Silkenat to Lead ABA in 2013
Photo of James R. Silkenat courtesy of his firm.
The ABA Nominating Committee turned into a two-man show as the races for the association’s two highest posts became uncontested.
James R. Silkenat, a partner at Sullivan & Worcester in New York City, will be selected as the president-elect nominee when the committee next meets in February at the ABA Midyear Meeting in New Orleans. It also is a lock that the House of Delegates will make him president-elect in August at the 2012 annual meeting in Chicago. Silkenat will automatically become president in August 2013 at the annual meeting in San Francisco, serving a one-year term.
Robert M. Carlson, a member of Corette Pohlman & Kebe in Butte, Mont., is assured of being confirmed in February as the nominee to chair the House of Delegates. Carlson will take the gavel of the ABA’s 568-member policymaking body at the close of next year’s annual meeting. He will serve a two-year term.
At the Nominating Committee meeting, Silkenat, who had run previously, said, “I’ve been at these candidate forums before, and believe me, this is a whole lot better.”
Silkenat represents the New York State Bar Association in the House of Delegates. He also chairs the Legal Opportunity Scholarship Fundraising Committee, and he is a member of the Commission on Women in the Profession. He is vice-chair of the Section of Individual Rights and Responsibilities and a member of the World Justice Project Board of Directors.
Carlson is Montana’s state delegate in the House, and he chairs the Drafting Policies and Procedures Committee. He is a member of the Commission on Racial and Ethnic Diversity in the Profession.
