Daily Business Report — Dec. 10, 2010
Sheppard Mullin Partner Named Pro Bono Attorney of Year and Decade
Robert S. Gerber, partner in the Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton law firm, has been presented the firm’s 2010 Pro Bono Attorney of the Year Award and also was named Sheppard Mullin’s Pro Bono Attorney of the Decade. Gerber has been chair of the pro bono committee from 2001 through 2010. The honors recognize the community service work done by the firm’s attorneys and Gerber, who is based in the San Diego/Del Mar office.
Gerber has handled dozens of pro bono cases in cooperation with a variety of San Diego and Los Angeles-based pro bono referral agencies, including landlord/tenant, breach of contract, family law, free speech, administrative law proceedings, arbitrations, mediations, trials, and appeals. Sheppard Mullin experienced a 400 percent increase in its attorneys’ donation of indigent pro bono hours during Gerber’s tenure as pro bono chair, the firm said.
Gerber began the decade with a precedent-setting decision in the Ninth Circuit in an immigration case, in which he obtained asylum and withholding of deportation for a transsexual teenager from Mexico who had been raped, incarcerated and otherwise persecuted on account of his sexual identity. Years later, he handled another precedential case, obtaining what was believed to be the first civil monetary settlement for a teenage victim of human trafficking under California Civil Code Section 52.5.
“Pro bono is one of the finest traditions of our profession,” said Gerber. “It offers an excellent opportunity to serve the community, while achieving personal fulfillment and professional development.”
La Jolla Institute Team Develops Diabetes Research Tool
A team from the La Jolla Institute for Allergy & Immunology has demonstrated the effectiveness of a computer model in predicting important information about nasal insulin treatment of type 1 juvenile diabetes. Diabetes researcher Matthias von Herrath led the team, which developed the software from funding received through the American Diabetes Association. The findings, which also showed the platform’s ability to predict critical type 1 diabetes molecular “biomarkers,” were published in the December issue of the scientific journal Diabetes, and further validate the importance of the new model as a valuable research tool in type 1 diabetes, the team said. The software is designed to enable researchers to rapidly streamline laboratory research through the evaluation of alternative scenarios for therapeutic strategies that show the most promise for working in humans. “Since laboratory studies can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, and early stage human clinical trials can cost $10 million dollars or more, predicting the right conditions to try is important,” said von Herrath, director of the Type 1 Diabetes Research Center at the La Jolla Institute for Allergy & Immunology, where the studies were conducted.
Grubb & Ellis Co. Adds Vice Presidents
Charles Adolphe and Bryan Teel, formerly with Cushman & Wakefield, have joined the Grubb & Ellis Co. in San Diego. Adolphe is senior vice president and Teel is associate vice president. Adolphe began his career with Grubb & Ellis in 1988. He returns to the company from Cushman & Wakefield where he served as a director for the past three years. He previously spent nine years with Burnham Real Estate until it was acquired by Cushman & Wakefield in 2007. Adolphe holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Southern California and served four years as a United States Naval Officer. He is a member of NAIOP and the San Diego and Otay Mesa Chambers of Commerce. Teel began his career with Cushman & Wakefield in 2004 as an associate and holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Redlands as well as a master’s degree from San Diego State University.
San Diegans Elected to Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund Posts
San Diegans Susan Atkins and Robert Gleason have been elected to leadership positions in the national Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund, an organization that works to increase the number of openly LGBT elected officials in the country. Atkins was elected chair and Gleason vice chair. Atkins, a member of the Victory Fund board since 2004, has 20 years of communications management experience in life sciences and technology. In 1999, she founded one of the most successful agencies in the United States providing investor and public relations exclusively to life science companies and organizations, and sold the firm to Porter Novelli in 2005. Atkins becomes the first woman to chair the Victory Fund board since it restructured in 2006. Gleason is the chief financial officer and general counsel of Evans Hotels, which owns and operates commercial properties and resorts, including The Lodge at Torrey Pines in La Jolla as well as the Bahia Resort Hotel and Catamaran Resort Hotel, both on Mission Bay. The Victory Fund board also elected Steve Elmendorf of Washington, D.C., as secretary, and Harvey Hurdle of Philadelphia as treasurer. Frank Selvaggi of New York, N.Y., was also elected to serve on the Victory Fund board.
LifeWave to Move Headquarters to Kearny Mesa
LifeWave, an international distributorship company that offers a line of non-transdermal patch products, has signed a new five-year lease for 15,000 square feet of class A office space in Kearny Mesa that will serve as its new global headquarters. Located at 9444 Balboa Ave., Suite 150, the new space more than doubles LifeWave’s current office. Employees will move from their La Jolla-based office into the new space mid-December. The new headquarters includes a variety of new amenities including a separate 4,000-square-foot research and design facility, a new training area for distributors, a media room that will allow the company to produce its own webcasts and broadcast training sessions, among other video production tasks.
Retail Shopping Center Sold for Use as Gun Shop
Jonathan and Laura Pool have purchased a 7,400-square-foot retail shopping center at 8701 La Mesa Blvd. in La Mesa for $980,000. They plan to hold the property as an owner/user investment and will open a gun shop, selling and reselling guns and ammunition. The seller, Carol M. Devore, trustee of the Leonard H. Devore Trust, was represented by Kyle Clark and Kipp Gstettenbauer of Cushman & Wakefield. The buyers represented themselves.
Industrial Building Sold for Use as Chemistry Lab
JZ Group LLC has purchased a 12,690-square-foot industrial building in Sorrento Mesa for $1,472,040. Located at 9215 Brown Deer Road, the single-story building will be used by the owner for chemistry lab space. Built in 1986 on .75 acres, the concrete tilt-up building is comprised of 80 percent warehouse space and 20 percent office space. Dean Asaro of CB Richard Ellis represented the seller, S&J Property Holdings LLC. Andy Irwin, also of CB Richard Ellis, represented JZ Group LLC.
SCORE San Diego Small Business Workshops
SCORE San Diego continues its series of low-cost workshops in December.
Workshop fees range from $29 to $109, depending on the program. To register, visit score-sandiego.org.
• Dec. 11 – QuickBooks Basic – 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Point Loma Nazarene University in Mission Valley (4007 Camino del Rio South, San Diego 92108; pre-paid registration $69, $79 at the door).
• Dec. 13 – Buying and Selling a Business – 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at Point Loma Nazarene University in Mission Valley (4007 Camino del Rio South, San Diego 92108; pre-paid registration $69, $79 at the door).
• Dec. 14 – How to Start and Manage Your Own Business – Carlsbad – 9 a.m. to 4:15 p.m. at National University in Carlsbad (705 Palomar Airport Road, Carlsbad 92011; pre-paid registration $69, $79 at the door).
• Dec. 14 – Business Basics 101 – 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. at SCORE Entrepreneur Center (550 West C St., #550, San Diego 92101; FREE! Please pre-register).
• Dec. 15 – Business Plan 201: How to Write a Business Plan – 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at Point Loma Nazarene University in Mission Valley (4007 Camino del Rio South, San Diego 92108; pre-paid registration $99, $109 at the door).
• Dec. 16 – Financing Your Business – Carlsbad – 9:30 a.m. to noon at National University in Carlsbad (705 Palomar Airport Road, Carlsbad 92011; pre-paid registration $29, $39 at the door).
• Dec. 17 – Internet Marketing 303: Social Media – 9 a.m. to noon at Point Loma Nazarene University in Mission Valley (4007 Camino del Rio South, San Diego 92108; pre-paid registration $49, $59 at the door).
• Dec. 18 – Financial Statements – 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. at SCORE Entrepreneur Center (550 West C St., #550, San Diego 92101; pre-paid registration $29, $39 at the door).
• Dec. 20 – Business Plan 201: How to Write a Business Plan – Carlsbad – 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at National University in Carlsbad (705 Palomar Airport Road, Carlsbad 92011; pre-paid registration $99, $109 at the door).
For more information regarding SCORE San Diego’s workshop series and locations, call (619) 557-7272.
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