees and Social Hosts for Furnishing Alcoholic Beverages to Minors, 59 B.U.L. Rev. 725 (1979).
Member, Leland Stanford Junior University Marching Band
¥ BAR ADMISSIONS
California Supreme Court; Ninth Circuit Appellate, and Southern and Central District Federal courts.
GIVING TO STATE, COUNTY AND COMMUNITY
Humans have been created with more than just one seemingly-conflicting set of characteristics. Even the most selfish of persons must give in order to receive, and receives simply from the act of giving. Helen Keller said it well, in a few words that Doug Bedard carries in his DayTimer:
"Many persons have a wrong idea of what constitutes true happiness. It is not attained through self-gratification but through fidelity to a worthy purpose."
This section of the site will be short. It is legitimate for anyone deciding where to direct her or his resources to inquire how, if at all, a doctor, lawyer, or businessperson chooses to aid the community with the monetary and personal benefits from the business or profession. It is not appropriate for that doctor, lawyer or businessperson to do more than simply respond to the inquiry.
Doug's financial contributions include being a Major Donor to the Gay and Lesbian Community Services Center (when it was still called that) and to various organizations sponsoring community fundraising events (including serving as a sponsor of Labor Day L.A. weekends).
For over eleven years since the time it was first formed as the Los Angeles County Bar Association's Barristers AIDS-Hospice Project (now known as HALSA--the HIV and AIDS Legal Services Alliance), Doug provided legal services without charge to physically- and economically-disadvantaged clients, most of whom unfortunately did not benefit from the discovery of protease inhibitors. Doug worked so that all of these clients were able to remain in their homes, to receive the insurance policy or state-provided benefits to which they were entitled, to pass their property to the persons they loved (sometimes in the face of family members who had rejected them in life but wanted to control them in extremis), and/or to have their medical choices (and the persons making them) honored in hospitals and elsewhere. Please visit the HALSA website (hyperlink above) for further description of the type of work done by its volunteer attorneys.
Since1985, Doug served once to three times yearly on a pro tem ("for a time") basis as a judge in traffic, small claims, unlawful detainer and small claims appeals. Handling such matters as a volunteer in crowded courts not only furthers the administration of justice but also avoids the additional tax burden that hiring more judges would create. And as a volunteer settlelment officer in landlord-tenant court, he recalls only one eviction case in which he was not able to secure the agreement between the landlord and tenants that avoided a full eviction trial and a potentially-large damages award--which could have created economic hardships for the tenants and put them and their children on the street in a matter of days, while also unacceptably tightening the economic strings for the landlords, many of whom fed and housed their families through single pieces of rental income property.
Should you wish to discuss other aspects of this subject, Doug believes such would best be done in person and in private.
CLIENT AND PROFESSIONAL REFERENCES
| Lyn Skinner Foster, Esq. Haight, Brown & Bonesteel 1620 26th Street Suite 4000N Santa Monica, CA 90406 (310) 449-6000 |
Peter G. Lawson, Vice-President Wells Fargo Bank Private Banking/Real Estate 444 S. Flower St., Suite 1360 Los Angeles, CA 90071 (213) 253-3205 |
John Chavez, Contractor Air Systems Plus [State Lic. 693666] P.O. Box 5494 Whittier, CA 90607-5494 (562) 695-1800 E-mail: airsysplus@aol.com |
Douglas E. Easton Languages instructor, Author, Personal Trainer (310) 289-4457 |
Bruce M. Warren, Esq. Berger, Kahn, Shafton, Moss, Figler, Simon & Gladstone 4215 Glencoe Ave., 2nd Floor Marina del Rey, CA 90292 (310) 821-9000 |
Perry Morris Technological Consultant San Diego, CA E-mail: perrysmg@classic.msn.com |
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John C. Sargant R.N., B.Nurs., ICU Cert. Los Angeles, CA (323) 665-7884 E-mail: jsargantrn@aol.com |
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WHAT LIES AHEAD: THE STATE BAR COMMITTEE, THE PRACTICE AND THE FAMILY
Doug Bedard is no stranger to the unacceptable consequences of race, sex, sexual orientation and other discrimination in our society. Even as the apparently straight white Catholic married family man, he encountered discriminatory conduct directed toward others--and learned that those in the "majority" also suffer from such conduct. He described his experiences in detail to the California State Bar Association, and his motivations for applying to the Committee, in his letter of April 1999, applying for a position on the Association's Committee on Sexual Orientation Discrimination.
On its website, the California State Bar Association describes its Committees and their member selection processes as follows:
The stated purpose of the Committee is to assure that lawyers keep their own houses clean; those who are employed by private individuals or the state, to see that others live under our laws, must also live under those laws themselves:
"Each year the State Bar of California offers attorneys in California an opportunity to contribute to the legal profession and the public by volunteering to serve on one of the State Bar's 15 standing committees, 17 section executive committees, or 11 special committees, boards and commissions.
"Each year the State Bar's Board of Governors appoints approximately 200 new members. The board strives to make appointments that will achieve diversity and broad representation of the California legal community. . . . Committee members take an oath of office and receive no compensation for services. Committee members may be reimbursed for approved travel expenses, in accordance with the State Bar's travel policy and the committee's budget. . . . The designated board committees consider the appointments in the summer, and the Board of Governors makes the appointments at its August meeting. The ultimate authority to make appointments rests with the Board of Governors. [Emphasis added.]"
"Examines and reports to the State Bar on the prevalence of bias against lesbian, gay or bisexual litigants, lawyers and judges in the legal system, and the participation of lesbians, gay men and bisexuals in the legal profession. This recently established committee also examines the status and participation of lesbians, gay men and bisexuals in State Bar activities and makes specific recommendations for increasing that participation. Lawyers and nonlawyers of any sexual orientation who are interested in working on these issues are encouraged to apply."
Doug's duties on the Committee begin at the October 3, 1999, Annual Meeting of the California State Bar Association, to be held this year in Long Beach. This site will be updated periodically to keep you informed of the Committee's actions toward its stated, laudable goals for the profession.
And through it all, Doug will continue to provide legal counsel and services to his clients [see the main page of this site for descriptions of some of the matters he handles], to help his daughter (whether or not his help is needed or wanted) through the trials and joys of high school, and to keep himself in the physical, emotional and mental conditions necessary to all those things. In reverse order:
- Three to four workouts a week with a professional trainer (plus adherence to the successful nutritional program on which the trainer placed him three years ago) will continue, and keep Doug in the best shape of his previously non-athletic life ("I was always the brain in the family--my brothers were the jocks. It's an odd feeling to be so much older than they are and in so much better shape").
- The quadrupling of his insurance premiums is not a happy thought, but this is the year when Doug's daughter learns to drive. And her lawyer father insists that she not only learn all about California's new driver's licensing laws for minors, but that she teach her father about them to show she understands and will comply with them. Next step thereafter: Sitting in the passenger seat, in a deserted mall parking lot, while she practices. But Doug knew the parenting job was dangerous when he took it:
"Children do not belong to us. They are not ours. They belong to themselves. They are to be shown by parental example--by how their parents deal with the big and small aspects of daily life--to love, and to respect their lives and all others. That way, they receive the bases on which they can choose how they will live their lives. They may reject their parents' choices, and later embrace them--or vice-versa. That is for them to do. It is for their parents to be living examples of how it might be done."
And then there is dating. Doug is proud to say that, when young men have called to speak with his daughter, he passes the phone to her without grilling the caller on who he is and his intentions and financial prospects, and even volunteers her mother's phone number should she be at that residence when they call. His viscera knot up while doing it, but no one ever sees or hears it happening.
- Is there any time left for clients? There is, when the attorney is not only incredibly organized but loves what he or she is doing:
"Making housecalls is what lawyers should do--we have to remember, we are providing the services to our clients, not the other way around. I'm not sure exactly why they forgot, but doctors used to know this. So did the Fuller Brush Man and the milkman (am I showing my age?). The stuffiness of lawyers may stem from the formality of the courtroom, but when one realizes that the courts, too, are here to serve, there is really no reason for the attorney, not the client, to do the traveling."
Doug keeps a copy of a collection of jokes about lawyers [Skidmarks gets its title from the joke that the only difference between a dead lawyer and a dead skunk in the middle of a roadway are the skidmarks in front of the skunk] in plain view on his desk, as a reminder that he should never take himself too seriously. And as a reminder that a profession about which so many jokes are told needs to do some cleaning up of its act. One attorney at at time.
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