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May 5th 2005 • Printer version
 San FranciscoÃs public defender
2005 Commencement speaker
Jeff Adachi inspired by familyÃs history
to advocate for equal justice
Jeff AdachiÃs parents and grandparents spent part of WWII in the
Japanese internment camps. His familyÃs experience was the impetus for
his career as one of the Bay AreaÃs most high-profile defenders. For 25
years, the Sacramento native and fourth-generation Japanese American
has fought to seize equal justice for the young, the immigrants, the
poor and the minorities of California.
At age 19, Adachi got his start in law when he volunteered in the case
of Chol Soo Lee, a Korean immigrant who was convicted of murder and
later exonerated.
Since 2002, Adachi has served as the elected Public Defender of the
City and County of San Francisco. He ran against the appointed public
defender who fired him in 2001 from his longtime post as the officeÃs
chief attorney for what was widely believed to be political reasons.
He will speak at the University of Oregon School of Law 2005
commencement ceremony on Sunday, May 15 at 1:00 P.M. in the Hult Center
for the Performing Arts, 7th Avenue and Willamette Street in
downtown Eugene.
The ticketed event costs $2 per person.
In 15 years with the defenderÃs office, Adachi worked his way from
misdemeanors through over 100 jury trials to his present position
overseeing 23,000 cases each year with 90 attorneys, 50 support staff
and a budget of $17 million. His office has developed programs such as
Drug Court, Clean Slate expungement services, and a complete juvenile
division, as well as an active internship program for law students and
graduates.
In 2004, Adachi called for a moratorium on sending youth to the
California Youth Authority, the state's facility for juveniles, after a
series of reports revealed poor treatment of youth. Eleven other
counties throughout the state later passed similar moratoriums.
The office sponsored a juvenile justice summit, which organized youth
advocates from around the Bay Area around local and statewide juvenile
justice reform.
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He was featured in the 2002 PBS documentary, Presumed Guilty a film about the San
Francisco Public Defender's office, its difficult cases and complex
defense strategies.
In 1995, Adachi founded the Asian American Arts Foundation, which
produced the Golden Ring Awards from 1995-1999 ó the Asian Oscars ó
which honored artists such as Chow Yun-fat, John Woo, Ming-Na Wen,
Oliver Stone and others, and provided critical arts funding to emerging
Asian American artists and arts organizations. He also served as
chairperson of the Asian American Theater Company and is a past
president of the San Francisco Japanese American CitizenÃs League.
Most recently, Adachi launched an organization known as Bayview MAGIC
(the Mobilization for Adolescent Growth in our Communities), which is a
collaboration between 40 youth and family agencies in the predominantly
African-American community in Bayview Hunters Point in San Francisco.
Adachi has received awards for public service from the California State
Bar Association and the Asian American Bar Association.
Jeff Adachi is the son of a Sacramento auto mechanic and a laboratory
assistant. He graduated from University of California-Berkeley and earned his law
degree from Hastings Law School. He lives in San Francisco with his
wife Mutsuko and daughter Lauren.
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