Attorney Legal Malpractice Palm Springs
Attorney Legal Malpractice Palm Springs
Edward G. Hochuli (born December 25, 1950) is an attorney for the firm of Jones, Skelton & Hochuli, P.L.C. since 1983 and better known as an American football official in the National Football League (NFL) since the 1990 NFL season. His uniform number is 85. Prior to his officiating career, he played college football for four seasons at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP).
Hochuli is one of the most respected officials in the NFL for working numerous playoff games, two Super Bowls. He is also known for his athletic physique and explanations on the football field. In a poll conducted by ESPN in 2008, Hochuli tied referee Mike Carey for "best referee" votes among NFL head coaches with eight. Beginning his twentieth season in the league and eighteenth as referee (crew chief) with the 2009 NFL season, Hochuli's officiating crew consists of umpire Chad Brown, head linesman Mark Hittner, line judge Tim Podraza, field judge Craig Wrolstad, side judge Barry Anderson and back judge Kirk Dornan.
Personal
Early life
Hochuli was born on December 25, 1950 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and lived there until age eight before his family moved to Tucson, Arizona. He was the second child born out of a total of six siblings. During his childhood, he attended and later graduated from Canyon del Oro High School in the Tucson suburb of Oro Valley, Arizona in 1969. During his high school years, he had in interest in sports as he participated in football (earning all-state honors twice), basketball, wrestling, and track. He attributes his competitive nature to having an older brother, Chip Hochuli. Ed Hochuli told Referee in a 2004 interview, "I was somebody who wanted to be good and I wanted my brother to be proud of me, and I wanted my parents to be proud of me." Following high school, he earned his Bachelor of Arts degree with honors from UTEP in 1972. While at UTEP, Hochuli played linebacker on the school's football team from 1969 to 1972. As a football player, he earned All-Western Athletic Conference academic honors in 1972. His father, Walter Hochuli, was involved with law as a wills and estate planner, which influenced Ed Hochuli to pursue a career in law. He earned his Juris Doctor from the University of Arizona in 1976. At the University of Arizona Law School, Hochuli served as a law clerk for two years under United States District Judge Carl Muecke. Upon completion of his education, Hochuli was admitted to the State Bar of Arizona in the same year, which allowed him to practice law in the State of Arizona.
Family
Hochuli resides in the Phoenix metropolitan area. He has a total of six children. Five of the six children he had with his first wife. Of the six kids, Shawn Hochuli played college football at Pomona College and is following his father's profession as an official, currently working college football, Arena Football League, and arenafootball2 games. Scott Hochuli owns Hochuli Construction Team L.L.C., a company that specializes in residential construction in the Phoenix area. Two of Ed Hochuli's brothers are in law. Daniel Hochuli is the city attorney for Sahuarita, Arizona, and Peter Hochuli is a Court Commissioner/Judge Pro Tempore for the Pima County Superior Court, Juvenile Division.
Attorney
Hochuli is a trial lawyer and a partner in the Arizona law firm of Jones, Skelton and Hochuli, P.L.C. since it was founded in 1983. The firm started with five partners and seven associates, and has expanded to over eighty attorneys. Hochuli specializes in civil litigation in the areas of Bad Faith and Extra-Contractual Liability, Complex Litigation, Insurance Coverage and Fraud, Legal Malpractice and Professional Liability, Product Liability Defense, Trucking and Transportation Industry Defense, and Wrongful Death and Personal Injury Defense, and claims to be involved in two hundred cases at any time. Hochuli finds interest in trying cases, calling it an "adrenaline rush" and adding, "You love that challenge -- the competition, if you will -- of it. It's a game. It's obviously a very important game to people, and I don't mean to diminish the importance of it. ... You have to follow these rules, and there's a win-or-lose outcome. You're on a stage."
He is admitted to practice in Arizona state and federal courts and the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. His recognition as an attorney includes being named Best Lawyers in America since 2003 and Southwest Super Lawyers in 2007. Super Lawyers includes only the top five percent of lawyers in a state based on point totals, as chosen by peers and through independent research by Law & Politics .
Comparing his law and officiating professions, he says "A trial is nothing, pressure-wise, compared to the NFL. … I have that long (he snaps his fingers) to make a decision with a million people watching and second-guessing (by video) in slow-motion. You've got to be right or wrong. I love the satisfaction when you are right — and the agony when you are wrong." Hochuli finds similarities between the football field and courtroom saying, "On the football field, people like that I'm in charge and know what I'm doing, but a lot of the time, it's just appearance. I'm going to sell you on my decision. It's the same in the courtroom. You don't stand in front of a jury and say, 'I think my client is innocent.' You say, 'We're right!'"
Officiating career
Early years
Hochuli began officiating Pop Warner football games as a law student to earn additional income, which was suggested by one of his former high school coaches as "a way to stay in touch with the game". His interest in officiating carried over into baseball, where he was a Little League Baseball umpire from 1970 to 1973. Progressing to the high school level in 1973, he focused on football, and officiated games in the Tucson area until 1985. In addition to high school officiating, he worked college football games for the Big Sky Conference and Pacific-10 Conference as a line judge during the 1980s.
NFL career
Rise to referee
Hochuli was hired by the NFL in 1990 as a back judge after applying to the league before the 1989 NFL season. His first game in the league was on August 11, 1990 at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wisconsin. During his first two years in the league, he was assigned to the officiating crew headed by referee Howard Roe. To gain additional experience as a back judge and eventually a referee, Hochuli participated in the NFL's partnership with the World League of American Football (WLAF), a spring developmental league, in 1991 and 1992. Utilizing his experience in the WLAF, as well as the organization, precision, and analytical skills he learned while working under Roe's guidance, Hochuli desired to become a crew chief in the NFL. He was promoted to referee in 1992 when longtime referee Stan Kemp was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's Disease and forced to retire. Hochuli had worked a pre-season game that year in Tokyo, Japan as a back judge when he received a telephone call following the game from then-Senior Director of Officiating, Jerry Seeman. Seeman asked Hochuli to work as referee for the first time when the Denver Broncos hosted the Cincinnati Bengals in a pre-season game.
Since becoming a referee, Hochuli headed the officiating crews for Super Bowl XXXII and Super Bowl XXXVIII, and he was selected as an alternate for Super Bowl XXXI, Super Bowl XXXVII, and Super Bowl XXXIX. In addition to working two Super Bowls, he has officiated five conference championship games as of the start of the 2007 NFL season. Every officiating game performance is graded by the league each week. These grades determine which officials are assigned playoff games, as well as the Super Bowl. Hochuli credits his mentor, Jerry Markbreit, a four-time Super Bowl referee, as the greatest influence on his career.
Officials' strike
Hochuli has served as the head of the NFL Referees Association, the union which represents NFL game officials. The union was responsible for negotiating a new contract for the officials prior to the 2001 NFL season. At the time, salaries ranged from a first-year official earning US$1,431 a game to a veteran official with twenty years of experience making $4,330 a game. Officials were looking for a 400 percent increase in salary while the league was offering just 40 percent. During the negotiations, Hochuli believed the issue in finding a resolution was to convince the league that officials are full-time employees.
At the start of the season, officials had rejected a league offer of a sixty percent immediate increase in salary, followed by an eighty-five percent salary increase in 2002, and a one-hundred percent increase in 2003. For the first time in league history, replacement officials were used during the regular season. Hochuli had distributed an e-mail to 1,200 potential replacement officials warning them that "Working as a scab will actually hurt and likely kill any chances you would have of ever getting into the NFL." He later regretted sending the letter to college football officials across the United States. The stalemate between the union and the league ended on September 19, 2001, when officials agreed to a six-year deal from the league with an immediate increase in salary of 50 percent with a raise each year. Officials had been locked out since the final week of pre-season games that year and returned to work on September 23, 2001 when the league resumed games following the September 11, 2001 attacks.
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