About the Commission Members
Commission Member Bios
Pamela J. Roberts, Chair
In 1997, Ms. Roberts became a certified mediator, a distinction awarded by the Supreme Court of South Carolina. She completed the Program of Instruction for Lawyers at Harvard Law School in 1998, and returned the following year to serve as a teaching assistant for the course. Ms. Roberts has been trained for mediation by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and she has conducted mediations for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. She also serves as a mediation instructor at the U.S. Department of Justice Advocacy Center.
A member of the South Carolina Bar, the State Bar of Georgia, and the State Bar of California, Ms. Roberts is admitted to practice before the Supreme Court of the United States; the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth, Ninth and Eleventh Circuits; and the U.S. District Courts for the District of South Carolina, the Northern and Middle Districts of Georgia, and the Northern District of California.
Ms. Roberts has long held prominent leadership positions within the American Bar Association where she currently is the chair of the Commission on Women in the Profession. Ms. Roberts served on the Board of Governors and is a former member of the Commission on Opportunities for Minorities in the Profession (now the Commission on Racial and Ethnic Diversity in the Profession). She also served as Chair of the Young Lawyers Division and has served on the association's Nominating Committee and the Special Committee on Governance.
Ms. Roberts is a delegate to the South Carolina Bar's House of Delegates and served on its Board of Governors from 2000-04. She is a member of the South Carolina Women Lawyers Association, having served as president from 1999-2001, and on its board of directors from 1993-2002. She is a permanent member of the U.S. Fourth Circuit Judicial Conference and a fellow of the American Bar Foundation and the South Carolina Bar Foundation.
In demand as a speaker on a myriad of legal topics, Ms. Roberts' recent presentations include the 3rd World Women Lawyers Conference, International Bar Association, 2006; "Leveling the Playing Field - What Women in Finance Can Learn from Doctors and Lawyers," Chartered Financial Associates Society of Chicago, 2006; diversity issues unique to women, Hinds County (Mississippi) Bar Association, 2006; mediation instruction to the U.S. Department of Justice Advocacy Center; "The Future of Leadership in a Competitive Environment," American Bar Association Antitrust Section Meeting, 2002; "Public Speaking: The Basics and Beyond," Annual Meeting of the American Bar Association, 2001; and "Discovery Disputes," South Carolina Bankruptcy Law Association Convention, 2001. Ms. Roberts is the author of "The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: Reform or Fiction," South Carolina Lawyer, January/February 1998, and "The Court's Inherent Power to Dismiss a Case An Emerging Gatekeeper to the Federal Courts?" The Defense Line, October 1992.
Ms. Roberts is a member of the board of trustees of Claflin College and a member of the advisory board of Trinity Housing Corporation.
In 1980, Ms. Roberts earned a Juris Doctor from Southwestern University School of Law, after attending Hastings College of the Law. During law school, Ms. Roberts was a member of the National Moot Court Team and Phi Alpha Delta, and she received the Alex Hotchkiss Award. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from the University of California, Berkeley in 1977.
Members
Ms. Altman served as a Special Assistant Attorney General from 1983 to 1985, concentrating on labor, workers’ compensation, and administrative law for the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry. In 1985 Leslie was appointed by the governor as the first woman judge on the Workers’ Compensation Court of Appeals, a court of statewide appellate jurisdiction over workers’ compensation issues. She has been in private practice since 1988 and is now a shareholder at Littler Mendelson practicing primarily workers’ compensation.
Leslie graduated with an A.B. from Brown University, an M.A. from the University of Minnesota and a J.D. from the University of Minnesota Law School. She is admitted to practice before the Minnesota Supreme Court, Wisconsin Supreme Court, U.S. District Court, District of Minnesota, U.S. Court of Appeals, 8th Circuit, and U.S. Supreme Court.
Leslie is co-chair of the Minnesota State Bar Association’s Diversity Task Force and is a member of the University of Minnesota Law School Alumni Board. She is a fellow of the American Bar Foundation, a director of the National Conference of Women’s Bar Associations, a member of the American Bar Association Commission on Women in the Legal Profession, and former president of Minnesota Women Lawyers. She is the past chair of the Editorial Board of Perspectives, the magazine of the ABA Commission on Women in the Legal Profession.
In her community Leslie serves as a trustee at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts and a director of Minnesota Campus Compact. She is a former regional director of the Brown University Alumni Schools Committee and chair of the Superintendent’s Advisory Committee of the Hopkins School District.
As a co-chair of the MSBA Diversity Task Force Leslie received a 2006 Minnesota State Bar Association President’s Award. She also received a Spotlight Award from the Brown University Alumni Association for her work on the Alumni Schools Committee.
Information to come
Catherine Lamboley, retired Sr. Vice President and General Counsel of Shell Oil Company, is a native of Monroe, Wisconsin. Cathy graduated from the University of Wisconsin with a secondary education degree and from the University of Texas School of Law where she graduated Order of the Coif. Cathy joined Shell in 1979, and, with the exception of three years as Vice President of Commercial Marketing in Shell's Oil Products business, she has spent her career in the Shell Legal organization.
Issues concerning opportunity and inclusiveness have long been the focus of her professional and civic activities. Cathy’s commitment is reflected by her participation in the Minority Corporate Counsel Association as Chair of the Board of Directors, her service on the American Bar Association’s Commission on Women and Center for Racial and Ethnic Diversity, and her participation on the Texas Supreme Court’s Gender Bias Task Force Implementation Committee. Among the honors the Shell Legal organization has received in recognition of its commitment to opportunity and inclusiveness while Cathy was General Counsel are the American Corporate Counsel Association’s Diversity Award, the Minority Corporate Counsel Association’s Employer of Choice Award, and the Coalition of Bar Associations of Color Corporate Diversity Award.Cathy is also a member of the American Law Institute, has served on the Board of Directors for the University of Houston Law Foundation, and currently serves on the University of Texas Law School Foundation Board. Recognizing that access to legal assistance for all is critical to our society, Cathy served on the Texas Access to Justice Commission's Committee of Corporate General Counsel, the Houston Bar Foundation's Board of Directors, and she is the immediate past Chair of the Corporate Advisory Committee of the National Legal Aid and Defender Association.
Cathy cites her American Leadership Forum experience as invaluable in strengthening her leadership skills and civic commitment. Cathy is a Senior Fellow of the ALF and serves on its Board of Trustees. Cathy is immediate past Chair of the Board of the Houston Area Women's Center, served on the Board of the United Way of the Texas Gulf Coast, and was an original member and Chair of the United Way Women's Initiative. She served on the Board of Advisors for Catalyst, a national non-profit research and advisory organization working to advance women in business.
Among the honors she has received are the Anti-Defamation League Southwest Region's Jurisprudence Award for 2006, American Bar Association’s Commission on Women in the Profession’s Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement Award for 2004, the United Way of the Texas Gulf Coast's Woman of the Year for 2002, and the Texas Executive Women’s "Woman on the Move" for 2002.
Ms. Meiselman, a solo family law practitioner, in North Potomac, Maryland, additionally concentrates her practice in gender and sexuality law with a focus on matters effecting transsexuals. She presently serves as the Legal Issues Committee Chair of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (350 professionals representing 34 countries). Ms. Meiselman, appointed to the American Bar Association Commission on Women in the Profession in 2006, formerly served as a liaison to the ABA CWP from February 2002 through the Annual Meeting in 2005, representing the National Lesbian and Gay Law Association, where she served on the Board from 1999 through 2005. Ms. Meiselman is a 2007 recipient of the Trinity Award for Community Service from the International Foundation for Gender Education.
Ms. Meiselman, who transitioned to female in 1998, was the subject of a French TF1 Reportagé documentary entitled “My Dad, This Great Woman,” in 2001. She was the primary author of Slavery, Sex & Gender, and The Ancient Doctrine of Stare Decisis: A Re-Examination of the Doctrine In Light of Time Influenced Legal Reasoning and The Current State of Transgender Legal Issues, 2 Geo. J. Gender & L. 735 (2001), and, Cause of Action for Change of Legal Gender, 24 COA2d 135 (2004). Ms. Meiselman is a frequent CLE panelist and lecturer, nationally and internationally, on issues of civil and human rights regarding gender identity. She is a member of the ABA Sections of Family Law, Individual Rights & Responsibilities, and the Judicial Division’s Lawyer’s Conference.
Ms. Meiselman balances her professional life with creative talents including the design and creation of gold silver fine jewelry, stained glass artwork, woodcarving, and playing her 4, 6 and 12 string guitars.
Raymond L. Ocampo Jr. was the 2001-02 Chair of the American Bar Association’s Section of Science & Technology Law. In addition to serving the Section as an officer in various capacities since 1998, he served as the chair of the Section’s E-Commerce Division (1998-99) and Internet & Cyberspace Committee (1996-99) and as co-chair of the Multimedia & Interactive Technologies Committee (1995-96). He also served as chair of the Computer Litigation Committee (1992-94) of the ABA’s Section of Litigation. Mr. Ocampo served on the Commission on Racial and Ethnic Diversity in the Profession (2000-03) and the Presidential Advisory Council on Diversity in the Profession (2003-04). He has published Surfing the Law and Technology Tsunami (American Bar Association 2001), a collection of his keynote addresses about the intersection of law and technology. In 1994 he wrote an article for ABA Business Law Today, On Hiring Women and Minority Attorneys: One General Counsel’s Perspective, in which he discussed the policy he established for his department at Oracle Corporation that asked its outside law firms in staffing its cases to make its first lawyer assignment a woman or minority. His own department’s lawyers were 55% female and 33% minority.
Mr. Ocampo retired in November 1996 as Senior Vice President, General Counsel & Secretary at Oracle Corporation, the world’s second largest software company, after serving as its chief legal counsel for more than a decade. During his tenure at Oracle Corporation, the company’s annual revenues grew from $50 million in 1986 to $5 billion in 1996. Before joining Oracle Corporation in 1986, Mr. Ocampo specialized in antitrust and complex litigation with various law firms in San Francisco (1976-86) and taught professional responsibility, trial practice, and legal writing and research at Hastings College of the Law (1977-83). He received his undergraduate degree from U.C.L.A. in 1973 and his law degree from Boalt Hall School of Law at U.C. Berkeley in 1976.
After retiring from Oracle Corporation Mr. Ocampo helped found, and for two years thereafter served as Executive Director of, the Berkeley Center for Law & Technology, which for the past decade has been rated the leading intellectual property law program in American law schools. Mr. Ocampo has spoken and written frequently on business and legal issues involving software, Internet and computer technologies and has served as a mediator and arbitrator and as an expert witness in technology-related disputes. He is President and Chief Executive Officer of Samurai Surfer LLC, a private consulting and investment company, and he serves on the board of directors of PMI Group Inc., Keynote Systems, Inc., Intraware Inc. and CytoGenix, Inc. He is the Chairman of the Board of The Asian Pacific Fund, a San Francisco Bay Area community foundation.
Mr. Ocampo often has been recognized for his work involving minority communities. In 1995, he received the Distinguished Corporate Executive Award from the Asian Business League of San Francisco and a Pioneer in the Profession Award from the California Minority Counsel Program. In 1996, he received the Cruz Reynoso Community Service Award from the California La Raza Lawyers Association. In 1998, Mr. Ocampo received the National Asian Pacific Bar Association’s Trailblazer Award. Mr. Ocampo served on the California Judicial Council Advisory Committee on Racial and Ethnic Bias in the Courts (1992-96). He co-founded and served as president of the Filipino Bar Association of Northern California and is the recipient of FBANC’s 2004 Jose Rizal Award for outstanding service to the Filipino legal community.
Lauren Stiller Rikleen, the Executive Dir ector of the Bowditch Institute for Women’s Success, is also a senior partner in the Real Estate and Environmental Law Group of Bowditch & Dewey, LLP. Through the Bowditch Institute for Women’s Success, Lauren combines her unique qualifications and expertise to help law firms and other business organizations create an environment where women can succeed.
Lauren is the author of Ending the Gauntlet: Removing Barriers to Women’s Success in the Law, a book which is highly acclaimed for its thoughtful insights about the management of today’s law firms and the related institutional impediments to women’s success in the practice of law.
Lauren’s background includes extraordinary focus on issues relating to the advancement of women in the profession. As the former President of the Boston Bar Association (1998-1999), Lauren established the Task-Force on Professional Challenges and Family Needs, which produced a report entitled: Facing the Grail - Confronting the Costs of Work/Family Imbalance (July, 1999), a report which received national attention for its in-depth analysis of the cost of attrition in law firms. Following her BBA presidency, Lauren helped establish and served as co-chair of the Boston Bar Association’s Standing Committee on Work/Family, where she continues to be actively involved.
Lauren is a founding member of the Equality Commission, created in 2004, to analyze the link between the relative lack of women in leadership positions in the law, the growing rate of attrition, and the demands of law firm practice. The founding members worked closely with the MIT Workplace Center to create a survey which would track the movement of women and men in Massachusetts law firms between 2001 and 2005. The resulting path-breaking study was conducted and issued by the MIT Workplace Center: Women Lawyers and Obstacles to Leadership. Lauren’s prior work with the MIT Workplace Center included a presentation addressing the inters ection of law firm workplace demands and their i mpact on the lives of families. This presentation, From Here to Flexibility in Law Firms: Can It Be Done, was developed into a Working Paper for the MIT Workplace Center website. Lauren has also worked with the MIT Workplace Center in their efforts to pass legislation to create the Massachusetts Work-Family Council.
In 2005, Lauren was appointed by the then president of the Ameri can Bar Association to serve as one of the twelve members of the ABA Commission on Women in the Profession. She also serves as a member of the Board of Dir ectors of the Massachusetts Women’s Politi cal Caucus and is also a founding member of the Council for Women of Boston College, which is an organization dedi cated to furthering the role of women as active leaders and participants at Boston College.
Among her many honors, Lauren is the recipient of the 2007 Barbara Gray Humanitarian Award from Voices Against Violence, the Boston College Law School 2004 Alumni Award for Excellence in Law, the Boston College Law School 75th Anniversary Alumni Award medal, and the 2005 Lelia J. Robinson Award from the Women’s Bar Association of Massachusetts.
Within her community, Lauren is the first woman to have served as Chair of the MetroWest Chamber of Commerce. In 1997, the Chamber named her “Business Leader of the Year” and also granted her the 2001 Athena Award for professional excellence.
Her other community and professional involvements include serving as a member of the Board of Trustees of Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts, and as a member of the Board of Dir ectors of the Environmental League of Massachusetts, which she chaired for six years. She is also a member of the Board of Trustees of the Boston Bar Foundation, and is a fellow of the Ameri can Bar Foundation. Lauren also serves as a Trustee of the Middlesex Savings Bank.
Lauren is frequently requested to appear as a keynote speaker or participant in regional and national programs addressing women and workplace issues.
Charna E. Sherman focuses her practice on litigation matters. She represents numerous corporate and individual clients as both plaintiffs and defendants in a broad range of cases in federal and state courts, including complex commercial and other civil litigation, as well as white collar criminal defense. Ms. Sherman is the co-chair of Squire Sanders’ corporate compliance, investigations and white collar defense practice and regularly offers media commentary on high-profile white collar trials. She has been named one of Ohio’s Super Lawyers for a number of years and is rated AV by Martindale-Hubbell
Ms. Sherman has a long record of leadership with respect to issues concerning women in the law. As co-chair of the Women Advocate Committee of the ABA Section of Litigation Leadership (SOL), she spearheaded in 2002 and 2003 groundbreaking National Summits on Women in the Law. She also serves on a select Committee of the National Association of Women Lawyers for the Evaluation of Supreme Court Nominees. And she was on the inaugural Steering Committee of the ABA’s newest women’s initiative, DirectWomen, focused on placing seasoned women attorneys on Fortune 1000 boards of directors.
Ms. Sherman’s additional ABA involvement includes her service as co-director of the SOL Division on Task Forces. In 2004, she also co-chaired the SOL Task Force on Mediation Ethics and succeeded in shepherding the adoption for the first time by the ABA House of Delegates of National Standards on Mediation Ethics. The SOL recognized her leadership on this important issue with its Award of Excellence.
Ms. Sherman clerked for the now late Honorable John H. Pratt of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. She graduated magna cum laude from Georgetown University Law Center, and was an Articles Editor on The Georgetown Law Journal. Before law school, she was a legislative assistant to U.S. Senator Daniel P. Moynihan. She received her B.A., magna cum laude, from Harvard University, and was Phi Beta Kappa.
Ms. Sherman also contributes to her community in Cleveland, Ohio in a variety of roles. Since 1995, she has served as chair of a biannual Parents-in-a-Pinch benefit to raise scholarship money for daycare for children of needy, working families at the JDN Early Childhood Center.
Ms. Slovak is a partner in Schiff Hardin LLP’s Labor and Employment Group, resident in the firm’s Chicago office. She concentrates in labor and employment law on behalf of management and has extensive experience representing management in all facets of labor and employment relationships. Ms. Slovak litigates employment and labor claims in federal and state courts, as well as before administrative agencies. She represents employers in arbitrations, mediations, and collective bargaining negotiations. Her clients include retailers, universities, utilities, manufacturers, and assembly operations.
Ms. Slovak is the immediate-past Chair of the ABA’s Section of Labor and Employment Law; she also served as the Section’s liaison to the Commission on Women in the Profession from 2004-07. Ms. Slovak has served as the Employer Co-Chair of the ABA Committee on the Development of Law Under the National Labor Relations Act. Ms. Slovak serves on the Kenneth M. Piper Endowment Advisory Board of the Institute for Law and the Workplace in addition to serving as the Firm’s representative to the Institute. She is a frequent author and lecturer on various employment law issues, and she has been an editor of The Developing Labor Law and is on the Advisory Board of the HR Advisor. Her many other related professional affiliations include membership on the Employment Law Committee of the National Retail Federation and service as Co-Chair and member of the Executive Committee of the Alliance for Women Committee of the Chicago Bar Association. She is a member of the National Association of College and University Attorneys. Ms. Slovak also is member of the boards for the Theatre School of DePaul University and Women Everywhere: Partners in Service Project, Inc. She has been elected as a Fellow of both the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers and the American Bar Foundation.
Ms. Slovak received her undergraduate degree (B.A., 1973) from Saint Louis University and her law degree (J.D., 1977) from the University of Chicago Law School.
Mary L. Smith recently served as Senior Litigation Counsel at Tyco International (US) Inc. where she managed the securities class action multi-district litigation relating to the Dennis Kozlowski era – the largest case pending at the Company and one of the largest cases pending in the country. Recently, the major portion of the litigation was settled for approximately $3 billion. The settlement, reached after five years of litigation and the production of over 80 million pages of documents by the Company represents the single largest payment from any corporate defendant in the history of securities class action litigation. As part of her responsibilities, Ms. Smith managed a multi-million dollar budget, over 40 outside counsel, and over 60 contract attorneys.
Previously, she was an attorney at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP in Washington, D.C. While at Skadden, Ms. Smith specialized in governmental investigations and securities class actions. Ms. Smith has litigated in various state and federal courts, including the United States Supreme Court, where she filed an amicus brief on behalf of several members of Congress in support of the University of Michigan’s affirmative action programs.
Prior to her time at Skadden, Ms. Smith served in the Clinton White House as Associate Counsel to the President and Associate Director of Policy Planning where she was responsible for a number of policy areas including domestic violence, equal pay, homelessness, transportation safety, food safety, Internet gambling, Native American issues, civil rights issues, and hate crimes.
Ms. Smith also served as a trial attorney for the United States Department of Justice Civil Division where she served as principal attorney for a number of trials and appeals.
Ms. Smith graduated from the University of Chicago School of Law, cum laude, where she was a member of the Law Review. Ms. Smith clerked for the Hon. R. Lanier Anderson III of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. She received a B.S., magna cum laude, in mathematics and computer science from Loyola University of Chicago. Ms. Smith is Native American and is an enrolled member of the Cherokee Nation.
Ms. Smith is a member of the Council of the American Bar Association’s Section of Individual Rights and Responsibilities. She is also the National Native American Bar Association’s delegate to the American Bar Association’s House of Delegates. She is a member of the ABA’s Commission of Women in the Profession. Ms. Smith also is Co-Chair of the District of Columbia Bar’s Section of Litigation Steering Committee.
Ms. Smith has taught trial advocacy for the National Institute of Trial Advocacy. She is also a member of the Board of the Chicago Bar Foundation.
Judge Elizabeth S. Stong was appointed as a United States Bankruptcy Judge for the Eastern District of New York on September 2, 2003. Judge Stong graduated from Harvard University magna cum laude with an A.B. in History and Science in 1978 and from Harvard Law School in 1982. She was a law clerk to Hon. A. David Mazzone of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts from 1982 to 1983. Judge Stong is an adjunct professor of law at St. John’s University School of Law.
Judge Stong was an associate and partner at Willkie Farr & Gallagher in New York from 1987 until her appointment to the bench and an associate at Cravath, Swaine & Moore in New York from 1983 to 1987. She concentrated her practice in complex federal and state civil litigation including securities, corporate, employment, and ERISA disputes. Judge Stong also served as a mediator and arbitrator in alternative dispute resolution proceedings for the NASD, the Eastern District of New York, and New York Supreme Court’s Commercial Division.
Judge Stong is Vice President of the Board of Directors of City Bar Fund Inc. and President of the Harvard Law School Association. She is presently working with the U.S. Department of Commerce Commercial Law Development Program to train judges in Algeria and Tunisia in business reorganization and liquidation issues. Judge Stong previously served on the board of MFY Legal Services, Inc., one of the largest providers of free civil legal services to low-income residents of New York City.
Judge Stong is a member of the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges and a member of its Liaison Committee to the American Bar Association, as well as a member of the American Bankruptcy Institute. She is a member of the ABA House of Delegates and Commission on Women in the Profession. She chaired the ABA Business Law Section’s Business and Corporate Litigation Committee from 2000 to 2003 and is an officer of the Section. Judge Stong is also a member of the New York State Bar Association and the Association of the Bar of the City of New York. She is a member of the ABCNY Committee on Bankruptcy and Corporate Reorganization and Committee to Encourage Judicial Service, and chaired the ABCNY Alternative Dispute Resolution Committee from 2000 to 2003. She also served as Vice Chair and a member of the City Bar’s Judiciary Committee, and a member of its Public Service and Education Committee.
Judge Stong has published numerous articles and has contributed chapters to several practice manuals and treatises on securities law, trial strategy, and alternative dispute resolution. She has also chaired and appeared as a panelist in programs presented by ALI-ABA, the American Bankruptcy Institute, the American Bar Association, the American Corporate Counsel Association, Forbes Magazine, the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, the Turnaround Management Association, and New York University, among others, on issues in bankruptcy law and procedure, securities law, settlement strategy and damages assessment, discovery techniques, ADR, public service, and other subjects. She is a member of the American Law Institute and a fellow of the American Bar Foundation.
Hon. Patricia A. Timmons-Goodson
Justice Patricia Timmons Goodson was appointed to the Supreme Court of North Carolina on February 1, 2006. In the 2006 November General Election, the voters elected her to a full eight year term. She is the first African American woman to sit on North Carolina's highest court.
Justice Timmons-Goodson earned a B.A. in Speech at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she also received her Juris Doctorate from the UNC School of Law in 1979. She began her legal career as an Assistant District Attorney for the Twelfth Prosecutorial District in North Carolina. She later left the district attorney’s office to work as a legal aid attorney. In 1984 she was appointed to the district court bench where she was elected in 1986 and subsequently re-elected twice. In 1997, she was appointed judge for the North Carolina Court of Appeals and elected for a full term in 1998. Her election marked the first occasion an African-American woman was elected to an appellate court in North Carolina.
Justice Timmons Goodson is Co-Editor of the American Bar Association Judges Journal and Secretary of the Appellate Judges Conference of the American Bar Association. She is a member of the Central Selection Committee for the Morehead Scholarship at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, as well as a previous Board Member of the UNC Chapel Hill General Alumni Association Board of Directors and the UNC-Chapel Hill Board of Visitors. From 1990 to 2003, she co hosted and co produced a cable television program “Dimensions of Justice” in an effort to increase the confidence of citizens in the court system.
Justice Timmons-Goodson has been awarded the UNC Chapel Hill Distinguished Young Alumna Award, the North Carolina General Federation of Women Achievement Award, and the Gwyneth B. Davis Award, which is presented to persons who promote the participation of women attorneys in the legal profession and the rights of women under the law. She has also received honorary degrees from Johnson C. Smith University and St. Augustine’s College. She is a recipient of the Order of the Long Leaf Pine and was named a Woman of Achievement by the General Federation of Women's Clubs. Other past awards include Save Our Schools (SOS), Cumberland County Outstanding Volunteer of the Year, Governor's Award; Service Award, Fayetteville Chapter of NAACP; Leadership Award, North Carolina Legislative Black Caucus; Minority Business and Professional League Legal/Justice Award; Citizen of the Year, Beta Chi Chapter of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity; Citizen of the Year, Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority; Order of the Valkyries (UNC-Chapel Hill's highest women's honorary recognizing scholarship and leadership); and the Order of the Old Well (UNC-Chapel Hill's honorary recognizing distinguished service to the university).
Her passion outside of the law is young people. Whether mentoring or speaking to youth organizations or classes, she seeks to encourage and influence our next generation of leaders.
Robert Weiner has experience as a trial lawyer and as an appellate advocate in criminal and civil cases. He has served as national coordinating and trial counsel in product liability and toxic tort cases involving, among other things, diet drugs, heart valves, pharmaceutical products, and lead paint. He has also represented clients in high profile and media-intensive Congressional investigations and regulatory inquiries.
In 1997-98, Mr. Weiner was Senior Counsel to the Counsel to the President of the United States. As "in-house counsel" at the White House, he dealt with the legal aspects of major public policy issues confronting the nation, including the Census, civil rights, immigration, privacy, financial reform, global warming, welfare reform, bankruptcy, labor law, telecommunications, the Internet, and many other matters. In addition, in the mid-1980s, he served as Associate Independent Counsel in the Wedtech investigation.
Mr. Weiner was Chair of the American Bar Association’s Standing Committee on Pro Bono and Public Service and is DC's representative to the ABA's House of Delegates. He has served as President of the District of Columbia Bar, and prior to that was General Counsel of the Bar. He chaired the Standing Committee on Pro Bono Legal Services of the Judicial Conference of the District of Columbia Circuit, and the Pro Bono Committee of the District of Columbia Bar.
Mr. Weiner received his law degree from Yale Law School and his Bachelor of Arts Degree from Princeton University, summa cum laude. He clerked for Judge Henry Friendly of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall.
Mr. Weiner has taught at the University of Virginia School of Law and at the Georgetown University Law Center. He is a member of the Product Liability Advisory Council (PLAC), where he serves on the Case Selection Committee, identifying the cases in which PLAC files amicus briefs. Mr. Weiner has lectured and written extensively on managing large litigations, handling crises, and dealing with parallel proceedings, as well as on specific issues of trial practice and pretrial procedures.
Among his other activities, Mr. Weiner has served on the Boards of Directors of the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless, the National Legal Aid and Defender Association, the Council for Court Excellence, the Archdiocesan Legal Network, the District of Columbia Anti-Defamation League, and the American Heart Association’s Capital Affiliate. He has received numerous awards for his public service. In addition, Mr. Weiner is a member of the American Law Institute and is the president of the American Bar Foundation.
Admitted
- District of Columbia
- New York
- California (inactive)
Education
- J.D., Yale Law School, 1977
- A.B., Princeton University, 1974, summa cum laude
