Governor names new bar board member
Los Angeles City Controller Laura Chick was appointed a public member of the State
Bar Board of Governors by Gov. Schwarzenegger. Chick, 62, joins two other
non-attorney members of the board; there are three additional vacancies awaiting
gubernatorial appointment.
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Chick |
A longtime friend of bar President Shelly Sloan, Chick said she is interested
in his attorney civility initiative as well as the bar’s efforts to increase
diversity in the legal profession. “I have a great many friends who are
attorneys and judges and so I know a great deal about lawyers,” she said.
Chick said Sloan encouraged her to seek appointment to the board. “He
said, ‘I could use you on the board of governors,’ so I threw my
hat in the ring.” Coincidentally, she learned about her appointment while
at Sloan’s home for a holiday party.
The longest-serving elected official in the city of Los Angeles, Chick served
on the city council from 1993 to 2001, when she was elected city controller.
As controller, she serves as the chief auditor and accountant for the city
of Los Angeles, with responsibilities that include conducting financial performance
audits of all aspects of city operations, supervising expenditures that include
payroll and accounts payable, and issuing various financial reports.
She has established herself as a taxpayers’ watchdog since taking office
and, according to the Los Angeles Business Journal, “has emerged as a
central voice in the ongoing debate over how the city handles its contracts.”
Chick said she is interested in consumer protection by the bar and “preventative” measures. “I
have learned that 80 percent of the bar budget goes toward discipline,” she
said. “I am very interested in what we can do to help attorneys at the
front end.”
She also wants to take a look at malpractice insurance for lawyers and wondered, “What
are insurance companies doing to continue to reduce the regulatory actions?”
Chick was a stay-at-home mother, manager of a family-owned retail business
and a social worker for Jewish Family Services before entering elective office
at the age of 49.
A resident of Silver Lake, she is the mother of two grown daughters and grandmother
of one.
Chick joins Jeanine English of Sacramento and Richard Rubin of San Francisco
as a public board member. The governor’s appointments secretary told
the board last month that he’s aware of the three vacancies on the board
and is working on finding appointees. English was appointed by Assembly Speaker
Fabian Nunez and Rubin was named to the board by the Senate Rules Committee.
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