Returning State Bar leader wants an organization that is respected and innovative

Leah T. Wilson is back as executive director of the State Bar and will need to guide the agency through tumultuous times and significant changes.

Wilson previously served in the role from September 2017 to January 2020. In July, she returned to the bar after 18 months as a senior director at the consulting firm Resource Development Associates.

“It’s a really incredible opportunity to leave an organization that I invested a lot in and to come back after an incredibly challenging period that we’re still in and see how much has changed and how much has stayed the same,” Wilson said in an interview.

Wilson left the bar after 20 years in public service to pursue an opportunity in consulting to work in the intersection of public-private and philanthropic partnerships.

“And I really am grateful for the experiences that I had,” she said. “But I did find that consulting is not a very rewarding career for me, ultimately. And so that is in part what led me back to the bar.”

Wilson finds herself at an agency that is working remotely. Not a small feat for an organization tasked with regulating more than 190,000 active attorneys. Wilson said she was impressed by how quickly the agency pivoted, partly due to investments to go paperless before the pandemic.

“Through an incredibly difficult period, the bar has stayed the course on executing its mission and its commitment to this strategic plan,” Wilson said. “Focusing on discipline, regulation, increasing access to legal services and diversity, it’s all been happening even though there have been several challenges along the way.”

For Wilson, instilling public trust and confidence in the attorney discipline system is high on the agenda. The bar is facing scrutiny for its failure to investigate high profile attorneys accused of wrongdoing, specifically the plaintiffs’ lawyer Tom Girardi, who is accused of stealing millions of dollars from personal injury clients.

“Over the years, there have been a number of things that have come up that have made the public and our stakeholders question our effectiveness and that is extremely problematic,” Wilson said. “It’s problematic because it’s demoralizing for our staff. It’s problematic because it’s absolutely important and critical that the public that we serve believes that we can and will protect them.”

Following an audit of complaints filed against Girardi, which revealed mistakes in the bar’s investigations, the agency announced measures it would take in response. One of the measures will be audits of large trust accounts. Some lawyers questioned the move, saying it would lead to random audits of all lawyers. Lawyers have also voiced concerns that it would not address the issue of the bar targeting sole practitioners rather than those at big firms.

“That is precisely the analysis that the board’s new committee on special discipline case audit is going to undertake,” Wilson said. “They have as part of their charge to review this entire issue of trust account audit; both the State Bar conducting auditing itself and even requiring attorneys to get their accounts audited annually. That’s another option to consider.”

The bar is exploring other significant changes that could impact the future of the legal profession in California. Two working groups are exploring licensing legal paraprofessionals’ and private companies’ roles in providing greater access to justice. The access to justice issue has been debated for a long time. But Wilson said that times have changed and there has been a reckoning around inequality.

According to Wilson, the separation of the bar and the California Lawyers Association three years ago helped the bar focus on protecting the public.

“I fear that prior to the separation, we were at least partially focused on benefiting our ‘members,’” Wilson said. “And it is fair to say that without that dual focus, we are more clearly focused on our mission.”

Asked where she wants the bar to be in five or 10 years, Wilson said she wants a highly respected organization known for effectively protecting the public.

“And for being innovative,” she added. “I would want us to be the organization that people say, ‘Let’s see what the California bar is doing on this issue because they are always doing good work and they’re always doing interesting things.’ We’ve got to execute our mission and be able to be innovative in doing it.”