American Bar Association swears in Deborah Enix-Ross as new president

Deborah Enix-Ross, a New York dispute resolution lawyer, became president of the American Bar Association Aug. 9 at the end of the ABA Annual Meeting in Chicago.

Enix-Ross is a senior adviser to the International Dispute Resolution Group of Debevoise & Plimpton in New York City. She has been a part of the ABA leadership for several years, serving as chair of the ABA’s policymaking House of Delegates and as chair of the ABA Center for Human Rights and the ABA Section Officers Conference. Enix-Ross is also a fellow of the American Bar Foundation and has served as vice president of the World Justice Project. She is the second Black female president in ABA history.

Enix-Ross was sworn in as ABA president by retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, who received the association’s highest honor, the ABA Medal, at a ceremony Aug. 6 at the Annual Meeting.

American Bar Association Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary rates Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson “Well Qualified”

The American Bar Association’s Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary has completed its evaluation of the professional qualifications of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, President Biden’s nominee to the United States Supreme Court, and has given her a unanimous rating of “Well Qualified.”

The Standing Committee confines its evaluation to the qualities of integrity, professional competence and judicial temperament. The Honorable Ann Claire Williams (Ret.), chair of the ABA’s Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary, is scheduled to testify about the rating before the Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday, March 24.

The ABA’s letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee on the rating can be read here.

The ABA is the largest voluntary association of lawyers in the world. As the national voice of the legal profession, the ABA works to improve the administration of justice, promotes programs that assist lawyers and judges in their work, accredits law schools, provides continuing legal education, and works to build public understanding around the world of the importance of the rule of law. 

Paulette Brown to Become the First Black Woman President of the American Bar Association

This August, Paulette Brown will become the first Black woman to serve as President of the American Bar Association(ABA). Brown will serve as president-elect for one year before taking over as president in August 2015.

A native of Baltimore, she attended Howard University with the intention of becoming a social worker, but later decided on studying law. After graduating from Howard, Brown received her law degree from the Seton Hall University School of Law, and has been practicing law since 1976. She is also a partner in a New Jersey law firm where she specializes in labor law, employment law and commercial litigation.

“When I first started going to court and so forth,” said Brown, “I had the usual experiences. ‘Are you the defendant? Are you the court reporter? Are you the plaintiff? No? Well then, who are you then?’ It never occurred to them that I could be the lawyer.

“Her ascension to the presidency just opens the door for so many African-American females to even believe that that is possible,” said Alicia Wilson, the fundraising committee co-chair for the Alliance of Black Women Attorneys of Maryland.

“She has broken down barriers and opened up doors and kept them open for a whole host of African-American women attorneys,” she added.

Brown said she believes that her selection by the ABA leadership as its next president carries with it a great responsibility. Though the term of ABA president only lasts one year, Brown said she is determined to set goals that she can produce tangible results within the term length of her position.

Read more: Paulette Brown to Become the First Black Woman President of the American Bar Association