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American Bar Association Nominates New Leadership
Miami, Feb. 12, 2007 — The American Bar Association announced at its 2007 Midyear Meeting in Miami that Birmingham, Ala., litigation lawyer H. Thomas Wells Jr. was nominated to become president-elect of the American Bar Association. Wells is a former chair of the ABA House of Delegates.
In addition, Judge Bernice B. Donald of Memphis was nominated to become secretary-elect of the American Bar Association. Judge Donald was appointed to the United States District Court for the Western District of Tennessee by President Bill Clinton in 1995.
Topping off ABA officer nominations is the treasurer-elect nominee—Alice E. Richmond. Richmond, a litigation lawyer in Boston, served as the first woman president of the Massachusetts Bar Association from 1986-1987.
The ABA House of Delegates will vote on all nominations in August at the 2007 ABA Annual Meeting in San Francisco. If elected, individuals will serve their positions for a one-year term until the close of the ABA Annual Meeting in August 2008.
Nine people were nominated for membership on the ABA Board of Governors. The names of the board nominees will also be presented to the House of Delegates for election in August. Each is nominated to serve a three-year term on the 37-member board. The Board of Governors oversees administration and management of the association. Board of Governor nominees, and the representative capacities they are nominated to fulfill are:
- H. Ritchey Hollenbaugh of Columbus, Ohio—District 7, composed of Ohio and Illinois;
- Richard Pena of Austin, Texas—District 8, composed of Florida and Texas;
- David R. Gienapp of Madison, S.D.—District 10, composed of Wyoming, Nebraska, South Dakota and North Dakota;
- Don Bivens of Phoenix—District 11, composed of Arizona, Colorado and Oklahoma;
- Katherine H. O’Neil of Portland, Ore.—District 13, composed of Montana, Alaska and Oregon;
- Kathleen J. Hopkins of Seattle—District 18, composed of Puerto Rico, Maryland, Washington and Indiana;
- John Hardin Young of Washington, D.C., to hold the Section of Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice Member-at-Large seat;
- Scott F. Partridge of Houston, Texas, to hold the Section of Science & Technology Law Member-at-Large seat; and
- Paulette Brown of Short Hills, N.J., to hold the Woman Member-at-Large seat.
With more than 413,000 members, the American Bar Association is the largest voluntary professional membership organization 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 in a democratic society.
