For years, Joe Genshlea has been known as one of the best trial lawyers in California. Regularly lionized as such by his peers — including his being voted into the state’s Trial Lawyers Hall of Fame in a ceremony presided over by California Supreme Court Associate Justice Ming W. Chin — Genshlea’s reputation could give you the impression he’s a fiery, hellfire-and-brimstone orator.

Folsom-based, then-Chaplain Jacob Cohen was on vacation 7 miles from the World Trade Center towers when they were brought down. After the attack, he ministered to first responders, many of whom had lost friends and colleagues. 

For Patrick and Bobbin Mulvaney, the long-married couple whose restaurant Mulvaney’s B&L is on the top of almost everyone’s fine-dining list in the Capital Region, two words seem to coexist as a single mission statement: nourish and nurture.

Dennis Mangers, who says, “I’ve had eight careers in 83 years,” is known for unimpeachable credibility.

Gary Gerould, aka The G-Man, has spent more than six decades as a sports journalist and play-by-play announcer. His greatest gift may be that you don’t have to care that much about the sports he’s covered (basketball, auto racing, sumo wrestling and football come immediately to mind) to be familiar with his name, his distinctively even-keeled voice and his remarkable unflappability.

All sagas have to begin somewhere. For Angelo Tsakopoulos, it was nighttime when he heard people crying on the upper deck of the ship that brought him, at 15, and hundreds of other immigrants to the United States in 1951. 

Learning of this interview with local media legend Kitty O’Neal, who has been anchoring news at KFBK for an astounding 37 years, a fan of hers gushes, “Wow! I watch her on the radio all the time!” 

Oates rarely does “the least” he can do. He is chairman of the board of the Buzz Oates Group — a $3 billion commercial real estate investment, management and development firm founded by his late father. 

Sandy Smoley was once ubiquitous in local and state government, in the arts, in charity, in civic beautification and ultimately, as an in-demand public affairs and health care consultant for The Smoley Group. We check in with the local icon to see what she’s up to now.

Marcy Friedman is one of the greater Sacramento region’s best-known and most personally beloved philanthropists, as well as a genuine influencer.