Royal F. Oakes

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Royal Forest Oakes, a longtime partner at the Los Angeles-based law firm Barger and Wolen, is best known for his work as a legal analyst, nationally for ABC News and the syndicated programs Inside Edition and Access Hollywood, and in Los Angeles, as NBC4 Legal Analyst for KNBC Television, and KFWB All-News Radio. His one-minute spot, “It’s The Law,” airs nationally on Westwood One’s “Metro Networks.” He contributes to network radio news broadcasts, and network television broadcasts such as ABC’s Good Morning America, 20/20, and World News Tonight, as well as NBC’s Today Show. He periodically hosts an ABC News Now program on the law, “Guilt or Innocence.” In the San Francisco Bay Area, he is KGO Radio’s Legal Analyst.

For five years Oakes wrote the "Business Litigation" column for the Los Angeles Daily Journal. He has also contributed articles to Los Angeles Lawyer. Royal has written on law, tort reform and politics. He has published features in the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Dallas Morning News, San Francisco Chronicle, and USA Today.

Oakes, a graduate of UCLA and UCLA Law School, was born in 1952 in Los Angeles. His business litigation practice involves representation of defendants in class action and “unfair business practices” litigation, and high-profile life, health and disability claim litigation. He has been lead counsel in victorious cases in the California Supreme Court and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, and regularly tries jury and bench cases in the United States District Court for the Central District of California, and Los Angeles Superior Court. He also maintains a substantial caseload of litigation matters in northern California. Oakes serves as a Commissioner on the Los Angeles County Commission on Economy and Efficiency, serving as chair of the Commission’s Task Force on Organization and Accountability. In 2007 he marked his thirtieth year with Barger & Wolen.

As General Counsel for the Radio and Television News Association of Southern California since the early 1990s, Oakes has appeared in court on numerous occasions to urge judges to allow or continue televised coverage of court proceedings. During the O.J. Simpson criminal trial held before the Honorable Lance Ito, Oakes appeared in an attempt to dissuade Judge Ito from making good on a threat to “pull the plug” on cameras as a result of the perceived “media circus” atmosphere. In the book Cameras In The Courtroom: Television and the Pursuit of Justice (1998), authors Marjorie Cohn and David Dow stated at page 82 that “Also pleading with Judge Ito to retain the camera in Simpson’s trial was media attorney Royal Oakes, who argued, the camera ‘is a perfectly accurate reflection of reality.’”

The San Francisco Chronicle reported on January 10, 1996 that Oakes testified before a task force on cameras in the courtroom, appointed by then-California Supreme Court Chief Justice Malcolm Lucas:

The public has a right to see its court system at work,’ said Royal Oakes, a lawyer for the Radio and Television News Association of Southern California. ‘Are we going to let this case [Simpson] dictate our public policy? We are never again going to see anything like this case.