Diversity is winner as the ABA begins selecting next class of leaders
Linda Klein. Photo by Kathy Anderson.
Corrected: The results of the ABA’s commitment to bringing greater diversity to its leadership ranks were on dramatic display at Sunday’s meeting of the Nominating Committee in Houston.
At one point during the meeting, six current or soon-to-be officers of the association were sitting together at a podium facing an audience of their fellow members during the “coffee with the candidates” portion of the meeting. And only one of the people at the podium was a white man.
Given the changing collective face of the ABA’s leadership ranks, that fact was not a shock, but it was duly noted by some of the candidates and members of the audience.
“It shows how far this association has come,” said Bernice B. Donald, a 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals judge in Memphis, Tennessee, who was the first woman of color to serve as ABA secretary, in 2008-11. “I think our association is unalterably committed to diversity and inclusion, and what you saw today is a sign of that. And that’s going to continue, and it’s a great place to be.”
The ABA is likely to intensify its efforts to bring more diversity and inclusion to its own membership as well as the entire legal profession, and to put a greater focus on issues of equal treatment.
“Why is it that only women are asked about work-life balance? Why don’t we ever ask men about work-life balance?” said Mary L. Smith, who is running unopposed to become ABA secretary for a three-year term starting in August 2017. An attorney in Lansing, Illinois, Smith is currently president of the National Native American Bar Association.
Deborah Enix-Ross listens to Hilarie Bass speak during forum. (Photo by Kathy Anderson.)
The other declared candidates at the podium also are running unopposed, making their elections a virtual lock. They include Hilarie Bass, a shareholder and co-president of Greenberg Traurig in Miami, who is seeking to become president-elect starting in August 2016 (and president a year later); Deborah Enix-Ross, a woman of color who is senior advisor to the International Dispute Resolution Group at Debevoise & Plimpton in New York City, who is seeking to become chair of the House of Delegates for a two-year term starting in August 2016. They were joined on the podium by Patricia Lee Refo, a partner at Snell & Wilmer in Phoenix who is current chair of the House, and ABA Secretary Mary T. Torres, a partner at Beall & Biehler in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
The only white man on the podium was James Dimos, a member of Frost Brown Todd in Indianapolis who is seeking election to a three-year term as ABA treasurer starting in August 2017.
The formal election of the candidates still is a year away, but the Nominating Committee did formalize its selection of Linda A. Klein of Atlanta, who is the managing shareholder in the Georgia offices of Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz, as ABA president-elect nominee.
Klein will be officially elected by the House to serve as president-elect at the 2015 Annual Meeting in Chicago, and she will begin her one-year term as president starting in August 2016. She will follow current President-Elect Paulette Brown, a woman of color who is a partner at Locke Lord in Morristown, New Jersey, who becomes president in August.
“It makes me proud,” said Klein in reference to the diversity of the current group of ABA officers and candidates. “It gives me a lot of confidence in the future of our association, because diversity leads to the best decisions.”
Updated on Feb. 9 to correct the law firm name for President-Elect Paulette Brown.
