December 20, 2006
Los Angeles Times
"Does he have to eat dog food? African American whistle-blower Patrick Porch is still fighting to be heard."
By Eric Aubry Kaplan

In 2003, according to court documents, the 40-year-old project manager came across more than $1 million worth of suspicious purchase orders at Harbor/UCLA Medical Center and showed them to his boss – despite the fact [that] her signature appeared on several of the orders. . . .

For his efforts, he says, Porch was stripped of work duties and passed over for promotions. . .

In October 2006, he filed a lawsuit alleging racial discrimination, harassment and retaliation, among other things.

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December 13, 2006
Los Angeles Times
"Passion fills O.C. court in trial over student rights; Closing arguments are made in a suit over an O.C. principal's actions against two girls who went steady. The one suing says she was outed."

In her civil rights suit, Nguon is seeking $300,000 to $1.3 million in damages from Wolf and several Garden Grove Unified School District officials . . . The suit also seeks district policy changes that would prohibit administrators from revealing a student's sexual orientation or selectively enforcing discipline on that basis. . . .

Dan Stormer, one of Nguon's attorneys, said in an interview that discrimination against gay students in schools was "rampant" nationwide. He said few cases had gone to court because it's difficult to prove. . . .

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December 12, 2006
US Fed News
"Trial for Orange County Teen ‘Outed’ by Principal Concludes"

The trial of an Orange County teenager who filed a lawsuit last year against the Garden Grove Unified School District in an effort to stop discrimination and harassment of gay and lesbian students on campus concluded Tuesday.

Charlene Nguon, 18, a honor society candidate and straight-A student, was singled out because of her sexual orientation and unfairly disciplined by school officials, who "outed" her to her mother. . . .

"Charlene was punished for who she is and that has severe personal ramifications and has a significant long-term impact on her life," said Dan Stormer of the law firm Hadsell and Stormer, counsel in the case.

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December 8, 2006
US Fed News
"American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California Acts to Stop Arbitrary Skid Row Searches"

The American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, civil rights attorney Carol Sobel, and law firm Hadsell & Stormer today asked a court to extend a 2003 agreement that prohibits L.A. police from searching Skid Row residents without reasonable suspicion that they have committed a crime or violated parole or probation. . . .

"The law is clear about who is subject to search, and police are clearly going outside it," said attorney Anne Richardson of Hadsell & Stormer.

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June 14, 2006
Los Angeles Times
“L.A. Garden Shut Down; 40 Arrested”
By Hector Becerra, Megan Garvey and Steve Hymon

Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies shut down a 14-acre urban farm in South Los Angeles on Tuesday, arresting more than 40 protesters as they cleared a plot of land that has been the source of discord and controversy in the community for two decades.

The evictions occurred during a frenzied morning both at the farm and at City Hall. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and other city leaders continued negotiations with the landowner even as deputies used bolt cutters and power tools to remove protesters who had attached themselves to concrete-filled drums and mature trees.

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June 14, 2006
Associated Press
“Farmers Vow to Prevent Garden Demolition”

Workers tore down fences Wednesday inside a 14-acre urban garden while evicted farmers and their supporters kept watch and vowed to prevent bulldozing of the inner-city greenspace. . . .

Attorney Dan Stormer said the evictions were merely a temporary setback.

“What happens next is we keep fighting. Fighting in courts, fighting in politics,” the attorney said.

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June 9, 2006
New York Times
“Hollywood Stars Shine Down on Protest to Preserve an Urban Farm”
By Randall C. Archibold
[Daryl Hannah] was trying to save a farm, in this case the South Central Farm. . . .

In 2003, Mr. Horowitz, the original owner, exercised his right — after legal maneuvering with the city — to buy the land back. Since then, he has battled with the farmers and their lawyers to get them off the land.

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June 9, 2006
Daily Journal
“Foundation Offers to Buy Land to Save Disputed Garden”
By Susan McRae

The Annenberg Foundation has offered to buy the 14-acre South Central Farm, four miles south of downtown Los Angeles, where urban gardeners for the past month have been threatened with eviction, the gardeners' lawyers said Thursday.

"It has been an up-and-down ride for the past 18 hours," attorney Dan Stormer of Pasadena’s Hadsell & Stormer said. “But today my understanding is that the legal documents are being drawn up . . . to address all the financial issues.”

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June 6, 2006
Daily Journal
“’Not Your Usual Santa Monica Garden’: Celebrities Drum Up Support for 14-Acre Urban Farm Located in South Los Angeles”
By Susan McRae

The day 350 urban gardeners were scheduled for eviction, Joan Baez showed up with her guitar to serenade the crowd. Julia “Butterfly” Hill climbed a 60-foot walnut tree and began a fast, while actress Daryl Hannah pitched her green tent amid fields of lima beans, carrots and peach trees. . . .

“This is not your usual Santa Monica garden,” Dan Stormer of Pasadena's Hadsell & Stormer said, walking down a dirt path alongside crops of chayote and exotic herbs. “It's a Mexican garden.”

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May 1, 2006
Daily Journal
“Can Multinationals Force Insurers to Cover Torture?”
By Bobbi Murray
 
The suit settled for an undisclosed amount in March 2005, and attorneys for the 15 villagers in the country once known as Burma believe it was the first case of its kind to require a corporate payout. John Doe v. Unocal Corp., CV96-6959 (C.D. Cal 1996).
 
Unocal, which was sold to ChevronTexaco in April 2005, immediately sued its insurers, including Lexington Insurance, a U.S. subsidiary of American International Group Inc., for $55 million. Unocal Corp. v. Lexington Insurance Co., CV05-01857 (C.D. Cal., filed March 15, 2005). . . .
 
[Dan] Stormer believes insurance companies could start setting up policies to cover alien tort claims much in the way they developed policies for sexual harassment coverage after enough suits and been litigated.

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March 31, 2006
Los Angeles Times
“Spelling Nurse Sexual Harrassment Suit To Remain Public
Suit alleges producer asked her to ‘dress like a hooker."
By Claire Hoffman

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge William Highberger denied a request by [Aaron] Spelling’s lawyers to seal a deposition taken in a nasty legal fight between the "Beverly Hills, 90210" producer and his former nurse, Charlene Richards. . .
Richards’ lawyer, Virginia Keeny, called the attempt to seal the records "a diversion by the Spellings to distract people from the real issue, which is the sexual harassment charges. He is trying to seal the records so that the public doesn’t know how little evidence he had in bringing his case against her. It’s a further attempt to intimidate her."

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March 31, 2006
Reuters
“TV mogul loses bid to seal papers in court fight”
By Steve Gorman

A judge has denied a bid by 82-year-old TV mogul Aaron Spelling to keep secret the first deposition given in his legal battle with a nurse who accuses the producer of groping her and offering her money to "act like a hooker." . . .
Richards’ lawyer, Virginia Keeny, has branded Spelling’s suit an attempt to "frighten off" claims of wrongdoing by a former employee and has filed a motion to dismiss the producer’s claims.

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March 27, 2006
Daily Journal
“Nigerians' Chevron Suit Stays Alive: Judge Says Firm Can Be Liable for Attacks Overseas – 1789 Law”
By Itir Yakar

A high-profile human rights case survived a defensive attack Friday when Chevron oil company failed to persuade a San Francisco federal judge that it could not legally be held liable for aiding and abetting mass executions and torture committed by the Nigerian government. . .
In the closely watched Chrevon case, two dozen Nigerian citizens sued Chevron Nigeria Limited, the oil giant's local subsidiary, for allegedly being complicit in three violent attacks on locals who protested the company's environmental policies. At least seven people died and an unknown number of people were injured during the attacks in May 1998 and January 1999.

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March 13, 2006
Daily Journal
“Battle Over Urban Garden Could End This Week”
By Bobbi Murray

The battle over a 14-acre urban garden in an otherwise-bleak South Los Angeles industrial area may come to a whispering close this week if behind-the-scenes real estate negotiations conclude successfully. . .
Patrick Dunlevy, of Hadsell & Stormer, the firm representing South Central Farmers, assessed the situation more cautiously. “Technically the evictions are going forward unless or until the contract to option the land is signed,” he said.

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March 6, 2006
Daily Journal
“Clay Honorees”

California Lawyer magazine handed out its 10th annual Attorney of the Year awards Thursday night during a cocktail reception at the San Francisco City Club. . . .
Altogether, 47 lawyers representing 35 accomplishments in 18 areas of practice were honored. They are . . . [among others] in civil rights, Steven Wyner, Marcy J.K. Tiffany, Paul L. Hoffman, Anne K. Richardson and Dan Stormer.

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February 2, 2006
Voice of America News
“Farmers, Developer Clash over a Patch of Green”

“It is a tragedy that this land will be lost," says Dan Stormer, a civil rights attorney representing the farmers. He calls it the pre-eminent garden of its kind in the country. "These are people who have taken a blighted area and have turned it into something to be proud of," he says. "The city should be proud of this instead of participating in its destruction."

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February 1, 2006
Metropolitan News-Enterprise
“Judge Approves Settlement of Class Action as Officials Agree to Improve Disabled Access to Local Courts”
By Kenneth Offgang

U.S. District Judge Dickran M. Tevrizian yesterday approved the final settlement of a class action, requiring Los Angeles County and the Los Angeles Superior Court to take specific steps to make local courthouse facilities more accessible to the disabled. . .
The plaintiffs were represented by attorneys Eve L. Hill, Paula D. Pearlman, and Johanna Pirko of the Disability Rights Legal Center at Loyola Law School, formerly the Western Law Center for Disability Rights; Dan Stormer and C. Virginia Keeny of Hadsell & Stormer in Pasadena; Nora Quinn, whose offices are in Pasadena; and ACLU lawyers Mark Rosenbaum and Peter Eliasberg.

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Jan 30, 2006
Daily Journal
“Coalition Opposes Challenge to Magnet Schools”
By Bobbi Murray

A coalition of parents, teachers and civil rights groups has filed court papers, seeking to oppose lawsuits challenging magnet schools and teacher transfers to create racial and ethnic diversity in the Los Angeles Unified School District. . .
The ACLU was joined in its motions to intervene by the Coalition for Educational Justice, a three-year-old organization made up of parents, students and teachers, the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, the Asian Pacific American Legal Center, the Mexican-American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Public Counsel and the law firm Hadsell & Stormer.

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January 17, 2006
National Public Radio (NPR)
“Land Owner Threatens to Raze Garden in Industrial L.A.”

Mr. DAN STORMER (civil rights attorney): It is a tragedy that this land will be lost. It is the preeminent garden of its kind in the country.
HILLARD: Dan Stormer is a civil rights attorney. He represented the farmers in what has been up to now, a string of unsuccessful challenges over the sale of the property to a developer.
Mr. STORMER: It is wonderful people who have taken a blighted area, and turned it into something which the community should be proud of, rather than participating in its destruction.

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Jan 9, 2006
Daily Journal
“Auto Club Worker Wins in Disability Case”
By Anat Rubin

A Santa Barbara jury awarded a longtime Auto Club employee $1.2 million Friday in a disability discrimination suit against the company. The award went to 64-year-old Guy Wysinger, who had been running the Auto Club’s Ventura office for 18 years when he was asked to relocate to Santa Barbara to manage that office for a few years. In the interim, said Wysinger’s lawyer, Dan Stormer, the Auto Club engaged in massive pay cuts, most of which affected older employees. . .