Government Law Org hosts Carmen Trutanich
by Darren Schenck, photos by Maria Iacobo
A minute into Los Angeles City Attorney Carmen Trutanich’s lunchtime talk at USC Law on April 12, it was easy to see why he thrives at jury trials: he knows how to enthrall an audience. With more than 200 trials under his belt, the man elected to “defend the city treasury and you” spoke about his love of litigation and offered encouragement to the scores of USC Law students in attendance. The event was sponsored by the Government Law Organization, a new student group.
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| Carmen Trutanich |
“Trying cases—there’s nothing like it,” Trutanich said. “It’s like playing in the NBA: you find you’re either real good or real bad, real quick.”
A two-time alumnus of the USC Marshall School of Business—he holds a degree in accounting and an MBA—Trutanich said he had never considered being an attorney until he was working for the procurement department of StarKist.
“I realized that negotiating fishing contracts would be easier with a law degree,” he said.
Trutanich eventually earned a law degree and interned with the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office. He enjoyed the work so much, he left his job at StarKist and joined the D.A.’s office, focusing on violent crimes committed in and around the City of Compton.
“I worked with the Hard Core Gang Division,” he said. “There were so many murders that if the crime didn’t have a life sentence attached to it, I didn’t prosecute it.”
When he was later transferred to the newly created Environmental Crimes/OSHA Division, Trutanich said he came up against a different caliber of lawyer.
“When I tried environmental crimes, the quality of attorneys went up,” he said. “Going up against senior partners of big firms gives you an opportunity to determine how good you really are. You definitely take it personally. Winning a trial is a personal accomplishment.”
In 1988 family obligations, including raising four children with his wife, Noreen, led Trutanich to leave the D.A.’s office for a career in a big law firm.
“I felt like I was in jail,” Trutanich said, drawing laughs from the audience. “At the D.A.’s, you pick up a file and then you’re in a courtroom, fighting. At a law firm, you’re at your desk from 7 a.m. to nine at night, cranking out work.”
Trutanich left the firm and started his own boutique environmental and criminal litigation firm, where he was widely lauded for his skills as a litigator. In 1998, Trutanich left to start yet another firm with partner C. D. “Chuck” Michel.
Throughout his talk, Trutanich extolled the virtues of a legal education.
“You’re getting a black belt in life,” he said. “Ten years from now, you’ll know what I’m talking about. This profession will give you much more than you’ll ever give it. You’re a part of something much greater than you could ever be.”
Trutanich also discussed his run for the Office of Los Angeles City Attorney and the work he does there.
“[L.A. District Attorney] Steve Cooley [’73] called and asked if I would be interested,” he said. “It was a challenge to run from a position of obscurity. And all the while I was running, I continued to practice law, which meant working 22, 23 hours a day routinely.”
Trutanich said his goal was to ensure that the city attorney’s office focused strictly on its duties and that it would not become involved in politics.
“The first day, I called a meeting for all the staff and told them, ‘If anyone in this room mentions politics as a reason to do anything, you will not be in this room next week,’” he recalled.
Trutanich also spoke about the challenge of maintaining a large caseload during a time of severe budget cuts. His office now employs 507 attorneys, down from 647, and had its budget slashed from $113 million to $77 million.
To meet his $95 million payroll, Trutanich said he has had to be entrepreneurial, prosecuting mortgage fraud and consumer protection cases in which fines collected are shared with his office.
He also gave a pitch for his office’s reserve deputy volunteer program, in which attorneys “strategically volunteer” on cases while receiving training.
“I assure you that you’ll get eight to 10 jury trials in six months, on top of a 30-day training program,” he said. “You get as much out of it as the city does.”
Trutanich then left the students with words of encouragement.
“This is a great profession. I love going to work every single day. Have fun doing it.”
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| Blanca Hernandez '13 and Neal Gauger '13 |
Say Hello to GLO
Los Angeles City Attorney Carmen Trutanich’s visit to USC Law marked the inaugural event of USC Law’s newest student organization: the Government Law Organization (GLO).
Officially recognized this semester, GLO was founded by Neal Gauger ’13 and Blanca Hernandez ’13 to serve what they considered an underemphasized area of legal employment: government law. They found their sentiment was shared by alumni and students alike.
“At Mentor Lunch, I sat at a table with Steve Cooley,” Gauger said. “He told me that he never thought of USC Law as a government law school. We thought that was a shame, and we’d like to change that perception.”
Hernandez said she received much the same impression during her first year of law school.
“USC Law is thought of as a school that places graduates into private firms or public service,” she said. “We thought if we could start an umbrella organization that facilitates access to a government law network of jobs and alumni, we could help ourselves and fellow students.”
Both Gauger, who is from Philadelphia, and Hernandez, who hails from the Bay Area but went to college on the East Coast, found the lack of emphasis on government jobs surprising, considering that Los Angeles is the second-largest government legal market in the country.
“There is a preponderance of USC Law alumni working in government, and we’re reaching out to them,” Gauger said. “We’re working on a conference for next year, and we want to show the full spectrum of possibilities in government law.”
Both students said response from students has been enthusiastic.
“When I told people about our organization, I’d get two responses,” Gauger said. “The first would be: ‘Great idea!’ And the second would be: ‘I can’t believe that doesn’t exist here.’”
Hernandez said they hope that GLO will be to government law what PILF, the Public Interest Law Foundation, is to public interest law and public service. She and Gauger described the three “tiers” of GLO’s goals: 1) sponsoring events and guest speakers; 2) building a comprehensive government law jobs database; and 3) becoming a leader in the field and eventually being able to offer grants to students who want to work in government law.
Both students recognize that GLO will have to become self-sustaining and that not all of their goals will be reached while they are still students.
“We’re really investing ourselves in this,” Gauger said. “Eventually, when people think of government law, we want them to think of USC Law.”
Students and alumni who want to learn more about the Government Law Organization may send an e-mail to [email protected].
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