REGULARS

appellate justice, made a series of recommendations regarding bar operations a year ago and not all have been implemented.

In a statement distributed before the vote, Nobumoto also stressed a commitment to fiscal responsibility, improved use of technology and access to legal services for the public. "My only goal," she said, "is to improve the stature of the bar and its lawyers with everyone that we touch: the public, the lawyers, the legislature."

Noting that she and the four other third-year members took office a month before the veto and presided over the virtual dismantling of the State Bar, Nobumoto said that three years later that group could say, "Just look at us now." Dues are lower, the bar is more streamlined, the backlog of discipline cases is reduced and the rebuilding process is underway, she said.

"We took stock . . . and responded with a restructured bar," Nobumoto said, adding that her class' accomplishments were "remarkable."

As a member of the bar board, Nobumoto has focused much of her attention on increasing diversity within the legal profession, serving two years on the board's appointments committee.

She also chairs the board's legal committee.

In both of these posts, she said, she worked hard to achieve consensus and often managed to win unanimity among her colleagues.

Nobumoto noted that she has not missed a board meeting since being sworn in, including attending a meeting at which she was banned to a distant corner of the room because she had the flu. "My commitment to the bar can be measured by my deeds," she said.

Born in Cleveland, Nobumoto graduated from the University of Hartford in West Hartford, Conn., in 1973, and received her law degree from Southwestern University School of Law in 1989.

In addition to her bar activities, which began as a student member of the bar's Ethnic Minority Relations Committee, she was president of the John M. Langston Bar Association in 1997 and served on Gov. Davis' Diversity Task Force.

Selected by KFWB radio as a Los Angeles County Unsung Hero, Nobumoto also was honored by the Century City Bar Association as prosecutor of the year for her contributions to the legal community and the community at large.

She belongs to the Women Lawyers Association of Los Angeles, Black Women Lawyers of Los Angeles, the Association of Deputy District Attorneys and is a founding fellow of the Foundation of the State Bar of California.