Metropolitan News-Enterprise

 

Monday, December 10, 2001

 

Page 3

 

Matthew St. George Jr., Michelle Katz to Run for Board of Governors

 

By NAZANIN AGANGE, Staff Writer

 

Matthew St. George Jr., a 17-year Los Angeles deputy city attorney, and Michelle Katz, a Century City sole practitioner, said Friday they are planning to run for the State Bar Board of Governors.

“We’re running as a team to support each other and to help each other through the necessary [campaigning] appearances,” Katz said. “We’re working to create an atmosphere of camaraderie.”

St. George said that while he believes the Board of Governors has passed beyond its difficult days of financial hardship and government opposition there are still important lessons to be drawn about members of the board working together successfully.

“What I’ve observed is . . . in past years there has been some tension and discord,” he said. 

The Board of Governors is made up of 21 members who carry out the regulatory duties of the State Bar. District Seven, which covers Los Angeles County, has two positions available in next year’s elections. Exact dates for the elections have yet to be established.

St. George, a member of the Breakfast Club—an organization of prominent Los Angeles attorneys who recruit candidates to run for the Board of Governors—said he decided to run after being asked to by several people. Katz, also a Breakfast Club member, said she hoped to fill a “vacuum” that exists on the board in arbitration and mediation.

Katz said she and St. George complement each other, citing her activity in family law and in alternate dispute resolution and his experience in government. St. George has been active with the State Bar and a member of the Conference of Delegates for 20 years. He chaired the conference in 1999.

St. George said he plans to use his position on the board to “look into how we govern ourselves and ways to bring the State Bar into the 21st century.” He pointed out that law is the only profession that regulates and governs itself and said for it to stay that way the State Bar must stay on top of technological change by being a part of the change.

St. George said he wanted to be certain that the Commission on the Future of the State Bar of California report receives the attention and review it deserves.

Katz and St. George said they want to emphasize and improve the State Bar’s service to its members and help them better serve the public.

“We want the board to reflect the reality and diversity of the practice of law not only in membership diversity but in the diversity in the kinds of practices,” Katz said.

 

Copyright 2001, Metropolitan News Company