110113Jon R Williamssd Lawyer
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Jon r. Williams The New SDCBA President Is Right Where He Belongs BY RAY HUARD PHOTOS BY LAUREN RADACK on Williams’ idea of fun is Bar Association. and is a partner in the San Diego firm of riding his bicycle for 100 “Jon has the ability to process very Boudreau Williams LLP. miles, camping out with his complex issues and break them down in a “Part of why I like being an appellate two sons in San Diego’s manner anyone can understand,” says lawyer is the ability to shape the law, to backcountry no matter how former SDCBA President Dan Link. understand some of the larger issues my foul the weather or surfing Former SDCBA President Marvin Mizell clients face,” Williams says. “I like the Joff the coast of Encinitas. gave a similar assessment saying, “Jon process of distillation, of attempting to “There’s something about finding your never comes to a conclusion that he take a massive amount of information and limits and kind of knowing where they are hasn’t thought out logically. He looks very distilling it to its essence.” that I find gratifying,” Williams says. thoroughly at every aspect of an issue and It’s a specialty that fits Williams well, “When you’re camping and it’s sleety and then, after weighing all of the says John Morris, who was a mentor to windy and you make the determination considerations, he comes to a decision in Williams. Morris had Williams as a student that you’re going to stick it out, that’s good a very logical and methodical manner.” in a legal drafting class at California for you and good for your kids too.” A graduate of California Western Western. The two later worked together in Friends and associates say that kind of School of Law and San Diego State the Appellate Department at Higgs, determination is part of what makes University, Williams is certified as an Fletcher & Mack, LLP, and continue to Williams a great lawyer, and will make him Appellate Specialist by the California work on appeals together (or opposing a great president for the San Diego County State Bar Board of Legal Specialization, each other) to the present day. 28 SAN DIEGO LAWYER November/December 2013 Quick Facts “Jon has established himself in a relatively McLaughlin says Williams will bring a fresh short period of time as the go-to guy for civil outlook to the association. FAVORITE BOOK appeals,” Morris says. “He’s an exceptional “He’s a visionary,” McLaughlin says. “He The White Album by Joan Didion. Her sentence writer, he’s good on his feet and he presents has great ideas on how he wants the Bar to structure and narrative style are mesmerizing. well, he looks good in a suit.” progress. He’s a small firm practitioner and FAVORITE LEGAL MOVIE Several colleagues cite Williams’ ability to to take on all the responsibility of leading the 12 Angry Men. Henry Fonda at his best. A stark write clearly as one of his primary assets. Bar Association, it’s great for the bar and beautiful examination of our jury system. Superior Court Presiding Judge Robert because we are comprised of so many small FAVORITE FOOD Trentacosta, whose firm hired Williams firm practitioners, not only attorneys from Salmon. Raw, grilled, smoked, whatever. straight out of law school, says that’s one big firms, or public attorneys like myself,” FAVORITE QUOTE reason Williams got the job. says McLaughlin, a prosecutor with the “Life is what happens when you’re busy “He edits out all the unnecessary gunk District Attorney’s office. “Jon is a true making other plans.” —John Lennon and what’s left is pure, crystalline prose,” leader, and will exemplify how to run a FAVORITE VACATION SPOT says Trentacosta, who also surfed with successful practice and serve the Vernazza, Cinque Terre, Italy. Poipu, Kauai is a close second. Williams when they worked together. “I community at the same time.” think one of the things that really separates Williams co-chaired the Bar Association’s FAVORITE RESTAURANT Jon from the pack is his ability to first-ever Court Funding Action Committee, The Crab Cooker, Newport Beach, CA. communicate, both verbally and in writing.” a committee that lobbied for the restoration FAVORITE PLACE TO GO WITH YOUR Steve Boudreau, who was Trentacosta’s of funding for San Diego’s courts. Earlier in FAMILY IN SAN DIEGO Moonlight Beach, Encinitas. partner when they hired Williams and is 2013, he was the lead author of the Williams’ partner now, says that as a young SDCBA’s First Annual Report on the State PERSON YOU WOULD MOST LIKE TO lawyer, Williams “had the composure of of the Judiciary in San Diego, which details HAVE DINNER WITH My late father, Robert Williams, who died someone who was 40-years-old.” how drastic cuts in court funding are unexpectedly in a hiking accident in 2009. “Jon was able to deliver with a degree affecting San Diego’s businesses and SOMETHING MOST PEOPLE DON’T of excellence beyond his years,” Boudreau citizens. It’s an issue he says he will KNOW ABOUT YOU says. “One of the reasons I come to work continue to press as president. In law school, I almost gave up the law to be a every day is to see what he’s up to next.” “This is not an issue, unfortunately, singer in a rock band. Outgoing SDCBA President Marcella that’s going to go away,” Williams states. YOUR GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT He says he’ll also Being a good husband and father. head the development DO YOU HAVE A MOTTO? of a new five-year Never quit. Never. strategic plan for the FAVORITE WEBSITE SDCBA and take a new www.velonews.com look at how the FAVORITE SPORTS TEAM association functions. The Chargers. (Yes, I am a glutton for punishment.) “In an organization like RUN-INS OR CELEBRITY SIGHTINGS this one that’s been I once sat next to Kevin Costner in a movie around for a long time, theater and did not realize it until the lights there are certain things went up after the movie was over. I also that occur year to year remember running into O.J. Simpson, Nicole by sheer momentum,” (Simpson) Brown and Kato Kaelin all at different Williams says. “My goal times. How weird is that? is to ask, ‘Does that still FAVORITE BAND/ALBUM/ make sense?’” CONCERT OF ALL TIME Elvis Costello, Imperial Bedroom or Chet Baker, At the same time, Live in New York (I can’t choose!) Williams says he’ll FAVORITE TIME OF YEAR continue to do Fall. It should be September nine months appellate work. of the year. “I don’t plan on PROUDEST MOMENT OF YOUR giving up my practice in LEGAL CAREER order to be president, Obtaining a reversal in the Ninth Circuit in the nor is that the Crowe v. County of San Diego civil rights action, expectation. It’s paving the way for settlement of that case after important for our seven years of litigation. November/December 2013 SAN DIEGO LAWYER 29 The New SDCBA President Jon r. Williams Is Right Where He Belongs Jon with sons members to know that anyone can ascend microphone. “They had Ian and Nate to leadership in our organization, without boxes and boxes of sacrificing their hard-built practices,” records they would spin Williams says. at parties,” Clarke Williams says he was drawn to law remembers. at a young age in part because of a man Williams says he still he admired. has “about six milk “I had a close friend growing up and his crates of old vinyl in dad was a lawyer and I remember storage that I need to do thinking, ‘I wonder what he does,’” something about.” Williams reflects. “I was just always He also played the impressed about how he carried himself.” cello, drums, saxophone, During a sixth-grade field trip to the electric bass and guitar, courthouse in Glendale, Calif., Williams and in college was the saw the man, Jarrett Anderson, arguing a lead singer in a San case and the image stuck with him. Diego band called the “I remember being intrigued by what it Eldergardens. was that a lawyer did for a living and “I was very lucky in asking him about it. He was very kind and that there was always encouraging, a real gentleman. I guess music around when I that left an impression on me.” was growing up, and Williams’ sister, Lisa Clarke, says the consequently, it remains family figured her brother would be a a huge part of my life,” lawyer or an actor. Williams dabbled in Williams says. “My community theater in Glendale, Clarke parents exposed me says, but his passions as a teenager were very early to traditional music and surfing. jazz and my mother In high school, he worked at a local surf knows every jazz elderly customers. “I learned a lot about shop and drove a green Volkswagen with standard out of the Great American compassion in that job,” Williams recalls. license plate letters that could be read as Songbook like the back of her hand. I still It was in high school that Williams, 47, “surf naked.” “It kept the rest of us from try to stump her when I hear an old tune, met his wife, Melisa. He was 17 and she driving his car,” says Clarke. giving her just the opening notes or lyrics, was 16. Surfing was an obsession for Williams at but to no avail.” “She was a sophomore, I was a junior,” Herbert Hoover High School in Glendale.