CHICAGO, July 30, 2024 — Retired lawyer Estelle H. Rogers of Forestville, California, is a recipient of the 2024 Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement Award.
Rogers will receive the award, given annually by the ABA Commission on Women in the Profession, at a ceremony and reception at 3-5:30 p.m. CDT on Sunday, Aug. 4, at the Swissotel Chicago during the 2024 ABA Annual Meeting.
In addition to Rogers, the 2024 award recipients include Dolores Atencio, Pamila J. Brown, Gina Shishima and Barbara Wall.
“We applaud the achievements of this amazing group of women, who have and will continue to inspire all of us in the legal profession including the next generation of women lawyers,” said Karol Corbin-Walker, chair of the Commission on Women in the Profession.
Rogers was the legislative director of Project Vote, a national nonpartisan organization promoting civic engagement, improved election administration and voting rights before retiring in 2015. Earlier in her career, she was a legal and public policy consultant, specializing in civil rights and civil liberties, with clients that included the Alliance for Justice, Common Cause and the American Bar Association. She was a lawyer in the Voter Protection Program at Advancement Project (2005-2006) and served as special counsel to the Voter Protection Project of America’s Families United.
From August 2003 to July 2004, Rogers was an advocacy legal specialist in Moscow, Russia, representing the ABA Central European and Eurasian Law Initiative, now a part of the ABA Rule of Law Initiative. Before her time in Moscow, she was executive director of the Death with Dignity National Center, a public education and advocacy organization dedicated to improving end-of-life care. Her earlier career included executive positions at Planned Parenthood Federation of America, the Pro-Choice Public Education Project and the American Civil Liberties Union.
Among her many ABA positions, Rogers was a member of the House of Delegates for 27 years. She currently chairs the Legal Opportunity Scholarship Fund Selection Committee and has chaired the Standing Committee on Election Law, Standing Committee on Governmental Affairs and the Special Committee on Bioethics. Her past ABA experience also includes service on the Commission on Women in the Profession and the Death Penalty Representation Project. She is a Life Fellow of the American Bar Foundation.
Rogers co-wrote a chapter in “America Votes,” 2nd edition, a 2012 publication of the American Bar Association. Among her other publications are two law review articles and a chapter in the book “Changing America.”
Rogers earned a bachelor’s degree at the University of Chicago and a law degree at the University of Maryland Law School. Click here for a photo of Estelle H. Rogers.
The Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement Award, established in 1991, honors outstanding women lawyers who have achieved professional excellence in their area of specialty and have actively paved the way to success for other women in the profession. The award is named for Margaret Brent, the first woman lawyer in America. Brent arrived in the colonies in 1638 and was involved in 124 court cases in more than eight years, winning every case.
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