On November 22, 2021, the Squire Patton Boggs Foundation announced its Distinguished Fellow Award for Julia Spiegel. The firm’s release is the date lock for the Newsom title: “Ms. Spiegel serves as a Deputy Legal Affairs Secretary to California Governor Gavin Newsom. Her portfolio includes consumer protection, privacy, election integrity, and immigration. She is in-house counsel to the Governor and his team, overseeing various state agencies and departments and directing litigation.” It adds: “From 2017 until her recent appointment, Ms. Spiegel was a Deputy County Counsel for Santa Clara County.” In 2018, it says, she was named a California Lawyer Attorney of the Year.
Later biographies widen the portfolio. The Ninth Circuit ALR page calls her “deputy legal affairs secretary and senior advisor on reproductive rights,” directing litigation on reproductive rights, consumer protection, immigration, and health and human services. GovAct’s founder page says she was legal counsel to Newsom when the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and that she “left government service in 2024.” A California Lawyers Association privacy program listed her as Deputy Legal Affairs Secretary on April 6, 2022. This site does not invent an exact first-day-in-office. The Squire Patton Boggs “serves as” / “recent appointment” sentence is the earliest dated primary found this pass.