Robinson Named to Serve on State Bar Committee

Assembly Speaker Willie L. Brown (D-San Francisco) on Friday appointed a longtime colleague, former Orange County Assemblyman Richard H. Robinson, to serve as a non-attorney representative on the 10-member State Bar Examining Committee.

Democrat Robinson, 43, served six terms as a legislator from Garden Grove until last year when he gave up his Assembly seat to run unsuccessfully for Congress against Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove).

Robinson said Friday that Brown asked him about the examining committee post several weeks ago and “I told him I’d be more than willing to serve.”

As a former 12-year member of the Assembly Judiciary Committee, where he was “legislating on the bar,” Robinson said, he has the expertise for the post.

The former lawmaker will be one of four non-lawyer members of the committee that administers the state bar examination and certifies the qualifications of state bar applicants, who must gain state Supreme Court approval to practice law in California.

Committee members receive reimbursement for expenses but do not receive a salary. The non-lawyer members draw lots to serve either two- or four-year terms. Robinson said Friday that he would like to “take the longest term.”

Since he left public office in January, Robinson has begun his own consulting firm, Robinson & Associates in Sacramento. The business has one employee besides himself, he said, and is handling non-governmental work, principally trying to negotiate the settlement of a complex, multimillion-dollar civil lawsuit involving a savings and loan association.

Also, in January, Robinson took a $40,000-a-year job advising Democratic Assemblyman and Asssistant Speaker Pro Tem Phillip Isenberg (D-Sacramento) on parliamentary strategies. But on Friday, Robinson said he would be doing that job for only one more month and then would focus his energy on his consulting business.

Earlier, Robinson unsuccessfully sought an appointment from Atty. Gen. John Van de Kamp as the first state monitor of disciplinary actions against errant lawyers.