Featuring ACBA Members Megan Burns, Luis Goodman, and Mike Spencer

Former ACBA Board President Megan Burns of Mirador Law has officially joined the American College of Trial Lawyers, one of the most selective and respected legal organizations in the country. Read more

ACBA member Luis Goodman has returned to the Alameda County DA’s Office, where he started his career decades ago. Learn more

ACBA member Mike Spencer won the Citizen honor in the James Madison Freedom of Information Awards for his seven part podcast The Gary Murphy Association, A San Francisco Cold Case. The award was presented by the Freedom of Information Committee of the Society of Professional Journalists, Northern California Chapter. Spencer relied heavily on public records in reporting the story of the uncharged murder conspiracy of a San Francisco biker in 1998. He obtained the case file and more than sixty audiotapes by petitioning the San Francisco Sunshine Ordinance Task Force. Police twice investigated the murder but never made any arrests. Drawing on records from Alameda County, Spencer reported that the Murphy killers were also involved in a notorious Piedmont home invasion and sexual assault of a pregnant mother. The motive in the Murphy case appeared to be that Spencer’s former client, a grandmother, sought custody of Murphy’s six year old daughter. The girl’s mother had died of an accidental methadone overdose three months after her birth. Murphy, a three time convicted felon, had been winning visitation in family law court at the time of his murder at the halfway house he managed near Ocean Beach.

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