Candidate for
Judge of the Superior Court; County of Los Angeles; Office 114

Ben BREES. LOS ANGELES SUPERIOR COURT JUDGE 2012 SEAT 114

Ben Brees was born the seventh child of eight children. His father was an immigrant. His family moved to Los Angeles when Ben was only 8 years old. After his father's death, his mom raised the family, as a single parent and thanks to the help of survivor benefits from Social Security. Beginning with the 8th grade, after school, and summers, Ben worked with his siblings to keep the family afloat. His hard work and long struggle paid off: he was soon accepted to the University of Notre Dame. Ben worked evenings, weekends, and summers to put himself through college and he graduated debt- free and without student aid. He worked hard and had an opportunity to travel abroad, learning foreign languages, and ultimately graduated as a teacher with a foreign language credential.

Graduating during a recession with few teaching jobs available, Ben's immigrant and single parent hard work ethic paid off. He held several jobs, as a substitute teacher, municipal bus driver, probation officer, and pre-trial release officer. To make ends meet, Ben was also twice a small business owner and after working inside and outside sales he decided to attend law school. Working full- time and attending night school, Ben finished in 3 ½ years instead of 4 at the University of La Verne + Van Nuys campus, ranking second in his class and receiving distinction and recognition with various American Jurisprudence awards.

Ben passed the bar on his first attempt and worked in civil litigation: He worked in an insurance defense firm, Thomas & Price in Glendale, for about ten years. Ben then founded Louis and Brees, LLP. He and his partner Bonnie Louis, Esq, operated the firm for about nine years. Ben litigated exclusively on behalf of consumers.

During a successful twenty one year career as a lawyer, Ben volunteered and was appointed arbitrator and mediator for the Los Angeles Superior Court Alternate Dispute Resolution Office. Ben has also served as a volunteer CRASH settlement officer and has successfully completed required courses in mediation at Strauss Institute at Pepperdine University. Ben presently lives in the San Fernando Valley and continues to work hard representing hard-working and immigrant families/consumers in a mid Wilshire plaintiff's' firm, the Law Offices of John C. Ye, APLC. Ben is one of two trial attorneys at the firm and all his cases are in litigation.

Ben has appeared in and handled hundreds of civil cases in the Los Angeles Superior Court and other Southern California Courts. He has represented plaintiffs and defendants, from initial pleading stages, discovery, and mediation/arbitration, and through jury and court trial.

Ben is fluent in Spanish, which has been helpful to his clients, plaintiffs who, like Ben, come from hard- working, modest- income, immigrant, and underserved communities. Ben's favorite memories are helping impoverished, homeless individuals recover from injuries, and seeing them stabilize their lives with funds awarded them as a result of Ben's assistance.

Ben will bring to the bench a solid middle-class work ethic that his life experience has taught him and a progressive point of view. Ben possesses an unwavering commitment to impartiality and fairness to all persons who will appear in his courtroom, because he believes the playing field has to be level. During Ben's career he has, unfortunately, encountered courts that demonstrated undisguised bias against his clients/consumers which is not widespread but exists nonetheless. M.L. King said, "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice." Ben believes judges have an opportunity to hammer that "bending" with each decision.