Laura Farber hopes to bring people together in ABA’s top role
Serving others has been the mainstay of Laura Farber’s life and career.
As a young lawyer in Southern California, Farber became active in the Pasadena Tournament of Roses Association, the nonprofit that produces the Rose Parade and Rose Bowl game each year. In 2019, after more than 25 years of service, she became the first Latina and third female president of the association.
Around the same time she got involved with the Tournament of Roses, Farber got involved in the Los Angeles County Bar Association, where she helped create a program on diversity on the bench that she later presented at an ABA Young Lawyers Division meeting. She joined the YLD almost immediately after that presentation, and for the last several decades she has served in myriad leadership roles in the ABA.
Farber has been a member of both the ABA Board of Governors and the House of Delegates. She has chaired the YLD; the Commission on Youth at Risk; the Solo, Small Firm and General Practice Division; and the ABA Rule of Law Initiative Latin America & the Caribbean Council. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she co-chaired the Coordinating Group on Practice Forward.
“You are a better lawyer if you’re involved in things that you care about, that you’re passionate about,” says Farber, a partner at Hahn & Hahn in Pasadena, California. “It makes you appreciate things in a very different way when you’re giving of yourself and doing something meaningful.
“And plus, selfishly, you grow, and that’s a good thing,” she adds.
In her next act of service, Farber is preparing to become president of the ABA in 2027. In February, she was named the president-elect nominee by the House Nominating Committee at the midyear meeting. She faces an uncontested vote by the full House at the ABA Annual Conference in August.
While Farber never imagined years ago that she’d one day lead the ABA, she plans to bring to bear all her experiences to help the association protect the freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution and the rule of law.
“This is a crucial time for leadership, and I believe I know this organization very well, having worked in so many different aspects of it,” Farber says. “I also think it’s important to be as inclusive as we can, and get everybody involved—regardless of your geography, your background, your views. I can do that, just based on all the people I’ve worked with and that I know.”
‘Part of my DNA’
Farber was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and came to the United States when she was 2.
Her parents were students at the city’s university a few years before the start of the Dirty War, a campaign waged by Argentina’s military dictatorship in the 1970s and 1980s against supposed left-wing opponents. When her father saw military forces attack students at a campus gathering one day in the late 1960s, her parents decided it was time to leave.
Their brave decision to start over somewhere new to seek better opportunities for their family informs everything she does, Farber says.
“It’s part of who I am,” says Farber, who believes she will be the first Latina to serve as ABA president. “It’s part of my DNA and my wiring. The importance of respecting the Bill of Rights and the Constitution and the reason why so many people come to this country.”
Farber’s grandfather was a lawyer in Argentina, but most of her other relatives were scientists. She thought she also would do something scientific until she joined the high school debate team.
After graduating from UCLA with a bachelor’s degree in political science in 1987 and the Georgetown University Law Center in 1990, Farber joined Dewey Ballantine in Los Angeles. Two years later, she moved to Hahn & Hahn, where she handles employment and commercial litigation.
Hahn & Hahn—which in 2022 became certified as a majority women-owned business—has not only supported but encouraged her involvement in the ABA and other organizations, Farber says.
“The ABA is acknowledged as a very important part of all of our careers,” she says. “And I’m excited that because of my involvement, more of our lawyers are starting to become active in the ABA, which I think is great.”
Building relationships
Farber’s firm also inspired her involvement with the Tournament of Roses. She finished her five-year term as chair of the Rose Bowl Management Committee in 2025.
In that role, Farber oversaw and negotiated the Rose Bowl game’s entry into the College Football Playoff. Being an integral part of the college sports world, which she says is “dominated by men,” gave her the opportunity to “see the world in a very different way and relate in a very different way.”
Her long tenure as a leader on the Tournament of Roses Executive Committee, which has an eight-year ladder to the presidency, also helped equip her to head the ABA.
As ABA president, Farber plans to support the association’s ongoing efforts to defend the rule of law. She also will continue championing diversity, equity and inclusion across the legal profession, which she believes is the way to engender respect, trust and understanding.
“That is a goal: to focus on humanity, commonality, and to try to bring people together,” Farber says. “Even if it sounds Pollyannish, I am a believer in that stuff, and I am an eternal optimist.”
Farber emphasizes the importance of mentoring young lawyers and hopes to include more of them in this work. In her experience, their goals often align with the ABA’s goals, she says.
“The key is to show them how they can involve themselves and make a meaningful difference,” Farber says. “Once they step foot into the ABA, like I was able to do many years ago, they start realizing it.”
None of her work would be possible without her “amazing support system,” Farber adds. She and her husband, retired lawyer Tomas Lopez, have two children, Christopher and Jessica. She also still is close to her parents.
Barbara Howard is the current president-elect of the ABA and will begin her one-year term as president when she takes over from President Michelle Behnke at the close of the annual conference in August. Howard will pass the gavel to Farber at the conclusion of the 2027 ABA Annual Conference.
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