Four bar senior executives depart

The retirement of the State Bar's executive director, Herbert Rosenthal, has precipitated the departure of four bar senior executives. Rosenthal is stepping down this month. The four senior executives departing are:

• General counsel Diane Yu, who will head Monsanto's staff of 70 attorneys in St. Louis. Yu, 45, joined the bar in 1987 as general counsel, and during her tenure argued and won more than two dozen cases in the California Supreme Court. She will supervise litigation, employment, labor, environmental and regulatory affairs in her new post.
• Stuart Forsyth, head of member and client services, became the executive director of the Arizona Bar Association and the Arizona Bar Foundation June 30. Forsyth, 54, began his career at the California bar in 1973 as assistant general counsel. He created the State Bar Court and managed the Client Security Fund, complaint audit and review, and mandatory fee arbitration.
• Jackie Reinhardt left her post as head of communications and public education Aug. 6 to become executive vice president for Brown & Toland, a physician services organization in San Francisco. She joined the bar three years ago.
• Karen Betzner has taken a six-month leave as head of the office of professional competence, standards and certification. Betzner, 40, worked at the bar 15 years, is its chief ethics expert, and wrote the MCLE rules and regulations.

In addition, the bar's lobbyist, Mel Assagai, left his senior executive post last January to serve on a contract basis.