Walter Moore's Bio

Judy, Walter, Betty, Sam and Hank

Walter Moore is a business trial lawyer in Los Angeles, California. He writes essays on L.A politics at his website, WalterMooreSays.com.


Moore ran for Mayor of L.A. in the 2009 election, and finished second, with nearly 72,000 votes. He has vowed never to run for anything again except perhaps a bus or airplane.


Moore is registered as a "decline to state," and describes his politics as "a-la-carte-arian:" he supports or opposes a given public policy proposal based on its merits, regardless which party supports it and which party opposes it.


Moore graduated with honors from Princeton University in 1981, with a degree in Public and International Affairs from the Woodrow Wilson School, and graduated with honors from the Georgetown University Law Center in 1984, where he was an Editor of the Georgetown Law Journal. He passed the California Bar exam in 1984, and has been representing individuals and business in state and federal courts ever since.  


Moore has written and co-written the official ballot arguments against several local measures. He also wrote Jamiel's Law, a proposal to deny "sanctuary city" protection to gang members.


He and his wife, Judy Moore, live in the mid-Wilshire area of Los Angeles. 


Moore's academic background focused heavily on public policy.  At Princeton, Moore took a year of microeconomics, a year of macroeconomics, public finance, mathematical econometrics, Soviet-type economies, Japanese industrial policy, and international trade.  Moore also studied public opinion and mass political behavior, the application of physics to contemporary problems, the history of American cities, international relations, ethics, and other subjects.


Moore worked his way through college, and several of his jobs involved public policy:

• Moore worked for the Florida Department of Education in Tallahassee, Florida, studying computer assisted instruction, and developing population forecasts to help determine how many schools and teachers would be needed.  
• Moore worked for a "think tank" in Cleveland, Ohio, quantifying the costs and benefits of weatherization programs.  
• Moore worked for economists at Princeton, editing reports on heath care financing. 

Moore was on Princeton's intercollegiate on-topic debate team, and acted as director of the program his senior year -- a position typically filled by faculty members at other universities. The debates focused on public policy issues such as military policy. Moore wrote his senior thesis on strategic nuclear policy.


During the summer before entering law school, Moore worked for the Legal Services Corporation, editing handbooks for lawyers representing the disabled.


While in law school, Moore was an Editor of the Georgetown Law Journal.  Besides taking courses in the basics, such as contract law, Moore took elective courses in administrative law, environmental law, accounting for lawyers, international law, corporations, tax law, trial practice, evidence, criminal procedure, and commercial law.


During his third year of law school, Moore also worked as a Law Fellow, teaching legal research and writing, and oral advocacy to first-year students. 


As a lawyer, Moore has handled disputes involving not just commercial and real estate disputes, but also First Amendment issues, FCC licensing, international aviation, and eminent domain.


Besides practicing law, Moore offers seminars, approved by the State Bar for Mandatory Continuing Legal Education Credit, on "How to Win at Trial," "How to Litigate Efficiently," and "Public Speaking for Lawyers." Moore is also a licensed real estate broker.


Moore writes frequently on public policy issues concerning Los Angeles, and his essays are occasionally published in the Los Angeles Daily News.