9/19/2005

Legal Aid Taps Hawaiian Chief As Its New Executive Director

by Erin Park, Daily Journal Staff Writer, September 19, 2005

Victor Geminiani

LOS ANGELES -- Following a months-long nationwide search, the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles has chosen the head of its counterpart in Hawaii as its new executive director.

Beginning in January, Victor Geminiani, 61, of the Legal Aid Society of Hawaii, will take over for the foundation's executive director, Bruce Iwasaki, who announced in February that he would be returning to private practice.

The foundation's 50-member board of directors voted unanimously Thursday to accept the transition committee's recommendation that Geminiani take the helm.

"He is a guy who is expert in the efficient delivery of legal services to people in poverty," said Jim Hornstein, past board president and transition committee chair.

"He lectures on the subject nationally," Hornstein said. "He has written about it extensively. ... He is one of the deans of the legal services community."

Geminiani has worked at and headed similar organizations across the country for 35 years, but he said that working at Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles has been a long-sought-after goal.

"I feel tremendously excited and honored," he said. "It's a dream of many, many years."

During his 11-year tenure in Hawaii, Geminiani helped increase the Legal Aid Society's funding partnerships, enabling the organization to broaden its client eligibility.

Geminiani said he hopes to do the same at Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles.

"The business community might be a very strong partner of the support for accessing and establishing a relevant and strong justice system and allowing many more people to access it," he said.

Geminiani added that upgrading the organization's office spaces would be a priority. "They're a tragedy," he said. "Our image from both our clients and staff sometimes suffers because of the absolutely unacceptable conditions of many of our offices."

From 1984 to 1994, Geminiani was executive director of Legal Services of Northern California.

Before that, he spent eight years as head of the Voluntary Legal Services Program of Northern California, a 900-lawyer pro bono program that served 19 counties.

Geminiani, a graduate of Villanova University School of Law, also has worked at the Atlanta and Washington, D.C., offices of Legal Services Corp. and headed the Western Massachusetts Legal Services Program.

Iwasaki, who is credited with restoring the once-troubled organization's reputation, praised the board's choice for a successor. "Victor has dedicated his entire career to expanding opportunities and solving legal problems for low-income people," he said.