FOUNDING
Building off the decades-long work of the Ventura County Diversity Bar Alliance (“VCDBA”) and inspired by the Sacramento County Unity Bar, the VCDBA voted to become the Ventura County Unity Bar in November 2023. The decision to become a unity bar was a thoughtful and deliberate decision to join the Statewide effort to help ensure that the judiciary reflects the rich diversity of California.
The VCUB mission is to advance and empower, through advocacy and education, all those who have been historically underrepresented and disenfranchised in the legal profession and in the judiciary, thereby increasing access to and confidence in the judicial system.
The VCUB is comprised of each of the diversity bar associations in Ventura County, including Women Lawyers of Ventura County (“WLVC”), Ventura County Asian American Bar Association, SOGI, Black Lawyers Association, and the Latinx Bar Association.
HISTORY OF THE VENTURA COUNTY DIVERISTY BAR ALLIANCE
Jill Friedman, whose involvement with DEI efforts spans three decades, is one of the initial members of the Ventura County Unity Bar (VCUB). In 2012, Jill, acting as the president of WLVC, along with other leaders from the diversity bar associations discussed the noticeable lack of diversity of all types on the Ventura County bench. It was then that they formed the Ventura County Diversity Bar Alliance (VCDBA). They wrote a letter to then Governor Brown, requesting a meeting with Judicial Appointments Secretary Josh Groban. Jill and the other VCDBA leaders piled into a van and drove to Los Angeles to meet with Groban. The group included leaders from the VCDBA member organizations (WLVC, MABA, Ventura County Asian American Bar Association (VCAABA), Black Lawyers of Ventura County (BLVC)), as well as Tina Rasnow, who started the self-help clinic at the court, and Jodi Prior, a past president of WLVC and the current director of the clinic. Groban explained that for the Governor to appoint more diverse judges, the VCDBA needed to get more diverse candidates in the pipeline.
Dien Le, a member of VCAABA who met with Groban, was the first VCDBA chair. Jill became the second. The first judicial appointment after the meeting with Groban was Gilbert Romero, a Deputy District Attorney. Judge Romero’s enrobing ceremony was attended by an overflow crowd, including Spanish language media. Judge Romero spoke about how his parents picked strawberries in the Oxnard fields.
Over the years, the VCDBA put on a number of MCLE and social events. These included seminars about how to become a judge, and mixers to celebrate the newly appointed diverse judges. During this time, the VCDBA grew to include the newly formed LGBTQ+ group (now Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Bar Association (“SOGI”)), with its leader, the late Ed Elrod. Ed chaired the VCDBA for several years.
Following the civil unrest after George Floyd’s murder, Jacquelyn Ruffin, who is one of Jill’s law partners, a past president of BLVC and WLVC, and the then-president elect of the Ventura County Bar Association, asked Jill to revive the VCDBA, which had become less active over the years. Jill rose to the occasion and again chaired the VCDBA. She spearheaded and moderated a MCLE panel presentation entitled, “A Conversation on Race: Raising Awareness & Sensitivity in Our Profession.” Dien Le again chaired the VCDBA the following year.
About two years ago, Dien Le invited Jessie Morris to speak at a joint mixer between the VCDBA and the Santa Barbara Diversity and Inclusion Task Force. The event was held in Carpinteria, which is a small beach city between Santa Barbara and Ventura.
The co-chairs of the VCDBA, Vanessa Valdez and Karen Oakman, and the leaders of the VCDBA realized that the Unity Bar was doing similar work, but with the added bonus that the Unity Bar seemed to have communication access to the gubernatorial administration.
In November 2023, the VCDBA voted to change its name and to merge into the VCUB. Monique Fierro, president of WLVC, and Vanessa Valdez, president of the Latinx Bar Association, served as the first co-chairs of the VCUB.
Ventura County’s Unity Bar inaugural event was spearheaded by Monique Fierro. When the leadership of the VCUB were scouting our locations for the inaugural event, they decided on holding the event at Ventura City Hall, which was the original Ventura County courthouse. At the inaugural event, Presiding Judge Kevin DeNoce stressed he was looking for judges with a great work ethic. He voiced support for the Governor’s goal of a bench that reflects the rich diversity of California.
Looking forward, the VCUB hoped to achieve gender parity on the bench, noting there were five current openings as of July 2024.