Alum to head CSBA

USC Law alum Sheldon H. Sloan ’61 has been elected president of the California State Bar Association.

Sloan, 70, of government affairs counsel with Lewis, Brisbois, Bisgaard & Smith in L.A., is currently a member of the State Bar Board of Governors representing L.A. County. He was president of the L.A. Bar Association in 1996-97.

He will become the 82nd president of the 202,000-member CSBA in October, following the year-long term of Riverside attorney James O. Heiting.

Sloan was selected over Paul Hokokian of Fresno, who is currently CSBA vice president, and Demetrius Shelton of Oakland, District 3 representative of the State Bar Board of Governors.

Looking forward, Sloan told the Associated Press he would aim to discourage cutthroat tactics between lawyers.

“There is a breakdown in civility,” Sloan says. “You can practice law and do a good job for a client without being aggressive and rude and causing a lot of trouble for everybody.”

Following his graduation from USC Law, Sloan was an attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., a public member of the State of California Board of Registration for Professional Engineers, and a municipal court judge.

Sloan regularly plays in the Sydney M. Irmas Golf Tournament held each spring, and recently represented the Class of 1961 on the 2006 Reunion planning committee. He is a liaison for the Commission on Judicial Nominees Evaluation, Executive Committee Director of the L.A. County Sheriff’s Youth Foundation and past president of the L.A. County Arts Commission.