List of presidents of the American Bar Association

This list of the presidents of the American Bar Association includes all presidents of the association, which was formed in 1878 to represent the interests of lawyers, and create and maintain a code of ethics. Since 1923, the ABA has accredited law schools. The American Bar Association is a voluntary bar association of lawyers and law students not specific to any jurisdiction in the United States.

The association comprises 410,000 members, who are represented by a House of Delegates, the organization's primary body, which acts to create and adopt new policies and recommendations pertaining to the practice of law. The House of Delegates and the association itself are headed by the President, who generally serves a one-year term.

Presidents

#	Image	Name	Term	State	Comments	Ref.
1		James O. Broadhead	1878–1879	Missouri	American Bar Association co-founder
2		Benjamin H. Bristow	1879–1880	New York
3		Edward John Phelps	1880–1881	Vermont
4		Clarkson Nott Potter	1881–1882	New York	Former Congressman
5		Alexander Lawton	1882–1883	Georgia
6		Cortlandt Parker	1883–1884	New Jersey
7		John W. Stevenson	1884–1885	Kentucky	Governor/Senator
8		William Allen Butler	1885–1886	New York
9		Thomas J. Semmes	1886–1887	Louisiana
10		George G. Wright	1887–1888	Iowa	former Senator
11		David Dudley Field	1888–1889	New York
12		Henry Hitchcock	1889–1890	Missouri	American Bar Association co-founder
13		Simeon E. Baldwin	1890–1891	Connecticut
14		John Forrest Dillon	1891–1892	New York
15		John Randolph Tucker	1892–1893	Virginia
16		Thomas Cooley	1893–1894	Michigan
17		James C. Carter	1894–1895	New York
18		Moorfield Storey	1895–1896	Massachusetts
19		James M. Woolworth	1896–1897	Nebraska
20		William Wirt Howe	1897–1898	Louisiana
21		Joseph H. Choate	1898–1899	New York
22		Charles F. Manderson	1899–1900	Nebraska	former Senator
23		Edmund Wetmore	1900–1901	New York
24		U. M. Rose	1901–1902	Arkansas
25			1902–1903	Pennsylvania
26		James Hagerman	1902–1903	Missouri
27		Henry St. George Tucker, III	1904–1905	Virginia
28		George R. Peck	1905–1906	Illinois
29		Alton B. Parker	1906–1907	New York
30		Jacob M. Dickinson	1907–1908	Illinois	future United States Secretary of War
31		Frederick William Lehmann	1908–1910	Missouri	Future US Solicitor General
32		Charles F. Libby	1909–1910	Maine
33		Edgar Howard Farrar	1910–1911	Louisiana
34		Stephen S. Gregory	1911–1912	Illinois
35		Frank B. Kellogg	1912–1913	Minnesota	Future US Secretary of State
36		William Howard Taft	1913–1914	District of Columbia	Former US President Future US Supreme Court Chief Justice
37		Peter W. Meldrim	1914–1915	Georgia
38		Elihu Root	1915–1916	New York
39		George Sutherland	1916–1917	Utah	Future US Supreme Court Justice
40		Walter George Smith	1917–1918	Pennsylvania
41		George T. Page	1918–1919	Illinois
42		Hampton L. Carson	1919–1921	Pennsylvania
43		William A. Blount	1920–1921	Florida
44		Cordenio A. Severance	1921–1922	Minnesota
45		John W. Davis	1922–1923	New York
46		Robert E. Lee Saner	1923–1924	Texas
47		Charles E. Hughes	1925–1926	New York	Future US Supreme Court Chief Justice
48		Chester Isaiah Long	1926–1927	Kansas
49		Charles S. Whitman	1926–1927	New York
50		Silas H. Strawn	1927–1928	Illinois
51		Gurney E. Newlin	1928–1929	California
52		Henry Upson Sims	1929–1930	Alabama
53		Josiah Marvel	1930–1931	Delaware
54		Charles A. Boston	1930–1931	New York
55		Guy A. Thompson	1931–1932	Missouri
56		Clarence E. Martin	1932–1933	West Virginia
57		Earle W. Evans	1933–1934	Kansas
58		Scott M. Loftin	1934–1935	Florida
59		William L. Ransom	1935–1936	New York
60		Frederick Harold Stinchfield	1936–1937	Minnesota
61		Arthur T. Vanderbilt	1937–1938	New Jersey
62		Frank J. Hogan	1938–1939	District of Columbia
63		Charles A. Beardsley	1939–1940	California
64		Jacob M. Lashley	1940–1941	Missouri
65		Walter P. Armstrong	1941–1942	Tennessee
66		George Maurice Morris	1942–1943	District of Columbia
67		Joseph W. Henderson	1943–1944	Pennsylvania
68		David A. Simmons	1944–1945	Texas
69		Willis Smith	1945–1946	North Carolina
70		Carl B. Rix	1946–1947	Wisconsin
71		Tappan Gregory	1947–1948	Illinois
72		Frank E. Holman	1948–1949	District of Columbia
73		Harold J. Gallagher	1949–1950	New York
74		Cody Fowler	1950–1951	Florida
75		Howard L. Barkdull	1951–1952	Ohio
76		Robert G. Storey	1952–1953	Texas
77		William James Jameson	1953–1954	Montana
78		Loyd Wright	1954–1955	California
79		E. Smythe Gambrell	1955–1956	Georgia
80		David Farrow Maxwell	1956–1957	Pennsylvania
81		Charles S. Rhyne	1957–1958	District of Columbia
82		Ross L. Malone, Jr.	1958–1959	New Mexico	Former Deputy Attorney General, 1952–53
83		John D. Randall	1959–1960	Iowa
84		Whitney N. Seymour, Sr.	1960–1961	New York	Former Assistant Solicitor General, 1931–33
85		John C. Satterfield	1961–1962	Mississippi
86		Sylvester C. Smith, Jr.	1962–1963	New Jersey
87		Walter E. Craig	1963–1964	Arizona
88		Lewis Franklin Powell, Jr.	1964–1965	Virginia	Future US Supreme Court Justice
89		Edward W. Kuhn	1965–1966	Tennessee
90		Orison S. Marden	1966–1967	New York
91		Earl F. Morris	1967–1968	Ohio
92		William T. Gossett	1968–1969	Michigan
93		Bernard Segal	1969–1970	Pennsylvania	First Jewish American president
94		Edward L. Wright	1970–1971	Arkansas
95		Leon Jaworski	1971–1972	Texas
96		Robert W. Meserve	1972–1973	Massachusetts
97		Chesterfield Smith	1973–1974	Florida
98		James D. Fellers	1974–1975	Oklahoma
99		Lawrence E. Walsh	1975–1976	New York
100		Justin A. Stanley	1976–1977	Illinois
101		William B. Spann, Jr.	1977–1978	Georgia
102		S. Shepherd Tate	1978–1979	Tennessee
103		Leonard S. Janofsky	1979–1980	California
104		William Reece Smith, Jr.	1980–1981	Florida
105		David R. Brink	1981–1982	Minnesota
106		Morris Harrell	1982–1983	Texas
107		Wallace D. Riley	1983–1984	Michigan
108		John C. Shepherd	1984–1985	Missouri
109		William W. Falsgraf	1983–1985	Ohio
110		Eugene C. Thomas	1986–1987	Idaho
111		Robert MacCrate	1987–1988	New York
112		Robert D. Raven	1988–1989	California
113		L. Stanley Chauvin, Jr.	1988–1989	Kentucky
114		John J. Curtin, Jr.	1990–1991	Massachusetts
115		Sandy D'Alemberte	1991–1992	Florida	Future president of FSU
116		J. Michael McWilliams	1992–1993	Maryland
117		R. William Ide, III	1994–1995	Georgia
118		George Edward Bushnell Jr.	1994–1995	Michigan
119		Roberta Cooper Ramo	1995–1996	New Mexico	First female president
120		N. Lee Cooper	1996–1997	Alabama
121		Jerome J. Shestack	1997–1998	Pennsylvania
122		Philip S. Anderson	1998–1999	Arkansas
123		William G. Paul	1999–2000	Oklahoma
124		Martha W. Barnett	2000–2001	Florida
125		Robert Edward Hirshon	2001–2002	Michigan
126		Alfred P. Carlton Jr.	2002–2003	North Carolina
127		Dennis W. Archer	2003–2004	Michigan	First African-American president
128		Robert J. Grey, Jr.	2004–2005	Virginia
129		Michael S. Greco	2005–2006	Massachusetts	First foreign-born president
130		Karen J. Mathis	2006–2007	Pennsylvania
131		William H. Neukom	2007–2008	California
132		H. Thomas Wells Jr.	2008–2009	Alabama
133		Carolyn B. Lamm	2009–2010	District of Columbia
134		Stephen N. Zack	2010–2011	Florida	First Hispanic American president
135		William T. Robinson III	2011–2012	Kentucky
136		Laurel G. Bellows	2012–2013	Illinois
137		James R. Silkenat	2013–2014	New York
138		William C. Hubbard	2014–2015	South Carolina
139		Paulette Brown	2015–2016	New Jersey	First woman of color
140		Linda Klein	2016–2017	Georgia
141		Hilarie Bass	2017–2018	Florida
142		Bob Carlson	2018–2019	Montana
143		Judy Perry Martinez	2019–2020	Louisiana
144		Patricia Lee Refo	2020–2021	Arizona
145		Reginald M. Turner	2021–2022	Michigan
146		Deborah Enix-Ross	2022–2023	New York
147		Mary L. Smith	2023–2024	Illinois	First Native American (Cherokee) woman president
148		William R. Bay	2024–2025	Missouri

See also

• List of presidents of the Virginia Bar Association
• List of Minnesota State Bar Association Presidents

References

• Sobel, Robert. Biographical Directory of the United States Executive Branch, 1774-1889. Greenwood Press (1990). ISBN 0-313-26593-3.

Notes and references

1. Johnson, Rossiter. Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, - Vol. I-X (10). The Biographical Society (1904).
2. Sobel, 1990. p. 44
3. "BAMSL Members". Bar Association of Metropolitan St. Louis. Archived from the original on 2000-10-01. Retrieved 2007-12-30.
4. "Tucker, John Randolph". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. Retrieved 2008-03-07.
5. "Manderson, Charles Frederick". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. Retrieved 2007-12-30.
6. "Edmund Whetmore, Noted Lawyer, Dies" (PDF). New York Times. 1918-07-09. Retrieved 2007-12-30.
7. "Tucker, Henry St. George, (1853 - 1932)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. Retrieved 2024-04-05.
8. "History of the United States Attorney District of Kansas". United States Department of Justice. Retrieved 2007-12-30.
9. "Alton B. Parker" (PDF). Klyne Esopus Museum. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2004-11-06. Retrieved 2007-12-30.
10. Frank Moore Colby; Talcott Williams, eds. (1918). The New international encyclopædia. Vol. 8 (2nd ed.). Dodd, Mead and company. p. 384. Retrieved 2011-04-28.
11. The Letters of Sir William Blackstone (1723-1780) in the Hampton L. Carson Collection of the Free Library of Philadelphia
12. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-07-19. Retrieved 2009-02-08.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
13. "Legends of the Bar" Philadelphia Bar Association. Retrieved February 32, 2025.
14. Lewis F. Powell Jr., Who Became the Quiet Centrist of the Supreme Court, Is Dead at 90 Archived 2007-10-21 at the Wayback Machine
15. "Bernard G. Segal Dies at 89; Lawyer for Rich and Poor". The New York Times. 1997-06-05. Retrieved 2010-05-08.
16. New York Times
17. UFLaw Leadership Examples Archived August 26, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
18. High-Profile Attorneys Positively Impact Dallas Community
19. Shipp, E. R. (1987-02-17). "A.B.A. Rejects Plan On Tobacco Ad Ban". The New York Times. Retrieved 2010-05-08.
20. Curtin Center for Public Interest Law Dedicated
21. Rule of Law Initiative Home / Europe & Eurasia (CEELI) 2007-2008 Board Members
22. PRDI Advisers, Directors & Staff
23. Rice Makes Personal Donation For Katrina Relief in Mississippi
24. Members Named to Commission Archived 2008-01-24 at the Wayback Machine
25. WolfBlock Lawyer to Receive ABA’s Highest Award Archived 2006-11-11 at the Wayback Machine
26. Archer elected as first African-American ABA president
27. "Michael S. Greco". 2006-02-14. Archived from the original on 2006-02-14. Retrieved 2019-01-03.
28. Karen J. Mathis bio Archived May 14, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
29. William H. Neukombio Archived August 19, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
30. H. Thomas Wells, Jr. bio Archived July 22, 2010, at the Wayback Machine
31. Carolyn B. Lamm bio Archived July 21, 2010, at the Wayback Machine
32. Stephen N. Zack bio Archived September 3, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
33. Wm. T. (Bill) Robinson III bio Archived May 14, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
34. "Laurel G. Bellows bio". Archived from the original on 2013-08-05. Retrieved 2013-08-02.
35. James R. Silkenat Nomination Announcement
36. "ABA nominates Paulette Brown as first woman of color president". www.americanbar.org. Retrieved 2018-12-31.
37. "Bill Bay asks ABA to meet lawyers where they are". www.americanbar.org. Retrieved 2022-04-06.