By Andrew Cohen
Jon Streeter ’81, a partner at the San Francisco office of Keker and Van Nest, has been elected 2011–12 president of the State Bar of California. In September, he will be sworn in as the 87th president of the nation’s largest state bar, which oversees California’s 232,000 lawyers.
Streeter becomes the fourth Berkeley Law graduate in five years to assume the State Bar’s top position. He follows outgoing president Bill Hebert ’89, a partner at Calvo and Clark in San Francisco; Holly Fujie ’78, a partner at Buchalter Nemer in Los Angeles, who was president in 2008–09; and U.S. Ambassador to Australia Jeff Bleich ’89, who presided over the State Bar in 2007–08.
A former president of the Bar Association of San Francisco, Streeter has served on the California State Bar Board of Governors since 1998. He will oversee the state bar’s discipline system, which has been hindered by case backlogs and delays in investigating misconduct claims against lawyers. Executive director Joseph Dunn recently fired four bar prosecutors, while the organization’s chief disciplinary prosecutor, former president James Towery, resigned in June.
“I will work hard to reestablish a sense of unity and restore the effectiveness and integrity of the discipline system,” Streeter said. “It is about the backlog, the backlog, the backlog. Finding the right person instead of micromanaging our relationship with that person is key.”
Streeter has been litigating complex business cases for almost 30 years. His expertise spans specialized fields such as intellectual property, antitrust, securities, real estate, mortgage banking, executive compensation, energy regulation, and insurance coverage.
In 2003, he spearheaded litigation that led to a settlement banning racial profiling in traffic stops by the California Highway Patrol. He also defended the Berkeley Unified School District against a court challenge to its student integration program.
A longtime champion of pro bono work, Streeter has an extensive record of public service. He won the Alliance for Justice’s Champions of Justice Award in 2009, and in 2005 received the Robert G. Sproul, Jr. Award from the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights for his commitment to civil rights and support of pro bono services.
Streeter has twice served on the Boalt Hall Alumni Association board, and is currently chairing his reunion class campaign.