CHICAGO, Aug. 7, 2018 – Bill Bay, a partner with Thompson Coburn LLP in St. Louis, today became chair of the American Bar Association House of Delegates at the organization’s Annual Meeting in Chicago.
The House of Delegates is the ABA’s policymaking body, and the two-year post of chair is the second-highest office in the ABA. There are 560 delegates in the House, including representatives of state and local bar associations, substantive legal sections and divisions of the ABA, and affiliated organizations and conferences of the Judicial Division, as well as former ABA officers, members of the Board of Governors, at-large delegates and state delegates. Action taken by the House of Delegates on specific issues becomes official policy of the ABA.
Bay is a highly experienced litigator who has represented major corporations in high-stakes litigation for more than 30 years. His clients vary from major financial institutions to manufacturers to post-secondary institutions, and he regularly helps organizations manage and respond to large portfolios of litigation in multiple jurisdictions. He is also a member of the American Law Institute, the leading independent organization in the United States that produces scholarly work to clarify, modernize and improve the law.
Bay has a long history of service and leadership at the ABA. He is a past chair (2012-13) of the Section of Litigation, the largest section of the ABA. He has served as a member of the ABA Board of Governors and chaired its Finance Committee from 2015-16. Additionally, Bay has been a member of the ABA House of Delegates since 2002, serving on numerous committees. Bay has served in leadership positions at other ABA entities, including its Standing Committee on Bar Activities & Services (chair, 2009-12); Commission on Racial and Ethnic Diversity in the Profession; Commission on Governance; Legal Opportunity Scholarship Fundraising Committee; Standing Committee on Membership; Death Penalty Representation Project; and Young Lawyers Division. He is a fellow of the American Bar Foundation.
Beyond the ABA, Bay is active in several local and state bar associations. He is a past president of the Bar Association of Metropolitan St. Louis and a past member of The Missouri Bar Board of Governors, where he chaired several committees. He is a fellow of The Missouri Bar Foundation.
Notably, Bay has been selected to co-chair several statewide commissions focused on increasing access and opportunities for women attorneys; achieving equal access to justice for litigants, regardless of their race or ethnicity; and exploring the future of the legal profession in Missouri. He currently serves as co-chair of the Supreme Court of Missouri’s Commission on Racial and Ethnic Fairness.
In recent years Bay has been honored with the Spurgeon Smithson award, a top honor given by The Missouri Bar; the Distinguished Lawyer Award, the highest honor awarded by the Bar Association of Metropolitan St. Louis; an Excellence in Law Award from St. Louis Magazine; and Missouri Lawyers Weekly’s Influential Lawyer Award. He has appeared in The Best Lawyers in America since 2012 and has been recognized by Best Lawyers multiple times as the St. Louis Lawyer of the Year for Litigation-Banking and Finance.
Bay received his B.A. from the University of Missouri and his J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School.
A biography of Bay can be found here. A photo of Bay can be found here.
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