A year and a half into leading a historic effort to overhaul how Los Angeles City Hall works, USC law professor Erwin Chemerinsky found himself close to failure.
It was the first week of January 1999 and the charter reform commission that Chemerinsky had steered through months of sometimes agonizing negotiations was deserting him under pressure from then-Mayor Richard Riordan, who wanted to institute his own ideas on the city's new constitution.
But Chemerinsky didn't back down.
He and his allies prodded and persuaded commissioners to back a compromise that ultimately won voter support. The mild-mannered son of a working-class Jewish family from Chicago -- known mainly as a brilliant, slightly rumpled constitutional law professor -- had beaten the mayor and helped reshape the way Los Angeles is governed.
In the years since then, city leaders have asked him to help Los Angeles navigate through some of its most vexing problems, including police misconduct and possible corruption in city contracting.
Today, after 21 years in Los Angeles, Chemerinsky is leaving. He, his family and his dog are scheduled to board a red-eye flight for North Carolina, where Chemerinsky has taken a post at Duke University School of Law.
"I'll never have the chance anywhere else I live to be involved in issues the way I was in Los Angeles," Chemerinsky said as he reflected on his work.
Throughout its history, Los Angeles has turned to prominent citizens to help alter the city's course in the wake of scandal or violence.
A decade ago, high-powered attorney Warren Christopher headed a commission that investigated the beating of Rodney G. King by Los Angeles police officers. And entrepreneur Peter Ueberroth led an effort to rebuild South Los Angeles after the 1992 riots that followed the acquittal of the officers who attacked King.
"When an issue is too hot to handle, when it's too sensitive or explosive, you put people like Erwin on it," said civil rights attorney Connie Rice, chairwoman of a police review panel that includes Chemerinsky.
"There are very few people in this city who don't have personal agendas," said Rice, a longtime Chemerinsky admirer. "Erwin doesn't want to get elected. He doesn't want to reach into somebody's pocket. He doesn't want a contract for one of his friends."
