Jeff Adachi

In recognition of his dedication to reforming Juvenile justice, SF Ordinance No. 181217, named after him, ensures that youths have legal rights protected during police interrogations.

Adachi was previously the president of the Asian American Bar Association of the Greater Bay Area and the San Francisco Japanese American Citizen's League, in addition to serving as a board member of the California Attorneys for Criminal Justice and the San Francisco Bar Association.

At the national level, Adachi was a member of the American Bar Association's Standing Committee on Legal Aid and Indigents.

Jeffrey Gordon Adachi (August 29, 1959 – February 22, 2019) was an American attorney, pension reform advocate, and politician who served as the Public Defender of San Francisco from 2003 to 2019.

Adachi was the son of a Sacramento auto mechanic and a laboratory assistant.

His parents and grandparents spent part of World War II in the Rohwer War Relocation Center in Arkansas.

Adachi was a notably poor student at C. K. McClatchy High School accruing numerous absences due to the many hours he spent working at his part-time jobs.

He attended Sacramento City College before transferring to the University of California, Berkeley where, in 1981, he received his bachelor’s degree.

Adachi received his Juris Doctor from the Hastings College of the Law in 1985.

Adachi began his career as a deputy public defender with the San Francisco Public Defender's Office where he worked for thirty-two years.

He ultimately rose to the rank of chief attorney of the office and served in that capacity for fifteen years.

Adachi tried over one hundred jury trials and handled three thousand criminal matters during his career.

In 1995, he founded the Asian American Arts Foundation to help emerging artists.

The foundation and produced one of the first Asian American awards programs, the Golden Ring Awards, which honored artists such as Chow Yun-Fat, Joan Chen, Oliver Stone and John Woo.

The foundation awarded over $100,000 in grants.

Adachi received several accolades for his tenure as Public Defender.

In chronological order, Adachi received: the California State Bar Association's Hufstedler Award for public service; the Asian American Bar Association's Joe Morozumi Award for exceptional legal advocacy; the Mayor's Fiscal Advisory Committee's Managerial Excellence Award; the California Public Defender Association's Program of the Year Award; the American Bar Association's national award for excellence in public defense; and the California Lawyer Attorney of the Year award (CLAY) for his work in the field of prisoner reentry; the National Legal Aid and Defender Association's Reginald Heber Smith Award; Vanguard CourtWatch's Elected Official of the Year award; and the Elected Official Award for transparency from the Northern California chapter of the Society for Professional Journalists.

He became a Certified Specialist in Criminal Law (the State Bar of California Board of Legal Specialization) and a Certified Specialist in Criminal Trial Advocacy (National Board of Trial Advocacy).

In 2001, Kimiko Burton-Cruz, the daughter of then State Senator John Burton, was appointed Public Defender by Mayor Willie Brown.

On her first day after taking office, Burton-Cruz forced Adachi out, believed to be for political reasons.

The following year, Adachi ran against Burton-Cruz for her position and defeated her by a 55%–45% margin.

Afterward, Adachi was re-elected twice, both times running unopposed.

Adachi 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.

Adachi was the only elected Public Defender in the state of California and ran an office of more than 100 attorneys and 60 staff members.

In 2010, Adachi placed "Proposition B" on the ballot, which would have required employees to increase the level of their contribution to defray the cost of both their pension and health care benefits.

Proposition B was defeated, having faced significant opposition from unions and elected officials.

In 2011, Adachi again placed a charter amendment on the ballot — "Proposition D" — which would require all employees to pay a base contribution rate towards their pension costs, require higher-earning employees to contribute an additional amount based on their salary level, cap the maximum size of pensions, and eliminate abusive and wasteful practices such as "pension spiking."

In 2017, Adachi launched an Immigration Unit to represent undocumented immigrants locked in detention facilities and facing deportation.

It is the third jurisdiction to offer legal representation for immigrant detainees in removal proceedings.

New York City and Alameda County have similar programs.

Adachi was a frequent police misconduct watchdog and bail reform advocate.

Adachi also played a significant role in drawing attention to serious problems within the California Youth Authority.

He testified at state senate hearings and organized juveniles as part of a larger reform movement.

Adachi also advocated for San Francisco to boycott sending juveniles to CYA facilities.

The office's 2018–19 budget is $37.6 million.

According to estimates, the office represented over 23,000 people each year who are charged with misdemeanor and felony offenses.

The office was known for several innovative criminal justice programs including Drug Court, Clean Slate expungement services, and a full-service Juvenile division.

Adachi served on the board of California Humanities until 2018 and as a board member of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and the National Association for Public Defense.

He was the author of a series of books on passing the bar exam, including the Bar Exam Survival Kit, Bar Breaker, the MBE Survival Kit and the First Year Law School Survival Kit.

He was a BAR/BRI bar review professor for over 20 years.