Jewish American Heritage Month

Alice M. Graham’s practice is focused on mediation. She also handles transactional real estate matters and civil appeals.

Graham has served as a mediator both privately and for Los Angeles Superior Court’s ADR Panel since 2004.

Graham is an author and editor for various legal treatises and has published several articles on real property and mediation issues. Ms. Graham has been a speaker at various events on the topics of easements, advanced mediation negotiation skills, and more.

Graham is an active member of the Los Angeles County Bar Association Small Firms Section and has served for several years on its executive committee, currently serving as chair. Graham has been honored as a SuperLawyer.

Graham has a special fondness for the Small Firms section of LACBA, which maintains a robust list serve that has been a tremendous help to its members as well as creating lasting friendships.

Graham has been to Israel four times. She is a lifetime member of Hadassah, an organization whose mission it is to “heal the world”. She is the proud mother of three daughters, two of whom are attorneys and all of whom are well educated in Judaism.

Judge Dean Hansell serves on the California Superior Court and has a distinguished record of leadership in the legal, civic, and academic communities. He earned his B.A., cum laude, from Denison University and his J.D. from Northwestern University School of Law. He is a member of Phi Beta Kappa and Omicron Delta Kappa, has served on Denison’s Board of Trustees, and currently serves on the Northwestern Law Board. He has received both the Denison Alumni Citation and the Northwestern Law School Service Award.

Judge Hansell was appointed by Governor Gavin Newsom to the Governor’s Judicial Selection Advisory Committee. He chairs the California Judges Association Compensation & Benefits Committee and has served on the Los Angeles Superior Court Executive Committee and chaired its Community Outreach Committee.

His extensive public service includes roles as a Los Angeles Police Commissioner, chair of the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Civilian Oversight Commission Working Group, and former President of the Los Angeles Fire & Police Pension Board and of the City’s Board of Information Technology Commissioners. He also serves in leadership roles with several nonprofit organizations and is an American Bar Foundation Life Fellow.  He serves as a member of the Board of Governors of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion.

Judge Hansell is a past Chair of LACBA’s Antitrust Section, Co-President of the Los Angeles LGBT Center, and Co-Founder of the Los Angeles chapter of GLAAD. He has authored more than 45 publications, including The Law of Reinsurance, now in its 29th edition.

Judge Stuart M. Rice (Ret.) is a highly respected mediator, arbitrator and neutral evaluator with JAMS, following more than 22 years of distinguished service on the Los Angeles County Superior Court. Appointed in 2005 after serving as a commissioner for two years, he spent his last four years in a complex civil court earning a reputation for fairness, efficiency and deep legal acumen.

Judge Rice has been widely recognized for his contributions to the judiciary, including “Judge of the Year” honors from both the South Bay Bar and Long Beach Bar Associations. He served as President of the California Judges Association, member of the Judicial Council of California, a four-time member of the LASC Executive Committee and the chair of its Temporary Judge Committee for fifteen years. He currently serves as President of the California Judges Foundation.

Before joining the bench, Judge Rice was a senior partner at Rice & Rothenberg. His leadership includes having served as President of the California Young Lawyers Association, member of the State Bar Board of Governors, Judicial Nominees Evaluation Committee and President of the Long Beach Bar and Barristers Association.

Previous Honorees:
 

Stuart Chelin graduated Upper Second Class Honors from McGill University’s Faculty of Law. After articling at Fasken, a top Canadian international litigation and business law, he was called to the bar of the Law Society of Ontario where he remains a member. He then joined Solmon Rothbart Goodman LLP in Toronto, where he engaged in sophisticated corporate/commercial litigation for over a decade and eventually became a partner. He also served for a stint as Associate General In-House Counsel for Cott Corporation, a leading international soft drink manufacturer. In 2006, Chelin moved to California and began managing business operations for a private real estate group in the Coachella Valley, overseeing acquisitions/dispositions, financings, joint venture relationships, construction projects, land use entitlements and city and county government relations. Chelin opened Chelin Law Firm in 2018, with a focus on business and real estate litigation and corporate/commercial work.

A LACBA member since 2018, Chelin has served for over 5 years on the Executive Committee of the Small Firm and Sole Practitioner Section. He recognizes the extremely vital role that LACBA plays for the profession and encourages membership to all small firm and solo practitioners he meets so they can enjoy the benefits of our unique LA legal community.

Chelin has always been deeply committed to the Jewish community and the State of Israel. As a young lawyer in Toronto, he devoted pro bono time to the Friends of the Simon Wiesenthal Center over many years, including as part of a delegation advocating before the Canadian Minister of Justice for more effective action in dealing with Nazi war criminals. In 2003, Stuart took a 3-month sabbatical and volunteered with The Peres Center for Peace and Innovation in Tel Aviv. In 2013, he played tennis representing Canada in Israel at the Maccabiah Games. He was overjoyed to watch his three children becoming bar and bat mitzvah at the Kotel in Jerusalem in 2019 and 2021. In July of 2024, Stuart proudly became an American citizen.

Judge Kevin Rosenberg is the Supervising Judge of L.A. County Superior Court’s North Valley District, which includes the San Fernando, Chatsworth, Santa Clarita, and Sylmar courthouses.

Judge Rosenberg began his career by serving in the U.S. Navy Judge Advocate General’s Corps for nearly six years, during which time he was stationed in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii and Washington, D.C, and graduated from the U.S. Army Airborne School.

After leaving the Navy, Judge Rosenberg was a federal prosecutor in Los Angeles for approximately 13½ years, including approximately seven years as a Deputy Chief in the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force.

Immediately before his appointment to the bench in December 2016, Judge Rosenberg was with the Los Angeles law firm of Lowenstein & Weatherwax for approximately three years, where his practice included: anti-money laundering and Bank Secrecy Act compliance for casinos and other financial institutions and white-collar criminal defense.

Alana Rotter is a partner at the appellate firm Greines Martin Stein & Richland LLP, where she helps clients—both plaintiffs and defendants—defend victories and reverse adverse rulings in the California appellate courts and the Ninth Circuit. Clients also hire Rotter to provide guidance in the trial court, where she assists trial counsel with dispositive motions and issue preservation.

Rotter is a State Bar-certified appellate specialist, and Chambers USA and Super Lawyers have rated her highly for her appellate skill. She received her law degree from Yale Law School, where she was an editor of the Yale Law Journal, and her undergraduate degree from U.C. Berkeley. Before entering private practice, she clerked for Judge Kermit Lipez of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit.

Rotter is active in the community, including chairing LACBA’s State Appellate Judicial Evaluation Committee, serving on the board of her children’s public school’s parent organization, doing volunteer legal work for organizations including StandWithUs, and organizing programs for lawyers at her synagogue.

Judge Tarle brings over 36 years of distinguished judicial and legal experience to ADR proceedings as a neutral at Judicate West. A former Municipal Court and Superior Court Commissioner, as well as a Superior Court Judge in Los Angeles County, he presided over a wide range of civil and criminal matters. From 2004 onward, he handled complex civil trials in West Los Angeles, Beverly Hills, and Santa Monica, overseeing hundreds of jury and bench trials involving personal injury, professional malpractice, contract disputes, real property issues, and landlord-tenant matters.

His extensive civil experience, combined with years on the criminal bench, gives him a unique perspective in resolving emotionally charged and high-stakes disputes—many of which overlap between criminal conduct and civil liability. Judge Tarle's early work as a Deputy City Attorney exposed him to habitability, housing, and workplace violations, shaping his deep understanding of community impact.

Known for his fairness, empathy, and practical judgment, he is deeply committed to alternative dispute resolution. His calm demeanor, courtroom expertise, and hands-on approach make him a highly effective and trusted mediator.

Associate Justice Helen I. Bendix was appointed by Governor Jerry Brown in April 2018 to the Court of Appeal, Second District, Division One, after having served on the trial court for approximately 21 years, including as Supervising Judge of the Los Angeles Superior Court settlement courts.

Justice Bendix’s family members were Holocaust refugees, who emigrated to New York City. Justice Bendix graduated from Cornell University as a College Scholar and earned her law degree from Yale Law School. After law school, Justice Bendix clerked for the Honorable Shirley Mount Hufstedler on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. She then practiced in Washington, D.C. for eight years. While in practice, she started a program providing pro bono legal services to the elderly. She returned to Los Angeles in 1985, and worked in private practice until she became General Counsel of KCET.

Justice Bendix has served on court committees regarding access to justice, civil rulemaking, judicial education, and alternative dispute resolution, and has taught judicial education courses. Currently, she serves on the Appellate Practice Curriculum Committee and the Supreme Court and Courts of Appeal Bias Prevention Committee.

Justice Bendix has been active in bar associations, particularly the Los Angeles Bar Association, where she was a member of its Board of Trustees from 1994 to1997. She also served on LACBA committees regarding diversity, governance issues, and alternative dispute resolution.

Justice Bendix has taught in law schools in Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles and is the author of books or articles on civil procedure, alternative dispute resolution, and international law. Her awards include Judge of the Year from the Armenian Bar Association in 2019 and the 2001 Emil Gumpert Judicial Alternative Dispute Resolution Award; she was one of ten lawyers featured in the American Lawyer’s Tenth Anniversary Edition on “Ten Years of Upheaval and Ten Who Made It Happen” (March 1989). She is a member of the American Law Institute.

Justice Bendix also plays violin and viola in the Palisades Symphony Orchestra, the Los Angeles Lawyers Philharmonic, and chamber music groups.

Ron Brot is the founding and senior partner of Brot•Gross•Fishbein•LLP, located in Sherman Oaks, California. With a career spanning over five decades, Brot's expertise in family law has earned him a distinguished reputation in the legal community.

Admitted to the State Bar of California in January 1972, Brot's practice is focused on representing clients in family law matters. He has been recognized as one of the leading family law attorneys in America, with accolades including inclusion in Best Lawyers in America and Lawdragon 500 Leading Family Lawyers in America.

A graduate of the University of Michigan, Brot holds a Bachelor of Arts degree cum laude and a Juris Doctorate degree cum laude from the University of Michigan Law School. Throughout his career, Brot has lectured extensively on family law topics for various legal education providers, demonstrating his commitment to sharing his knowledge and expertise with others.

Brot's contributions to the legal profession extend beyond his practice. He has served in leadership roles in organizations such as the Los Angeles County Bar Association, where he served as President from 2019 to 2020, and the Family Law Section, where he was the founder of the Family Law Trial Advocacy Training Program. Brot's dedication to advancing family law and his outstanding achievements have earned him numerous awards and recognitions, including the Spencer Brandeis Award for Extraordinary Impact On Advancement of Family Law and the Person of the Year award from the Metropolitan News Enterprise in 2019.

Judge Jessica Kronstadt received her B.A. from Yale University, where she was a member of the Varsity Women’s Volleyball Team. She received her J.D. from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law, where, in 2019, she received a Distinguished Young Alumni Award. After graduating from law school, Judge Kronstadt worked as a litigation associate at Latham & Watkins and as a staff attorney at Bet Tzedek Legal Services. Judge Kronstadt then served as a Deputy District Attorney at the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office. She was assigned to the Sex Crimes Division where she prosecuted child sexual abuse matters. Judge Kronstadt became a Superior Court judge in March 2023 and is currently assigned to the Family Law Division of the Los Angeles Superior Court (LASC). She currently serves as Co-Chair of LASC’s Power Lunch Subcommittee and Co-Chair of LASC’s Mock Trial Subcommittee. Recently, Judge Kronstadt was selected by Assembly Member Jacqui Irwin as a Woman of The Year for the 42nd Assembly District.

Judge Kronstadt is a Past President and current Board of Governors Member of the Women Lawyers Association of Los Angeles (WLALA). She currently serves as the judicial liaison for LACBA’s Family Law Section’s Executive Committee (FLEXCOM). She previously served as a Trustee on LACBA’s Board of Trustees and as a member of LACBA’s Racial and Social Justice Committee. Judge Kronstadt also served on the Regional Board of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and was a member of ADL’s Glass Leadership Institute. Judge Kronstadt has served as a board member of the California Young Lawyers Association and is a past Co-Chair of the Young Lawyers Division of the Association of Business Trial Lawyers. As an attorney, Judge Kronstadt was recognized as “Top 40 Under 40” lawyer by the Daily Journal and as a “Southern California Rising Star” in Public Interest by Super Lawyers™. She has also been recognized by LACBA as one of its Women’s History Month honorees. Judge Kronstadt was honored by the Jewish Free Loan Association as a “Wonder Woman.”

Jim Rosen, a native Angeleno, was raised in the heart of the city's entertainment industry. His upbringing, influenced by his Emmy-winning father's career in comedy writing, instilled in him a deep appreciation for storytelling and advocacy. After completing his education at Beverly Hills High School, UCLA, and Loyola Law School, Rosen embarked on a legal career grounded in a commitment to public service.

Rosen's legal journey began as a Field Deputy to the late LA City Council President John Ferraro, where he gained invaluable experience in municipal governance. He then transitioned to private practice, starting as a partner at Buchalter before founding his own successful solo practice. Today, Rosen is a founding partner of Rosen Saba, LLP, a prestigious boutique trial firm renowned for its expertise in high-stakes litigation.

Throughout his 38-year career as a trial lawyer, Rosen has amassed an impressive record of achievements. He has secured milestone settlements and high-profile trial wins, including notable victories in cases involving breach of fiduciary duty, fraud, and employment disputes. His dedication to his clients and mastery of the courtroom have earned him widespread recognition in the legal community.

In addition to his legal endeavors, Rosen is actively involved in community and professional organizations. He was elected as the 2024 President of the LA Chapter of the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA) and serves as the senior co-chair of ABOTA's National Membership Committee. Committed to preserving Americans' right to jury trial and promoting civility in practice, Rosen finds fulfillment in giving back to the legal profession.

Beyond his professional achievements, Rosen is a devoted family man, a passionate UCLA Bruins fan, and a proud supporter of Israel. His diverse interests, ranging from collecting historic Americana to sharing his Jewish heritage with local schools, reflect his multifaceted personality and commitment to lifelong learning and enrichment. Rosen's unwavering dedication to his clients, his community, and his heritage exemplifies the values of integrity, service, and excellence that define his remarkable career.