Five win board of governors seats

Five attorneys were elected last month to serve three-year terms on the State Bar Board of Governors. In the first hybrid online/paper ballot vote, Karen Goodman of Sacramento won the District 2 seat; Alec Chang of Palo Alto was elected to represent District 3; Loren Kieve of San Francisco won the District 4 seat; Gretchen Nelson of Los Angeles will fill the Seat 1 position in District 7, and Luis Rodriguez of Los Angeles won the district’s second seat. Turnout amounted to 19 percent of those eligible to cast ballots, up from last year’s 16 percent.

The new governors will be sworn in at the bar’s annual meeting Sept. 25 in Monterey.

Goodman

Goodman, 50, a principal at Goodman & Associates, where she handles professional liability, business and real estate litigation, is a past president of California Women Lawyers. She has long been involved in bar activities, including serving on the Conference of Delegates and the Legal Malpractice Specialization Commission. A graduate of UC-Davis, Goodman got her law degree at the University of San Francisco School of Law. District 2 covers Alpine, Amador, Calaveras, El Dorado, Napa, Sacramento, Solano, Sonoma, Tuolumne and Yolo counties.

Chang

Chang, 45, an antitrust lawyer at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, serves on the boards of the Santa Clara County Bar Association, the Asian Pacific Bar Association of Silicon Valley and the Asian American Law Fund of New York. He also has served as president of the Asian American Bar Association of New York. Chang is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin and Tulane University Law School. District 3 includes Alameda, Contra Costa, San Mateo and Santa Clara counties.

Kieve

Kieve, 62, who received his law degree from the University of New Mexico School of Law, has his own firm, Kieve Law Offices Inc., and specializes in complex domestic and international disputes and legal problems, including civil cases, internal investigations, corporate compliance and arbitrations. He has worked with large firms on the east and west coasts and has been involved with a variety of law-related organizations, such as the ABA House of Delegates, the ABA’s Standing Committee on Federal Judicial Appointments and the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights of the Bay Area. He will represent San Francisco and Marin counties.

Nelson

Nelson, 55, a former president of the Los Angeles County Bar Association, received the Breakfast Club endorsement for the county’s Seat 1 position. A partner with Kreindler & Kreindler LLP, she has been a trial lawyer for more than 25 years with experience at small- and medium-sized law firms as well as solo practice. A graduate of Smith College and Georgetown University Law Center, Nelson serves on the board of the Consumer Attorneys Association of Los Angeles and chairs the Los Angeles County Bar Association’s judicial election evaluation committee.

Rodriguez, 43, is a Los Angeles County public defender who did both his undergraduate and law school work at the University of Santa Clara. He was endorsed by the Breakfast Club, Los Angeles Public Defender Michael Judge, District Attorney Steve Cooley and former State Bar President Holly Fujie. A former member of the California Board of Education, Rodriguez is also former president of the Mexican American Bar Association and former chair of the bar’s Council on Access and Fairness.