At the Stanley Mosk Courthouse in Los Angeles Wednesday, proceedings are set to get underway in a rare California Voting Rights Act case to make it all the way to trial. The 2001 law, designed with an eye toward making it easier for voters to challenge local voting procedures that dilute the voting power of minorities, has come under fire of late from critics who claim the law does more to line the pockets of plaintiffs lawyers than it does to boost the prospects of minority political candidates.

Count the team at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, which represents the city of Santa Monica in a CVRA lawsuit, among those critics. The firm has signed on to represent the city in a lawsuit which claims that its citywide election system, instituted in 1946, was designed to prevent Latino voters from picking the candidates of their choice. The trial is set to play out in Superior Court Judge Yvette M. Palazuelos’ courtroom over the next four to six weeks.