News Releases

New State Bar Chair Jason Lee Sworn in as Key Reforms Continue

Today Chief Justice of California Tani G. Cantil-Sakauye swore in Jason Lee as Chair of the State Bar Board of Trustees and Alan Steinbrecher as Vice Chair. Lee is the first Chinese American person to lead the State Bar.

Lee will lead the agency in its continued governance and structural reforms aimed at greater accountability, transparency, effectiveness and expanding access to justice, diversity, and inclusion in the legal profession.

Two new trustees have also joined the State Bar Board of Trustees: Sonia Delen, appointed by the Governor, and Ruben Duran, appointed by the Speaker of the Assembly. Effective January 1, 2018, the State Bar moved toward an all-appointed Board and an appointed Chair, rather than electing officers and attorney trustees elected by attorneys.

State Bar priorities for the year ahead include:

• Continuing reforms to ensure that the State Bar is transparent, accountable, and effective;
• Ongoing review of State Bar sub-entities to ensure that appropriate governance principles for a regulatory body are in place;
• Working to secure a fee increase for the State Bar, as the annual licensing fee for attorneys has remained flat for 20 years;
• Ensuring fair and equity-based grant-making to legal aid organizations;
• Expanding the State Bar's work on diversity and inclusion.

“The State Bar is instrumental in working to ensure access to justice is available to every person in our great state. Especially at this moment when vulnerable communities face serious injustices, families are being torn apart, and immigration agents are outside courtroom doors, the stakes are high,” said Lee, incoming Chair of the State Bar of California. “In the year ahead the State Bar will also expand our efforts to increase diversity and inclusion in the legal profession, so that California attorneys providing legal services better reflect the communities they serve.”