Karen J. Mathis Becomes President-Elect of the American Bar Association

CHICAGO, Aug. 9, 2005 – Karen J. Mathis, a lawyer from Denver, Colo., today became president-elect of the American Bar Association.  She was voted into office by the 547-member ABA House of Delegates during the 2005 ABA Annual Meeting in Chicago. Mathis will serve as president-elect until the close of the ABA’s Annual Meeting in August 2006, at which time she will become ABA president for a one-year term.

Noting that the retirement of this generation of lawyers will place special strains on the legal system, Mathis urged members of the ABA to join her in crafting a call to citizen lawyers for a “second season of service” after they enter “active retirement.”  “Throughout our lives, our generation has reshaped the institutions and culture of our profession.  Now, we must tend to its future,” she said.

Mathis, a partner in the Denver office of McElroy, Deutsch, Mulvaney & Carpenter, LLP, headquartered in New Jersey, is a commercial and business lawyer with more than 30 years of experience.

Mathis has been an active member of the ABA throughout her career, serving as chair of its House of Delegates, the association’s second highest office, from July 2000 until August 2002. In addition, she has held numerous other leadership positions in ABA entities, including chair of the 30,000-member General Practice, Solo and Small Firm Section from 2002 to 2003; chair of the Commission on Women in the Profession from 1997 to 2000; and chair of the Standing Committee on Membership from 1994 to 1997.

Mathis will be the third woman president of the ABA. A trailblazer for women in the legal profession, she has held leadership positions in the Colorado and International Women’s Forums as well as the ABA Commission on Women in the Profession.

Mathis also is active in public service organizations in Colorado. She has served as a member and on the boards of numerous local organizations benefiting youth and families, including the Colorado and International Women’s Forum, the Colorado Office of Childcare Resource and Referral Agencies, the Colorado Department of Social Services Office of Child Services Advisory Committee and the Girl Scouts Mile Hi Council. Mathis also has been active in the Denver Bar Association and Colorado Bar Association for many years.

Mathis received her law degree from the University of Colorado School of Law in 1975, her Bachelor of Arts from the University of Denver in 1972, an honorary Order of the Coif from the University of Colorado and an honorary Doctor of Laws Degree from Sienna College. She has been recognized as an outstanding attorney by the Denver and Colorado Bar Associations, the University of Colorado and the Albany Law School of Union University.

With more than 400,000 members, the American Bar Association is the largest voluntary professional membership organization in the world. As the national voice of the legal profession, the ABA works to improve the administration of justice, promotes programs that assist lawyers and judges in their work, accredits law schools, provides continuing legal education, and works to build public understanding around the world of the importance of the rule of law in a democratic society.