In profile: Jim Fox.

• Position: National District Attorneys Association's new president - Interview

NDAA's NEW PRESIDENT, James (Jim) P. Fox, district attorney, San Mateo County, California, is no stranger to our organization's mission, and as a career prosecutor in a large California jurisdiction, he is certainly familiar with the needs of the prosecutorial community.

San Mateo County is located just south of San Francisco. With a population of 720,000, it is home to 20 incorporated cities. The court employs 32 judicial officers, and the San Mateo District Attorney's Office has a total of 53 full-time deputy district attorneys, five part-time deputies, 12 investigators and 40 support staff.

After listening to Mr. Fox talk about his career as a district attorney, it seems that he was destined to establish his outstanding legacy in the field of public service. Even in college, he attended city council meetings for entertainment. "I was always fascinated with the government and watching it run," he said.

He began his career in prosecution in 1970 as a deputy district attorney in San Mateo County and, after only a short time, he knew he was fit to serve as the district attorney for the county. "There I was, a six-month lawyer prosecuting misdemeanors and I decided I was going right to the top," he reminisced. Mr. Fox spent four years serving as a deputy district attorney before he accepted the position of city attorney in Half Moon Bay, California, where he grew up. He worked in private practice for nine years until, in 1981, the San Mateo district attorney at the time (Fox's predecessor) announced that he would not run for re-election. Mr. Fox saw an opportunity to fulfill his dream, and with his wife's support, Mr. Fox declared his candidacy for DA, running on his platform of a diverse legal career in both criminal law and city litigation. His campaign was successful and Mr. Fox took office in January 1983. He has been unopposed since. Interestingly, Mr. Fox's predecessor also served unopposed from 1958 until his retirement. "The incumbent DA in San Mateo County is never challenged," he noted.

When Mr. Fox began his work, the San Mateo County District Attorney's Office was responsible for misdemeanors, felonies and civil cases for the state. At the time, indeterminate sentencing laws in the state of California caused the office to file about 800 felony cases and try 100 felony jury trials a year. Determinate sentencing was established in 1977, and since the '70s, the crime rate in San Mateo County has plunged. Mr. Fox said, "Our crime rate...