Top this, Doti: Car buff and eco enthusiast Gary Brahm is one of the first 20 people to get Honda’s much-anticipated, hydrogen-powered Clarity. “I know it goes at least 80,” says Brahm, who is chancellor of Chapman U’s Brandman University in Irvine. Brahm says he first inquired about the zero-emission test car two years ago. The vetting process included several meetings with Honda’s program director. The three-year lease for the sleek, garnet-colored head turner is $600 a month (it’s not yet for sale). Brahm will get his weekly fill-up at UCI, which has been pumping hydrogen for experimental vehicles at Campus and Jamboree since 2007 …
The jury is still out: Dean Erwin Chemerinsky says it is “undetermined” whether former plaintiff’s lawyer Bill Lerach will teach at UCI’s law school: “We have discussed it, but our schedule for next spring is still being determined.” Lerach is the famous/notorious former “king of strike suits”—shareholder suits against companies after stock-price tumbles. He was released in March after doing time for his involvement in a kickback scheme. He recently told the San Diego Union-Tribune he was planning to teach a course on the failures of free-market regulation at UCI early next year; the National Law Journal, Wall Street Journal and OCBJ.com picked up the story. The Insider has heard grousing about Lerach from some UCI supporters. “I have gotten all sorts of feedback on Lerach, some positive, some negative,” Chemerinsky says. “But I get feedback on everything!” …
OC sportswear icons speak: Quiksilver’s Bob McKnight is Thursday’s luncheon keynoter for the Business Growth Conference at the Anaheim Marriott sponsored by the Harvard Business School Association of OC and USC Marshall School’s alumni association; morning keynoter is Tony Hsieh of Nevada-based online shoe shop Zappos.com. Volcom CEO Richard “Wooly” Woolcott receives Chapman U’s first Entrepreneur of the Year award May 19 …
The Real Estate & Building Industry’s charity mixer Thursday at the Balboa Bay Club features cigars, margaritas and new USC head football coach Lane Kiffin …
Several of OC’s wise men have been busy on books: Retired Disneyland Prez Jack Lindquist finished a manuscript about his 38 years “in service of The Mouse,” including his “adventures” with Walt Disney and Michael Eisner. Publicist, journalist and former Irvine Company exec Martin Brower has released “Orange County Jew: A Memoir.” Sir Eldon Griffiths is signing his two-volume memoir, “TransAtlantic Man” and “Global Citizen,” Thursday night at the Balboa Bay Club. Retired Superior Court Judge Jim Gray is coming out with “A Voter’s Handbook,” a Libertarian prescription for government reform. And former OCTA and OC Biz Council chief Stan Oftelie has finished a local history book for kids, “Nothing Rhymes with Orange,” illustrated by former Disneyland artist Dan Almanzar. Oftelie is shooting for a Sept. 15 release, “the one-year anniversary of when my oncologist told me I was officially a cancer survivor.”
