Dan Callahan of Callahan & Blaine is set to drop the other shoe in his case against Orange County Register parent Freedom Communications, which agreed to an initial settlement of a class-action suit over employment claims by delivery workers for $38 million in 2008. That was adjusted in Freedom’s subsequent bankruptcy to about $14.5 million, but Callahan kept the door open for another case seeking much more, including up to $25 million from Freedom directors. Word has it that a settlement is near, with insurance likely to cover board members …
Callahan has been known to credit wife Maureen—whose Borchard & Callahan often represents employers—with keeping him sharp. Must be—both made the Top 50 list for OC in the February edition of Thomson Reuter’s Super Lawyers magazine …
One-time partners touched academia in different ways last week. San Diego Padres CEO Jeff Moorad—who has a house in Big Canyon and remains active in the YPO forum here—promised $5 million for a Center for the Study of Sports Law to bear his name at Villanova University near Philadelphia. He’s a graduate of Villanova School of Law, where his gift is a record-setter …
Moorad at one time partnered with Leigh Steinberg, who recently handed Chapman University in Orange a rare fundraising setback. The rub came when Richard Sudek, who runs the school’s entrepreneurship center, took the opportunity of Steinberg’s Feb. 13 talk to students to suggest the erstwhile super-agent get his name on something at the campus. “Haven’t you been reading the papers?” Steinberg said, referring to reports of his bankruptcy and struggles with alcohol—and drawing a laugh from the crowd. Steinberg didn’t count Chapman—or himself—out. “I’ll be back, but I’m a little sparse right now,” he said …
Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo’s version of Cinderella left for the Big Apple with a split decision at the Segerstrom Center. The decidedly adult take had “oversized gestures and exaggerated pantomime,” as an LA Times reviewer put it. About half the crowd gave a standing ovation, with Chapman Law Dean Tom Campbell, Gibson Dunn & Crutcher Partner Robert Palmer, and OCBJ Publisher Richard Reisman spotted on their feet …
President Obama was in the Illinois legislature when we honored Allyson Ames and her Wonderland Bakery in Newport Beach at our Women in Business Awards in 2003. Both have come a long way, as coverage of the president’s OC swing attested …
Where’s Winston?: Chinese investor and electric battery honcho Winston Chung lost a deal for the Balboa Bay Club when he couldn’t get enough money out of China. Did the same trouble play a role in the recent shutdowns of Euromasters Classic Cars in Fountain Valley and sister South Coast Electric Cars in Costa Mesa? Owner John Calicchio, who last week filed for bankruptcy, told the Business Journal last year he’d met Chung “several times” to discuss a potential investment in his operations …
Aptly named: Santa Ana Unified School District Superin-tendent Thelma Meléndez de Santa Ana.
