News Releases

State Bar Board elects James P. Fox to lead public protection agency

Contact: Laura Ernde

415-538-2283

barcomm@calbar.ca.gov

LOS ANGELES, July 22, 2016 – The State Bar of California Board of Trustees today elected James P. Fox as president of the State Bar of California for 2016-17. Fox is a former San Mateo County District Attorney who practiced law for more than 46 years in the county where he was raised.

The board president plays a critical leadership role in overseeing the state agency’s public protection efforts.

Fox will be sworn in Oct. 1 at the State Bar’s 2016 Annual Meeting. He will be the 92nd president of an agency that regulates more than a quarter million licensed lawyers in California and is the largest state bar in the country.

“I’m honored to serve in this role to ensure the State Bar fulfills its mission of regulating attorneys and improving the justice system to protect the public,” Fox said.

Also elected today and assuming office in October are Danette E. Meyers, a deputy district attorney in Los Angeles County, as vice president; and Jason P. Lee, an attorney with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in Los Angeles, as treasurer.

Executive Director Elizabeth Rindskopf Parker congratulated the new officers, saying, “I look forward to working closely with the board officers to take on important reforms at the State Bar that will hold the agency to the highest standards in the important role of protecting vulnerable Californians.”

Fox was appointed to the Board of Trustees by the California Supreme Court in 2014. He is vice president of the board and serves on committees overseeing the bar’s budget and regulation and discipline functions. Before he was appointed to the board, he spent nearly three years as a special assistant to the Chief Trial Counsel, where he helped the office transition to a vertical prosecution model, which eliminated delays in moving cases from investigation to prosecution.

He served as the District Attorney for San Mateo County for 29 years before retiring in 2010. In previous public service work, he served on the legislative committees of the California District Attorneys Association and the National District Attorneys Association. As a long-time advocate of an unbiased justice system, he served as a State Senate appointee to the California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice and was the only elected district attorney in the state to oppose the 1994 enactment of the Three Strikes Law.

Outgoing State Bar President David J. Pasternak said: “The board will be extremely well served next year by having three officers whose full-time jobs have been focused on public protection for many, many years.”