The Richmond City Council has selected John Eastman, currently Assistant City Attorney for Redondo Beach, CA, as Richmond’s city attorney. Eastman has worked in Redondo Beach since 1996, where he is the senior assistant to an elected city attorney and directs a staff of five in the city attorney’s absence. He graduated from UC Santa Barbara with a BA in Political Science and received his law degree (Juris Doctor with High Honors) from USC.

Eastman has also provided city attorney services for the cities of Novato, Martinez, Corte Madera, Cotati and Lompoc, both directly and through private law firms. Eastman will become the first permanent city attorney Richmond has had since Malcolm Hunter resigned in 2003. Since then, Wayne Nishioka and Everett Jenkins have served, in turn, as acting city attorneys.