SACRAMENTO — State bar leaders on Thursday named Elizabeth Rindskopf Parker, former dean of the University of the Pacific McGeorge School of Law, as the agency's new executive director.

Parker, whose résumé is filled with national intelligence roles—including stints as general counsel to both the National Security Agency and the Central Intelligence Agency—starts Sept. 1.

“It would be hard to imagine a more professionally fulfilling opportunity than serving as the administrative leader of the nation's largest, most forward-looking professional bar organization,” Parker said in a statement released by the State Bar of California. “I look forward to joining the new leadership team [that] the Board of Trustees is creating and to working with the bar's dedicated staff.”