Office History

Volney Howard practiced law in San Francisco, but was asked to leave after he opposed the local vigilance committee. He was a respected lawyer in Los Angeles and was elected to four two-year terms as District Attorney. Howard participated in California's second Constitutional Convention in 1878 that reorganized the state’s judicial branch. In 1879, Howard and Ignacio Sepulveda were elected to serve as the first two judges of the newly formed Los Angeles Superior Court. Howard was a charter member and vice president of the first Los Angeles Bar Association, founded in 1878 to establish a local law library.

Cameron Thom came to California from Virginia as a Forty-Niner. He moved to Los Angeles in 1854. One of his first cases as a defense attorney was a controversial murder charge against Dave Brown, a well-known gambler. Brown had killed a man in a livery stable on Main Street. In the heyday of the vigilantes, a crowd gathered and decided to string up Brown and be done with him. Los Angeles Mayor Stephen Foster -- not the songwriter of "Camptown Races," though they were alive at the same time -- convinced the would-be lynchers to give the courts a chance to act. Foster vowed that if justice wasn't expediently done, he would resign his office and lead a lynch mob himself. Brown was sentenced to death. But Thom and two colleagues, the high-priced defense lawyers of their day, were able to get a stay from the state Supreme Court. Foster, true to his word, resigned, led another lynch mob and Thom's client was hanged. Foster was re-elected as mayor two weeks later.

Thom was a California senator from 1859 to 1860. He returned to the South during the Civil War, fighting as a major in the Confederate army. Then he came back to Los Angeles and served two more terms as District Attorney. He was mayor of Los Angeles from 1882 to 1884 and also helped to found the city of Glendale.

Reprinted from For the People -- Inside the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office 1850-2000 by Michael Parrish. ISBN 1-883318-15-7

Stephen M. White, educated at Santa Clara University, arrived in Los Angeles in 1874 and was described by one historian as a "dynamic and brilliant" lawyer. Before becoming District Attorney in 1882, White was a charter member of the first Los Angeles County Bar Association. After one term, he became president pro tem of the California Senate and later was elected to the United States Senate, where he worked to establish the deep-water harbor at San Pedro, now known as the Los Angeles Harbor. He also appeared before the U.S. Supreme Court to defend the 1888 Scott Exclusion Act, enacted because of continuing anti-Chinese sentiment. The law essentially barred 20,000-30,000 Chinese laborers from reentering the United States.

George S. Patton was the first city attorney of Pasadena, in 1877. He also opened a Los Angeles law practice before being elected District Attorney in 1886. Patton also would be the first mayor of San Marino. He was less successful, however, standing for other public offices -- losing a bid for the U.S. Congress in 1894 and for the Senate in 1916. Patton swam against the tide as a stubborn opponent of women having the vote. He was the father of the legendary World War II tank commander.

Reprinted from For the People -- Inside the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office 1850-2000 by Michael Parrish. ISBN 1-883318-15-7