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APPLYING MEDIA LESSONS

Attorney Pamela Naughton said she’s learned a lot about being media savvy after watching high-profile news events such as the Duke University lacrosse scandal unravel.

That case “really demonstrates that if you have an innocent client, you can’t keep silent until the trial,” said Naughton, a partner with Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton.

Naughton has taken that wisdom to heart in her highly publicized saga with the San Diego city attorney, a battle that has been waged through the media.

At issue: City Attorney Michael Aguirre had filed charges against her client, Tom Story. The former chief of staff for the mayor now works for a developer that’s building a controversial office tower near the airport. Aguirre was simultaneously pursuing a civil case against Story while filing criminal charges against him for alleged lobbying.

Earlier this month, Superior Court Judge Michael Wellington upheld Naughton’s argument that the city attorney should be removed from a criminal case against her client since he had a conflict of interest.

“It seems to be a hot issue locally,” Naughton said earlier this month from her Del Mar Heights office, pointing to a recent San Diego Union Tribune that included a news story, commentary, editorial and cartoon.

Naughton is no stranger to highly publicized stories. In the 1980s, she worked for the U.S. House of Representatives select committee in the Iran-Contra hearings � the only female counsel serving the committee on that case. She was also an assistant U.S. attorney in San Diego.

But she’s said that recent events have helped her perfect a responsive media strategy.

“If there is a great deal of publicity against your client, the attorney needs to get out in front of issue and needs to state the case publicly over and over again,” she said. “That’s the way you turn around public option and have people see there’s another side of the story.”

She held a press conference at Sheppard, Mullin the day that criminal charges were filed. She had a motion to disqualify ready so that she could blunt the publicity advantage Aguirre would have in filing the charges. So instead, the headline would be about filing the motion to disqualify,” she explained.

She also makes sure to be forthcoming with the press, granting interviews to make sure the media hears her side.

But, she cautioned, media strategy needs to be determined on a case-by-case basis. Given the political nature of the case � and the fact her client was facing a misdemeanor�it made sense to launch an offensive media campaign.

“There’s no reason not to fight that in the court of public opinion,” she said.

� Kellie Schmitt

DEFENSE ATTORNEY APPLIES LESSONS OF MEDIA AGE

Jay Mitchell is going from denim blue to cardinal and white. He says he likes the jeans business, but after 15 years as chief corporate counsel for Levi Strauss & Co., he is taking the helm of Stanford Law School’s first transactional clinic.

Opening to students next spring, the Nonprofit and General Counsel Clinic will serve up opportunities to form new businesses, draft and negotiate contracts, assist with the funding and financing of projects and to advise on everything from governance to compliance. Mitchell, who takes the post of clinic director in August, says his task is simple: to encourage students to think like the client.

And he knows his client inside out. Since 1992, Mitchell has been a member of the legal and finance senior management teams for the $4.1 billion Levi company. In addition to corporate governance, financial disclosure and product sourcing, he has also handled trademark licensing and technical product innovation, among other matters. Before Levi Strauss, Mitchell was a partner at Heller Ehrman in San Francisco.

“Having been in private practice at Heller Ehrman and being in-house … is really good preparation for this position,” Mitchell said. “What I hope to be able to do is help students see both the big picture and the little picture, to view things more from the business perspective, because that’s more helpful for the client.”

But first, he has to create the curriculum and select the most suitable clients. The challenge, Mitchell says, will be to choose the right mix of nonprofits and small businesses. He said he would like the work to be both manageable in the span of a semester � so that students can see projects through from beginning to end � and varied.

Mitchell arrives at the Palo Alto campus at a time when the law school is reshaping its curriculum to offer more interdisciplinary and hands-on courses. Earlier this month, the law school announced it will offer joint J.D. and masters degrees, allowing students to combine their legal education with a specialty in another field, such as business or sociology.

Professor Larry Marshall, who oversees Stanford Law School’s entire clinical program, said that Mitchell’s transition from the private sector will drive home the fact that there need not be this “great divide” between a transactional lawyer and a public interest lawyer.

“We’re trying to model for our students that a career doesn’t have to be one or the other.”

Mitchell said building a program from the ground up is as attractive as the chance to switch gears from the corporate environment. “It’s an opportunity to do public-service work, which to me is very appealing and motivating,” he said. His final project at Levi Strauss will be filing the company’s 10-Q at the end of July.

� Petra Pasternak