Atlanta lawyer Linda A. Klein was selected during the Midyear Meeting to be the association’s president-elect nominee, a step toward assuming the ABA presidency in August 2016.
During a speech to the ABA House of Delegates Feb. 10, Klein talked about the ABA’s importance in her legal career since she joined as a law student. “As my practice and client’s needs evolved, I always had the ABA along beside me,” she said, emphasizing that working together is what the ABA does best when society turns to the legal system for help with a problem it cannot solve.
“The ABA, as its leader, convenes the best minds to find solutions,” she said.
Klein, a managing shareholder in the Georgia offices of Baker Donelson, was the first woman to serve as president of the State Bar of Georgia and has held numerous positions within the ABA.
In addition to serving as chair of the House of Delegates from 2010-2012, her numerous association responsibilities have included chairing the Tort Trial and Insurance Practice Section, the House of Delegates Committee on Rules and Calendar, the Coalition for Justice, and ABA Day in Washington. She is a member of the Council of the ABA Section of International Law and also serves as a columnist and member of the Board of Editors of Law Practice Management Magazine.
Klein is a recipient of the 2004 ABA Margaret Brent Achievement Award and the State Bar of Georgia’s 2009 Randolph Thrower Award for Lifetime Achievement in Diversity. She is regularly named by Super Lawyers as one of the top 100 lawyers in Georgia, an honor bestowed upon only nine women in 2014. Her practice includes business dispute resolution, including contract law, employment law and professional liability
A cum laude graduate of Union College in Schenectady, New York, she earned her law degree from Washington & Lee University.
If elected at the Annual Meeting in August, she will serve one year as president-elect of the association before beginning a one-year term as ABA president.