Lamm: From D.C. Bar to the ABA

We just caught up by phone with White & Case D.C. partner Carolyn Lamm between meetings at the American Bar Association midyear convention in Los Angeles. That is where, on Sunday, she was put on the path to take office as president of the ABA in August 2009, as we reported here this morning.

Lamm's rise is a singular milestone for lawyers who labor in D.C. It marks the first time since 1958 that
a lawyer from the nation's capital has headed the 413,000-member ABA. (The legendary Charles Rhyne was the last.) That long absence puzzles Lamm, onetime president of the D.C. Bar, since "we're very active in the ABA." Her theory? "D.C. lawyers tend to be very busy, at the highest levels," and climbing the ranks in the ABA takes a lot of time away from one's day job. "It's a sacrifice," she acknowledges, adding that at White & Case she has tremendous support for her ABA work.

Lamm, 59, has been active in the ABA for more than 30 years, starting as a Justice Department lawyer who represented the Federal Bar Association's young lawyer's division.

When she takes over as president, Lamm says she will focus on boosting membership of the ABA — both its numbers and its diversity — and work to eradicate the discrimination that "still exists in the profession" directed not only at minorities but at older lawyers.

Lamm adds that "being from Washington, I also believe that the ABA needs to be more involved in advocacy" in the halls of Congress and elsewhere to protect the legal profession and fight for judicial independence and for the rule of law worldwide.

An international trade litigator, Lamm is a native of Buffalo and got her law degree from the University of Miami School of Law. Her husband Peter Halle is an antitrust litigator at the D.C. office of Morgan, Lewis & Bockius.