Joseph Lawrence Dunn (born September 5, 1958) is an American former

California State Senator The California State Senate is the upper house of the California State Legislature, the lower house being the California State Assembly. The State Senate convenes, along with the State Assembly, at the California State Capitol in Sacramento. ...

who represented California's 34th Senate District in central

Orange County Orange County most commonly refers to: *Orange County, California, part of the Los Angeles metropolitan area Orange County may also refer to: U.S. counties *Orange County, Florida, containing Orlando *Orange County, Indiana *Orange County, New ...

from 1998 to 2006. Dunn was born in St. Paul, Minnesota and graduated from the

College of St. Thomas A college (Latin: ''collegium'') is an educational institution or a University system, constituent part of one. A college may be a academic degree, degree-awarding Tertiary education, tertiary educational institution, a part of a coll ...

and

University of Minnesota Law School The University of Minnesota Law School is the law school of the University of Minnesota, located in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The school confers four law degrees: a Juris Doctor (J.D.), a Master of Laws (LL.M.), a Master of Science in Patent L ...

. As senator, Dunn led the state's investigation into

Enron Enron Corporation was an American energy, commodities, and services company based in Houston, Texas. It was founded by Kenneth Lay in 1985 as a merger between Lay's Houston Natural Gas and InterNorth, both relatively small regional compani ...

's involvement in the 2000–2001

energy crisis An energy crisis or energy shortage is any significant bottleneck in the supply of energy resources to an economy. In literature, it often refers to one of the energy sources used at a certain time and place, in particular, those that supply n ...

. He was first elected to the state Senate in 1998, when he unseated incumbent Republican

Rob Hurtt Robert S. Hurtt, Jr. (born May 19, 1944) is a U.S. Republican politician, who was the California State Senate Republican Leader from August 1995 to March 1998. A native Californian, Hurtt was born in Santa Monica, he has resided in Orange Cou ...

by a 51% to 49% margin. Dunn was reelected in 2002. He ran for the Democratic nomination for

Controller Controller may refer to: Occupations * Controller or financial controller, or in government accounting comptroller, a senior accounting position * Controller, someone who performs agent handling in espionage * Air traffic controller, a person ...

in 2006 but lost by 53% to 47% to John Chiang, who would then go on to win the general. In October 2006, Dunn was appointed as CEO of the

California Medical Association The California Medical Association (CMA) is a professional organization based in California that advocates on behalf of nearly 50,000 physicians in legislative, legal, regulatory, economic, and social issues. The organization was founded in 1856 ...

. In 2010, Dunn was selected as the Executive Director of the State Bar of California. On November 13, 2014, the State Bar issued a statement saying that Dunn's employment as Executive Director had been terminated by the Board of Trustees. According to the ''Courthouse New Service'', Dunn then filed a whistleblower lawsuit against the State Bar challenging the termination because he had exposed malfeasance and "egregious improprieties." The State Bar denied Dunn's allegations, saying the "Board received a complaint from a high-level employee raising serious, wide-ranging allegations about ... Dunn and certain State Bar employees." In January 2016, The Recorder released a report indicating that State Bar, while under Dunn's leadership, incurred excessive international travel expenses for trips to El Salvador, Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Peru and Mongolia. Dunn's allegations against the State Bar were diverted to an arbitration proceeding under terms of his contract. In March 2017, Arbitrator Edward Infante issued a ruling that exonerated the State Bar, which had said it fired Dunn in 2014 for misleading the agency’s board about critical policy matters. In July 2022, the State Bar filed disciplinary charges against Dunn, alleging three counts of moral turpitude during his time heading the organization and seeking his

disbarment Disbarment, also known as striking off, is the removal of a lawyer from a bar association or the practice of law, thus revoking their law license or admission to practice law. Disbarment is usually a punishment for unethical or criminal con ...

. Dunn is a founding partner of The Senators (Ret.) Firm, LLP, "a law and political consulting firm where he founders..exert a powerful influence on national and statewide issues."

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Join California Joe Dunn
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dunn, Joe 1958 births Living people California lawyers Democratic Party California state senators People from Santa Ana, California Politicians from Saint Paul, Minnesota University of Minnesota Law School alumni University of St. Thomas (Minnesota) alumni 21st-century American politicians 20th-century American politicians