Celebrating 75 Years

CELEBRATING 75 YEARS The State Bar of California “Victory Dinner” • The Palace Hotel, San Francisco • November 17, 1927 2• Celebrating 75 Years After two failed attempts, a unified State Bar is created with Gov. C.C. Young’s signature on March 31, 1927 ■ On July 29, 1927, the State Bar Celebrating 75 Years • 3 LOOKING BACK ON 75 YEARS HIGHLIGHTS 3 LOOKING BACK 4 WOMEN IN THE LAW 7 FOUR LONG CAREERS 9 MEMBERSHIP 10 A FEW FIRSTS 13 THE CHIEF JUSTICE 13 HISTORIC COURTHOUSES FROM THE ARCHIVES The State Bar’s first board of governors was elected in November 1927. It included attorneys from 17 Eureka, Redding, Sacramento, Oakland, San Francisco, San Jose, Fresno, Los Angeles and San Diego. 23 THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR By KRISTINA HORTON FLAHERTY The changes are dramatic. But existence. Most recently, a sharply Staff Writer what’s just as striking — from histori- critical Gov. Pete Wilson vetoed the cal archives and interviews with past bar’s dues bill in late 1997, triggering 27 THE INCOMING PRESIDENT hen California’s unified State leaders — is how much has remained mass layoffs and a virtual shutdown. W Bar was launched in 1927, no the same. The challenges to the State Today, however, a revitalized State one predicted it would be easy. Bar’s self-regulatory role, for exam- Bar is rebuilding the organization. “The first year will be a crucial ple, resurface again and again. Back in 1927, bar leaders had to one, for we have no charted course And many of the challenges to start from scratch — initially register- Self-regulation to follow, no precedent to aid us, nor the profession, too, remain constant, ing some 10,000 attorneys at $3 a guiding star other than our ideals notes retired State Bar executive each. (There was no existing registry.) after a decade- and conscience,” Joseph Webb, the director Herb Rosenthal. “It’s the In the first year alone, they appointed first State Bar president, wrote in a means of dealing with the chal- local administrative committees 1927 State Bar Journal column. lenges that have changed, expanded, statewide to hear client complaints. long struggle “And as we are sailing upon an contracted,” he said. They drafted procedural rules and uncharted sea,” he warned, “mistakes The State Bar of California, a developed the nation’s first enforce- may be made and there may be criti- public corporation within the judicial able rules of professional conduct for t was November 1927. Calvin cisms to meet.” lawyers. In addition, I Coolidge was in the White House. But the early State some 2,500 attorneys Charles Lindbergh had soloed across Bar leaders were deter- were recruited for new the Atlantic. Babe Ruth had hit 60 mined to “kick the rascals “sections” to study five home runs. America was in the grip out of the profession,” areas — civil procedure; of the Jazz Age and prohibition. raise admission standards criminal law and proce- Stocks were soaring. and work collectively to dure; courts and judicial And quietly, amid these events, a improve the administra- officers; regulatory com- meeting which would prove to be of tion of justice. missions; and profession- lasting consequence to the legal pro- Three quarters of a al conduct — and rec- fession and the California public took century later, the State ommend changes to the place. On November 17, some 600 Bar — alternately laud- legislature. lawyers from around the state made ed, attacked, misunder- “We have accom- their way to San Francisco by train, stood and closely scruti- plished up to date in this automobile and ferry. They pushed nized throughout its his- one short year more through Market Street’s traffic to gath- tory — has seen its ranks along the lines of er for a “Victory Dinner” in the swell from roughly approaching ideals than Grand Ballroom of the Palace Hotel. 10,000 practicing attor- has been accomplished After 10 years of work, the State neys to 140,000. It now in all the past by the Bar Self-Governing Act was going investigates 5,000 to The State Bar Act was signed on March 31, 1927. Pictured, united effort of individual into effect and the State Bar would 6,000 complaints annu- from left to right, are Joseph J. Webb, San Francisco; Gov. lawyers and the courts,” hold its organizational meeting the ally in the nation’s only C.C. Young; and Kemper Campbell, Los Angeles. Robert Fitzgerald, a for- next day. That night, in the Grand attorney discipline sys- mer president of Ballroom, Col. William J. Donovan, tem with a full-time California’s earlier volun- assistant to the Attorney General of State Bar Court. It administers the bar branch, was created by the State Bar tary bar, declared in 1928. the United States, said: examination to some 14,000 Act in 1927 to assist the Supreme In the early years, the unautho- “Yours is the great opportunity to prospective attorneys each year. It Court in regulating the legal profes- rized practice of law by banks and evidence to the bar of the country reimburses funds — about $50 mil- sion and in improving the administra- trust companies, court reform, that the surest way to rebuild our lion in 30 years — to attorney theft tion of justice. The legislature pro- “ambulance chasing,” professional waning prestige, to restore confi- victims. It distributes lawyer trust vides oversight by regularly approv- ethics and attorney qualifications dence in the moral and intellectual account interest — some $250 mil- ing — or disapproving — the amount were among the topics that dominat- integrity of our profession, is to lion so far — to legal programs serv- of mandatory dues collected annually ed the professional debate. regain our self-respect by self-governing the poor. And with its many com- from all California attorneys. In an oral history, Gilford G. mittees and sections, it works to From its beginnings, the bar has ORIGINS continued on page 24 improve the administration of justice. faced numerous challenges to its HISTORY continued on page 6 Act goes into effect ■ In December 1927, the Judicial Council ends its first year in existence ■ In 1934, the bar’s Conference of Delegates 4• Celebrating 75 Years Women in the Law The early years ■ Clara Shortridge papers and other materials “within Foltz blazed the trial days of her death,” laments Babcock. That made her discovery deep in By KATHLEEN BEITIKS the bowels of the Huntington Library in Pasadena all the more exciting. Staff Writer “I found it in the Huntington’s n another era, she might have uncatalogued collection of had a case of the vapors. But ephemera,” said Babcock, “but I’m Barbara Babcock simply certain somewhere there are 15 or Idescribed her condition as 16 other scrapbooks from her early heart-pounding when she unearthed years.” The scrapbook Babcock dis- an old scrapbook belonging to Clara covered contained an abundance of Shortridge Foltz, California’s first news clippings, but did not reveal woman lawyer. the intimate glimpse into Foltz’s life It was one of the most exciting that she had hoped. “It may be the finds in Babcock’s years of research last one in the series, extending from on Foltz. 1916 to about 1930,” she says. Today, nearly a decade later, Even so, Babcock is keeping her Babcock is at work on the final chap- fingers crossed that more scrapbooks ter of Foltz’s life story, which is to be will emerge from other collections, published by the Stanford University libraries or even a cluttered attic. Press. And, after years of poring Writing Foltz’s biography was to through old and musty books and be a labor of love for Babcock when papers, the Stanford law professor has Courtesy of the California State Library she began her research, but more built an electronic archive of the sweat and tears have been involved materials unearthed in her effort to than she anticipated. Her problem, pull the bits and pieces of Foltz’s life she admits, is that her approach has into one definitive work. been one of a “trial lawyer’s mentali- It was on Sept. 4, 1878, that Foltz ty,” when in fact she has had to take and her sister suffragists celebrated on the persona of an historian. the passage of the Woman Lawyer’s She has written numerous arti- Bill in the state legislature, finally giv- cles on Foltz throughout the period ing the women of California the right of her research and continues to be to study law. “She is a person who fascinated with the life of the woman was extraordinarily famous in her Clara Shortridge Foltz, shown above, was the first woman admitted who was responsible for breaking time,” says Babcock. to practice law in California in 1879. down the gender barriers in the prac- But Foltz’s celebrity then virtually tice of law. disappeared over the years — until whose biographical work largely research, initially leading her to On July 16, 1849, Clara recently. Just this year, the Los Angeles brought Foltz to this recognition, a believe they were lost to history. Shortridge was born in Lafayette, Criminal Courthouse was renamed for “great day for women lawyers.” Foltz had outlived four of her five Ind. Her father, Elias, was trained as Clara Shortridge Foltz in a ceremony Foltz was known for keeping children when she died in 1934 at a lawyer. He eventually changed that honored other early women in scrapbooks, but none had surfaced the age of 85. Unfortunately, her sole law as well. It was, says Babcock, in Babcock’s early years of surviving heir auctioned off all her CLARA continued on page 16 Courtesy of the California State Library nnette Abbot Adams: (1877- da May Adams: (1886-1965) The eorgia P.

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