Julie D. Soo

Julie D. Soo is a senior staff counsel with the California Department of Insurance and is charged with prosecuting enforcement cases among her regulatory duties. In 2017, she prevailed in a $12 million settlement against a surplus line insurer, one of the largest of its kind for the Department. She volunteers in a variety of community causes, including addressing hate crimes, civil rights education, campaign work, and community health advocacy. Julie served on the San Francisco Commission on the Status of Women (SFCOSW) from 2009 to 2021 until her appointment to the San Francisco Sheriff’s Department Oversight Board (SDOB). She is currently serving a second term as its president. She was a delegate to the California Democratic Party from 2001 through 2022; she served five terms as a co-chair and two terms as a lead co-chair of the Platform Committee and served two terms as the chair of the Asian Pacific Islander Caucus. Julie also served nine years on the Board of Trustees for Saint Francis Memorial Hospital. She has also served and advises the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association’s Civil Rights Committee. A fourth-generation San Franciscan, she is a Lowell High School alumna and holds an A.B. with a double major in Pure Mathematics and Statistics from U.C. Berkeley, an M.A. in Applied Mathematics from U.C. San Diego, and a J.D. from Golden Gate University School of Law.

Prior to law, Julie engaged in pension actuarial science, insurance underwriting, and medical economics. Julie is well-known for her past work as a journalist with AsianWeek, a pan-Asian national weekly based in San Francisco, where she covered breaking stories, provided legal and political commentary, and wrote about Asian American history and notable figures. She appeared on New California Media, a public television news roundtable for California’s ethnic news community, and served as a guest host for Voice of the Neighborhood, a political radio talk show targeted to the Bay Area Cantonese-speaking community. She was selected as a 2006 California Endowment Health Journalism fellow based on her story about a Chinatown shooting where six youths were wounded and her discovery that San Francisco’s leading trauma center lacked interpreters past late evening hours to help non-English proficient patients and families. The story caught the attention of the Mayor, Chief of Police, and hospital administrators and led to policy changes. Julie has also served as a legislative aide and advisor to members of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.

Julie has received awards for her community work: Women Making History Award (2004), Democratic Women’s Forum of San Francisco; Vagina Warrior Award (2012), Filipina Women’s Network; Outstanding Giving Back Award (2013), Asian Women’s Resource Center; Best Community Leader Award (2015), Korean American Journalists Association; Inspiring Leadership Award (2018), San Francisco Collaborative Against Human Trafficking (SFCAHT); and, Woman Warrior Award (2019), Pacific Asian American Women Bay Area Coalition (PAAWBAC).

She believes in storytelling and shared experiences as a means of building unity and has been a producer and advisor on documentary films. She collaborated on "14: Dred Scott, Wong Kim Ark & Vanessa Lopez," a film on the 14th Amendment and birthright citizenship. More recently, she advised on the film “Try Harder!” about Lowell High School and members of the Class of 2017 that screened at Sundance 2021. She was honored to screen virtually with fellow Lowellite Justice Stephen H. Breyer. Julie has conversational abilities in Cantonese and has studied Mandarin to further her community work.