Discusses roles as state treasurer, attorney general
— By Lori Craig
California State Treasurer Bill Lockyer visited a USC Law class Nov. 6 to talk about his eight years as California Attorney General and his newer role of state treasurer.
“The Attorney General is required to defend the law, and it doesn’t matter what your personal opinion is,” Locker told students in Professor Doug Levinson’s “Business for Lawyers” class. “We argue on what the law is. The courts frequently like us finding some voice that isn’t the polar position of the two litigants.”
The 1,200 lawyers employed by the Attorney General’s office handle as many as 50,000 lawsuits at any given time, said Lockyer (pictured right). Attorneys mostly handle appellate defense, civil defense — the office's two main clients are the California Highway Patrol and correctional officers — and some plaintiff work, usually involving antitrust or environmental matters.
Lockyer said one of the most fun things he got to do as attorney general was argue before the Supreme Court, in January 2006, in Rice v. Collins (No. 04-52).
The Supreme Court unanimously reversed a decision by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals that had invalidated a three-strikes conviction on the basis of a jury selection violation.
While attorney general, Lockyer also argued several cases before state and federal courts and established a civil rights division in the office.
Lockyer took a number of questions from students, which touched on a wide range of topics, from Proposition 13 to the regulation of credit card companies to the trend of foreign companies investing in California businesses.
“Money and everything else is now global,” Lockyer said, pointing to the fact that the federal deficit is funded by China, Russia and other countries with whom the U.S. has some difficulties. “Usually, arguments with your banker aren’t successful, and that’s what we’re trying to do.”
At the state treasurer’s office, Lockyer says he is involved in more tedious work. He oversees the $61-billion Pooled Money Investment Account, which invests on behalf of state government and 2,620 local jurisdictions and serves on the boards of the Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS) and State Teachers' Retirement System (CalSTRS). Among the more exciting of his duties is managing $3.1 billion per year in private activity funds that are loaned out for projects that benefit the public, such as solid waste disposal or hospital expansion.
“I tend to stretch my office whenever I can to meet unmet needs,” Lockyer said.
Business For Lawyers is a survey-level business course that Professor Levinson created while he was teaching business law at UCLA’s Graduate School of Management. He has also taught the course at the Boalt Hall School of Law. The course often features prestigious guest speakers, from a Ninth Circuit judge to the CEO of a Fortune 500 Company. Professor Levinson also wrote a book he uses in his class, 75-25, ¾ of an MBA, ¼ of the Grief.
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