Two Manning & Kass Founding Partners Honored as Los Angeles Business Journal Corporate Counsel Awards Finalists

Anthony J. Ellrod and Eugene P. Ramirez, founding partners of the firm, have both been selected as finalists by the Los Angeles Business Journal for the 2015 Corporate Counsel Awards for their pro bono work as general counsel for multiple organizations. Mr. Ellrod leads the firm's  Business Litigation; Corporate and Commercial Transactions; Intellectual Property; and Sports, Recreation, and Attractions Law Teams. Mr. Ramirez leads the Governmental Entity Liability; Military and Veterans Law; and School Civil Liability Teams.

Mr. Ellrod serves as pro bono general counsel for the Malibu Special Education Foundation, which is dedicated to supporting students, families, and educators in the Malibu Special Education community. The Malibu Special Education Foundation conducts monthly support meetings for parents of students with disabilities in a home environment where all problem areas can be addressed in a  relaxing, rather than clinical, atmosphere. He also serves pro bono as a board member and general counsel for the Aurelia Foundation. The Aurelia Foundation was created by parents of special needs individuals to establish programs to encourage discovery and development of their unique talents and abilities as they leave the school system and enter community life. The Foundation creates state of the art day programs for adults with disabilities.

Mr. Ramirez serves as legal section chair for the National Tactical Officers Association (NTOA) as well as general counsel for both the California Association of Tactical Officers (CATO) and United States Police Canine Association. The National Tactical Officers Association (NTOA) is a non-profit organization dedicated to serving the law enforcement community. NTOA currently has more than 40,000 members from specialties that include patrol, TEMS, crisis negotiations, canine, corrections, sniper, protective operations, explosives, command, tactical dispatchers, behavioral sciences and more. The California Association of Tactical Officers is a professional organization dedicated to improving tactics and safety through education, peer contacts, and the sharing of tactical information. The United States Police Canine Association is the largest and oldest active organization of its kind. Their objective is to unite all law enforcement agencies utilizing the services of the canine as an aid in the prevention and detection of crime.

The Los Angeles Business Journal will hold a special luncheon and awards ceremony to honor the finalists on October 16, 2015, at the JW Marriott at L.A. Live. The complete list of finalists, in alphabetical order, is as follows:

Daniel Abrams, OpenGate Capital

Bryan R. Adel, DineEquity, Inc.

Katherine Adkins, Toyota Financial Services

Sonya Bhatia, M-GO

Tammy Brandt, Computer Sciences Corporation

Susan Cleary, Independent Film & Television Alliance (IFTA)

Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, SAG-AFTRA

John M. DeMarco, Lowe Enterprises, Inc.

Tony Ellrod, Manning & Kass, Ellrod, Ramirez, Trester LLP

Jonathan Endman, Account Control Technology Holdings, Inc.

Jennifer Fisher, The Boeing Company

Joshua Geffon, Zenith National Insurance Company

Jonathan Gelfand, Beachbody, LLC

David T. Ho, Fullscreen

Preston Hopson, AECOM

Lily Yan Hughes, Public Storage

T. Warren Jackson, DIRECTV

John H. Kedeshian, Yahoo! Inc.

Tomas A. Kuehn, ValleyCrest Companies AKA BrightView

Lynn Mastandrea, Gensler

Jennifer Painter, On Assignment, Inc.

Guthrie Paterson, Trace3, Inc.

Tina Perry, OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network

Rob Rader, Ovation LLLC

Gene Ramirez, Manning & Kass, Ellrod, Ramirez, Trester LLP

Robert F. Scoular, Dentons US LLP

Amy Wan, Patch of Land

Brian Waters, Trust Company of the West

Daniel Weinrot, Demand Media, Inc.

Joshua White, BAMKO

Laura Zeigler, Bessemer Trust