Lawyers Rally as Bass Takes Assembly Reins

She’s not a lawyer, but Karen Bass had plenty of lawyerly friends on hand when the Los Angeles Democrat was sworn in today as the 67th speaker of the California Assembly.

San Francisco DA Kamala Harris was in the chambers, apparently taking a breather from the Obama presidential campaign. LA City Attorney and former (and future?) AG candidate Rocky Delgadillo was there, too. And former state Senate President Pro Tem John Burton (J.D. USF, 1960) was lurking in the rear of the chambers as Bass became the first African-American woman in the nation to lead a legislative house.

As we’ve mentioned before, Bass knows Chief Justice Ronald George and other judiciary officials well, having served on the Judicial Council’s Blue Ribbon Commission on Children in Foster Care. Much of her legislative agenda has focused on improving the fate of kids who are wards of the state. She worked as a physician’s assistant until entering the world of politics and joining the state Assembly in 2005.

Bass’ field general, newly named Majority Leader Alberto Torrico, D-Newark, is a lawyer. The Hastings grad was a labor law associate at Weinberg, Roger & Rosenfeld in Oakland and Los Angeles from 1996 to 1999, assistant general counsel at the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority in 2000 and a private practice employment law specialist in Fremont from 2001 until his election to the Assembly in 2004.

—  Cheryl Miller