Matthew Bender Practice Guide: California Civil Appeals and Writs

The Honorable Kira L. Klatchko is a Judge of the Riverside County Superior Court. Prior to her appointment to the bench, Ms. Klatchko was a certified Appellate Law Specialist with extensive experience handling both state and federal writs and appeals arising from all areas of civil practice for clients as varied as public entities, businesses, and families. She is a former partner at the firm of Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith LLP, where she was vice chair of the firm’s national Appellate Practice. Ms. Klatchko has chaired the California State Bar Committee on Appellate Courts and is a member of the California Academy of Appellate Lawyers. She was the 2015 president of the Riverside County Bar Association, and previously served five terms as chair of the RCBA Appellate Section. Ms. Klatchko frequently lectures and writes on appellate issues, and is a co-author of the “California” chapter of the Appellate Practice Compendium (ABA 2012), an insider’s guide to appellate practice.

Ms. Klatchko earned a B.A. in Political Science, with distinction, from the University of California, Berkeley, and a J.D. from the University of California, Davis. She earned her M.B.A. from the Executive Management Program at the Peter F. Drucker and Masatoshi Ito School of Management at Claremont Graduate University.

Benjamin G. Shatz, a certified Appellate Specialist, co-chairs the Appellate Practice Group at Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP. He is a member of the California Academy of Appellate Lawyers and has briefed hundreds of civil appeals, writs and petitions to the U.S. Supreme Court, U.S. Courts of Appeals, California Supreme Court and California Courts of Appeal, covering areas of law including entertainment, copyright, trademark, employment, land use, banking, insurance, product liability, professional liability, wrongful death, punitive damages, class actions, anti-SLAPP and unfair competition. He has Chaired the California State Bar Committee on Appellate Courts and the Los Angeles County Bar Appellate Courts Committee. He currently serves on the Executive Committee of the LA County Bar Appellate Courts Section; administers the Appellate Court Experience program; Chairs the LA County Bar’s State Appellate Judicial Evaluation Committee; and is Editor-in-Chief of California Litigation, the journal of the State Bar’s Litigation Section. Before private practice he was a law clerk for The Honorable Robert J. Johnston, United States Magistrate Judge for the District of Nevada, and an extern for The Honorable Dorothy W. Nelson, United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

He is a frequent lecturer and author, having been published in California Litigation, California Lawyer, Los Angeles Lawyer, Inside Counsel, The Daily Journal, The Recorder, For the Defense, California Defender, CEB Civil Litigator Reporter, and many other legal publications. He blogs at Southern California Appellate News.