California Bar Appoints Rex Heinke to Judicial Council
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(Los Angeles, California) – Rex Heinke, a partner in the appellate practice group of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP in Los Angeles, has been appointed by the State Bar of California to a three-year term on the Judicial Council, a state constitutional agency that provides policy direction to the courts, the governor and the Legislature regarding court practice, procedure and administration. Mr. Heinke was the only practicing lawyer appointed to the Council in 2003.
Chaired by Chief Justice Ronald George, the council consists of 21 members — the chief justice, 14 judges appointed by the chief justice, one member of the Assembly, one member of the Senate and four lawyer members appointed by the State Bar.
Mr. Heinke chairs Akin Gump’s national appellate and litigation strategy practice. He has handled numerous appeals in both state and federal courts on a wide variety of matters, including defamation, access of television cameras to courtrooms, public records, the right of publicity, malicious prosecution, invasion of privacy, false advertising and reporters’ privilege. He has served as lead trial and appellate counsel on behalf of newspapers, magazines, television networks, motion picture studios, Web sites, and entertainment production and distribution companies in First Amendment, intellectual property, entertainment, media and Internet disputes.
Mr. Heinke has served as president of the Los Angeles County Bar Foundation (2001-02) and the Los Angeles County Bar Association (2000-01). Presently, he is the treasurer of the Los Angeles Copyright Society. He has served as a member of the board of directors of the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles (1993-97), as a member of the California State Bar’s Advisory Committee to Review the Rules and Procedures of the Commission on Judicial Nominees Evaluation (1996-97) and as a member of the California Supreme Court’s Task Force on Multi-Jurisdictional Practice (2001). He is a member of the California Academy of Appellate Lawyers. Mr. Heinke has received numerous awards, including the ACLU of Southern California’s First Amendment Lifetime Achievement Award, and has been recognized in the trade press as a leading practitioner of First Amendment, trademark and business law.
Mr. Heinke received his B.A. in 1971 from the University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa, and his J.D. in 1975 from Columbia Law School, where he was a Kent Scholar. He clerked for Chief Judge Frederick J.R. Heebe in the Eastern District of Louisiana from 1975 to 1976.
Founded in 1945, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP, a leading international law firm, numbers nearly 1,000 lawyers with offices in Albany, Austin, Brussels, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Houston, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, New York, Northern Virginia, Philadelphia, Riverside, Riyadh (affiliate), San Antonio and Washington. The firm has a diversified practice and represents regional, national and international clients in a wide range of areas, including antitrust; banking and financial institutions; capital markets; communications; corporate and securities; employee benefits; energy, land use and environment; entertainment; estate planning, wealth transfer and probate; financial restructuring; government contracts; health; insurance; intellectual property; international; investment management; labor and employment; litigation; mergers and acquisitions; privatization; project development and finance; public law and policy; real estate and finance; taxation; and technology. For additional information, please visit our Web site at http://www.akingump.com.
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