When Laurel G. Bellows outlined her new initiatives before the ABA House of Delegates in August 2012 in her first speech as ABA president, she referenced President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation and the inalienable rights of human beings. “As American lawyers, this is our core belief. We promote diversity and equal opportunity, and we fight to ensure that the rights of others are accepted.”
A business litigator and executive compensation lawyer, Bellows clearly and unequivocally laid out goals for her presidential term: the abolition of human trafficking in the United States, gender equity, cybersecurity, achievement of adequate funding for the court system, and preservation of civil jury trials.