Arte Moreno won’t continue to seek reimbursement for an estimated $7.5 million in legal fees, and that ends the four-year battle over the Angels’ name change. “The issue is done. We’ve moved on,” said team spokesman Tim Mead. Last month the city of Anaheim dropped its challenge of Moreno’s decision renaming the Anaheim Angels the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. The city threw in the towel after the 4th District Court of Appeals by 2-1 upheld an earlier jury verdict in Moreno’s favor. However, the appeals court denied the Angels owner’s plea to have the city pick up his legal tab, on top of its own $4 million bill. The next appeal would have been to the California Supreme Court. Mead said the team looks forward to “enhancing” its “solid partnership” with the city. But the Insider doesn’t see Moreno and Anaheim Mayor Curt Pringle sharing beers in the owner’s suite. “Certainly there were some individual relationships that were affected,” Mead said …
At the OC Bar Association’s Judges’ Night (O’Melveny & Myers partner Michael Yoder was installed as 2009 president), much of the buzz was about the Carona verdict. The lawyerly consensus: The jury let the ex-sheriff off lightly, but the media understated the significance of his single felony conviction. Conspicuously mum on the subject was the one person whose opinion actually matters: U.S. District Court Judge Andy Guilford. He presided at the trial and is set to sentence Carona April 27 …
Incidentally, Guilford, who before moving to the bench represented Anaheim in the Angels-name case, will remain a baseball holdout: “I love this community and baseball tradition too much to watch a Los Angeles team play in a stadium bought with Orange County dollars” …
The city of Anaheim plans to get through the recession without layoffs, but will tap its general fund reserve “which was built up in the good times for just this reason,” Mayor Pringle told a sellout crowd of 800 at his annual address …
Surprise! There’s a fare war at John Wayne Airport. Virgin America and Southwest Airlines are discounting their new flights to San Francisco, and United and American are responding in kind. A one-way ticket for May is $69, make that $59, no $49 …
GOP Congressman Dana Rohrabacher marked the beginning of the Obama presidency with a bipartisan gesture. He gave two inaugural tickets to former Huntington Beach Mayor Debbie Cook, his Democratic opponent last fall …
This is what we get for giving Jessica Lee the legal beat. She’s leaving the OCBJ to become marketing director for Stradling Yocca Carlson & Rauth in Newport Beach. She succeeds Paul Ward, who is moving his primary residence back to Phoenix and becoming director of client service and diversity at Ryley Carlock & Applewhite. The firm represented Ward 10 years ago when he sold Law.Com to American Lawyer Media during the dot-com surge.
