ABA presidents' panel strongly defends rule of law and calls on all lawyers to defend it
During a wide-ranging panel discussion Saturday morning at ABA Techshow, the past, current and future ABA presidents strongly defended the rule of law and encouraged lawyers throughout the country to speak out in order to protect it.
ABA President Michelle A. Behnke, Immediate Past President William R. “Bill” Bay, and President-Elect Barbara J. Howard spoke out about the challenges the association has faced under the current presidential administration, as well as recent attacks on judicial independence, lawyers and law firms performing their ethical duties, the right to vote and diversity, equity and inclusion.
“Our focus has to be on rule of law, on the independence of the judiciary, on the impartiality of the judiciary, of our own lawyers’ ability to exercise their First Amendment rights,” said Howard, a Cincinnati-based family lawyer who served as as Chair of the House of Delegates from 2020 to 2022. “And so we have to continue those fights to the extent that’s what they are today, so that we can ensure that this democracy survives and that we are leading it as the voice of the legal profession.”
Bay, who was ABA president when President Donald Trump issued his series of executive orders targeting law firms who represented people and positions against him, freezing federal funding of institutions or issues he opposed, and ending birthright citizenship, among others, reflected that it was a difficult time for him professionally and personally, and revealed that he had to weather threats to himself and his family.
Nevertheless, he maintained that it was an important stance for the ABA to take and one that all lawyers, no matter their political or ideological views, should agree with.
“We can’t have a judicial system that’s characterized by those who are powerful or politically connected get favors,” said Bay, who signed the ABA’s lawsuit against the Administration concerning the executive orders against law firms. “It’s part of why the ABA was created.”
He acknowledged that the ABA has paid a price for its stance, noting “we’ve lost some dollars and layoffs.”
“It’s not easy to be right. It’s not easy to stand on the right side,” Bay, a partner with the St. Louis office of Thompson Coburn, told the audience.
He and Behnke both said they didn’t judge the law firms that decided to make a deal with the administration, noting that they weren’t in those managing partners’ shoes and didn’t know what kinds of pressures they were facing.
“When we saw people who were smart, capable and had resources but still felt compelled to cut a deal, we were concerned for our members,” said Behnke, a member of Madison, Wisconsin firm Boardman Clark. “We wanted to make sure that lawyers ability to represent the clients that they felt they wanted to represent, or the causes that they wanted to represent, was not eroded, and we took that very unusual step of filing suit on behalf of our members to ensure that they had the opportunity to represent whomever they want.”
Follow along with the ABA Journal’s coverage of the ABA Techshow 2026 here.
The panel, which was moderated by ABA Techshow co-chair Patrick Wright of Dallas-based family law practice The Wright Firm, also covered protecting diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in the legal profession, with Behnke emphasizing that it wasn’t a “zero-sum game” where opening the door to people who might not even know that such a door exists means closing it for others.
They spoke about immigration and the work of ABA ProBAR representing immigrants and asylum seekers.
They also touched briefly on artificial intelligence and technological innovations in the legal profession, noting that change can be difficult and hard to accept.
They also defended judicial independence, echoing Chief Justice John Roberts’ recent comments calling out personal attacks on judges carrying out their professional duties.
“You can critique the decision, the cases that were cited and relied on, or the ruling,” Behnke said. “But when you start suggesting that somebody is rogue or controlled by foreign governments and those kinds of things, you are literally putting their lives at risk.”
Ultimately, the discussion ended with a call to action, not just to those in attendance but to the bar at large.
“Sometimes history draws a line in the sand,” Bay said. “What we do next, what we do today, matters more than what we’ve done before. This is that moment.”
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