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What attorneys should keep in mind before their 2025 MCLE compliance reporting deadline.

Beginning with Compliance Group 3 (N-Z), the State Bar now requires all attorneys to include 1 unit of implicit bias education in their required 25 hours of MCLE every 3 years. This is in addition to the 1 unit of elimination of bias training that was previously required. 

We need your help! The current list of approved minor’s counsel has only six attorneys who are currently available to take a case. The family law judicial officers are desperately seeking additional attorneys who can accept appointments as minor’s counsel who are both qualified and interested to serve our family law community.

After more than 45 years in a courtroom, it is time for me to retire.  On reflection, I believe I managed to enjoy and complete a host of personal goals as both an attorney and as a judge, including spearheading the creation of the Town of Windsor, co-chairing the committee to create the Windsor Unified School District, chairing the successful bond campaign to raise $28.5 million for the Windsor Unified School District, serving as the president of the Sonoma County Bar Association, serving as the supervising judge of our Civil Division, sitting on the executive board of the California Judges’ Association, serving as president of the California Judges’ Foundation, sitting on the First District Court of Appeal, and serving alongside each of my colleagues for the past 16 years in our court.   

An important goal for my term as SCBA President is opening a conversation about the role of race, gender and identity in the delivery of justice in Sonoma County. To forward that goal, the SCBA is forming a working committee focused on discussing these issues. The purpose of this article is to introduce the topic, and set a tone for respectful discussion of issues that can cause conflict, mistrust, and intense reactions.