By Andrew Cohen
Two Berkeley Law graduates are among five lawyers recently elected to the California State Bar Board of Governors. Cheryl Hicks ’83 of Oakland and Lowell Carruth ’62 of Fresno will begin serving three-year terms next month.
The board, which is the State Bar’s governing body, consists of 23 members—the Bar’s president (currently Holly Fujie ’78), 16 attorneys elected by their colleagues across California, and six non-attorney members appointed by the governor and legislature.
Hicks will represent District 3, which covers Alameda, Contra Costa, San Mateo, and Santa Clara counties. A solo practitioner specializing in juvenile dependency and family law, Hicks is a past president of the Alameda County Bar Association (ACBA). She received the State Bar’s Solo Section Attorney of the Year Award in 2008, and this year won the ACBA Distinguished Service Award.
She has been active in the ACBA for more than two decades, and chaired its Civil Court Appointed Attorneys Program. Hicks also led the ACBA’s Judicial Mentoring Project, which guides lawyers considering a career on the bench and promotes diversity in the judicial applicant pool.
Carruth will represent District 5, which spans Fresno, Inyo, Kern, Kings, Madera, Mariposa, Merced, Mono, Monterey, San Benito, San Joaquin, Santa Cruz, Stanislaus, and Tulare counties. He is of counsel with McCormick Barstow in Fresno, where he handles business and commercial litigation, products liability, professional malpractice, general negligence, insurance bad faith, and wrongful termination.
A founding member and first president of the San Joaquin Valley chapter of the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA), Carruth was named 1997 ABOTA California Trial Lawyer of the Year. Tapped as a California Super Lawyer by Law & Politics and San Francisco Magazine, he also serves on a bipartisan committee that screens, interviews, and recommends finalists for positions as U.S. District Court Judge, U.S. Attorney, and U.S. Marshall.
The California State Bar Board of Governors meets eight times a year to discuss and rule on organizational, policy, and professional issues. Each meeting features a public and a confidential session, and agendas are posted on the Board’s Web site.