Pauline Weaver

Pauline Weaver will receive the Pickering Award of Achievement on August 3 at the ABA 2024 Annual Meeting in Chicago.

Originally from England, Ms. Weaver came to the U.S. at the age of eleven. She earned her Bachelor’s and law degree from University of Memphis in Tennessee. After passing the State Bar of California in 1980, she became a Public Defender for Alameda County and worked there until 2011. She was one of the first women in Alameda County to try a death penalty case.

In her professional life, she is the past president of both the National Conference of Women’s Bar Associations and California Women Lawyers. She served as Secretary of the American Bar Association and has sat on ABA Board of Governors. She has worked to improve the legal system through education and involvement in local, state, and national bar associations. She took on governing roles in every one of her more than 100 boards, committees, and commissions, including the ABA, the State Bar of California, the Foundation of the State Bar, the Judicial Nominees Evaluation Commission, and California Women Lawyers.

She has contributed to organizations for broad societal /legal goals, and if that did not keep her busy enough, she also focused on the small and personal contributions - serving as a literacy volunteer, and a mentor for recent parolees.  Pauline has worked for years as an advocate for health and human services for all of her home town’s (Fremont, CA) citizens. In May 2019, she was honored as a longtime advocate for affordable housing in California by having a low income, senior residential center named after her – Pauline Weaver Senior Apartments in Fremont, CA. She was on the Eden Housing Board of Directors from 1988 to 2020. Recently, she participated in Fremont’s first Emerging Leaders Program - a two-day retreat on Racial Equality Leadership. The breadth of her work and commitment also is demonstrated by her being a founding member of Interfaith Women of Peace, a group which works in the community for understanding and peaceful interaction among different religious faiths.

One of her earliest actions for social justice was being one of four women to join Rotary International in California after the U.S. Supreme Court 1987 decision banning its exclusion. She is now in her third term as Chair of the Center for Civic Education and was a 2007 delegate to the World Congress on Civic Education in Morocco.  She has traveled two times to the Military Commission Hearings (Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four co-defendants) at Guantanamo, Cuba as an observer for the ABA.  Pauline has received numerous awards for her legal and civic work, including the ABA’s Nelson Award in 2013 which recognizes outstanding contributions to the ABA by a government or public sector lawyer. In addition, she was the recipient of the Judith Soley Lawyer as Citizen Award from California Women Lawyers. Previously, she has been honored for her work by being named a "Woman of Achievement" by Alameda County and was 1988 "Woman of the Year" in the 19th Assembly District.

Pauline has always participated in civic affairs in exceptional ways. She has been Chair of the Fremont Planning Commission, the Sister City Commission, the Washington Hospital Healthcare Foundation, and the Fremont Symphony. She was a board member of Shelter Against Violent Environments (domestic violence program) for thirteen years, served as Chair for four terms and co-founded SAVE's Legal Clinic Program. She has been a long-time member of League of Women Voters and the American Association of University Women.

Sponsorships

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