ABA Newsroom

Armando Lasa-Ferrer

SECRETARY, AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION
2005 - 2008

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Armando Lasa-Ferrer, founding partner of Lasa Monroig & Veve, a law firm with offices in Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C., is secretary of the American Bar Association. Lasa-Ferrer began his three-year term as secretary upon adjournment of the 2005 Annual Meeting in Chicago.

Lasa-Ferrer previously served a three-year term as a member of the ABA Board of Governors, representing the states of Maryland, Washington, Indiana, as well as the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. He is also a past Puerto Rico state delegate to the House of Delegates, a past member of the ABA Journal Board of Editors, and a past chair of the ABA Standing Committee on Technology and Information Systems. He has served on numerous ABA Board of Governors and House of Delegates committees. Currently Lasa-Ferrer serves as liaison to the ABA’s Latin America Law Initiative – a public service project to provide technical legal assistance to developing democracies in the Americas.

Lasa-Ferrer has practiced law for more than 30 years, concentrating on litigation, transactional law and governmental relations. He served as counsel and secretary of the board of directors of Banco Financiero, a banking institution in Puerto Rico, as well as delegate to the board of directors of the Puerto Rico Banking Association.

Lasa-Ferrer served on the Puerto Rico House of Representatives Task Force charged with drafting the Puerto Rico Telecommunications Act of 1996. He was a member of the Puerto Rico Legal and Correctional Advisory Team to Panama, the Carter Center Legal Advisory Team to Nicaragua, and the Puerto Rico Task Force on Health Care Reform.

He is a member of the Puerto Rico Bar Association and has served on several commissions, including the Civil Rights Commission and the Commission to Review the Admission of Lawyers to Practice Law in Puerto Rico. He is also a member of the Hispanic National Bar Association, the Inter-American Bar Association, the Federal Bar Association, the U.S.-Cuba Legal Forum, the American Counsel Association, the American Judicature Society and the Supreme Court Historical Society.

Lasa-Ferrer, a former member of the board of directors of the Puerto Rico Legal Services Corporation, also served as general counsel to the Republican National Hispanic Assembly and on the Judicial Conference Organization Committee of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. He also served as general counsel and secretary for the board of directors of the Ricky Martin Foundation and currently sits on the board of directors. He is also a member of the Easter Seals National Board of Directors.

He began his college studies at the University of Miami and later attended the Inter-American University of Puerto Rico, where he received both his BA and JD degrees. Mr. Lasa-Ferrer is overjoyed to have been elected as the first Hispanic to serve as Secretary of the Association and understands the responsibility inherent in his position. He is a strong advocate for the rights of women and children and is very active in rule of law work in the developing democracies of South, Central, and North America.