Friday, November 12, 2004
Page 1
State Bar Foundation Names New Executive Director
By a MetNews Staff Writer
Leslie T. Hatamiya, a Stanford Law School graduate and Stanford University trustee, is the new executive director of the Foundation of the State Bar of California.
Hatamiya, 35, started work Monday. She came to the foundation from SOMA Networks, a wireless technology company, where she was corporate spokeswoman.
“I’m looking forward to...building on the great programs that the foundation already runs and building up on our fundraising base,” she told the MetNews Wednesday. The foundation has done good work in its more than 14 years of existence, she said, adding that she hopes to convince the law firms and members of the “broader community” who support its programs to move the foundation “onto the next level.”
Hatamiya received her undergraduate degree from Stanford in 1990, then was a Coro fellow in public affairs before working on Capitol Hill as an aide to then-Sen. Bill Bradley, D-N.J. She also wrote “Righting a Wrong: Japanese Americans and the Passage of the Civil Liberties Act of 1988,” published by Stanford University Press in 1993.
Working in Congress convinced her she ought to have a law degree, she said, so she went back to Palo Alto and graduated from law school in 1997. One of the projects she worked on during law school was a report on Stanford’s electronic record-keeping and the implications for the privacy of faculty, students and staff, an assignment she took on at the behest of Stanford President Gerhard Casper.
After law school she clerked for Judge David Tatel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, then joined the staff of Yale University’s general counsel. When ex-boss Bradley sought the Democratic nomination for president four years ago, she served as deputy campaign manager, then returned to Yale as an assistant to the university president.
She subsequently worked as program director for the Coro Fellows program for a year before taking some time off the travel, then joined SOMA Networks. She applied for the foundation post, she explained, because it was “a great opportunity to return to my public interest roots” as well as use her legal training.
Hatamiya was named to the Stanford University Board of Trustees as an alumni representative in 2000; her nonrenewable term on that board ends next year.
Copyright 2004, Metropolitan News Company