Jerry Roth, Munger Tolles & Olson/courtesy photo

Jerome "Jerry" Roth, a San Francisco-based litigation partner at Munger, Tolles & Olson, has been elected president of the International Association of Lawyers (UIA), which is based in Paris.

Roth will begin his one-year presidency on Saturday. He is only the fifth U.S. lawyer to be elected as UIA's president and the first from California in the organization's 92-year history.

"I have always been interested in foreign cultures, foreign languages. I love everything that is international," said Roth, who specializes in business and international litigation and arbitration, as well as white-collar criminal defense and investigations.

Roth joined the international bar organization about 20 years ago. Before getting elected as the president, he served as UIA's president-elect, and before that as its vice president. Roth will become the immediate past president after his one-year term.

Roth said he intends to focus on three key themes during his presidency: helping define the role of the lawyer at a time when democracy and the rule of law are being challenged by populist and nationalist leaders; improving the right to vote in countries where elections are threatened by voter suppression, interference from other countries and social media distortion; and increasing diversity within the UIA, including women, LGBTQ members and lawyers with disabilities.

"California in my view is really positioned to be an international legal center," Roth said, explaining that the state passed a new law last year clarifying that lawyers who are not members of the state bar may still appear in local arbitrations, a protocol that could bring more international disputes to the Golden State.

"I really think that this is the moment that California will be, as I say, coming into its own," he added.

Roth noted that California has "one of the most diverse communities of lawyers in the country." According to Roth, UIA has about 60 attorneys from the United States, five to 10 of whom are from California.

Roth has law degrees from both the U.S. and France. Clients he has represented include Berkshire Hathaway, Intel, LinkedIn, LG Display, Northrop Grumman, Occidental Petroleum, PepsiCo, Shell Oil, Verizon and Warner Bros. Entertainment.

"Jerry is an outstanding ambassador for Munger, Tolles & Olson's thriving international practice," the firm's co-managing partner, Hailyn Chen, said in a statement. "His leadership in UIA will benefit San Francisco and all of California with unprecedented exposure in the international legal community as he steps into this prestigious new role."