The drive to thrive

• Author: Amanda Robert
• Pages: 62-62

62 || ABA JOURNAL MAY 2019

Your ABA

PHOTO BY MITCH HIGGINS/ABA MEDIA RELATIONS

THE DRIVE TO THRIVE

ABA president-elect nominee speaks to value for members

By Amanda Robert

To Patricia Lee Refo, the

story of how she fi rst got

involved in the American

Bar Association is not all

that uncommon.

When she was a fi rst-year

associate at Jenner & Block

in Chicago, a senior part-

ner looked at her and said

she not only needed to join

the ABA, but she needed to

be active in the Section of

Litigation.

“I was young enough that

I did exactly what I was

told and went from there,”

says Refo, the ABA’s pres-

ident-elect nominee. Refo

has served in several other

leadership roles in the asso-

ciation, including as chair

of the Section of Litigation

from 2003 to 2004.

Refo explains that she

“grew up as a lawyer” in

the ABA. In addition to her

professional growth, she

made many close friends

and met Don Bivens, a

Phoenix attorney who even-

tually became her husband.

“After a while we had

enough frequent-fl yer miles

to go to Mars,” she says.

“We joke that our wedding

was a Section of Litigation

meeting. They actually

gave us a trophy the year

we got married. It’s a little

bride and groom on a tro-

phy stand, and it says, ‘Best

Use of Section of Litigation

Leadership Meetings.’ ”

Refo, a partner with Snell

& Wilmer in Phoenix, dur-

ing her term as president

plans to call on her experi-

ence both as a commercial

litigator and with the ABA

to emphasize the value that

the association provides to

members.

“Whether it’s through

our CLE and publications,

which literally make our

members better lawyers, or

the business development

opportunities that a lawyer

can have through the ABA

in terms of networking and

raising one’s profi le,” she

says, “I want to continue

to talk about that and con-

tinue to make clear to the

lawyers of America how

important the ABA is.”

Refo also points out that

the term for which she has

been nominated includes a

U.S. presidential election,

which may present familiar

challenges for the ABA.

“We try to remind the

public of the proper role

of the court system and

the justice system and to

remind everyone about the

importance of the inde-

pendence of the judiciary,”

she says. “These are not

new issues, but these are

issues that we will be talk-

ing about always, because

they are the core values

for which our association

stands and for which our

democracy stands.”

Refo was nominated at

the ABA Midyear Meeting

in Las Vegas in January

after a rare contested race

with G. Nicholas Casey,

a former ABA treasurer.

She will face a vote by

the House of Delegates

at the ABA Annual

Meeting in San Francisco

in August, after which

she would become the

president-elect.

Judy Perry Martinez is

currently serving as pres-

ident-elect and will auto-

matically assume her

one-year term as president

at the close of the annual

meeting. She would pass

the gavel to Refo after

the 2020 ABA Annual

Meeting in Chicago.

The close of the 2020

annual meeting will also

mark the end of Michelle

A. Behnke’s three-year

term as treasurer. Kevin L.

Shepherd, a partner with

Venable in Baltimore , was

nominated to assume her

position after another con-

tested race with Timothy

Bouch of Charleston,

South Carolina. Shepherd

has been a member of the

Board of Governors since

2016 and serves as chair of

its Finance Committee. Q

ABA president-elec t nominee

Patricia Lee Refo with her hu sband

Don Bivens (right), accom panied by

a parade of ABA leaders .