Davis Expected to Name Riverside Physician to Bar Board of Governors

Metropolitan News-Enterprise

Friday, September 5, 2003

Page 3

Davis Expected to Name Riverside Physician to Bar Board of Governors

By a MetNews Staff Writer

Gov. Gray Davis is expected to name Riverside orthopaedic surgeon Thomas Haider as a public member of the State Bar Board of Governors as early as today, bar officials said yesterday.

A draft press release announcing the appointment was provided to the MetNews by State Bar Executive Director Judy Johnson at the bar’s Annual Meeting in Anaheim, but the governor’s office declined to confirm that the appointment is forthcoming.

A call to Haider’s office at the Haider Spine Center in Riverside was returned by a member of his staff, who said Haider was in surgery and could not be reached. The aide said the appointment had not yet been “officially released.”

According to the draft release, Haider, 50, is on the medical staff at Riverside Community Hospital. In 1994, he established the Children’s Spine Foundation, which provides free spinal care for uninsured children.

The release describes him as the “driving force” behind the creation of the American Board of Spine Surgery.

Haider earned his undergraduate and master’s degrees from the University of Colorado, Boulder, and his medical degree from the Strich School of Medicine at Loyola University in Illinois.

The 23-member Board of Governors includes six lay members. Four are appointed by the governor and one each by the state Senate Rules Committee and the Speaker of the Assembly.

A State Bar spokesperson said yesterday that if the appointment is made today, Haider could be sworn in tomorrow at the Annual Meeting along with six other new members of the board. The appointment is subject to Senate confirmation, but state law permits the appointee to take office before being confirmed.