Friday, December 20, 2013

Charles R. Drew Names Patton General Counsel


LOS ANGELES (December 20, 2013) – Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science (CDU) welcomed its newest arrival, Attorney John W. Patton, Jr., as General Counsel.  Atty. Patton, also known as Elder Patton because of his longstanding affiliation with West Angeles Church of God in Christ (Los Angeles), joined CDU in November and was feted at a reception in December. Guests included Atty. Patton’s wife, entrepreneur Dawn Harris-Patton; famed civil rights attorney Connie Rice; Attorney Uleses C. Henderson, General Counsel of the Churches of God in Christ Worldwide; Judge Mablean Ephraim; and other members of the CDU community. Atty. Patton accepted his warm welcome with brief thanks and remarks.

Atty. Patton has nearly thirty-five years of experience in all aspects of civil litigation, with jury and court trials and appellate work in both state and federal courts throughout California.  Atty. Patton’s practice has focused on employment disputes, commercial business litigation, real estate disputes, and personal injury.  He has represented and counseled Fortune 100 companies, mid-sized and small businesses and individuals.  He is a 1975 graduate of Case Western Reserve University, and a 1979 graduate of Howard University School of Law, where he graduated magna cum laude and first in his class.

In 1997, Atty. Patton was elected as the first African American president of the Beverly Hills Bar Association in Beverly Hills, California.  He is a former member of the State Bar of California Commission of Judicial Nominees Evaluation, the Business Law Section, and the Committee on Administration of Justice; a former member of the American Bar Association Metropolitan Bar Caucus; and a former member of the National Conference of Bar Presidents.
Atty. Patton is the past Chair and a former member of the Board of Directors of the Conference of California Bar Associations (CCBA), a powerful voice of the lawyers of California.  Among other activities and services to California lawyers and the public, CCBA provides a forum and voice for all local, minority, statewide and specialty bar associations in California to consider, debate and propose, and implement changes in California laws.
ABOUT CDU
CDU is a private, nonprofit, nonsectarian, minority-serving medical and health sciences institution.  Located in the Watts-Willowbrook area of South Los Angeles, CDU has graduated more than 550 medical doctors, 2,500 post-graduate physicians, more than 2,000 physician assistants and hundreds of other health professionals.  CDU has earned designation as a minority-serving institution by the U.S. Office for Civil Rights, and its College of Medicine is recognized by the Department of Education as a Historically Black Graduate Institution.  The University is also a charter member of the Hispanic-Serving Health Professions Schools. CDU is recognized as a leader in translational and health inequities research, specifically with respect to heart disease, diabetes, cancer, mental health, and HIV/AIDS.  The CDU/UCLA medical program was named the “best performer” in the University of California System with respect to producing outstanding underrepresented minority physicians by the Greenlining Institute.  For more information, visit http://www.cdrewu.edu/.


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