Barbara Howard, a family lawyer from Ohio, has become president of the American Bar Association (ABA), pledging that it will campaign to protect voting rights in the run-up to the US midterm elections.
Howard, the sole principal of the Barbara J. Howard law firm in Cincinnati, assumed the role at the close of the ABA Annual Conference in Chicago on 4 August, taking over from Michelle Behnke. At the same time, Californian attorney Laura Farber, a disputes partner, officially became president-elect.
“Nothing is more fundamental to the rule of law than equal access to the ballot," she said. "As we look to the November midterm elections, it is vital that we both protect voting rights and educate the public about their right to vote. The ABA is dedicated to safeguarding citizens’ rights to vote without interference or harm,” Howard said. “When lawyers act together, we are truly a formidable force for democracy.”
Howard assumes leadership of the 250,000-strong ABA for the traditional one-year term as the United States celebrates its 250th anniversary and the ABA nears its 150th anniversary, which will be in 2028.
“I could not be prouder to represent the American Bar Association and all its members who are dedicated to protecting the rule of law and ensuring that our democracy lasts another 250 years,” she said.
Howard takes the helm amid a turbulent relationship between the ABA and the Trump administration. The association is suing the administration over what it alleges is a campaign of intimidation against lawyers and law firms, while the two sides have also clashed over federal funding and the ABA’s longstanding role in vetting judicial nominees.
She told the House of Delegates on the eve of her assuming the presidency: “Over the last 18 months, the ABA has taken the lead in voicing our profession’s staunch support for diversity in our profession and for the rule of law. We have taken legal action, where necessary, to challenge government actions that we believe violate our members’ constitutional rights and our association’s rights with respect to government grants and contracts already funded by Congress.”
Howard has been active in bar association leadership since her time with the ABA Young Lawyers Division and has been a member of the ABA House of Delegates since 1986, holding various influential positions, including chair from 2020 to 2022.
She has also sat on the ABA Board of Governors, the ABA Journal Board of Editors, and the American Bar Foundation board.
From 2023-2024, she was chair of ABA Day in Washington, the association’s annual lobbying event, and has led various committees, including the ABA’s Task Force for American Democracy and the ABA Strategic Planning Committee.
Among numerous previous roles representing the profession more widely, Howard is a former president of the Ohio State Bar Association, the Cincinnati Bar Association and the Volunteer Lawyers for the Poor Foundation.
Farber, Howard's chosen successor, meanwhile, is a partner at Hahn & Hahn in Pasadena, California. She will become president in August 2027.
“This is an extraordinary honour and a responsibility that I accept with gratitude,” Farber said. “My decades-long involvement with the ABA and my professional journey to this point have only reinforced my lifelong belief in the necessity of access to justice, the rule of law and democracy.”
Farber has a long history of ABA leadership dating back to 1994. She is the immediate past California state delegate to the ABA House of Delegates, a member of the ABA Day Planning Committee, and a California Lawyers Association delegate to the ABA House of Delegates, among other roles.
She has also acted as president of the Tournament of Roses Association, which oversees the Rose Bowl Game in US college football and its associated parade. She also served as chair of the Rose Bowl Management Committee, negotiating the Rose Bowl Game’s entry into the College Football Playoff.
An employment and commercial litigator, she is locally recognised for her work in Los Angeles, having been awarded the Mary V. Orozco Abriendo Caminos Award in 2023 by the Latina Lawyers Bar Association, alongside many other accolades. Originally from Argentina, she lives in California.
The appointments come as Todd Blanche, the then-acting attorney general and former personal attorney to President Trump, was confirmed by the US Senate as attorney general on 8 August.
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