About Deanne Stone
Articles written by Deanne Stone
Alice Plays Juries as Powerfully as She Plays Beethoven
Alice O'Sullivan transformed from piano prodigy to legal savantAlice W. O'Sullivan may be the only lawyer whose legal career is tied to a piano recital at Carnegie Hall. The year was 1979. O'Sullivan was working as a paralegal in a California law firm and pursuing a wild dream of performing at the country's premier classical music venue. "I had sent an audition tape," she says, "and was floored when I received a date to play there." Her boss at the time offered her the best of deals: "Promise to take the bar exam, and I'll pay for your family and …
Let Judgment Run Down as Waters, and Righteousness as a Mighty Stream
Who believes that stuff? Amos ... and Arthur BryantArthur Bryant was on the path to becoming a partner in a major law firm. After graduating from Harvard Law School, he clerked for U.S. District Judge Gabrielle McDonald and then worked as an associate at the Philadelphia firm of Kohn, Savett, Marion & Graf (now Kohn, Swift & Graf). Four years later, he chucked it all to become the sole staff attorney in a public-interest organization, Trial Lawyers for Public Justice. Bryant recalls his conversation with the firm's lead partner after he …
Giving Discrimination the Ho-Heave
Christopher Ho is a firewall for mistreated immigrantsIn 1995, Macan Singh, an undocumented worker from India, was brought to the Bay Area by his uncle, Charanjit Jutla, who promised him work and an education. Instead, Singh was put to work at his uncle’s gas stations, where he stayed for three years working 12 hours a day, six days a week without pay. When Singh finally dared to ask for his back wages, Uncle Charanjit fired him. Worse, after learning that Singh had begun legal action to recover the nearly $70,000 owed to him, Jutla reported his …
Vindicating Korematsu
Don Tamaki helped the defendant in the landmark internment case win exonerationWhen Don Tamaki graduated from Boalt Hall Law School in 1976, Asian-American lawyers in northern California had few career options. The big law firms weren’t hiring them, and they were all but invisible in local and state government. So what was an idealistic young lawyer to do? In the spirit of the times, Tamaki began organizing the Asian legal community, co-founding the Asian Law Alliance in San José. Today, Tamaki is managing partner with Minami, Lew & Tamaki in San Francisco, …
Behind Door One: Torture Behind Door Two: Deportation
Mona Patel-Sikora has what must be one of the most emotionally difficult jobs in Los Angeles. A staff attorney with the immigration unit of the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles, she provides representation to battered immigrant women and children who come to the United States looking for a better life. After she graduated from the University of Southern California Law School in 1990, Patel-Sikora was on her way to a career in a big law firm. She joined Bryan Cave and worked there five …
The Family Doctor
Patrice Munzel Ball-Reed will never forget April 4, 1968, the day Martin Luther King Jr. was murdered. She was living with her family on the west side of Chicago, the center of the violent protests that erupted after King’s assassination. The frightened 10-year-old watched as rioters burned buildings and looted stores on her block, and national guardsmen with guns patrolled the neighborhood in tanks. “It was scary,” she says. “I remember thinking that the rioters were breaking the …
The Accidental Trail Blazer
When that (other) rich and famous Texan decided to run for president, he chose Kim J. Askew to lead the chargeKim Askew didn't set out to be a trailblazer; she couldn’t avoid it. On her way to becoming one of the more respected litigation lawyers in the country, she just kept carving out new ground. She was the first black woman to be hired by a major Dallas law firm, the first to make partner, and the first to be elected as chair of the State Bar of Texas. When she completes her current term as vice chair of the American Bar Association’s Section of Litigation in 2006, she will be its …
From Picking Peaches to Picking Up Million-Dollar Lawsuits
Arturo González is a Latino hero with one eye on the law, one on injustice and both on a possible political careerArturo J. González learned the principles of justice in the fields of Central California, where he spent his summers picking tomatoes and peaches with his family. There, he witnessed INS raids in which agents seemingly appeared out of nowhere and hauled terrified laborers off to jail, including some legal residents who didn’t have their papers with them. “That was the first time I saw what I thought was an abuse of power,” says González, “and when I knew I wanted to help …
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