Painful and suffering lawyers

The law firm of the brother of one-term Democratic congresswoman Lynn Schenk — a close friend of governor Jerry Brown and a member of the controversial bullet train’s board of directors — is giving big cash to a California ballot bid that would raise the cap on pain and suffering damages in medical malpractice cases. On June 2, disclosures show, Casey, Gerry, Schenk, Francavilla, Blatt & Penfield, gave $25,000 to a committee calling itself “Your Neighbors for Patient Safety.” The group has qualified a measure for November’s ballot that would boost the current $250,000 limit on the damages to about $1.1 million and link the amount of future increase to inflation. Opponents, including the California Medical Association and California Hospital Association, have vowed to weigh in with their own high-dollar campaign against the measure. Brown appointed Casey, Gerry partner Frederick Schenk to the Del Mar fair board in 2011 and last week gave him another term, lasting until January 2018. ...

The Washington DC lobbying firm currently retained by the City of San Diego has been handing out major political money, according to a recent report by the Center for Responsive Politics. Patton Boggs, LLP, which recently merged with Squire Sanders to create the mega-influence-peddling outfit of Squire Patton Boggs, has been responsible for the majority of the $13 million in combined federal contributions made by the two firms since 1989, the center’s analysis found. About two thirds of the cash went to Democrats. “The top recipient of the donations? Hillary Rodham Clinton, at $311,976. Barack Obama is second at $288,759, then Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), $186,250. Portman also is first overall among current senators. Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) leads sitting House members, clocking in with $85,945.” New San Diego mayor Kevin Faulconer, a Republican, has recently put the city’s lobbying contracts up for grabs.