Unconscious Bias

Jeff Adachi is the Public Defender of the City and County of San Francisco. Before being elected as Public Defender in March 2002, Mr. Adachi previously worked as a deputy public defender in San Francisco for 15 years and in private practice for 2 years. From 1998-2001, he served as the Chief Attorney of the office.

Mr. Adachi was featured in the film, Presumed Guilty, a nationally broadcast PBS special about public defenders and the criminal justice system. Mr. Adachi has been featured as a legal commentator on Court TV, CBS, NBC and ABC, and frequently appears as a special guest to discuss legal cases and issues. Mr. Adachi is a very active member of the American Bar Association and has won many awards from various legal associations throughout the state of California and the country.

In 1995, Mr. Adachi founded the Asian American Arts Foundation, which produced the Golden Ring Awards from 1995-1999, the Asian Oscars and provided critical arts funding to emerging Asian American artists and arts organizations. He also served as chairperson of the Asian American Theater Company. Mr. Adachi is also a documentary filmmaker whose film The Slanted Screen was released in 2006 and won several awards at film festivals. Mr. Adachi’s second film, You Don’t Know Jack: The Jack Soo Story premiered at the SF International Asian American Film Festival in 2009.

Mr. Adachi graduated from Hastings College of the Law in 1985 and attended undergraduate studies at U.C. Berkeley. He lives in San Francisco with his wife Mutsuko and daughter Lauren.