CHICAGO, Aug. 4, 2020 — Pauline A. Weaver, founder of the law firm by the same name in Fremont, Calif., today became the secretary of the American Bar Association at the conclusion of the 2020 ABA Annual Meeting.
As secretary, Weaver will take office for a three-year term as one of five officers on the ABA’s Board of Governors.
Weaver has spent her legal career of nearly 40 years dedicated to working with indigent clients in the criminal law system. After passing the State Bar of California in 1980, she became a public defender in Alameda County, Calif., and worked there until 2011. She then opened her own firm, concentrating on criminal defense with a large pro bono practice.
An ABA member since joining the Law Student Division in1976, Weaver has developed a substantial record of service to the association. She serves on the Board of Governors, the House of Delegates, Chair of Committees, Section Officers Conference, Fellows of the American Bar Foundation and Fellows of the Young Lawyers Division. Weaver has also been chair or co-chair of several of the association’s divisions and sections and their committees. She has traveled twice to the Military Commission Hearings (Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four co-defendants) at Guantanamo, Cuba, as an observer for the ABA.
Weaver has received numerous awards for her legal and civic work, including the ABA Nelson Award in 2013, which recognizes outstanding contributions to the ABA by a government or public sector lawyer.
Outside the ABA, Weaver has been a longtime health and human services advocate. 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. She is a past president and co-founder of the National Conference of Women’s Bar Associations and is a co-founder of the Association of Women Attorneys in Memphis. She also was a vice president of the California State Bar Board of Governors.
Weaver earned her law degree and bachelor’s degree from the University of Memphis in Tennessee.
A biography of Weaver can be found here. A high-resolution photo of her can be found here.
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