Oct. 26, 2013

Orange County bar lauds Snell & Wilmer's appellate work

The Orange County Bar Association's appellate law section honored Richard A. Derevan of Snell & Wilmer LLP with its annual David G. Sills Award for Appellate Excellence earlier this month. Derevan, now of counsel with Snell's Costa Mesa office, is the first lawyer to win the award, named for the late presiding justice of the 4th District Court of Appeal division in Santa Ana. Sills received the inaugural award in 2010. Considered one of the top appellate specialists in Orange County, Derevan has been lead counsel in more than 300 state and federal appeals and writ proceedings. Fourth District Court of Appeal Justice Raymond J. Ikola and appellate specialists Marjorie Fuller of Fullerton and Robin Meadow of Greines, Martin, Stein & Richland LLP spoke during the ceremony. Leading off the event, constitutional scholars Erwin Chemerinsky and John Eastman presented their predictions about cases in the U.S. Supreme Court's new term. Frequent debating opponents, Chemerinsky is the dean of the UC Irvine School of Law and Eastman is a professor and former dean at Chapman University Fowler School of Law. The event was co-sponsored by the Los Angeles County Bar Association's appellate law section. — Don J. DeBenedictis