Remke named presiding State Bar Court judge

State Bar Court Judge Joann Remke has been named the new presiding judge of the State Bar Court by the California Supreme Court. The high court, which made the appointment last month, also announced that State Bar Court Hearing Judge State Bar Court Hearing Judge Patrice McElroy was reappointed.

Remke

Remke, 41, appointed for a six-year term, replaces Presiding Judge Ronald Stovitz, who is retiring effective Nov. 1. McElroy, 53, was named to a new six-year term starting Nov. 1. She was first appointed as a judge of the State Bar Hearing Department in November 2001.

The Senate Rules Committee appointed Remke to the State Bar Court as a hearing judge in 2000 and reappointed her in 2004. She was supervising judge of the State Bar Court Hearing Department in 2004 and 2005. A graduate of the University of Illinois and McGeorge School of Law, Remke was an associate at Miller, Starr & Regalia in Oakland, a bankruptcy specialist for Providian Bancorps, a VISTA attorney in Montana, coordinator of the Fair Housing Program in Minnesota and counsel to the California Senate Judiciary Commit-tee before joining the State Bar Court.

A graduate of the University of California at Berkeley and Hastings College of the Law, McElroy was a staff attorney for the National Center for Youth Law, a San Francisco public defender, and a solo practitioner specializing in juvenile delinquency and juvenile dependency before joining the State Bar Court in 2001.

The State Bar Court is the only disciplinary court in the nation that uses professional judges and often is held up as the most effective state bar court as well.