News Releases

Two legal luminaries to be honored at 20th Annual Ethics Symposium

Contact: Laura Ernde

415-538-2283

barcomm@calbar.ca.gov

SAN FRANCISCO, March 28, 2016 — The State Bar of California announced today that it will honor two legal luminaries at its 20th annual statewide ethics symposium on April 9 in San Francisco. 

Sacramento attorney Karen M. Goodman and Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Brian C. Walsh will each receive the 2016 Harry B. Sondheim California Professional Responsibility Award. The award was created in 2010 to honor long-term outstanding contributions to the advancement of professional responsibility standards in California. The winners were chosen by the Board of Trustees. 

“It’s a privilege to be giving this award to two deserving individuals whose efforts have made a lasting impact on bettering the profession and protecting the public,” State Bar President David Pasternak said. 

Goodman, 56, was chairwoman of the State Bar’s Discipline Standards Task Force in 2014, which revised the guidelines that are used to determine the appropriate sanction for attorney discipline cases and ensure consistency in how cases are dealt with. Before that, she was chairwoman of the Board of Trustees committee that oversees the discipline system. Among many other volunteer roles, she has served as a member of the State Bar’s Committee of Bar Examiners and Committee on Professional Responsibility and Conduct.

Walsh, 68, was a pioneer for promoting civility and professionalism. As president of the Santa Clara County Bar Association in 1992, he developed a code of professionalism for the county. The code, still in use today, was used as a model for the State Bar of California’s Civility Toolbox adopted in 2007. Walsh has been appointed by the chief justice of California to serve on a number of statewide committees, including the Supreme Court Advisory Committee on the Code of Judicial Ethics. He also mentors new judges.

The awards will be given at the symposium, which features five hours of Continuing Legal Education credit in legal ethics.