Women's History Month - The ABA Diversity Center Celebrates - American Bar Association

The ABA Diversity Center Celebrates

Women’s History Month

DEBORAH ENIX-ROSS
Lawyer, American Bar Association
President-Elect

Deborah Enix-Ross is the President-Elect of the
American Bar Association and will become President in
August 2022. She is a senior advisor to the International
Dispute Resolution Group of Debevoise & Plimpton in
New York City. Enix-Ross served as chair of the ABA’s
policymaking House of Delegates and as chair of the
ABA Center for Human Rights. As chair of the ABA
International Law Section, she co-founded the Women’s
Interest Network and worked with the International Bar
Association to create its Women’s Interest Group.

MARY SMITH
Lawyer, American Bar Association
President-Elect Nominee

Mary Smith, a member of the Cherokee Nation, is the
first Native American woman to become ABA president-
elect nominee. She served as the President of the
National Native American Bar Association from 2013 to
2015. She served as Counselor in the Civil Division at the
U.S. Department of Justice from 2010 to 2012 and was
the highest-ranking Native American political appointee
in the entire Department. Prior to her tenure at the
Department, she served as White House Associate
Counsel to the President where she managed legal and
policy areas including Native American issues. Smith was
the first Native American woman to serve on the ABA’s
Board of Governors during her 2009 to 2012 service. In
2006.

ADRIENNE NELSON
Associate Justice of the Oregon
Supreme Court

Adrienne Nelson is the first African American to be
appointed to the Oregon Supreme Court in its 158-
year history. She previously served as a judge on the
Multnomah County Circuit Court from 2006 to 2018.
As a lawyer, she worked at a public interest law firm
and later served as senior attorney in Student Legal
and Mediation Services for Portland State University.
She has served as a member of the American Bar
Association (ABA) House of Delegates and the ABA
Commission of Disability Rights. She is currently the
Chair of the ABA Diversity Center and the Chair of the
ABA Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Council. She is a
2022 Spirit of Excellent Award recipient.

PAULETTE BROWN
Attorney, Judge

Paulette Brown has held numerous positions in her
career, including in-house counsel for Fortune 500
companies, Municipal Court Judge, and president of
the American Bar Association from 2015 to 2016. She
was the ABA’s first African American woman to serve
in the position. During her tenure as president, she
made diversity initiatives her priority. She and the
ABA Diversity and Inclusion 360 Commission prepared
videos on implicit bias for prosecutors, judges, and
public defenders. She has been cited by the National
Law Journal as one of “The 50 Most Influential
Minority Lawyers in America.” She is a past recipient
of the ABA’s Spirit of Excellence Award and the ABA’s
Margaret Brent Award.

ANGELA WINFIELD
VP & Chief Diversity Officer at LSAC

Angela Winfield is Vice President and Chief Diversity
Officer for the Law School Admission Council. In this
role, she provides leadership, vision, energy, and a
unified philosophy to LSAC’s diversity, equity, and
inclusion efforts on behalf of member law schools and
the students who seek a career in law. Prior to her
position at LSAC, Angela Winfield served as associate
vice president for inclusion and workforce diversity at
Cornell University. As CDO, Winfield brings her
experience and expertise in law, education, and
advocacy for DEI including disability rights and more.

MARGARET BRENT
Lawyer, Landowner
(1601-1671)

Margaret Brent was a British colonizer who arrived in
the United States in 1638. In 1642 Margaret acquired
one thousand acres from her brother Giles in payment
of a debt. Her brother returned to England and
bestowed upon her full power of attorney. In the
1640s, individuals often represented their own interest
before the courts. Of these amateur lawyers Margaret
Brent was perhaps the most successful of her day, and
she often appeared in court representing her brother’s
or her own interests. Brent went on to argue and win
100 court cases and is the namesake of the ABA
Margaret Brent Award.

ARABELLA MANSFIELD
Professor, Lawyer
(1846-1911)

Belle “Arabella” Babb graduated from Iowa Wesleyan
University in 1866. After her marriage to John M.
Mansfield, she joined the Iowa Wesleyan faculty as a
teacher of English and history. With her husband,
Mansfield studied law, and together they applied for
admission to the Iowa bar in 1869. The sympathetic
examiners, saying that her examination gave “the very
best rebuke possible to the imputation that ladies
cannot qualify for the practice of law,” certified
Mansfield as the first female lawyer in the country.
Mansfield did not practice law, however, but continued
to teach at Iowa Wesleyan. During that time, she helped
organize the Iowa Woman Suffrage Society.

SANDRA DAY O’CONNOR
Supreme Court Justice

As a judge, Sandra Day O’Connor developed a solid
reputation for being firm but just. In 1979, O’Connor
was selected to serve on the Arizona State Court of
Appeals. Only two years later, President Ronald
Reagan nominated her for associate justice of the
U.S. Supreme Court. O’Connor received unanimous
approval from the U.S. Senate and broke new ground
for women when she was sworn in as the first female
justice on the Supreme Court. For 24 years, Sandra
Day O’Connor was a pioneering force on the Supreme
Court.

RUTH BADER GINSBURG
Supreme Court Justice

Ruth Bader Ginsburg earned her bachelor’s degree in
government from Cornell University in 1954, finishing
first in her class. She married law student Martin D.
Ginsburg that same year. She graduated first in her class
from Columbia Law School. After clerking for U.S. District
Judge Edmund L. Palmieri (1959-61), Ginsburg taught at
Rutgers University Law School (1963-72) and at Columbia
(1972-80), where she became the school’s first female
tenured professor. During the 1970s, she also served as
the director of the Women’s Rights Project of the
American Civil Liberties Union, for which she argued six
landmark cases on gender equality before the U.S.
Supreme Court. She was confirmed by the Senate as
Supreme Court Justice in 1993.

SONIA SOTOMAYOR
Supreme Court Justice

Sonia Sotomayor served as Assistant District Attorney in
the New York County District Attorney’s Office from
1979–1984. She then litigated international commercial
matters in New York City at Pavia & Harcourt, where
she served as an associate and then partner from
1984–1992. In 1991, President George H.W. Bush
nominated her to the U.S. District Court, Southern
District of New York, and she served in that role from
1992–1998. She served as a judge on the United States
Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit from 1998–
2009. President Barack Obama nominated her as an
Associate Justice of the Supreme Court on May 26,
2009, and she assumed this role August 8, 2009.

ELENA KAGAN
Supreme Court Justice

Elena Kagan clerked for Judge Abner Mikva of the U.S.
Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit from 1986-1987 and
for Justice Thurgood Marshall of the U.S. Supreme Court
during the 1987 Term. After briefly practicing law at a
Washington, D.C. law firm, she became a law professor, at
the University of Chicago Law School and later at Harvard
Law School. She served for four years in the Clinton
Administration, as Associate Counsel to the President and
then as Deputy Assistant to the President for Domestic
Policy. Between 2003-2009, she served as the Dean of
Harvard Law School. President Obama nominated her as
an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court on May 10,
2010. She took her seat on August 7, 2010.

AMY CONEY BARRETT
Supreme Court Justice

Amy Coney Barrett served as a law clerk for Judge
Laurence H. Silberman of the U.S. Court of Appeals for
the D.C. Circuit from 1997 to 1998, and for Justice
Antonin Scalia of the Supreme Court of the United States
during the 1998 Term. After two years in private law
practice in Washington, D.C., she became a law professor,
joining the faculty of Notre Dame Law School in 2002. She
was appointed a Judge of the United States Court of
Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in 2017. President Donald
J. Trump nominated her as an Associate Justice of the
Supreme Court, and she took her seat on October 27,
2020.

KAMALA HARRIS
Lawyer, Politician, U.S. Vice President

On January 20, 2021, Kamala Harris became the first
female, the first Black, and the first Asian American
vice president. As vice president, she is the highest
ranking female official in U.S. history and is the first
vice president who graduated from an HBCU
(historically Black college and university). Kamala Harris
was the first Indian American to serve as a U.S. senator
and the second Black woman. As a deputy district
attorney from 1990-1998, she prosecuted cases of gang
violence, drug trafficking, and sexual abuse. In 2010
she became the first female and the first Black
Attorney General in the State of California – during her
tenure, she refused to defend Proposition 8, which
banned same-sex marriage.

JANET RENO
U.S. Attorney General
(1938-2016)
Janet Reno became the first woman attorney general
(1993-2001) of the United States. She began her
career in politics in 1971 when she was named staff
director of the Judiciary Committee of the Florida
House. In 1973 she was named assistant to the state
Attorney General and became state attorney in 1978.
She was reelected five times, even though she was a
Democrat in a largely Republican area. Her early days
as U.S. Attorney General were marked by her efforts to
secure greater protection for women seeking
abortions, who were often victims of harassment. She
was a recipient of the 1993 ABA Margaret Brent
Award.

LORETTA LYNCH
U.S. Attorney General

Loretta Lynch was the first Black woman to serve as
U.S. attorney general (2015-17). Lynch attended
Harvard University and Harvard Law School. As
attorney general, Lynch made police reform a priority
of the U.S. Department of Justice. It conducted
investigations into the law-enforcement departments
of various cities, following a series of high-profile
allegations of police brutality. Lynch also focused on
minority rights, including those of the LGBTQ+
community.

PATSY MINK
Lawyer
(1927-2002)
Patsy Mink was the first Asian American woman to run
for president in the Democratic Party and was the first
Asian American woman to serve in the U.S. Congress.
Upon graduating law school, she was unable to find
work due to her status as a married Asian woman. She
later returned to Hawaii where she was refused the
right to take the bar exam since upon marriage, she
lost her Hawaiian territorial residency. Mink fought this
sexist statute and prevailed; however, she could not
find work because she was married and had a child.
She would eventually enter politics to change
discriminatory practices through the law. Mink was a
major contributor of Title IX.

TAMMY BALDWIN
Lawyer, Senator

Tammy Baldwin is the first openly gay politician
elected to the U.S. Senate. She is also Wisconsin’s
first congresswoman. Baldwin was elected to
Congress in 1998, representing Wisconsin’s 2nd
District from 1999 to 2012 and serving on the House
Committee on Energy and Commerce. Baldwin
became known for her strong support of LGBTQ+
rights and universal health care. She is a 2021
American Bar Association Stonewall Award
recipient.

PAULI MURRAY
Lawyer, Scholar, Activist, Poet, Priest
(1920-1985)
Rev. Dr. Pauli Murray was a civil rights activist, legal
scholar, feminist, poet, Episcopal priest, and women’s
rights activist. Their book, States’ Laws on Race and
Color was considered by Thurgood Marshall as the
“Bible” for civil rights litigators. Ruth Bader Ginsburg
recognized Murray’s pioneering work on gender
discrimination by naming them as a coauthor of a brief
on Reed v. Reed, a groundbreaking case where the
Supreme Court ruled that the Equal Protection Clause
of the 14th Amendment protects against differential
treatment based on sex. The Pauli Murray Center
currently refers to Murray with s/he or they/them
pronouns.

Intisar A. Rabb
Scholar, Law Professor

Intisar A. Rabb is a Professor of Law at Harvard Law
School and a director of its Islamic Legal Studies
Program. She also holds an appointment as Professor
of History at Harvard University. In 2015, she received
awards from the Luce Foundation and the MacArthur
Foundation for SHARIAsource – an online portal for
content and context on Islamic law, designed to make
available primary sources as well as informed
scholarly commentary about them freely available in
collaboration with other legal scholars. She has
conducted research in Egypt, Iran, Syria, and
elsewhere.

SHERRILYN IFILL
Lawyer

Sherrilyn Ifill is the President and Director-Counsel of
the NAACP Legal Defense Fund (LDF). The LDF is the
nation’s top civil rights organization that fights for
racial justice and equality. Ifill is considered as a
nationally recognized expert on voting rights and
judicial selection. As president and Director-Counsel of
the LDF, Ifill has raised the visibility and engagement of
the organization in on civil rights issues and has
maintained the organization’s leadership on matters of
voter suppression, education inequity, and racial
discrimination. Ifill was named 2020 Attorney of the
Year by The American Lawyer and is a recipient of the
2021 ABA Spirit of Excellence Award.

MIA YAMAMOTO
Lawyer

A transgender woman, Yamamoto was born in Poston
Relocation Camp, Arizona, 1943. She graduated from Cal
State University with a B.S. in government in 1966. As a
young adult, she struggled with her gender identity and
decided to join the Army, in which she served from 66-
68. She was awarded many medals such as the National
Defense Service Medal, Army Commendation Medal,
and Vietnam Campaign Medal. After the army, she
attended UCLA’s School of Law, where she co-founded
the Asian Pacific Islander Law Student Association. In
1984, she opened her own practice, and has been
working as lawyer ever since. Yamamoto was awarded
with the 2013 ABA Stonewall Award.

REGINA MONTOYA
Lawyer

Regina Montoya is nationally recognized as one of the
top lawyers in the country. In 1993, she served in the
White House as Assistant to the President and Director
of the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs. She was one
of the first Latinas to earn a partnership in a major
corporate law firm in the United States and has
received numerous accolades for her achievements
including the 2020 Margaret Brent Award (ABA
Commission On Women in the Profession). Montoya is
a leader in the nonprofit community and has dedicated
herself to numerous issues including the economic
advancement of the American Latino community.

CLAUDIA GORDON
Lawyer

In 2004, Claudia Gordon served as vice president of
the National Black Deaf Advocates. Gordon worked
for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Office
of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties as a senior policy
advisor. She then held a position in the White House
Office of Public Engagement as the Public
Engagement Advisor to the Disability Community and
then served the U.S. Department of Labor as the
Chief of Staff of the Office of Federal Contract
Compliance Programs where she helped promote the
non-discrimination of workers. Gordon currently is
the Senior Accessibility Strategy Partner at T-Mobile.

TINA TCHEN
Lawyer

Tina Tchen is a recipient of the 2018 ABA Margaret
Brent Award. She served in the Obama
administration as the Director of the White House
Office of Public Engagement in 2009, the Executive
Director of the White House Council on Women and
Girls, and in 2011 as Assistant to the President and
Chief of Staff to the First Lady. She has spent her legal
career advocating for women’s rights and mentoring
young women lawyers. She currently serves as
President and CEO of Time’s Up and founded their
key initiative, a legal defense fund for women who
experienced sexual harassment at work, regardless
of their industry.

JANE BOLIN
Judge, Lawyer
(1908-2007)

Jane Bolin was a trailblazing attorney who became
the first Black female judge in the United States,
serving on New York’s Family Court for four decades.
Bolin was a thoughtful, conscientious force on the
bench, confronting a range of issues on the domestic
front and taking great care when it came to the plight
of children. She also changed segregationist policies
that had been entrenched in the system, including
skin-color based assignments for probation officers.
Additionally, Bolin worked with first lady Eleanor
Roosevelt in providing support for the Wiltwyck
School, a comprehensive, holistic program to help
eradicate juvenile crime.

CARMELYN MALALIS
Lawyer

Carmelyn Malalis served as Chair and Commissioner of
the New York City Commission on Human Rights from
2014 to 2021, following more than a decade in private
practice as an advocate for employees’ rights in the
workplace. Throughout her career, Malalis has
demonstrated a fierce commitment to preventing and
prosecuting discrimination and tolerance as well as
promoting diversity and inclusion. She is a 2020
American Bar Association Stonewall Award recipient.