Attorney General Lockyer Appoints Robert Leidigh To Fair Political Practices Commission

Friday, December 15, 2006
Contact: (916) 210-6000, agpressoffice@doj.ca.gov

(SACRAMENTO) – Attorney General Bill Lockyer today announced the appointment of election law and ethics expert, Robert Leidigh, to the five-member California Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC).

Leidigh has served in the Lockyer administration as a Deputy Attorney General in the Government Law Section for the last six years. In that role he established himself as one of the state’s foremost legal experts on the Political Reform Act, open meeting laws and ethics. He also has litigated cases at every level of the state and federal judicial systems, including both the California and United States Supreme Courts.

“Bob is an outstanding lawyer and a trusted authority on state political law,” Lockyer said. “I am certain he will contribute greatly to the important work the FPPC takes on in the years ahead.”

Leidigh has dedicated much of his professional career to public service. After earning his law degree from King Hall School of Law, at the University of California, Davis in 1971, he provided representation to indigent clients as Directing Attorney for Legal Services of Northern California. He then joined the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission as a trial attorney prosecuting cases against employers who engaged in sex discrimination. Leidigh later worked for California Rural Legal Assistance where he advocated for farm workers before the state legislature to expand legal rights and toughen anti-discrimination laws.

Leidigh then served seven years as staff counsel to the FPPC between 1981 and 1988. While at the Commission, Leidigh performed many functions, including counsel in litigation, legislative advocate, author of advice letters, and drafter of regulations and formal Commission opinions. Leidigh led Commission efforts to regulate, for the first time, slate mailer organizations and also successfully defended its efforts to apply state conflict of interest laws to the State Compensation Insurance Fund and the University of California Regents. Before joining Attorney General Lockyer’s administration, Leidigh was an attorney and partner at the Sacramento law firm of Olson, Hagel, Fong, Leidigh, Waters & Fishburn.

Under state law, the governor is entitled to name two commissioners, including the chair, to the FPPC; and the Attorney General, Secretary of State and Controller appoint the remaining three commissioners. Leidigh replaces Lockyer’s previous FPPC appointment, Sheridan Downey III, whose term had expired.

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