Miami lawyer Hilarie Bass, who was selected to be the association’s president-elect nominee during the Midyear Meeting, expressed pride in the work of the association in a speech Feb. 8 to the House of Delegates and said she is “greatly humbled” to be given the “opportunity to lead the ABA in the great work we know it will continue to accomplish in the future.”
“Every day, in every state of this country, justice issues are resolved in more efficient and humane ways as a direct result of the work of this association, its members and its leaders,” she said. She highlighted the ABA’s role in the development of sentencing reform legislation, assistance to victims of domestic violence, and international children’s issues.
If elected at the ABA Annual Meeting in August, Bass will serve a one-year term as president-elect before becoming president in August 2017.
Bass has been involved in the ABA for more than 30 years and is a former chair of the ABA Section of Litigation, where she spearheaded creation of a Task Force on Implicit Bias in the Justice System. She also has served on the association’s Board of Governors and House of Delegates, headed several House of Delegates committees, and chaired numerous other ABA entities, including the Legal Opportunity Scholarship Committee, Council for the Fund for Justice and Education, and Committee on Public Education and the Law.
Her areas of concentration at Greenberg Traurig, where she has practiced for more than 30 years and is a shareholder and co-president, include complex commercial litigation and arbitrations, class action defense, securities fraud defense and banking litigation. Selected as a top lawyer by numerous publications, she is also widely recognized for her pro bono work on behalf of two foster children in a case that led to the elimination, on constitutional grounds, of the 20-year-old ban on gay adoption in Florida.
Bass earned her B.A. from The George Washington University and her J.D. from the University of Miami Law School, where she was editor of the law review. She serves on the Board of Trustees for the University of Miami.