(posthumously)
Anchorage, Alaska
Making a Difference through Community Service
Lynn M. Allingham served on the ABA Board of Governors as a Goal III Woman Member at Large from 2019-2022. She was admitted to practice in Alaska and Washington State.
Her participation in the American Bar Association began in law school when she served as the University of Washington Law School Delegate to the ABA Law Student Division Assembly and continued in the ABA Young Lawyers Division where she served as a District Representative on the Executive Council.
She also served as a Division Director and on the Executive Council of the GPSolo Division, where she served as a member and Chair of the GPSolo Book Publications Board and a member of the Programs Committee.
She served as Alaska Bar Delegate to the ABA House of Delegates for over 20 years, including service on the Select Committee of the House of Delegates. She served as an At-Large Delegate to the House. She served on the Commission on IOLTA for three years and served on the board of the ABA YLD Fellows and was a Life Fellow and past State Co-chair of the American Bar Foundation. She participated in ABA Day in Washington, DC for numerous years, and served as Alaska State Captain for much of that time.
She served as the ABA's Alaska State Membership Chair for many years and was awarded the Outstanding State Membership Chair Award.
She served on the board of directors of the Anchorage Bar Association and served two terms as president of that organization.
She had a solo law practice in Anchorage, AK with an emphasis on business and intellectual property law. She began her law practice as an associate at the law firm of Guess & Rudd in Anchorage, AK. She also served as Assistant US Attorney in the Alaska US Attorney's office and worked as General Counsel at the Aleutian Pribilof Islands Association, a non-profit Alaska Native Corporation.
Making a Difference through Pro Bono Work
The State Bar of Arizona created the Arizona Bar Foundation as a separate 501(c) 3 organization in 1978, charging it with the mission of promoting access to justice for all Arizonans. The Foundation strives to fulfill this mission by preparing Arizona youth for civic responsibility and providing access to justice for Arizonans most in need.
Through the support of volunteers and the provision of technical and financial assistance to probation and resource officers, teachers and administrators, private attorneys and judges, and legal service attorneys and advocates, the Foundation works to level the playing field, so that all in Arizona have knowledge and access to the justice systems. The three key avenues of promotion are collaboration, outreach, and recognition.
Collaborating with the State Bar, local bars, law firms, libraries, the Court, and legal aid entities, the Foundation amplifies their efforts to increase access to justice. The Foundation’s Law-Related Education (LRE) programs and collaborative initiatives utilize statewide outreach to raise awareness of volunteer opportunities.
Each month, the Foundation recognizes a volunteer who has assisted a program or offered their expertise. Their annual award luncheon recognizes those who have made significant contributions toward advancing justice. With “promoting’ as core to its mission, the Foundation’s accomplishments are thanks to the efforts of its volunteers, partners, and supporters.
Washington, DC
Keynote Speaker
Will A. Gunn is the General Counsel and Vice President for Legal Affairs for the Legal Services Corporation (LSC). In 2009, he was appointed by President Barack Obama as the General Counsel for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and served in that role for five years. He graduated from the U.S. Air Force Academy with military honors and graduated cum laude from Harvard Law School where he served as President of the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau. He also holds an LL.M in environmental law from George Washington University, a Masters in National Resource Strategy from the National Defense University, and a Masters in Ministry (with a focus on Leadership) from Lancaster Bible College. In 2003, Will was selected as the first-ever Chief Defense Counsel for the DoD Office of Military Commissions. In that role, he established an office that defends detainees brought before military commissions at the Guantanamo Prison Camp. He served as a White House Fellow during the George H. W. Bush Administration and after retiring from the Air Force as a colonel in 2005, Will served as CEO of Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Washington. Will chaired the ABA’s 2021 National Law Day commemoration; the ABA Youth at Risk Commission; and the ABA Commission on Racial and Ethnic Diversity. He was a founding Director of the Air Force Academy Way of Life Alumni Group and served as the Vice Chair of the Air Force Academy Association of Graduates. He is also a minister in his local church, and he has received numerous awards including an honorary doctorate from Nova Southeastern University and the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau’s Outstanding Alumni Award. Most recently, he was appointed by the Secretary of Defense as a member of the Military Justice Review Panel.
Phoenix, Arizona
Difference Maker Award
Stacy Leeds is the Willard H. Pedrick Dean and Regents Professor and Foundation Professor of Law and Leadership at Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University. She is a scholar of Indigenous law and policy and an experienced leader in law, higher education, economic development, and conflict resolution. She holds law degrees from the University of Wisconsin (LL.M.) and University of Tulsa (J.D.), a business degree from the University of Tennessee (M.B.A.), and an undergraduate degree in history from Washington University in St. Louis (B.A.).
Leeds was the first Indigenous woman to serve as a law school dean. She was Dean of the University of Arkansas School of Law (2011-2018) and the inaugural Vice Chancellor for Economic Development at the University of Arkansas (2017-2020). In addition, Leeds was an administrator and professor at the University of Kansas and the University of North Dakota and a William H. Hastie Fellow at the University of Wisconsin. She is an elected member of the American Law Institute and a recipient of the American Bar Association’s Spirit of Excellence Award.
Hon. Leslie Miller
Tucson, Arizona
Making a Difference through Service to the Profession
Judge Leslie Miller began her work in the ABA as the Law Student Division representative from her law school. During her involvement as a Young Lawyer, she sat on the Executive Council and Chaired National Community Law Week, bringing that event to Tucson as a week-long series of programs in both schools and the community. Leslie initiated the charter for the Pima County Young Lawyers affiliate and served as Chair of the Arizona Young Lawyers.
Judge Miller was President of the Pima County Bar Association, the Morris Udall Inn of Court and the Arizona Judges Association and was elected to the State Bar of Arizona Board of Governors.
Leslie worked as a Public Defender, City Magistrate and Superior Court Judge. Judge Miller was instrumental in establishing the Pima County Drug Court, one of the first in the country. She taught at the National Drug Court Association drug court training and assisted in evaluating drug courts around the country. Leslie helped write and pass legislation in Arizona to support drug courts and served as the first President of the Arizona Association of Drug Court Professionals.
Continuing her commitment to engage with the community, she established the “Courthouse Gallery” which showcases the art work of local school students with rotating exhibits on the ground floor of the Courthouse. At the end of each exhibit, the students tour the Courthouse, watch proceedings, speak with judges and enjoy a reception. Judge Miller was also a leader in developing the first public service center in the Court library to assist pro se litigants.
A member of the Judicial Division since her judicial appointment, Leslie has served as Chair of the Judicial Division and the National Conference of State Trial Judges. Her main initiative as Division Chair was the Judicial Mentor Program in which diverse lawyers who were interested in a judicial position were paired with appropriate judges who served as mentors. Leslie visited the meetings of the bars of color to raise awareness and recruit participants.
Leslie served two terms on the ABA Board of Governors, on numerous ABA committees and commissions, and is currently serving as Chair of Meetings and Travel. In that capacity, she has worked to reinvigorate the Annual Meeting through a new “Mentor Program” for first time attendees, an Association wide welcome reception and free “ABA Expert” programs targeted at solo, small firm and young lawyer attendees and other events and programming.
She has been a Delegate in the House of Delegates for more than 20 years and has served as Chair of the Credentials and Admissions Committee and the Resolution Impact and Review Committee and Vice Chair of the Drafting and the Steering Committee of the Nomination Committee as well as a member of Scope.
Judge Miller has also been active in the National Association of Women Judges, the Arizona Women Lawyers Association and the Minority Bar Association as well as numerous civic organizations including the Boys and Girls Clubs, Tucson International Mariachi Conference, YMCA, YWCA and Susan Komen.
Tucson, Arizona
Difference Maker Award
Marc Miller served as Dean and Ralph W. Bilby Professor of Law at the University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law between 2012 and January 2025. He is a graduate of the University of Chicago Law School (JD) and Pomona College (BA).
Under Dean Miller’s leadership the University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law focused on access to legal education and access to legal services. In partnership with the College of Social and Behavioral Science, in 2014 Miller led Arizona Law to create the first BA in Law in the US. The BA in Law now has more than 1,900 majors, including around 800 majors in Tucson (including Marc’s son) and more than 350 students fully online, with over half of online students living outside Arizona. Around 60 percent of domestic (US) students in the BA in Law come from under-represented groups, more than 60 percent identify as female, and about one half of the residential US BA in Law majors identify as first-generation students.
More than 600 dual undergraduate degree BA in Law students are in residential (in-person) programs outside the US at a “microcampus,” with the largest partnership at Ocean University in Qingdao, China, with 500 students. Starting in Fall 2025, Arizona will offer the first US-accredited JD to be delivered fully outside the borders of the United States as a dual JD program with the University of Technology Sydney.
In 2015 Miller was instrumental in making Arizona Law the first US law school to accept the GRE as an alternative to the LSAT for JD admissions. Use of the GRE for JD admissions increased access to legal education for people who identify as diverse and first-generation students, for those with scientific and technical backgrounds, for students with significant education and life experience, and for graduate and professional students in other programs. Harvard followed suit. In the fall of 2021, thanks to Miller’s continued advocacy, the ABA Council of the Section on Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar approved the use of the GRE for JD admissions by all accredited law schools.
Since 2019 Miller and a team have worked to create JD-Next, a JD admissions test and bridge program that substantially eliminates racial scoring differences recognized in legacy tests. The JD-Next exam has been approved for use by US law schools through a simple variance process, and more than a quarter of US law schools have requested and been granted a variance. JD-Next was sold in 2024 to a major legal publisher.
Before coming to the University of Arizona, Miller taught for seventeen years at Emory University School of Law. Before teaching Miller served as law clerk to Chief Judge John Godbold of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit in Montgomery, Alabama, as Attorney-Advisor in the Office of Legal Counsel of the U.S. Department of Justice, and as Special Counsel at the Vera Institute of Justice in New York.
Lansing, Illinois
Making a Difference by Breaking Barriers
Mary Smith served as President of the American Bar Association (ABA) from 2023-2024 and was the first Native American woman in this role.
Mary is an independent board member and former CEO of a $6 billion national healthcare organization, the Indian Health Service. Mary currently serves on the board of PTC Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: PTCT), a global biopharmaceutical company and on the board of HAI Group, a leading member-owned insurance company for the affordable housing industry. Mary is also Vice Chair of the VENG Group, a national consulting firm.
She has served at the highest levels of government, both at the federal and state level. Mary served on the senior team of the Civil Division at the United States Department of Justice and was General Counsel at the Illinois Department of Insurance. Earlier in her career, Mary served in the White House as Associate Counsel to the President and Associate Director of Policy Planning.
In her private sector experience, she served in a senior role at Tyco International (US) Inc., a $40 billion public company, where she managed a $60 million budget. Mary also served as Special Counsel & Estate Trust Officer at the Office of Special Deputy Receiver; a Partner in the Chicago office of Schoeman, Updike & Kaufman, a women-owned firm; and an attorney at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP in Washington, D.C. where she specialized in governmental investigations and securities class actions.
In bar activities, Mary is a past ABA secretary. She was the first Native American to serve as one of 13 commissioners on the Commission on Women in the Profession. She has held leadership positions in both the ABA Section of Litigation and the ABA Section of Civil Rights and Social Responsibility. She also served as an ABA representative to the United Nations Economic and Social Council.
Mary has also served in leadership roles in state and local bars. Mary served on the Executive Council of the National Conference of Bar Presidents and is a past president of the National Native American Bar Association. She was co-chair of the Litigation Section in the District of Columbia Bar Association and also served on the Board of Directors for the Chicago Bar Association.
In her civic activities, she is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Economic Club of Chicago, C200, The Chicago Network, the Commercial Club of Chicago, the International Women’s Forum, and the National Association of Corporate Directors.
Mary founded and serves as President and Chair of a foundation named after her mother and grandmother, respectively, the Caroline and Ora Smith Foundation, to train Native American girls in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) (www.carolineorasmithfoundation.org).
In 2024, Mary was selected to Forbes 50 over 50.
Mary graduated from the University of Chicago School of Law, cum laude and received a B.S. in mathematics and computer science, magna cum laude, from Loyola University of Chicago. Mary served on the Law Review and clerked for the Hon. R. Lanier Anderson III in the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals.