Capitol Weekly’s Top 100: Nancy Drabble

60. Nancy Drabble

Nancy Drabble is something of a living legend in the capitol community. The executive director of the Consumer Attorneys of California, she was a key behind-the-scenes player in the legendary 1987 “napkin deal” brokered by Assembly Speaker Willie Brown with big tobacco, insurance companies, trial lawyers and the California Medical Association over a dinner of pot stickers and roast duck at Frank Fat’s restaurant. You don’t get any more insider than that in these parts. But Drabble doesn’t just live off her past accomplishments. She was an active player in the modern game as well, most notably helping to work the deal in 2022 on the Medical Injury Compensation Reform Act California (MICRA) to a avoid what would have surely been a costly ballot measure campaign. Drabble, who once worked for Ralph Nader as one of his  “Nader’s Raiders,” is a LA native with a law degree from 
UC Berkeley.

Updated Aug. 7, 2024