At its recent annual conference, members of the California statewide chapter of the American Board of Trial Advocates, CAL-ABOTA, installed A to Z Law’s Dennis LaRochelle as treasurer, making him the first attorney from Ventura County to hold a statewide office for the organization, and positioning LaRochelle to serve as president in 2015.
With stringent membership requirements that include extensive experience arguing civil matters before juries, ABOTA is one of the most respected and exclusive trial lawyer organizations in the nation, and the California regional chapter is among the largest.
“It’s an honor for me personally, for our firm and for the local tri-counties ABOTA chapter for me to be elected to a statewide office in ABOTA,” said LaRochelle. Historically these positions are held by people from the larger chapters such as Los Angeles and San Francisco. “This is recognition that our tri-counties chapter is an important part of the statewide association.”
ABOTA is a prestigious national association of plaintiff and defense jury trial lawyers with a mission to preserve the right to a jury trial in civil cases and to promote civility within the trial bar. “Trial by jury anchors our right to justice. It’s important that both small and weighty matters are not left to be decided by one person or even a panel of ‘professionals’,” notes LaRochelle. “The people set our society’s standards on what is right and fair. It has been that way for over 200 years now, but not without fighting hard to perserve the right to a jury trial in civil cases.”
His new post will strengthen relationships with the best trial lawyers in the state, giving A to Z Law’s clients top resources statewide if matters arise outside this region.