Senate Confirms Local Lawyer to Justice Post

A Sherman Oaks lawyer, former president of the Los Angeles Police Commission, was confirmed Thursday by the Senate to the No. 3 post in the U.S. Department of Justice.

Raymond C. Fisher, a prominent civil liberties advocate, will serve as associate attorney general, overseeing much of the department’s civil branch, including anti-trust, civil rights and tax divisions.

Fisher, 57, is taking a leave of absence from his post as a senior litigation partner at Heller, Ehrman, White & McAuliffe. A Stanford University law school graduate, Fisher previously served as a clerk to the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan.

“It seems like the right thing to do, and builds off my experience at the Police Department,” he said Thursday night.

Mayor Richard J. Riordan appointed Fisher to the high-profile Police Commission in 1995, and he was elected its leader the following year. During his tenure, Fisher shepherded the city’s embattled Police Department through the rocky process of evaluating the performance of then-Chief Willie L. Williams.

Under Fisher’s leadership, the commission decided not to renew Williams’ contract for a second five-year term, and recommended naming Bernard C. Parks as his successor. City officials confirmed that choice last summer.

Fisher was nominated in June by President Clinton for the Justice post, at the same time Clinton had picked fellow Los Angeles attorney Bill Lann Lee to head the department’s civil rights division. But unlike Lee, whose nomination has been thwarted by congressional Republicans after becoming the focal point of a national debate over affirmative action, Fisher’s selection engendered little controversy.

He sailed through confirmation hearings and was approved by the Senate on a voice vote.

He plans to start his new job Dec. 1. “Until you’re confirmed, you basically just get briefed,” he said. “It’ll be fun to be able to actually do something.”