List of Presidents of the American Bar Association

This list of the Presidents of the American Bar Association includes all presidents of the association, which was formed in 1878 to represent the interests of lawyers, accredit law schools, and create and maintain a code of ethics. The American Bar Association is a voluntary bar association of lawyers and law students not specific to any jurisdiction in the United States.

The association comprises 410,000 members, who are represented by a House of Delegates, the organization's primary body, which acts to create and adopt new policies and recommendations pertaining to the practice of law. The House of Delegates and the association itself are headed by the President, who generally serves a one year term.

Presidents

*1912-1913: Frank B. Kellogg (Future US Secretary of State)
*1913-1914: William Howard Taft (former President of the United States and future Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court)
*1915-1916: Peter Meldrim

*1916-1917: George Sutherland (future Supreme Court Justice)
*1919-1921: Hampton L. Carson [ [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0002-9319(195710)1%3A4%3C363%3ATLOSWB%3E2.0.CO%3B2-M The Letters of Sir William Blackstone (1723-1780) in the Hampton L. Carson Collection of the Free Library of Philadelphia] ]
*1925-1926: Chester I. Long
*1934-1935: Scott Loftin
*1937-1938: Arthur T. Vanderbilt
*1948-1949: Frank E. Holman
*19??-1956: Charles S. Rhyne
*1956-1957: David Farrow Maxwell (80th president)
*1957-1958: E. Smythe Gambrell
*1964: Ramsey Clark [Sobel, 1990. p. 70]
*1964-1965: Lewis Franklin Powell, Jr. (future Supreme Court Justice). [ [http://www.sodomylaws.org/bowers/bonews03.htm Lewis F. Powell Jr., Who Became the Quiet Centrist of the Supreme Court, Is Dead at 90] ]
*1969-1970: Bernard Segal [ [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F07E0DC113DF936A35755C0A961958260 Bernard G. Segal Dies at 89; Lawyer for Rich and Poor - New York Times ] ]
*1970-1971: Edward L. Wright
*1972-1973: Robert W. Meserve [ [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=990CE1DB133CF937A1575AC0A963958260 New York Times] ] (once President of the Boston Bar Association)
*1973-1974: Chesterfield Smith [http://www.law.ufl.edu/leadership/commencement.shtml UFLAW LEADERSHIP HERITAGE EXTENSIVE] ]
*1980-1981: W. Reece Smith Jr.
*1982-1983 Morris Harrell [ [http://www.dallasbar.org/members/headnotes_showarticle.asp?article_id=77&issue_id=24 High-Profile Attorneys Positively Impact Dallas Community] ] (alumnus of Baylor Law School)
*1983-1985: William W. Falsgraf [ [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DE4DA173DF934A25751C0A961948260 A.B.A. Rejects Plan On Tobacco Ad Ban - New York Times ] ]
*1985-1987: Joseph P. Iannuzzi [ [http://www.citt-tcce.gc.ca/appeals/decision/ap93140_e.asp UNOFFICIAL SUMMARY] ]
*1987-1988: Robert MacCrateFact|date=February 2008
*1990-1991: John J. Curtin, Jr. [ [http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/rvp/pubaf/99/curtin.html Curtin Center for Public Interest Law Dedicated] ] (once President of the Boston Bar Association)
*1991-1992: Sandy D'Alemberte (future president of Florida State University)
*1992-1993: Glenn D. Warden [ [http://plurogen.com/newswarden20march2006.html 20 March 2006] ]
*1993-1994: R. William Ide [ [http://www.abanet.org/rol/europe_and_eurasia/board_europe_eurasia.html Rule of Law Initiative Home / Europe & Eurasia (CEELI) 2007-2008 Board Members ] ]
*1994-1995: George Edward Bushnell Jr. [ [http://www.prdi.org/prdibios.html PRDI Advisers, Directors & Staff] ]
*1995-1996: Roberta C. Ramo [ [http://www.memphisdailynews.com/Editorial/StoryInside.aspx?id=93708 Rice Makes Personal Donation For Katrina Relief in Mississippi] ] (alumna, University of Colorado at Boulder, 1st female president))
*1996-1997: N. Lee Cooper [ [http://www.uscourts.gov/ttb/feb98ttb/february.htm Members Named to Commission] ]
*1997-1998: Jerome Shestack [ [http://www.wolfblock.com/wbroot/popup_pubs_main.asp?mode=2&id=340&ifid=0&pgid=0 WolfBlock Lawyer to Receive ABA’s Highest Award] ] (former editor, Harvard Law Record, member: International Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists))
*1999-2000: Bill Paul [ [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4185/is_20020815/ai_n10177046 Archer elected as first African-American ABA president] ]
*2000-2001: Martha Barnett
*2002-2003: Alfred P. Carlton, Jr.
*2003-2004: Dennis W. Archer (first African-American president)
*2004-2005: Robert J. Grey, Jr. of Richmond, Virginia
*2005-2006: Michael S. Greco of Boston, Massachusetts (first foreign-born president)
*2006-2007: Karen J. Mathis
*2007-2008: William H. Neukom
*2008-2009: H. Thomas Wells, Jr.

Dates of Presidency Unknown

*????-????: Edward Cranch Eliot (member of the Eliot family)
*19??-19??: William Reese Smith (Investigated Sami Al-Arian)
*19??-19??: Wallace D. Riley (husband of Dorothy Comstock Riley)

References

*Sobel, Robert. "Biographical Directory of the United States Executive Branch, 1774-1889". Greenwood Press (1990). ISBN 0-313-26593-3.

Notes and references