Mary Smith Becomes First Native American ABA President-Elect Nominee - Articles

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Mary Smith Becomes First Native American ABA President-Elect Nominee

Posted by: Kate Prince on Feb 17, 2022

The American Bar Association House of Delegates’ Nominating Committee on Sunday voted to make Illinois lawyer Mary Smith its next president-elect nominee, the ABA Journal reports. Smith’s nomination will likely become official at the close of the ABA Annual Meeting in Chicago in August. Smith is an enrolled member of the Cherokee Nation and would become the first Native American president of the ABA in her 2023-2024 term. She virtually accepted her nomination during the ABA House of Delegates meeting, where she also acknowledged the work of former TBA president, former ABA treasurer and Adams and Reese partner Lucian Pera, with whom she ran a contested race for the nomination of president-elect. Smith is a past president of the National Native American Bar Association and founder of the National Native American Bar Association Foundation. worked in the White House from 1997 to 2001, serving as associate counsel to the president and as associate director of policy planning for the Domestic Policy Council.