Mark Geragos, managing partner in the Los Angeles-based law firm of Geragos & Geragos and widely known for his work as a celebrity criminal attorney, will visit the Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum on Monday, Nov. 21 to discuss "Sometimes Justice Takes Time." The lecture, free and open to the public, will reflect on his work representing Armenian descendants in class-action lawsuits against insurance companies whose subsidiaries engaged in business within the Ottoman Empire. His lecture begins at 6:45 p.m. Seating is on a first-come basis.
Geragos, of Armenian descent, has twice successfully represented Armenian descendants of victims of the 1915 Armenian Genocidea massacre estimated to have claimed 1.5 million lives. Turkey has not politically recognized the deaths as genocide, and instead has blamed the loss of lives on civil unrest during the collapse of the empire in the later stages of World War I.
On behalf of his clients, settlements of $20 million from the New York Life Insurance Co. and $17 million from AXA, an insurance company based in France but with holdings in the United States, have been reached. Geragos has publicly stated that beyond financial compensation, his ultimate goal is to win official recognition of the Armenian Genocide.
Geragos served as defense attorney for Scott Peterson; represented actress Winona Ryder on felony shoplifting charges in 2002; and was brought into the legal fold for former Congressman Gary Condit. Geragos graduated from Haverford College and Loyola Law School.
He has appeared as both guest and legal commentator on the Today Show, Good Morning America, Dateline NBC, Larry King Live and MSNBC's Hardball, and is a regular fixture on CNBC's Rivera Live and CNN's Burden of Proof. The legal newspaper, the Los Angeles Daily Journal, describes Mark Geragos as "arguably the hottest defense lawyer of the moment" while Investor's Business Daily tabbed him one of the best white collar criminal defense lawyers in California. The Los Angeles Criminal Courts Bar Association has named him "Trial Lawyer of the Year." The Los Angeles Times described Mark Geragos as "seemingly unbeatable" and the California Law Business magazine named Geragos as one of 100 Most Influential Attorneys in California.
His lecture and conversation at the Athenaeum is sponsored by the Center for the Study of the Holocaust, Genocide, and Human Rights at Claremont McKenna College.
For more information about this event, visit The Fortnightly: http://www.claremontmckenna.edu/mmca/temp_fn.asp?volumeFN=21&issueFN=04&typeFN=f