usc law family
TRADING GOLF After military service and long career in health care law, Judge Charles F. Forbes skips retirement for new career By Matthew Kredell
Judge Charles F. Forbes (JD 1956) was born at Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles on Oct. 28, 1929, one day before the stock market crash that signaled the beginning of the Great Depression. Judge Charles F. Forbes celebrating his 90th birthday in 2019 in true Trojan fashion.
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USCLaw magazine
“My father used to say that when word got out that I was born, the market crashed out of fear of what had descended upon the Earth,� Forbes says with a laugh.
What followed instead were 90 years and a remarkable life that has included serving in the Korean War and being awarded the Purple Heart (he still has shrapnel in his head), 40 years providing legal representation to hospital and health care providers, coordinating major cases brought before the California Supreme Court, California Court of Appeal, U.S. Court of Appeals and Federal District Courts; and in retirement, becoming a magistrate judge in Georgia. His interest in law resulted from a war injury. After graduating from USC in 1951 with a business degree, he was drafted into the Korean War and as an officer with the 1st Marine Aircraft Wing, sustained a shrapnel head wound from a mortar explosion. Surgery was deemed too dangerous, so he was sent home. Back on American soil, he found inspiration at a Marine Corps school where former Marines who had become lawyers taught a course about the revised Uniform Code of Military Justice. The day after his release from active duty in 1953, he enrolled at USC Law School, graduating with his JD two-and-a-half years later and admitted to the State Bar of California on June 12, 1956. Forbes specialized in health care law. As a partner at Los Angeles-based Musick, Peeler
