Friday, December 13, 2002
Page 3
Nation’s Largest Civil Defense Bar Selects New Chief
By ALLISON LOMAS, Staf Writer
Robert W. Harrison, a San Diego litigator and the former president of the California Defense Counsel, has been selected to lead the country’s largest regional civil defense bar organization.
Harrison will be inducted into his new role by outgoing president Walter M. Yoka at the Association of Southern California Defense Counsel’s annual meeting at the end of February 2003. The 40-year old organization is dedicated to serving, protecting and promoting the interests of civil defense lawyers in Southern California.
The Arizona-native was selected to the position based on his years of service, his commitment to the organization, his standing in the legal community and overall ability to lead, his predecessor said. Yoka explained that the president is invariably a person who was selected as the secretary treasurer chair, and then rose through the ranks to become vice president, president-elect and finally president.
Yoka, who has served as the Defense Counsel’s president since February, said he has great expectations for Harrison, a shareholder at San Diego-based Neil, Dymott, Perkins, Brown & Frank.
Harrison has served on the Defense Counsel’s Board of Directors since 1987, and is the former president of the California Defense Counsel. He is also a past president of the San Diego Barristers Club.
“Bob Harrison has a proven and remarkable track-record of leadership success,” Yoka said. “Our board and our members are confident that Bob’s talents and skills will serve the Association of Southern California Defense exceptionally well in the year to come.”
The 51-year old retired United States Naval Reserve Captain listed increasing the group’s membership as a priority for his yearlong term as president. “My goal is to bring the level of ASCDS participation back to the membership numbers we experienced in the 1980’s.”
The association’s membership has dropped by two or three hundred over the past twenty years, Yoka said.
Harrison graduated from the Annapolis Naval Academy in 1972 and completed his legal education at the University of San Diego in 1981. Yoka is a founding partner of the Los-Angeles firm Yoka & Smith LLP.
Copyright 2002, Metropolitan News Company