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| Paulette Brown is the first woman of color elected as president of the American Bar Association. Photo: American Bar Association. |
Labor and employment lawyer Paulette Brown assumed
office in August as the new president of the American Bar Association. Brown,
also the co-chair of the Diversity and Inclusion Committee at Locke Lord LLP,
is the first woman of color to serve as president of the association. She was
elected to the role a year ago, and says that diversity will be at the top
of her priorities during her one-year term as president.
Brown is deeply committed to promoting diversity
in the field of law. She also hopes to recruit and promote more women and
minorities, in part to help repair some of the rift Brown sees between law
enforcement and minority communities. “People
of all races appear to be having less confidence in law enforcement,"
Brown explained to The Washington Post.
"We have an obligation to understand that and speak out on those
issues, and that is what we’re planning to do."
Brown also hopes to reach out to children at all
levels of education to not only get them interested in joining the law field,
but she “help disrupt the flow of young people entering the prison system
unnecessarily.” Her hope is that more people will want to become lawyers, but
also that people will have a better understanding of the law and more awareness
in the world. Statistics from the 2010 census show that 88 percent of lawyers
are white, a statistic that is damaging to minorities, who are incarcerated at
a much higher rate than white people.
Brown has had a
long and inspiring career in law, serving in many positions for the ABA, including
a membership for its Board of Governors. She has been recognized as one of the
“50 Most Influential Minority Lawyers in America,” has repeatedly been named as
a New Jersey Super Lawyer, and as one of the Best Lawyers in America by U.S. News. Among her many other
qualifications, she has also been awarded the Spirit of Excellence Award by the
ABA Commission on Racial and Ethnic Diversity, and the C. Francis Stradford
Award, the National Bar Association’s highest honor, in 2015.
Though she
understands that the position and her role in it do not come without
challenges, Brown is optimistic and excited about the work she will be doing. "Anyone
who is ever first at anything has a responsibility to ensure they do the
absolute best they can so other people will be receptive to having other people
who look like me lead the organization,” she says.
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