In a society marked by increasing litigation, Dr. Alexander Lampone believes there should be more legal education and counseling available to the public. For this reason, the Palisadian has developed four interrelated businesses from his careers in medicine and law, which he manages from his Monument office. Lampone began to combine his skills due to some unexpected circumstances in the mid-’90s. As medical director of St. John’s Emergency Room from 1979 to 1994, he established and directed multi-hospital physician groups, allowing doctors to keep their private practices but also work together. His network of more than 2,000 physician practices provided medical care to emergency, acute care, occupational medicine and primary care patients at medical centers throughout Southern California. Yet Lampone could sense the medical profession was changing in the early ’90s, when he attended Loyola Law School while maintaining his full-time position at St. John’s. ‘I could see that being a good doctor wasn’t going to be enough’patient care was moving towards cost-effective care so that doctors were in conflict with their patients. The satisfaction and income had gone from being a doctor; I could see that it wasn’t going to be what it had been for me.’ Lampone’s feeling that medicine was being dehumanized and devalued led him to pursue law in order to ‘be a better physician executive.’ Though he never intended to practice law, he fell into it by default when his medical practice suddenly dissolved in 1994, as a result of the earthquake that destroyed St. John’s ER. ‘The earthquake set in motion a number of events,’ says Lampone, who had earned his medical degree from his hometown school, Medical College of Wisconsin (formerly Marquette). ‘I couldn’t keep doctors together without a place to practice, and I didn’t want to start all over, so I got involved in litigation involuntarily.’ Handling mostly medical malpractice cases, Lampone worked as a courtroom attorney from about 1995 to 1999, realizing after a couple of years that ‘I didn’t like the headaches of litigation.’ What he missed about medicine was ‘collaborating and solving a patient’s problem.’ Since he already knew about 300-plus doctors in Southern California, and felt he was qualified in assessing patients’ needs and organizing teams of physicians to care for patients, he thought he would be good at the medical side of litigation. He would review medical cases and interface between medical experts and lawyers by ‘quarterbacking, triaging and assessing.’ Thus, Lampone’s medical-legal consulting business was born in 1999. ‘My only criteria is that I want to be on the right side of the case,’ says Lampone, who handles medical malpractice, personal injury, disability and medical insurance cases. ‘I use the ‘Oh-My-God’ standard to choose cases that have some merit.’ In selecting clients, he first does a screening, or review of the case. If he decides to take it on, he completes a detailed medical and legal analysis in which he writes comments about what the system at fault failed to do or see, followed by a report, or evaluation, based on his 20 years of medical experience. Then, he puts experts on the case. Lampone’s expertise gives him the ability to anticipate how the other side would react, and he admits that he rejects about 90 percent of cases, which end up settling. ‘I’ve saved thousands of cases from being filed,’ he says. ‘People often equate bad outcomes with malpractice, but they’re not going to find justice and satisfaction in litigation. If we can tell them why someone died or why something went wrong, it puts a period on grief and uncertainty. We’d like to avoid litigation.’ About 30 percent of Lampone’s cases fall in California and 70 percent are out of state. While he consults about half the time for the plaintiff and half for the defense, he says that most of his plaintiff cases are out of state. A case review usually costs about $500-$600/hr. but he will sometimes look at a case pro bono or charge a smaller fee. In the last few years, Lampone has extended his multidisciplinary training to California’s workers’ compensation insurance system, developing a business called Work Comp Solutions (www.workcompsolutions.com), to help bring over-utilization and ineffective care cases to closure, and reduce medical costs. ‘After the Internet crash in 2000 and 9/11, I was contacted by insurance companies getting killed with medical bills,’ Lampone says. ‘Physicians were over-utilizing’performing surgeries for all reasons’and I wanted to go after the accuracy and truth of these medical issues, legally.’ Lampone calls the new workers’ compensation insurance reform ‘a 21st century misnomer,’ since he believes doctors will be receiving the compensation and there will only be short-term relief. ‘It’s a pipe dream to save 17 million people. Instead of cramming in a reform, the system should be redesigned to promote safe workplaces, group health insurance and disability coverage’that way, employers would get hit big if they were really negligent.’ Lampone’s wife, DiAnn (Nycky), is one of the principals of Work Comp Solutions. She was the first nursing professional to receive a master’s degree in occupational health administration from the UCLA School of Nursing, and has more than 20 years of experience as a clinical nurse and legal nurse consultant. She is also the co-founder of Employers’ Medical Coalition, an employer-aligned workers’ compensation consulting company. In addition to his two established medical-legal businesses, Lampone works part-time as a medical consultant for complex medical problems. Meanwhile, he is introducing a fourth, medical-legal advocates business to ‘advise, educate, counsel and facilitate patient care.’ What this new monitoring service does is put the perspective of looking back on medical errors in real time. Clients can contact Lampone’s team of experienced, board-certified doctors and nurses 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. For example, if your child goes into the hospital with an injury or illness, Lampone’s consultants will interface and interact with the doctors treating your child. ‘We can negotiate the best kind of care for the child because we are able to talk with doctors in a reasonable fashion about what’s in the patient’s best interest,’ Lampone says. ‘Most hospitals are receptive because medical errors are damaging, costly and tragic.’ For a monthly fee, the medical-legal advocates will advise clients, arrange second opinions and expedite transfer to a center of excellence, such as the Mayo Clinic, if need be. ‘There is an epidemic of medical errors,’ Lampone says. ‘We’d like to prevent medical errors by detecting them and intervening before patients suffer damage or death. By picking up early indicators of medical errors, we can redirect or counsel people in real time. We’re a safety net.’ The Lampones have lived in the Palisades since 1982 with their son, Nicholas, a junior at Loyola High School. Dr. Lampone’s office is located at 948 Monument, Suite 102. Contact: 459-6637 (medical-legal consulting) or 459-8282 (Work Comp Solutions).

For 14 years, Sally Gulick offered her ranch-style home on Sorrento Drive in the Riviera as a polling station. During that time she saw her neighbor Ronald Reagan, who lived three blocks away on San Onofre, elected governor of California twice (1966 and 1970) and, in 1980, to the presidency of the United States. Gulick remembers well the media converging on her property each time, trampling the azaleas and front lawn to capture the Reagans as they exited her front door after casting their ballot. ‘The Reagans were always very gracious,’ recalled Gulick, as she poured through the memorabilia collection in her family room, which is where the voting took place. She talked about always having a supply of jelly beans available on election day (‘black were his favorite’) and shared several photographs autographed by the couple, as well as a picture of the Reagans shaking the hand of her German shepherd, Dammit, who has since passed away. Although the photograph of the Reagans with the dog appeared in newspapers around the world, the dog’s name was censored out because of the language police of the day. ‘The Reagans had a German shepherd as well. In fact, they had two of them,’ said Gulick, who was a member of the Pacific Palisades Republican Women’s Club at the time and a devoted fan of Reagan. She saw allowing her home to be used for voting as a public service. ‘We always had a large turnout here in the Riviera,’ Gulick said. ‘When he first ran for governor, 95 percent of those registered in this precinct voted. I know he had the support of many of the neighbors. I think he was a great governor, a great president and a great man. I felt sad when I heard he had passed away.’ Gulick also remembers registering voters with Nancy Reagan at the Brentwood Country Mart. ‘Every Saturday, I would set up a card table and two chairs. Nancy would often join me, talking to shoppers and making sure they signed up as Republicans.’

By LAUREL BUSBY The Palisadian-Post went Ronald Reagan-crazy when the 25-year Palisades resident was elected the country’s leader in 1980. ‘Everything has changed,’ announced Post editor June Blum on the front page. ‘Nothing will be the same again’ever. And that is great, according to the consensus of Palisades residents.’ Reagan received 66 percent of the Palisades vote, winning each of the community’s 37 precincts as he defeated President Jimmy Carter. The Post’s editorial that week called Reagan’s election ‘a great victory for America’ and lauded Reagan’s promise to reduce income taxes by 10 percent, decrease government bureaucracy and lessen strictures on business and industry. The next month, the paper took on a new heading. For more than a year at the top of each front page, the Post proudly declared itself the ‘Home Town of President Reagan.’ The events leading up to his taking charge of the White House were covered heavily in the Post. An article was written about the Washington press corps that quickly descended on Los Angeles. In January of 1981, two full pages were devoted to Reagan’s trip to the airport as he and soon-to-be First Lady Nancy traveled to Washington, D.C. for the inauguration. When the Reagans’ limousine pulled up to the Air Force One jet, members of the Palisades High School band and drill team serenaded them at Los Angeles International Airport. The front page of that January 22, 1981, issue was also devoted to the inauguration. More than 25 Palisadians attended the events, including Mort and Bobbie Farberow of Mort’s Deli. Bobbie was quoted at the time describing a sign some Palisadians held in the stands reading, ‘Welcome to Pacific Palisades, home of our 40th President.’ Bobbie noted that Reagan saw the sign, waved and poked Nancy’s shoulder until she finally turned and saw it. However, the ebullience about Reagan eventually lessened after the couple sold their five-room Palisades home. The San Onofre house, which they moved into just after it was built in 1956, was put on the market for $1.9 million before the Reagans left for D.C. The place, which featured a ‘sweeping view of the Westside and the Pacific,’ took a year to sell. In January 1982, Belle and Morris Halpern and their attorney son Steven bought the house, which was originally built as a General Electric Showcase House with 5,000 sq.ft. and 11 rooms, including three bedrooms, three baths and two servants rooms and a bath. An octagonal swimming pool was in the back. The Post featured a photo and story about the house sale on the front page of its February 4, 1982, edition, but also dropped the heading ‘Home Town of President Reagan.’ (Editor’s note: This article appeared in last year’s 75th Anniversary edition of the Palisdian-Post.)