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Photo of David S. Rugendorf

David S. Rugendorf

Partner - los angeles

Spotlight

July 12, 1979.  Woodstock and the moon landing were only 10 years removed, but for young David Rugendorf, this evening would contain elements of both, and much, much more.  It was Disco Demolition Night, a baseball stadium promotion gone horribly wrong, but for David, who was then clad in a black T-shirt proclaiming his affinity for one particular rock 'n' roll band or another, it was a coming of age moment.  The smell of teen spirit, Clearasil and who-knows-what-else was in the air, as the vinyl-encrusted smoke descended upon the field almost in sync with the throngs of screaming youth, hundreds of them, their hormone levels surging.  Baseball, a genteel Victorian game of many rules and the ostensible reason for the existence of this very place where a lack of rules now prevailed, had become almost an afterthought, lost in the tumult.  An overflow crowd stormed the burning field, scaled the foul poles and trashed a batting practice cage, as phalanxes of sky blue helmeted riot police surged forward to restore order. David, his keen eye observing the chaos unfolding before him, reflected on the metaphysical nature of law and order, rules and recklessness, democracy and anarchy. "One day", he resolved aloud to himself, "I will become an attorney and this might all make sense."  Now that he IS an attorney, it still doesn't. A perfect storm of intoxication and garden-variety teen angst? Or something more nefarious? For David, it was an alt-Bar Mitzvah of sorts -- and perhaps the best 98 cents he had ever spent.      

Admissions

  • California, 1990
  • Illinois, 1991
  • U.S. District Court
  •    Central District of California, 1994
  •    Eastern District of California, 1994
  •    Northern District of California, 1990
  •    Southern District of California, 1994
  • U.S. Court of Appeal, 1990
  •    Ninth Circuit
  •    Sixth Circuit
  • U.S. Supreme Court, 1994

Education

University of California, Los Angeles, Post Graduate Studies in Entertainment Administration, 1998

University of Southern California, Post Graduate Studies in Immigration Law, 1996

University of Michigan Law School, J.D., 1990

University of Wisconsin, B.A., 1987; with Honors; Phi Eta Sigma Honor Society

Sears Roebuck Congressional Fellow, 1986

Languages

  • Spanish
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