Criminal
Jun. 18, 2002
Defense Bar Picks Lobbyist Paul Gerowitz as New Leader
SACRAMENTO - California Attorneys for Criminal Justice, the state's premiere organization of criminal defense lawyers, has chosen a new executive director and will soon move its headquarters from Los Angeles to the state capital.
Paul Gerowitz, a Sacramento lobbyist and former state public defender, was named Friday as the group's top administrator as well as its chief advocate before the state Legislature.
"As far as the search committee was concerned, he was perfect for what we're doing and what we want to do." said CACJ President Philip Schnayerson, an East Bay defense lawyer.
"He will be the spokesman for our organization and a large part of the criminal defense community in California," he said.
Starting Aug. 1, Gerowitz will succeed longtime CACJ Executive Director Mary Broderick, who is leaving for family reasons, Schnayerson said. Broderick will stay through the end of July to help train her successor, he said.
Gerowitz will also take over the duties of CACJ lobbyist Scott Ciment, who has already moved from Sacramento to start his own law firm in Orange County.
In July, CACJ's headquarters, now in Los Angeles, will relocate to Sacramento and combine with its lobbying operation. A new administrative staff, including a deputy director, will be hired in Sacramento by Gerowitz, Schnayerson said.
The move is meant to make CACJ run more smoothly and give the group a more effective presence in the Capitol after years of turnover among lobbyists, some of whom chafed under Broderick's direction from Los Angeles.
Ciment, who left after less than two years, was widely regarded as the group's most effective lobbyist in recent memory.
Broderick also has been highly praised by many in the criminal justice community, although she is known as a perfectionist who can be a difficult boss.
For the last 21/2 years, Gerowitz has been a lobbyist with Protection and Advocacy Inc., a nonprofit group that advocates for the rights of people with physical and mental disabilities.
He worked as a counsel to the Assembly Public Safety Committee from 1991 to 1995, under the leadership of then-assemblyman John Burton, D-San Francisco, and other Democrats.
For two years before and four years after his job in the Assembly, Gerowitz worked in the Office of the State Public Defender, doing general criminal and death-penalty appeals.
He said he looks forward to the challenges of his new position.
Most notably, CACJ must deal with upcoming changes in the Senate. Two veteran liberals - Burton and Sen. John Vasconcellos, D-Santa Clara - have long controlled the Senate Public Safety Committee, supporting measures backed by criminal defense attorneys and blocking bills sponsored by prosecutors.
But both will be out of office in 2004 because of term limits.
"Burton's going to be gone in a couple of years. Vasco's going to be gone. I would like to find ways to develop new friends in the Legislature," Gerowitz said. "It will be important to cultivate people who will at least hear you out and understand what you're trying to say.
"We also need to get the message to the public about what criminal defense attorneys do, so they don't see us as a cadre of evil genies trying to prevent convictions," he said.
Gerowitz is a 1988 graduate of the UC Davis Law School.
Hudson Sangree
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