2011-2012 Council
(Year denotes end of Council member's current term.)
Chair: John F. O'Brien (2012)
Dean, New England Law|Boston
John O'Brien has been dean of New England Law|Boston since 1988. A native of Staten Island, New York, he received a B.A. in 1973 from Manhattan College; a J.D. in 1977 from New England Law|Boston, where he graduated first in his class; and an LL.M. in taxation in 1980 from Boston University School of Law. From 1977 to 1985, he was a senior attorney in the Office of the Chief Counsel of the Internal Revenue Service. In 1985, he joined the faculty of New England Law, teaching constitutional law and federal income taxation. He served as associate dean for two years before being named dean.
Dean O'Brien previously served as chair of both the Accreditation Committee and the Independent Law Schools Forum of the Section. Before serving as chair of the Accreditation Committee, he was involved in the accreditation process, serving as special fact-finder and as both member and chair of law school evaluation teams.
He is admitted to practice in Massachusetts, the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts, the United States Tax Court, and the United States Supreme Court. He has received honorary doctor of laws degrees from New England Law|Boston (1998) and from his undergraduate alma mater, Manhattan College(2006). He was a founding member of the Community Ombudsman Oversight Program, Boston’s civilian police review board, and he was also a founding member of the Consortium for Innovative Legal Education, Inc., a group of four independent law schools that offers joint study abroad programs, visit-in programs to provide geographic flexibility for students, and other creative programming and services for the four schools.
Chair-Elect: Kent Syverud (2012)
Dean, Washington University School of Law
Kent Syverud is the dean and Ethan A.H. Shepley University Professor at Washington University School of Law. Before coming to Washington University in 2006, Dean Syverud was the Garner Anthony Professor of Law at Vanderbilt University Law School for eight years, and spent 1987 to 1997 at the University of Michigan Law School, first as a professor and then as professor and associate dean for academic affairs. Prior to joining legal education, Dean Syverud was an attorney at Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering in Washington, D.C., and clerked for Justice Sandra Day O’Connor at the U.S. Supreme Court and Judge Louis F. Oberdorfer at the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. He is a member of numerous legal education organizations including the Law School Admission Council (chair of the board of trustees, 2005-2007; board member, 1999-2008), the American Law Institute, and was president of the American Law Deans Association from 2003 to 2005.
From 1998 to 2004, Dean Syverud was editor of the Journal of Legal Education. He was also an expert witness on behalf of the University of Michigan in the case of Gutter v. Bollinger et al before the U.S. Supreme Court. Dean Syverud earned a B.S., magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, from the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service; a master’s degree in economics from the University of Michigan Rackham School of Graduate Studies; and a J.D. magna cum laude from the University of Michigan Law School where he was Order of the Coif and editor-in-chief of the Michigan Law Review. His previous Section activities include serving on the Standards Review Committee for three years and the 2006-2007 Accreditation Policy Task Force, co-chairing the 2009 Deans Workshop Planning Committee, and participating on site evaluation teams, several times as chair.
Vice Chair: The Honorable Solomon Oliver, Jr. (2012)
Chief Judge, U.S. District Court, Northern District of Ohio
Judge Oliver was appointed to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio by President Bill Clinton in 1994 and became Chief Judge in 2010. Judge Oliver holds a B.A. from the College of Wooster, an M.A. in political science from Case Western Reserve University, and a J.D. from New York University School of Law. From 1975 to 1976, Judge Oliver was a law clerk for the late Judge William H. Hastie of the Third Circuit Court of Appeals.
Judge Oliver was an assistant U.S. attorney in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Ohio, where he served as chief of the Civil Division and chief of Appellate Litigation. From 1982 to 1994, he was a professor at Cleveland State University’s Cleveland Marshall College of Law and served as associate dean from 1991 to 1994.
He is the recipient of the Distinguished Alumni Award from the College of Wooster and the Distinguished Alumni Award from the New York University Black, Latino, Asian Pacific American Law Alumni Association. He is a member of the American Law Institute and the board of trustees of the College of Wooster. Judge Oliver has served on the Judicial Conference of the United States, and is currently a member of its Civil Rules Advisory Committee. Judge Oliver previously served as co-chair of the ABA Litigation Section’s Minority Trial Lawyer Committee. He was a member of the Section's Council from 1996 to 2005 and has also served on the Accreditation Committee, the Standards Review Committee and numerous site visit teams.
Secretary: J. Martin Burke (2013)
Professor, University of Montana School of Law
Martin Burke served as dean at the University of Montana School of Law from 1988 through 1993. Currently, Professor Burke teaches federal tax, taxation of property transactions, taxation of business organizations, federal estate and gift tax, and exempt organizations at and also has been a visiting faculty member at the graduate tax programs at New York University School of Law, the University of Florida, and the University of Washington. He earned a law degree from the University of Montana School of Law, and an LL.M. degree from New York University School of Law. Professor Burke is the coauthor of Taxation of Individual Income, 8th edition, Understanding Federal Income Tax, 3rd edition, and Modern Estate Planning, 2nd edition. He served on the Section’s Accreditation Committee from 1996 to 2002, serving as chair in 2001-2002; the Standards Review Committee from 2002 to 2005, serving as chair in 2004-2005; and on the Task Force on Accreditation Processes from 2001 to 2003.
Immediate Past Chair: The Honorable Christine Durham (2012)
Chief Justice, Supreme Court of Utah
Justice Christine Durham has been on the Utah Supreme Court since 1982, and has served as Chief Justice and Chair of the Utah Judicial Council since 2002. She previously served on the state trial court after a number of years in private practice. She received her A.B. with honors from and a J.D. from Wellesley College, where she is an emeritus member of the board of trustees. She is the past president of the Conference of Chief Justices of the United States. She is a member of the council of the American Law Institute, the Board of Overseers for the Rand Corporation's Institute for Civil Justice, and is a Fellow of the American Bar Association.
Past professional service includes the governing boards of the American Inns of Court Foundation, the Appellate Judges Conference of the ABA, the ABA’s Commission on Women in the Profession, and the Federal Judicial Conference’s Advisory Committee on the Rules of Civil Procedure. She is also a past president of the National Association of Women Judges, and was that organization’s Honoree of the Year in 1997. Justice Durham has been active in judicial education, and was a founder of the Leadership Institute in Judicial Education. She helped create and lead the Utah Coalition for Civic Character and Service Education and served on the Utah Commission on Civic Education. She was an adjunct professor for many years at the University of Utah College of Law, teaching state constitutional law, and served for twelve years on the Utah Constitutional Revision Commission. She has received honorary degrees from four universities and has been recognized nationally for her work in judicial education and efforts to improve the administration of justice. In 2007 she received the William H. Rehnquist Award for Judicial Excellence; and in 2008 she received the Transparent Courthouse award for contributions to judicial accountability and administration from the Institute for the Advancement of the Legal System at the University of Denver.
Members
Jane H. Aiken (2014)
Professor and Director of the Community Justice Project
Georgetown University Law Center
Jane Aiken is professor of law at Georgetown University Law Center and director of the Community Justice Project. Each student in the clinic represents claimants in unemployment hearings and works collaboratively on projects that address justice issues that are policy based, require extraordinary remedies or international and comparative law. Over the last three years, she has also taught evidence, torts, and motherhood and criminality. In 2010, she received ’s Frank F. Flegal Award for outstanding teaching. In her 26 years of teaching, she has directed clinics in which students act as lawyers under supervision in cases involving a wide array of legal issues including domestic violence against women and children, HIV, homelessness and international human rights. She held the William M. Van Cleve Chair at Washington University School of Law in St. Louis where she was a professor from 1997 to 2007. She was a Carnegie Scholar for Teaching and Learning and a Fulbright Scholar in Nepal. She writes in the area of evidence, women’s rights and clinical pedagogy. She is a member of the American Law Institute and a fellow with the American Bar Foundation. She was a member of the AALS Membership Review Committee from 2009 to 2011. She is the past co-chair of the ABA Women and Criminal Justice subcommittee of the Criminal Justice Committee.
She holds a B.A. Hollins College from and a J.D. from New York University School of Law where she was a Root-Tilden Scholar. Professor Aiken also received an LL.M. from Georgetown Law Center as a fellow in the Center for Applied Legal Studies. She currently serves on the Section’s Special Committee on the Professional Education Continuum.
The Honorable Rebecca White Berch (2012)
Chief Justice, Arizona Supreme Court
Rebecca White Berch was appointed to the Arizona Supreme Court in March 2002 and became its 23rd chief justice in 2009. Before her appointment to the supreme court, she served the state of Arizona as solicitor general, chief deputy attorney general, and as a court of appeals judge. Following graduation from the Arizona State University (ASU) law school in 1979, Justice Berch practiced law in Phoenix. In 1986, she joined the faculty at Arizona State University College of Law as director of the legal writing program and academic support programs.
For the Section, she has served on the Bar Admissions Committee, including two years at its chair. Before joining the Arizona Supreme Court, Justice Berch served on the Arizona Bar Examinations Committee. She currently serves on the board of trustees of the National Conference of Bar Examiners and on the board of directors of the Conference of Chief Justices. In addition to her J.D. degree, Justice Berch holds a master’s degree in English. She has published 11 law review articles, and the law school textbook she co-authored, Introduction to Legal Method and Process, is in its fifth edition and is used in law schools throughout the nation. Justice Berch is a strong proponent of pro bono work; the Pro Bono Suite at ASU’s Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law is named in her honor.
General Leo A. Brooks (retired) (2013)
Fort Belvoir, Virginia
Leo Brooks retired in January 1984 from the United States Army, having reached the grade of major general. He began his military career as an infantry rifle platoon leader in the 2nd Infantry Division in Anchorage, Alaska. Subsequently, he was an assistant professor of military science at Central State University in Wilberforce, Ohio, an advisor to the Vietnamese Army, and a battalion commander in Vietnam. He served in the Pentagon twice: first, as a budget liaison to the U.S. Congress and secondly, as a senior logistician in the Office of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Upon his retirement from the Army, General. Brooks became the managing director of the City of Philadelphia, where he headed the activities of the city's 30,000 employees in the ten service departments. He is currently an ordained deacon, a lay leader and an adult Sunday school teacher at Alfred Street Baptist Church in Alexandria, Virginia. General Brooks holds a bachelor of science degree from Virginia State University and a master of science in financial management from George Washington University. He is also a graduate of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, and the National War College in Washington, D.C.
Paulette Brown (2013)
Partner and Chief Diversity Officer
Edwards Wildman Palmer LLP
Paulette Brown's practice is focused on all facets of labor and employment and commercial litigation, successfully defending cases involving discrimination on the basis of age, sex, marital status, sexual harassment, disability, race, and national origin. Prior to joining Edwards Wildman Palmer, Ms. Brown was a partner at Duane Morris and at Brown & Childress, served as corporate counsel to several Fortune 500 companies, and served as a municipal court judge. Ms. Brown is a certified mediator for the United States District Court, District of New Jersey, a member of the Employment AAA Panel, and serves as secretary of the Labor and Employment Section of the New Jersey State Bar Association. From 1993 to 1994, she was president of the National Bar Association and has held a number of other leadership positions in the organization. From 1991 to 1993, Ms. Brown was Master of the C. Willard Heckel Inn of Court. Ms. Brown has served on both the ABA Board of Governors and the House of Delegates. She has also been active in the ABA Governance Commission, the Section of Litigation, the Section of Labor and Employment, the Commission on Women in the Profession, the Fund for Justice Education, and was chair of the Council on Racial and Ethnic Justice.
After earning a bachelor’s degree from Howard University, Ms. Brown earned a J.D. from Seton Hall University School of Law. She has been recognized by the New Jersey Law Journal as one of the prominent women and minority attorneys in the state of New Jersey, named by the National Law Journal as one of the “50 Most Influential Minority Attorneys in the United States,” and received the Thurgood Marshall College Fund’s Award of Excellence. In 2011, Ms. Brown received the ABA's Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement Award.
Edwin J. Butterfoss (2013)
Associate Dean and Professor
Hamline University Law School
Ed Butterfoss joined Hamline in 1983. He previously served as associate dean for academic affairs from 1995 to 1998 and as dean of the law school from 1998 to 2003. He joined the Hamline faculty from the law firm of Pepper, Hamilton and Scheetz, where he practiced in the areas of product liability, employment discrimination, and commercial law. He also handled pro bono cases involving prisoners' rights and was a volunteer attorney for the Support Center for Child Advocacy.
At Hamline, Professor Butterfoss teaches contracts, criminal law, and criminal procedure. He has published numerous articles in the area of criminal procedure, particularly focusing on Fourth Amendment search and seizure issues. He was a founding board member of the Minnesota Innocence Project and served for many years on the board of the ACLU of Minnesota.
Professor Butterfoss has served as a member of the Accreditation Committee, which he chaired for three years, the Standards Review Committee, and the Foreign Programs Committee. He graduated magna cum laude from Miami University of Ohio with a bachelor’s degree in accounting and magna cum laude with a J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center where he was on the editorial board and case and note editor for the Georgetown Law Journal.
Michael J. Davis (2013)
Professor, University of Kansas School of Law
Michael Davis is the Centennial Teaching Professor of Law at the University of Kansas School of Law (KU). Professor Davis joined the KU law faculty in 1971 and teaches property, government regulation of land development, and religion and the state. In 1991, he received the Immel Award for Teaching Excellence. In addition to his faculty duties, Professor Davis served as the university’s general counsel for six years, dean of the law school from 1980 to 1989 and as interim dean from 2005 to 2006. He was also of counsel to the law firm of Stinson Morrison Hecker from 1989 to 2009.
Before joining the law school, Professor Davis was an associate at Arent, Fox, Kintner, Plotkin & Kahn, a Reginald Heber Smith Fellow at the Legal Aid Society of Greater Kansas City, and a legislative assistant to U.S. Representative Louis Stokes. Professor Davis graduated with honors from Kansas State University and earned a J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School where he was the editor of the Law Review. He has served as chair of Section’s Accreditation Committee and Standards Review Committee, and currently serves on the Finance and Governance committees.
Tracy Allen Giles, Esq. (2012)
Giles & Lambert, P.C.
Tracy Giles is a partner in the firm of Giles & Lambert, P.C. in Roanoke, Virginia, where he practices in the field of bankruptcy law. After receiving a bachelor of arts degree from the University of Virginia, Mr. Giles earned a J.D. degree from Mercer University Walter F. George School of Law. Mr. Giles serves as the Virginia State Delegate in the ABA's House of Delegates, on the nominating committee of the House of Delegates and the Committee on Rules and Calendar, as well as the ABA's Standing Committee on Membership. He formerly served as chair of the ABA's Law Student Division, a member of the Coordinating Committee on Legal Education, the House of Delegates, the ABA Board of Governors, as a member and then chair of the Presidential Appointments Committee, a member of the Standing Committee on Solo and Small Firm Practitioners, the Commission on Domestic Violence, the Standing Committee on Membership and the Working Group on Strategic Planning.
Mr. Giles is also active in the Virginia State Bar where he currently serves on the council of the Virginia State Bar and its executive committee. He also serves on the professionalism committee and as a grader for the Virginia bar exam. He is a former president of the Young Lawyers Conference of the Virginia State Bar and a former member of the executive committee of the Conference of Local Bars. Mr. Giles is a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation and a Fellow of the Virginia Law Foundation. He serves on the board of directors of Apple Ridge Farm, a non-profit academic summer camp and educational program for inner-city children in the Roanoke area.
Joan S. Howland (2012)
Associate Dean and Professor, University of Minnesota Law School
Joan Howland is the Roger Noreen Professor of Law and Associate Dean for Information and Technology at the University of Minnesota Law School. Professor Howland teaches American Indian legal history at the law school and law and business in the Executive MBA program at the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota. Her scholarship focuses on American Indian law and culture, information technologies, business management, thoroughbred horseracing and equine law generally, legal research methodologies, and law librarianshipp. She served on the Accreditation Committee from 2001 to 2006 and has served on the Council since 2006. Professor Howland was a member of the Section's Law Libraries Committee from 1992 through 1994 and co-chaired that Committee from 1994 through 1996.
Professor Howland is active in the Association of American Law Schools and is the current chair of the Committee on Law Libraries and Technology. She is also active in the American Association of Law Libraries, the American Indian Library Association, and the American Library Association. She is a member of the American Law Institute. In 2003, she received the AALL Spirit of Law Librarianship award for her volunteer work with American Indian populations and with indigenous communities in South America. In addition to a J. D., Professor Howland earned master’s degrees in history, library science, and business administration. Prior to joining the faculty at Minnesota, she held administrative positions in the law libraries at U.C. Berkeley, Harvard, and Stanford.
Dennis O. Lynch (2012)
Dean Emeritus and Professor
University of Miami School of Law
Dennis Lynch holds a B.A. from the University of Oregon, a J.D. from Harvard Law School, and J.S.D. and LL.M. degrees from Yale Law School. Professor Lynch was a program advisor in law and urban affairs for the Ford Foundation in Bogota, Columbia from 1969 to 1972. In 1974 he was appointed to the faculty of the University of Miami School of Law where he taught until 1990, having served as associate dean from 1983 to 1986. He served as dean and professor at the University of Denver College of Law from 1990 to 1997, and was dean of the University of Miami School of Law from 1999 to 2008. A nationally recognized authority on Latin American law, employment law, and labor arbitration, Dean Lynch received several awards and grants, including a Fulbright Scholar in economics in Venezuela(1965-66), a Research Fellowship in Law and Modernization (Yale, 1972-74), and an International Legal Center Research Grant (1974-77) for the study of the Colombian legal profession. He is active in the Association of American Law Schools, served on board of the Law School Admission Council, and the Section's Accreditation Committee from 2001 to 2005.
Gregory G. Murphy (2014)
Billings, Montana
Gregory Murphy has been practicing law in Montana for 31 years. After earning a B.A. with highest honors at the University of Montana, Mr. Murphy earned a J.D. at Notre Dame Law School where he was a Thomas and Alberta White Scholar and served as associate editor of the Notre Dame Law Review. After graduation, he served a law clerkship with a U.S. Court of Appeals Judge before returning to Montana.
Mr. Murphy is admitted to practice in the United States Supreme Court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, the Montana Supreme Court and all Montana state courts, the Oregon Supreme Court and all Oregon state courts, the Crow Indian Tribal Court, the Northern Cheyenne Tribal Court, the Fort Peck Tribal Court (Sioux and Assiniboine), and the Fort Belknap Tribal Court (Gros Ventre and Assiniboine).
Mr. Murphy’s Section activities include serving as chair of the Accreditation Committee from 2006 to 2007, vice chair from 2005 to 2006, and as a committee member from 2002 to 2005. He has also chaired the Montana Board of Bar Examiners, the National Conference of Bar Examiners (NCBE), the Multistate Bar Examination Committee of the NCBE, as well as other committees. Mr. Murphy is currently co-chair of the Special Committee on a Uniform Bar Examination. In 1994, he was elected for life to the American Law Institute. The State Bar of Montana awarded Mr. Murphy its Distinguished Service Award in 2002 in recognition of his leadership in bar admissions.
Maureen A. O’Rourke (2012)
Dean, Boston University School of Law
Maureen O'Rourke is the dean and Michaels Faculty Research Scholar at the Boston University School of Law. Dean O’Rourke joined the law school faculty in 1993 after working at IBM Corporation, where she handled software licensing issues. At the law school, her scholarship is focused on the intersection of intellectual property law and other fields, such as contract and anti-trust law. Dean O’ Rourke is co-author of a leading copyright casebook, Copyright in the Global Information Economy. She has published articles in the law reviews of Columbia, Duke, Iowa, and Minnesota and the technology journals of Berkeley, Harvard, and Boston University. She was the associate reporter on the American Law Institute’s Principles of Software Contracting Project and is a member of the Marist College Pre-Law Advisory Board, past chair of the Association of American Law Schools sections on the Law School Dean and Computers & The Law, and a past member of the Boston Bar Association Council.
Dean O’Rourke graduated summa cum laude with a bachelor of science degree from Marist College and earned a J.D. from Yale Law School. In May 2000, she became Boston University’s sixth recipient of the Metcalf Award, the school’s highest teaching honor. She served as acting dean for two years prior to becoming the dean in 2006.
Raymond C. Pierce (2013)
Dean, North Carolina Central University School of Law
Raymond Pierce has served as dean of North Carolina Central University School of Law since 2005. During his tenure, the law school experienced the largest enrollment in its history and he oversaw the development of the first two institutes at the law school in addition to a Veterans Law Clinic, which received national recognition for providing legal assistance to U.S. soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.
Prior to joining North Carolina Central University School of Law, Dean Pierce was a partner in the national law firm of Baker & Hostetler LLP, representing clients in the steel, energy, construction, and banking businesses. From 1993 to 2000, he served as President Bill Clinton’s deputy assistant secretary for civil rights at the U.S. Department of Education, where he managed the enforcement of federal civil rights laws in education and the development of federal civil rights education policy.
Dean Pierce serves on the North Carolina Banking Commission, the North Carolina Chief Justice’s Commission on Professionalism, the American Law Deans Association board of directors, the National Association of Law Placement Foundation, and the executive board of Duke University’s Center on Law, Ethics and National Security. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Syracuse University where he was admitted into the Sigma Tau Delta English Honorary Society, and earned a J.D. from Case Western Reserve University School of Law.
Erika Robinson (2012) Law Student Division Member
University of South Carolina School of Law
J.D. Candidate, 2013
Erika Robinson is a student at the University of South Carolina School of Law and is a member of the ABA’s Real Property, Trusts & Estates Law Journal student editorial board, a recipient of the Matthew J. Perry Scholarship, and a Thurgood Marshall fellow with the ABA Council on Legal Education Opportunity. She holds a B.A. in political science from Agnes Scott College and a M.Ed. in college student personnel from Ohio University. Ms. Robinson has worked in the area of student affairs on the university level at Drexel University, Dartmouth College, and Ohio University, as well as on the K-12 level with the Washington, D.C.-based Schools for Educational Evaluation and Development.
Morgan T. Sammons, Ph.D. (2014)
Dean, California School of Professional Psychology
Alliant International University
A fellow of the American Psychological Association and a diplomate of the American Board of Professional Psychology, Dr. Sammons is a past chair of the Council of the National Register of Health Service Providers in Psychology and was specialty leader for U.S. Navy Clinical Psychology. He served as special assistant for mental health to the U.S. Navy’s Surgeon General. Prior to that, he served as director for clinical support for the United States Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, directing policy implementation and service delivery for U.S. Navy shore-based military treatment facilities. A prolific author, Dr. Sammons has edited two volumes and published over 40 journal articles. He is an associate editor for the APA journal Psychological Services. Dr. Sammons received both his M.C. and Ph.D. from Arizona State University and completed a fellowship in psychopharmacology at Walter Reed Army Medical Center from 1991 to 1994.
Edward N. Tucker (2014)
CPA/ABV
Ellin & Tucker, Chartered
Edward Tucker is a senior director with the accounting firm of Ellin & Tucker, Chartered. He has more than 40 years of experience with the firm as a certified public accountant (CPA), specializing in management advisory services, particularly mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, strategic planning, human resources, real estate development, dispute resolution, investment, syndication, business valuation, and litigation support. Mr. Tucker earned a B.S. degree in business administration from the Univerity of Maryland and received the designation of CPA in 1963. In addition, Mr. Tucker holds the Accredited in Business Valuation (ABV) credential awarded by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. He is active in numerous professional and civic organizations including the American Institute of Certificate Public Accountants, the Maryland Association of Certified Public Accountants, the Suburban Club of Baltimore County, and the Lancers Greater Baltimore Walk for the Homeless, and is a faculty member of the MICPEL Business Law Institute and the Judicial Institute of Maryland. Mr. Tucker served on the Section's Accreditation Committee from 2001 to 2007.
The Honorable Charles R. Wilson (2014)
U.S. Judge, Court of Appeals, 11th Circuit
Charles Wilson is a judge in the U.S. Court of Appeals in Tampa, Florida. In 1999, President Bill Clinton appointed him to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit. He earned a B.A from Notre Dame University and a J.D. from Notre Dame Law School. After a clerkship with Judge Joseph Hatchett of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, Judge Wilson practiced law for five years in Tampa. Subsequently, he was a county judge in Florida, a magistrate judge in the Middle District in Florida, and a attorney for the Middle District in Florida. Judge Wilson is a member of the advisory council of the University of Notre Dame Law School, the American Inns of Court, and the American Law Institute. He previously served on the Section's Accreditation Committee.
Section Delegates to the House of Delegates
The Honorable Ruth V. McGregor (retired) (2012)
Phoenix, Arizona
Chief Justice Ruth McGregor served on the Arizona Supreme Court from February 1998 until June 30, 2009. She was the Court’s Chief Justice from June 2005 until her retirement. She was also a member of the Arizona Court of Appeals from 1989 until 1998, where she served as Chief Judge from 1995 to 1997. Before her appointment to the bench, Justice McGregor engaged in the private practice of law as a member of the Fennemore Craig law firm in Phoenix. She served as law clerk to Justice Sandra Day O’Connor during Justice O’Connor’s first term on the United States Supreme Court.
Justice McGregor received a bachelor of arts degree, summa cum laude, and a master of arts degree from the University of Iowa. She received her doctor of jurisprudence degree, summa cum laude, from Arizona State University in Tempe, and a master of laws in the judicial process from the University of Virgina. Justice McGregor has participated extensively in professional activities, particularly those involving legal education and the discipline of lawyers and judges, and in organizations dedicated to assuring a fair and impartial judiciary. Among other activities, she has served as an officer and a member of the board of trustees for the American Inns of Court Foundation, as an officer and board member for the National Association of Women Judges, as a board member of the Conference of Chief Justices, and on the Section’s Council, including a term as Chair.
Justice McGregor currently serves as a member of the board of directors of the Center for the Future of Arizona and of Justice At Stake and as special advisor to the O’Connor Judicial Selection Initiative of the Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System.
Pauline Schneider (2014)
Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP
Pauline Schneider is a partner in the Washington, D.C. office of Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP where she practices primarily in the area of public finance. Prior to joining Orrick, Ms. Schneider practiced public finance at Hunton & Williams LLP for 21 years. She holds a B.A. from Glassboro State College (now known as Rowan University), a M.A. in urban studies from Howard University, and a J.D. from Yale Law School. Ms. Schneider served as both secretary and president of the District of Columbia Bar and was a member of its board of governors.
Active for many years in the ABA, she is a former member of the ABA Board of Governors, has served on the ABA Nominating Committee, its Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary, and chaired its Standing Committee on Election Law. She also is a past chair of the Section's Council and a former chair of the Accreditation Committee. Ms. Schneider also serves on a number of boards, including as a director of Pepco Holdings, Inc, and as a trustee of the Access Group, the Federal City Council, the National Partnership for Women and Families, the Rowan University Foundation, the Shakespeare Theatre and WETA. She is the recipient of numerous awards and honors including the ABA's Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement Award.
Board of Governors Liaison
Amelia Helen Boss (2012)
Professor, Drexel University Earle Mack School of Law
Amelia Boss is the Trustee Professor of Law at Drexel University Earle Mack School of Law. She is an internationally recognized expert on legal issues in electronic commerce, a leading scholar on codifying international commercial law through treaty, a member of the Council of the American Law Institute, and the first professor and second woman to chair the ABA's Business Law Section. Previously, Professor Boss was professor and director of the Institute for International Law and Public Policy at Temple University Beasley School of Law and was a faculty member at Rutgers-Camden School of Law, and a visiting professor at the University of Miami School of Law.
A member of the Permanent Editorial Board of the Uniform Commercial Code, Professor Boss currently serves as an advisor and as the delegate to the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law on issues relating to electronic commerce. Professor Boss has written scores of books, articles and reports on the uniform commercial code, electronic data transfer, and leasing transactions. After receiving a J.D. from Rutgers-Camden School of Law, where she served on the Law Review and participated in the Jessup International Moot Court, Professor Boss clerked for the Honorable Milton B. Conford of the Supreme Court of New Jersey. She later entered private practice as an associate with Pepper, Hamilton & Scheetz in Philadelphia and with McCarter & English in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. In 1998, The National Law Journal ranked Professor Boss as one of the 50 most influential women attorneys in the U.S. In January 2009, she was elected chair of the Commercial and Related Consumer Law Section of the Association of American Law Schools.
Young Lawyers Division Liaison
Carlos A. Escurel (2013)
Tanoury, Nauts, McKinney & Garbarino, PLLC
Carlos Escurel is an associate-principal at the firm of Tanoury, Nauts, McKinney & Garbarino, PLLC, in Detroit, Michigan, where he practices litigation, primarily in defense of health care professionals and hospitals. Mr. Escurel served as the Young Lawyers Division (YLD) Assembly Speaker in 2010-2011, and served as a member of the YLD Council from 2005 to 2011. Mr. Escurel also served on the executive council for the State Bar of Michigan Young Lawyers Section from 2004-2011.
Mr. Escurel received his bachelor’s degree in international relations from James Madison College at Michigan State University in 1997, and he received his J.D. degree from Wayne State University Law School in 2001. While in law school, Mr. Escurel served as chairperson for the Free Legal Aid Clinic, as a board member for the Student Trial Advocacy Program, and as a board member for the law school’s Student Board of Governors. Mr. Escurel was admitted to the bar in 2002, and is also admitted to practice before the U.S. District Court of the Eastern District of Michigan. Additionally, Mr. Escurel participates in many pro bono programs, including the ABA YLD’s Wills for Heroes and Serving Our Seniors programs. Mr. Escurel has been named a Rising Star by Super Lawyers magazine for 2010 and 2011.
Staff Liaisons to the Council and Accreditation Committee
For Membership Call: 1-800-285-2221
