Cowan Law Group - Josef Cowan, Attorney

Welcome to the Cowan Law Group, a premier law firm that has earned a reputation as a highly effective, results-oriented firm that provides smart, strategic legal solutions in an efficient manner. For more than 20 years, leading companies and successful individuals across the country have sought out our firm because they recognize that we are a unique and powerful resource for their legal and business needs.

Q.    What do you like to do?

A.    I love spending time with my family.  I’m very fortunate to have a beautiful wife and 2 terrific sons, whom I adore, and a terrific dog named Lucy the entire family is crazy about.  I’m also very passionate about photography, music, and guitar.  However, what I believe has shaped me most is my passion for travel.  When I was 18, I was very lucky to have an opportunity to backpack through nearly all of Western Europe for 6 months by myself.  The experience was transformational, to say the least, and it instilled in me a strong drive to see and experience the world.  Since then, I have also traveled to Africa, the Middle East, Cuba, and many parts of the United States, Mexico and Canada.  One of my goals is to travel to New Zealand in the not too distant future.

Q.    What professional licenses do you have?

A.    I’m licensed to practice law in the State of California and am admitted to practice in the United States District Courts for the Central and Southern Districts of California.  In addition, I have a California contractors license, and a California real estate brokers license.

Q.    Are you active in any professional organizations?

A.    Over the years I’ve been active in the Orange County and Los Angeles Bar Associations, the Orange County Association of Realtors, as well as the Associated General Contractors and the Building Industry Association.  These are all great organizations and I’ve enjoyed being part of them.  In addition, I was also very fortunate to be a member of Young Presidents Organization for 14 years, and had the great privilege of being a member of our local chapter’s board of directors for several years, as well as our chapter’s chairman.   I graduated from YPO in 2012 and am now a member of World Presidents Organization.

Calif. court: Spanking with wooden spoon not abuse

A state appeals court on Tuesday tossed out child abuse findings against a frustrated Northern California mother who spanked her 12-year-old daughter hard enough with a wooden spoon to cause bruising.

The 6th District Court of Appeal in San Jose reversed the child abuse determination made by the Santa Clara County Department of Social Services. Social workers waned to report Vernica Gonzalez to the state Department of Justice's child abuse database with a "substantiated" abuse determination. That determination was upheld by a trial court judge.

The appeals court said the spanking came close to abuse, but that social workers and the lower court judge failed to consider the family's entire circumstances.

Gonzalez and her husband testified that other forms of punishment such as groundings and taking away her phone had failed to persuade their 12-year-old daughter to do her schoolwork and avoid gang culture. The parents said that other family members had testified that spankings in the household were a rarity.

The appeals court said the mother's growing frustration with her daughter's behavior and her intention not to inflict harm in the April 2010 spanking weighed heavily in its ruling.

Spanish court convicts 53 in corruption trial

A Spanish court convicted 53 people Friday in the country's biggest-ever corruption trial, which lasted two years and centered on widespread real estate fraud and bribery in the southern jet-set resort town of Marbella.

The defendants in the trial, which ended last year, included former town hall officials, lawyers and business representatives. The judge took several months to decide on the sentences — 40 other people were acquitted and two accused died while the case was being prepared.

Under a highly complex scheme in the mid-1990s, city funds were widely misappropriated, and public officials and business representatives divvied up under-the table kickbacks for planning permissions and construction of hotels, residential complexes and urban infrastructure. Much of the money was then laundered with the help of lawyers.

Marbella, located on Spain's southern coast, was a magnet for jet set and society figures from across the world during the 1970s and 1980s.

The man who prosecutors said was the mastermind of the fraud, former Marbella urban planning adviser Juan Antonio Roca, got the biggest sentence — 11 years — for money laundering, bribery and fraud. He also was fined 240 million euros ($326 million).

Roca has been in jail since 2006 when he was first arrested as the case broke. Back then, he was considered one of the richest people in Spain with his assets including ranches, fighting bulls, thoroughbred horses, art, expensive cars and boats.

PG&E starts pipeline shutdown under court order

Pacific Gas & Electric Co. says it will comply with a judge's order and shut down a natural gas pipeline after safety issues were raised.

The utility said Sunday it believes the pipeline is safe despite an engineer's email questioning the safety of the 83-year-old line's welds. PG&E said it could take until Tuesday to safely shut down the line and seamlessly switch its customers to another line.

A judge ordered the line shut down after San Carlos city officials discovered the email and declared a "state of emergency."

The email said PG&E's records incorrectly show the line containing a newer, more reliable weld than it actually has.

PG&E said state-of-the-art tests show the line is safe and that it was shutting the line only because of the court order.