Kim Formally Steps Into Top Prosecutor's Job
| Jurisdiction | California,United States |
| Citation | Vol. 06 No. 2012 Pg. 03 |
| Pages | 03 |
| Publication year | 2012 |
CBJ - June 2012 #03. Kim formally steps into top prosecutor's job
June 2012
Staff Writer
As interim leader of the State Bar's prosecution unit, Jayne Kim helped to wipe out a persistent backlog of attorney misconduct cases. In late May, she officially became the agency's newest chief trial counsel.
On May 23, the Senate Rules Committee unanimously confirmed Kim to a four-year-term as the State Bar's top prosecutor. Kim, 43, had been in that job on an interim basis since September, when she was hired to bring change to the Office of Chief Trial Counsel, which had been long criticized for the length of time it was taking to resolve cases.
Kim said she took the job because she wants to ensure the office has steady leadership to tackle other goals that lie ahead, including the transition to a new case management system.
"There needs to be stability and consistency," Kim said. "It's definitely challenging, but I think we are seeing some positive changes."
Executive Director Joe Dunn said there's no question that hiring Kim, a former bar staff prosecutor and assistant chief trial counsel, was the right decision.
"When we brought Jayne back to the bar last year, we said there was a new discipline sheriff in town," Dunn said. "As everyone can now clearly see, it wasn't just hyperbole."
Roughly three years ago, the State Bar was the focus of a state audit that found inefficiencies in its discipline system. The audit was cited as a key factor in Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's veto of the 2010 dues bill.
Under Kim's leadership, however, bar prosecutors eliminated a large and long-standing investigatory backlog of complaints pending for more than six months without leading to either dismissal or the filing of formal charges. At the end of 2010, more than 1,200 active investigations fell into that category. Within a year, there were just eight, all of which...
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