Oct. 16, 2014
Riordan & Horgan
See more on Riordan & HorganSan Francisco | Civil and criminal appeals
It's a comfortable role for the appellate specialists at Riordan & Horgan, who are known nationally for their legal ingenuity and post-conviction reversals. They've secured releases for the likes of Arben Dosti, a member of the Southern California "Billionaire Boys Club" who received a life sentence for the death of a former Iranian official, and Damien Echols, a death row inmate who was part of the so-called "West Memphis Three," teenagers convicted of murdering three children in Arkansas.
Successes in state criminal appeals have helped them easily transition to more high-profile federal white collar criminal and civil cases in recent years.
In one case, they were called upon for former Ukrainian prime minister Pavel Lazarenko's appeal of his 2004 conviction in San Francisco for laundering more than $20 million through U.S. banks.
"We're constantly in areas that are new, but the advantage of being an appellate lawyer is that you have time to absorb entirely new areas of the law and yet you're not doing your client a disservice," Riordan said. "In the appeal mode, they're better off with an appellate specialist who handles new areas than someone well-versed in the field who is unaware of the appellate work."
A former state public defender, Riordan was dubbed "the last hope" by the San Francisco Chronicle for his end-of-the-line appellate work. He clinched his reputation as an appeals whiz during the saga of John Spain, a former Black Panther member and San Quentin inmate whose appeal for his conviction of conspiring to murder prison guards dragged on for 14 years before the conviction was overturned.
Riordan partnered with Horgan, a one-time prosecutor and defense attorney, to launch their appellate practice in 2003. They're often supported by a team of senior attorneys - such as former federal prosecutor Martha Boersch and Ted Sampsell-Jones, a Minnesota law professor and attorney - who act as of counsel.
The small operation has pondered merging with a larger firm, where they could drop the day-to-day business administration and focus on their practice, Riordan said. But in the end, they're always drawn back to the freedom they have to run their boutique exactly as they see fit.
Such freedom includes their decision to become more involved in cases at the trial level, where their appellate knowledge is brought to bear in motions, jury instructions and objections to preserve the record for appeals, Horgan said.
For example, they were on the defense teams for famed music producer Phil Spector's murder trial, baseball slugger Barry Bonds' obstruction of justice and perjury case and the price-fixing suit against Taiwanese LCD panel maker AU Optronics Corp.
"There's no question that the appellate expertise really informs the trial level work," Riordan said. "That's why I think increasingly we're being brought in by very, very accomplished trial lawyers to help assist in that role."
The firm's growing corporate cases are intellectually stimulating, Riordan said, but they also shore up funds to take on pro bono criminal cases. Both attorneys speak passionately about their work to secure releases for past clients, like Echols, and current clients, like Hayat.
"We are very happy that we are called upon by major corporations ... in business-related cases," Riordan said. "But at the same time, the West Memphis case and freeing our client after 18 years on death row was probably the Riordan & Horgan firm's proudest achievement so far."
- Kylie Reynolds
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