Rising star in L.A. law.

HEADING POLICE COMMISSION IS JUST ONE OF EDITH PEREZ'S JOBS

The vast Los Angeles cityscape east of downtown spreads out through Edith Perez's 43rd-story windows, but she doesn't have much time to enjoy the view.

This is a woman, after all, who serves as president of the Police Commission, closes thorny real estate deals as a partner at an international law firm, is a wife and mother of two young girls, plants fruit trees and roses in her spare time and gets four hours of sleep a night.

How does she do it all? It's a question Perez, a partner at Latham & Watkins, is clearly accustomed to answering.

"It's partly genetic and there's so much to do." she said. Her shorter sleep schedule means she has more hours than most people, and she's also "very organized about what's important."

Perez says she resets her priorities every hour to stay focused. And she says her hard-scrabble upbringing left her with a hands-on-hips. I'll-show-you attitude that tends to knock down most obstacles.

"I guess I have a perennially optimistic view of accomplishing what I set out to do," she said. "If you look at the strikes against me - an immigrant, a girl, a minority - I didn't think about them as obstacles. I had no doubt they could be overcome."

Perez was born in the cobblestone mountain town of Acambay, Mexico, the daughter of a farm worker who moved the family to the Northern California town of Marysville, where she grew up. She did not speak English until the age of 6.

Her childhood was "perfect," she said, "except we didn't have any money."

But she did get an education. Perez said she studied hard all through childhood, enabling her to attend the University of California at Davis on scholarships. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1976, afterward taking a job as a deputy probation officer in Yuba County experience that would later come in handy on the Police Commission.

She went on to UC Berkeley's Boalt Hall Law School, where she was associate editor of the California Law Review.

Perez had planned to become a poverty lawyer, either legal aid, criminal defense or civil rights. But she took the advice of two law professors, who told her to go to the best firm she could. She joined Latham & Watkins after completing two tours as a visiting attorney in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and Mexico City.

She found the work at Latham challenging and stayed. Eighteen years after law school, Perez sees herself at "a great place in my life."

"I've managed to do mostly everything I sought out to do," she said. "I've made an impact. I'm at decision-making tables."

She has represented lenders and borrowers in major real estate acquisitions, construction projects and financing. She's handled loans, deeds and foreclosures and represented developers, landlords and tenants.

Perez, for example, led a team of associates when Safeway Inc. wanted to acquire more than 200 pieces of property around the U.S. and Canada in 1988.

Gary Scott, formerly an attorney for Safeway, described Perez, who is barely 5 feet tall, as a "mighty mini-mouse," "intellectually superior," dynamic and a problem solver.

"She's appropriately tough. She doesn't roll over and play dead," he said. "I never saw her lose her cool."

Fluent in Spanish, Perez has also represented various Mexican clients and served as lead counsel in the business agreement that privatized the Nicaraguan telephone company.

"I still get a thrill in closing complicated real estate transactions," she said. "I'm torn between that and making public policy as president of the Police Commission, so it's a constant desire to do more in each area. I tend to be very impatient."

Part of that impatience lies with institutions "that can't seem to get there," which used to be the case with the LAPD, she said.

"Under the new board and as long as I'm president, they will have no choice" but to get there, she said, laughing.

The department needs to focus on three primary goals, she said: Its main mission of reducing crime; improving the morale of officers through training, counseling and mentoring; and stepped-up community involvement.

"She's certainly a person who knows what she wants and is getting us there," said Commissioner Gerald Chaleff. "She wants a police department that's responsive to the community."

Ironically, Perez said she didn't even vote for Mayor Richard Riordan, who appoints city commissioners. But after Riordan was first elected in 1993, somebody floated her name and he appointed her to the Board of Recreation and Park Commissioners, where she served for about a year.

When a vacancy arose on the Police Commission, Riordan asked Perez if she were interested. She was, and after serving two years, she was elected president last July.

As a woman, she brings a different frame of reference to the Police Commission job, she said.

At her suggestion, the Police Academy rewards graduates who score highest in human relations courses. And when the police chief referred to a female captain by her first and last name, she corrected him to use her rank.

Those who know Perez note her frankness. As she puts it: She'll say aloud what others are thinking, "but don't have the have the guts to say it."

That came across on New Year's Eve, after a police officer was shot. When Perez walked up to the hospital entrance at 2:30 a.m., Sheriffs deputies demanded to know who she was. "I said, 'I'm the president of the Police Commission, the chief's boss; scary thought, isn't it?'"

Perez has gone on ride-alongs with the police, tested a .45-caliber pistol and tries to visit the various police divisions so she can make decisions based on what she knows and sees.

Perez said she has been able to transfer a lot of her lawyering and analytical skills to her Police Commission work, including consensus building and problem solving.

Her passion for Police Commission work also derives from her role as a mother, which has deepened her awareness of children's vulnerability.

"I see the autopsy reports," she said. "I see young kids and see the need to do something about it, and I am in a position to do so."

Her term on the Police Commission will be up in June 1999. She pauses when asked if she'd like to serve another term.

"I would like to only because there's so much left to be done. and public safety impacts the entire city," Perez said.

But she thinks she will always be involved in public policy issues in some shape or form.

"Having been a have-not growing up, you always want to make it better for the have-nots," she said.

Nor does she want to switch law firms, because she doesn't think other firms are as well organized or quality driven as Latham & Watkins. She said Latham has been supportive, setting aside a secure office for her to keep confidential documents related to the commission and significantly reducing her minimum billable-hours requirement.

John Sherrell, a partner in Latham's finance and real estate department, described Perez as very hardworking, intense and focused, and said she provides clients "with high-quality real estate work." But he added that her Police Commission duties have taken a huge amount of time, and "her work has clearly suffered" in that she's not available to work in as many matters as before.

"But we're supportive nonetheless," Sherrell said. "We were very interested and excited about having Edith be president of the Police Commission."

Perez said she views her work on the commission as an investment. "It's a lot of exposure for the firm for the future."

Perez's law office isn't huge, but big enough for bookshelves, numerous neat stacks of paperwork, pictures of and by her daughters, Kate, 7, and Ryan, 3, and a big picture window.

She said she has been lucky because her husband, Curt Holguin, a deputy city attorney, has more flexible hours and handles much of the carpooling chores. Her parents also live with her family in the Los Feliz area and help with child care.

Perez combs her daughters' hair in the morning and they eat breakfast together. She tries to get home before they go to bed, and makes a point of cooking Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners.

"You make trade-offs," she said. "It's a positive time, but it's very hard juggling."

As someone who grew up with two brothers, she said she doesn't think about being in male-dominated cultures - either in real estate financing negotiations or with cops.

"I am where I am because a lot of my mentors here happen to be old white men," she said. "My success is not mine alone; it's a combination of my parents, my family and mentors. ... I live the American Dream."

Edith Perez

Career

1984 to present: Latham & Watkins, specializing in real estate financing transactions; partner since 1992.

1982-83: Visiting attorney at firms in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and Mexico City.

Education

Boalt Hall, Juris Doctorate, UC Berkeley, 1980

UC Davis, BA, 1976

Personal

Born in Acambay, Mexico, 1954; married, two children