Monthly Archives

Wilke Fleury Welcomes Two New Associates

Wilke Fleury is pleased to announce that Sarah Scott and Stacy Hunter have joined the firm as associates. Ms. Scott and Ms. Hunter are both 2010 graduates of the University of California Davis School of Law (King Hall), and join Wilke Fleury following successful clerkships with the firm during the summer of 2009. While at King Hall, Ms. Scott served on the Law Students Association (the student governing body), worked as a faculty research assistant and teaching assistant for first-year law students, volunteered at the Employment Law Clinic of Sacramento’s Voluntary Legal Services Program, participated in the Prison Law Clinic, and interned for Prisoner Legal Services in the San Francisco jails. Ms. Scott also acted as the student liaison for the Sacramento County Bar Association, Civil Rights and Constitutional Law Section. Among her law school accomplishments, Ms. Hunter served as Associate Articles Editor for the U.C. Davis Law Review and copy editor for the Journal of Juvenile Law and Policy. She was also a member of the Jewish Law Students Association, and interned for the California Building Industry Association. We are excited to welcome Sarah and Stacy aboard!

Wilke Fleury Wins $12.6 Million Jury Verdict Against CCPOA

On Friday, October 22, a federal jury in Sacramento returned a punitive damages award of over $10,000,000 in a case brought by Wilke Fleury on behalf of plaintiffs Brian Dawe, Gary Harkins, and Flat Iron Mountain Associates. That award was in addition to the same jury’s October 18 award of $2.58 million in compensatory damages.

Represented by Wilke Fleury partner Dan Baxter, the plaintiffs sued the California Correctional Peace Officers’ Association, Corrections USA, and two individual defendants for breach of contract and defamation—among other claims—stemming from a campaign of misconduct perpetrated by the defendants in 2006 and 2007. After a three-month trial, the jury found in favor of Dawe, Harkins, and Flat Iron on their claims, as well as on an assortment of counterclaims made by Corrections USA. Of the total damages awarded to plaintiffs, over $12 million was against CCPOA, the largest correctional officers’ union in the country and a powerful force in California politics.