Judy Johnson has been a pioneer throughout her long legal career, not least as the first woman and first attorney of color to serve as executive director of the California State Bar. The job may appear to be a thankless one, as lawyers and the public complain about too much discipline or too little, annual membership dues, the judicial selection process or the Bar’s various political stances and lobbying efforts. Yet Johnson embraced the job and ultimately became its longest-serving executive director. When she announced last year that she would leave the organization, former Bar president Howard Miller described her as its “heart and soul.”
A Richmond native, Johnson earned a degree in political science from Stanford University in 1971 and her law degree at UC-Davis in 1976. Early in her career she interned for Marin attorney (and later judge) Michael Dufficy, who represented Fleeta Drumgo in the San Quentin Six murder trial. Johnson was part of a support network that tried to help him transition to a normal life, but Drumgo got back into trouble and was ultimately murdered execution-style.
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