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Capitol Weekly’s Top 100: Nancy Drabble

Illustration by Chris Shary

55. Nancy Drabble

Nancy Drabble had a big 2022, helping to work a deal on MICRA – the Medical Injury Compensation Reform Act California – that avoided what promised to be a bruising and very expensive ballot measure campaign. As the executive director of the Consumer Attorneys of California, she helped bring doctors, lawyers, insurers and other stakeholders together on the deal, which seems like a miracle unto itself. Drabble also had a huge hand in stopping an initiative to cap lawyers’ contingency fees at 20 percent and another effort to deregulate legal practices. But then crafting big, complex bargains is kind of her forte. Shortly after coming to CAOC she was a key behind the scenes player in the 1987 “napkin deal,” the now-legendary bargain between lawmakers and the tobacco industry crafted over a dinner of pot stickers and roast duck at Frank Fat’s restaurant. A native of Los Angeles, Drabble obtained her law degree from UC Berkeley. She served a stint with “Nader’s Raiders,” led by consumer advocate Ralph Nader, before coming to CAOC in 1986.

Updated Aug. 15, 2023

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