10:21am | Long Beach Community College Board President Doug Otto will be honored Friday by the State Bar Association as the Small/Solo Firm Lawyer of the Year. The State Bar Association is meeting in Long Beach for only the second time in history this week.
According to the State Bar, The Myer J. Sankary Attorney of the Year Award is presented to an individual who has exercised notable leadership or shown a contribution to the development of greater justice in a field of law. The award is presented annually to an individual who is a sole practitioner or a member of a small firm and who has demonstrated years of faithful service and leadership to the community or his or her fellow attorneys.
Otto was nominated for the award by City Prosecutor Doug Haubert.
“The whole Long Beach City College family congratulates Trustee President Otto for this well deserved recognition,” said Long Beach City College President Eloy Ortiz Oakley. “He has been an incredible leader for this college, the city, and in his profession.”
Otto has spent much of the last year in an intense fight against cancer, and is successfully recovering.
Otto has a private practice in Long Beach. He has earned a B.A from Stanford University; a M.A. jointly from Columbia University and Union Theological Seminary; and a J.D. from the University of Chicago. He has been a full adjunct professor of law at Southwestern University School of Law, where he taught for 16 years.
He has been very active in Long Beach. He is a Founder and Past President of both the Long Beach Foundation for Architectural and Cultural Heritage and Long Beach Heritage. He was named Preservationist of the Year in 1990. He chaired the City of Long Beach’s Blue Ribbon Citizens Transportation Task Force, which developed a comprehensive transportation plan for the entire city (1989-1990). He was a member and Chair of the Long Beach Planning Commission (1992-2000). He chaired the Long Beach City Manager’s Downtown Business and Development Advisory Committee (1998-2004). He is a founding Board member of the Long Beach Aquarium of the Pacific (1994), currently serves on its Executive Committee, and chairs the Long-Range Planning Committee. He also served on the City’s Ethics Task Force in 2002.
From 1998 through 2000, Doug chaired Long Beach Strategic Plan 2010; a city-citizen planning effort adopted by the City in 2000. For this and his other community work, he received the David Landry Memorial Award for Outstanding Community Service from the City of Long Beach.
In 2004, he was elected as the Long Beach City College Trustee for Area 4, and was reelected in 2008. He has been focused on student success, improvements in campus facilities, and graduation and transfer rates.