Government
Apr. 3, 2007
AG Spokesman Barankin Moves Desks, Becomes State Deputy Attorney General
Industry Watch - By Linda Rapattoni - SACRAMENTO - Nathan Barankin, who attended law school while working as communications director for California's attorney general, has joined the office's government law section as a deputy attorney general.
By Linda Rapattoni
Daily Journal Staff Writer
SACRAMENTO - Nathan Barankin, who attended law school while working as communications director for California's attorney general, has joined the office's government law section as a deputy attorney general.
Barankin, 36, earned his law degree in May of last year after attending four years of night classes at McGeorge School of Law. He took the Bar Exam in the summer, three weeks after the birth of his first child.
Barankin said last week that when he graduated from the University of California, Davis, with a political science degree in 1992, he planned to head immediately for law school. Instead, he snagged one of 18 spots in the California State Senate Fellowship program.
There, he met Sen. Bill Lockyer, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, future attorney general and current state treasurer. Barankin drafted bill analyses for the committee and managed some of the legislation Lockyer carried.
The plan, Barankin said, was to attend law school immediately after the yearlong fellowship, but, he said, the job "was really fun and interesting, so I decided to put off law school for another year."
Instead of going to school, Barankin became a policy adviser on judiciary and public safety issues for Lockyer in January 1994, when Lockyer was Senate president pro tem.
A year later, Barankin became Lockyer's legislative director and, four years later, was appointed his director of communications when Lockyer was elected attorney general.
"I got more and more responsibilities working for Lockyer," Barankin said. "It got to the point where I said, 'Holy cow, I've got to go to law school now if I'm ever going to do it.'"
That was four years into the job supervising 30 employees in the attorney general's press office and public inquiry unit.
In 2002, Barankin was accepted into McGeorge's program, but kept his day job.
Here's how he did it:
"I had class three or four nights a week, and it started at 6:15 p.m. and would run until about 9:30 p.m.," Barankin said. "I ate dinner afterwards. During the week, all I did was work and go to class. Then I would take the weekend and study for the next week's classes - do all my reading. So by the time Thursday's class came around, the last time I had seen any of the material was the Sunday before."
Lockyer was very supportive, Barankin said. Twice a year during exam time, he let Barankin take a week and a half to study at the Department of Justice law library, four floors down from his office.
"I would respond to press calls, but I would only deal with urgent matters," Barankin said. "The thing about the press is it never stops. There's always some reporter out there who has a question that the DOJ is involved in."
The rest of his staff, including two former Daily Journal reporters, handled most of the calls for him, he said.
It wasn't easy, Barankin conceded. So he took to drink.
"I consumed a lot of Diet Coke," he said.
Barankin's wife, Analea Patterson, is a lawyer with Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, where she landed after clerking for Sacramento federal Judge Frank Damrell. During her second year of law school, also at McGeorge, she and Barankin were married. Their first child, Harper Barankin, was born in July.
Although Friday was officially Barankin's last day working a three-month stint as Attorney General Jerry Brown's chief spokesman, he said he has agreed to help out with the media when needed.
Dan Schechnern
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