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Former Municipal Attorney Signs Up With Stutz Artiano
March 01, 2005
Daily Journal Reports....
After narrowly losing the November election for San Diego city attorney, Leslie Devaney just couldn't shake her interest in municipal law.
"I had made all these contacts with a number of agencies in my campaign for city attorney, "says Devaney, who was the executive assistant city attorney from 1995 until just this fall." I could probably go back into just litigating, but it seemed like the experience I got from the campaign enhanced [my appeal]."
San Diego-based government relations specialty firm Stutz Artiano Shinoff & Holtz agreed; Devaney starts as a partner at that firm's downtown San Diego office March 1,where she'll head the firm's government relations and municipal law practice group.
Devaney says she chose 26-attorney Stutz Artiano after putting out her credentials out to a variety of firms. Her plan was always to leave the city for a private firm if she didn't win the election, she says.
And after helping smooth the transition for new San Diego Attorney Mike Aguirre, that's excatly what she did, despite the opportunity to keep the same job under Aguirre.
At the firm, Devaney will represent government entities and advise private clients on how to interact with government agencies.
It's a big change from her last job, where she was second in command under former City Attorney Casey Gwinn, advising the mayor, City Council and departments and taking over for Gwinn when he was away from the office.
Managing partner Ray Artiano of Stutz Artiano says Devaney's extensive experience with the city made her extremely attractive to his firm, a business firm that specializes in representing public agencies and school districts.
"She's a perfect match for us,and...I'm sure she's going to be a great asset for the firm, "Artiano says. "Her years with the city attorney's office, where she was involved with litgation and a host of other matters, gives her the depth of experience working with municipalities that we were looking for."
In addition to it's San Diego office, Stutz Artiano has offices in Santa Ana, Temecula, Los Angeles and Las Vegas.
Maria Velasquez, a spokeswoman for the city attorney's office, says members of the office decline to comment on Devaney's departure.
Gwinn, Devaney's former boss, says he has "nothing but great things to say about Leslie."
"Leslie is going to succeed wherever she goes," says Gwinn, now director of restitution enforcement and victim services for the San Diego County district attorney's office. "She's always been great at building relationships with people,...I think her eight years of experience in the public sector are only going to make her better in private law practice."
Devaney had some down time between jobs; she officially left the city the first week of February. She had put that time to use, drumming up clients for her new practice who expressed interest in retaining her as a private attorney.
Devaney characterizes these potential clients as companies that do business with public entities, but she declines to name them specifically.
She had also been able to take some time to devote to her family; her husband, Frank Devaney, was appointed a San Diego Superior Court Judge on Jan.21.
He previously headed the trial unit of the civil section of the San Diego city attorney's office, a position Devaney says her husband was planning to leave after the election regardless of its outcome.
"He gave two weeks' notice on Tuesday without knowing what he would do from there," she says. "Two weeks later, on a Thursday, [he] got the call...[and] got sworn in the Wednesday following.
"Our lives are really changing."
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