Ronald Richards (lawyer)

Ronald Richards is a Beverly Hills, California based criminal defense and civil litigation attorney who has made national media appearances as a legal expert commentator. He was the first lawyer to be cited on California Proposition 215 (1996), the medical marijuana statute, and worked as a professor of law at the San Fernando Valley College of Law from 2006 to 2007. Since 2011 Richards has sat as a temporary judge on the Los Angeles Superior Court.[3][4][5]

Ronald Richards
Born
Ronald Neil Richards
NationalityAmerican
EducationBeverly Hills High School
Alma materUniversity of California, Los Angeles
UCLA Anderson School of Management
University of La Verne College of Law[1]
OccupationCriminal defense/civil litigation attorney
Years active1995–present
Home townBeverly Hills, California
Spouse(s)
​
(
m. 2006; div. 2009)
[2]
Websiteronaldrichards.com

Early and personal life

Educated at Beverly Hills High School, he later gained a BA in Political Science at University of California, Los Angeles. While studying at the University of La Verne College of Law, he was elected Student Faculty Representative, and acted as advocate for students facing discipline. He also won the American Jurisprudence Award in bankruptcy. He also is an alumnus of the Anderson School of Management at UCLA and has a certificate of management. He is a lifelong resident of Beverly Hills, California and is very active in the community, including the Beverly Hills Police Officers Association.

He was married to Louise Linton.[2] He is currently married to Lauren Boyette-Richards.

Career

In 2004, Richards was the NBC News Legal Analyst for the Michael Jackson trial.[6]

From August 2006 to January 2007, Richards also worked as a professor of law at the San Fernando Valley College of Law.[7]

In 2011 he obtained a $630,000 settlement against Tom Cruise's ex-wife for a client, and won a $1,000,000 judgment against a real estate developer at trial in Las Vegas, Nevada.[8]

In 2012, Richards won over $40 million in commercial guaranty and borrower enforcement judgments. He collected far over that amount through ADR and pretrial resolutions. The firm successfully closed over $100 million in debt transactions. Richards had a decision published in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals that dramatically improved the rights of persons who contested forfeiture proceedings.[9]

On September 9, 2014, the United States Patent and Trademark Office approved Ronald Richards & Associates' trademark.[10]

In December of 2019, Richards was admitted into the D.C. Bar. [11]

Notable cases

In 2000 in U.S v. Orgad, Richards represented Jacob "Cookie" Orgad (No. 00-344 FMC) and had the charges dismissed in Los Angeles due to government violating the Speedy Trial Act. The case was dismissed with prejudice. Subsequent to this rare procedural victory, Orgad was indicated in New York on related charges. Richards was disqualified as trial counsel only due to the fact that Richards may have been a witness in the case.[12] Ultimately, Mr. Orgad pleaded guilty without the aid of Richards in his New York case after he had lost the attorney who had won his case in Los Angeles. This was a play out of the John Gotti playback where the government disqualified Bruce Cutler causing Gotti to lose his trusted advocate. Ironically, the trial court judge now a defense attorney was the prosecutor who used the same tactic against Bruce Cutler.

In 2003, in U.S. v. Tamer Adel IBRAHIM (9th Cir. 2008) 522 F.3d 1003 (No. 07-50153), Richards represented alleged drugs courier and dealer Tamer Adel Ibrahim. During the search of Ibrahim's apartment in 1999, state and federal law enforcement officers seized nearly $500,000 in cash; Ibrahim was eventually convicted and sentenced to 188 months in prison, and ordered to pay $9 million in fines and restitution. Shortly after the seizure, the United States moved to forfeit the money seized from Ibrahim's apartment, but sent the notice to Ibrahim's cousin John instead. In 2006, Tamer Ibrahim filed for return of property, as he had never received proper notice of forfeiture from the government. The motion for return of property was denied in district court, and Richards, representing Tamer Ibrahim, successfully argued to overturn the seizure ruling before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.[13] After the forfeiture order was reversed, the government settled the case with Ibrahim and released him five years early.

In February 2011, in People v. Troyer (2011) 51 Cal.4th 599, Richards filed an amicus curiae brief to the case, stating that "judges evaluating police searches must look at whether police had an objectively reasonable basis to believe there was an emergency", citing the conflict between People v. Ray (1999)[14] and Brigham City v. Stuart.[15] The Supreme Court of California ruled that the entry of local police in Sacramento County into the bedroom of Albert Troyer without a warrant was legal, covered by the emergency-aid exception to the Fourth Amendment's legal protections against unreasonable search and seizure.[16][17][18]

In 2011, Richards represented former venture capitalist Russell Armstrong in numerous matters. He was married to Taylor Armstrong, a cast member of the Bravo TV series The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. After allegations of money troubles and claims of domestic violence surfaced within the show, Russell committed suicide, found by his landlord and Taylor on August 15, 2011.[1][19]

In June 2014, Richards successfully represented Navabeh Borman in the California Court of Appeal in suing her ex-attorney Hillel Chodos in Chodos v. Borman (2014) 227 Cal.App.4th 76. Borman was being sued by Chodos for unpaid attorney fees relating to Borman's divorce and subsequent Marvin action, which had resulted in a tax-free $26 million settlement to Borman. Justice Richard Mosk said that Judge Barbara Ann Meiers in her original ruling should not have allowed the jury to consider a multiplier, and hence reduced Chodos's payment from $7.8 million to $1.8 million, which the court said represented a reasonable hourly rate of $1,000 for the 1,800 hours the jury found Chodos had worked on the case.[20][21]

gollark: * couldn't
gollark: At least, it's not there, and I can't actually move it...
gollark: The command computer I bought off Lemmmy for 100KST has been stolen from my base mysteriously.
gollark: GTech will soon be selling Yemmelons™ as well as Potatos, produced in this wonderful organic farm.
gollark: e.g. those giant 10000RPM server fans for instance.

References
  1. "Ronald Neil Richards - #176246". calbar.ca.gov. Archived from the original on 2 February 2015. Retrieved 11 September 2014.
  2. "The Woman Who Wrote That "Gap Year In Africa" Memoir Is In A Relationship With Donald Trump's Finance Chief". Archived from the original on 2016-09-17. In a magazine interview in 2011, Linton revealed she was married to LA-based defence lawyer Ronald Richards
  3. "Ronald Richards". forbes.com. Archived from the original on 27 February 2014. Retrieved 3 August 2014.
  4. "RHOBH's Taylor Armstrong Fires Back At Sister-In-Law; Says Russell Loved Being In The Media & Talks Abuse". realitytea.com. Archived from the original on 10 June 2015. Retrieved 3 August 2014.
  5. "Ronald Richards". lawqa.com. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 5 August 2014.
  6. "In Jackson Trial, Jurors Can Hear of Other Cases". nytimes.com. Retrieved 11 September 2014.
  7. "Ronald Richards & Associates". top10beverlyhills.com. Archived from the original on 3 March 2015. Retrieved 3 August 2014.
  8. "Biography". ronaldrichards.com. Archived from the original on 3 December 2014. Retrieved 11 September 2014.
  9. "Jenna Jameson: I Tested Clean!". tmz.com. 2010-04-29. Archived from the original on 21 August 2014. Retrieved 5 August 2014.
  10. "Trademark Status and Document Retrieval". uspto.gov. Archived from the original on 7 January 2012. Retrieved 11 September 2014.
  11. https://join.dcbar.org/eweb/DynamicPage.aspx?Site=dcbar&WebCode=FindMemberResults
  12. UNITED STATES of America, v. Jacob ORGAD, also known as "Tony Evans" and "Koki," Defendant., 132 F.Supp 2d 107 (United States District Court, Eastern District of New York 9 March 2001).
  13. United States v. Ibrahim, 522 F.3d 1003 (United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit 14 April 2008).
  14. People v. Ray, 21 Cal. 4th 464 (Supreme Court of California 19 August 1999).
  15. Richards, Ronald; Bravo, Nicholas; Santos, Patrick T. (28 September 2010). "Docket No. S180759, Application to file amicus curiae brief, and amicus curiae brief of the Law Offices of Ronald Richards & Associates, A.P.C." (PDF). Supreme Court of California. Retrieved 24 August 2017.
  16. People v. Troyer, 51 Cal. 4th 599 (Supreme Court of California 22 February 2011).
  17. "Diane Dimond and Ronald Richards Assess the First Week of the Michael Jackson Trial". nbcuniversal. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 3 August 2014.
  18. "The Abrams Report for April 5". nbcnews.com. Archived from the original on 5 March 2016. Retrieved 3 August 2014.
  19. "Real Housewives Curse Takes Tragic Turn with Russell Armstrong Suicide". abcnews.go.com. Archived from the original on 9 March 2015. Retrieved 5 August 2014.
  20. Chodos v. Borman, Cal.App.4th 76 (Court of Appeals of California, Second District, Division Five 18 June 2014).
  21. Chodos v. Borman, Cal.App.4th 732 (Court of Appeals of California, Second District, Division Five 9 July 2014).
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