Governor Bill Richardson appointed three new Judges to Second District Court

On Friday January 3, 2009 Governor Bill Richardson named three lawyers to the second district court here in Albuquerque. Each will now have to run in a partisan race to retain their positions on the bench. Civil Court Chief Judge William Lang has requested in the last few weeks that any appointee not take office for a few months in order to save the court system money in salaries for its budget cut of 2.5%. It remains to be seen if any of the new appointee will abide by Judge Lang’s request.

The New Judges are:

Beatrice Brickhouse: Age 46 A graduate of Western Illinois University and the University Of Arizona School Of Law. She has defended the city in discrimination cases, personal injury claims and federal civil rights cases since 2002. She was a commander in the record and evaluation center of the U.S. Army at Fort Benjamin Harrison, Ind., before law school and has worked as a prosecutor in Farmington, a sole practitioner, an associate attorney with criminal defense attorney Gary Mitchell in Ruidoso and with the Jaffe Law Firm in Albuquerque.

Alan M. Malott: Age 55 graduated in 1979 of Loyola University Law School in Los Angeles California and The University of New Mexico School of Law, Judge Malott is certified as a Civil Trial Advocate by the National Board of Trial Advocacy, one of only about two dozen in New Mexico. He limited his practice to the litigation of personal injury claims, insurance company and HMO misconduct, products liability and professional negligence/malpractice cases. He has served on the state Board of Chiropractic Examiners since 2006. Judge Malott has successfully handled cases against all the larger insurance companies as well as numerous large corporations. See: Azar -vs- Wal Mart, Barncastle -vs- ANPAC, Garcia & Soberanez -vs- Progressive Insurance, amongst many others.

Judge Malott is also licensed to practice law in Colorado. A member of the Board of Directors of the New Mexico Trial Lawyers Association, he is also active in the State Bar of New Mexico and is a part time instructor at Central New Mexico Community College. He also still plays with cars and loves trivia!

Gerald J. Lavelle: Age 55 A Bachelor of Science in psychology and a master’s in psychology and a graduate in law from the University of Nebraska. He worked as a claims adjuster at the World Trade Center in 1981, he worked as a clerk in the New York state family court system, he worked as a family law attorney in private practice and also he worked as a Legal Aid in juvenile court. He has coached Little League and basketball.