Q&A with president-elect, Patricia Lee Refo (American Bar Association)

About this Event

This event will feature an intimate Q&A hosted by the Deputy President of the University of Queensland Law Society.

This is a student-only event. Please arrive promptly at 1.45pm for a 2pm start.

About the speaker

Patricia Lee “Trish” Refo is president-elect of the American Bar Association and, in August 2020, will become president of the largest voluntary association of attorneys and legal professionals in the world.

As a partner at Snell & Wilmer in Phoenix, Refo concentrates on complex commercial litigation and internal investigations. She chairs the firm’s Professional Liability Litigation Group.

From 2014 to 2016, Refo was the ABA’s second highest-ranking elected official as chair of its policymaking House of Delegates. She has also served as chair of the ABA’s largest practice group, the Section of Litigation, and as chair of the ABA Standing Committee on Membership, the American Jury Project, and the Association’s grassroots advocacy activity, ABA Day in Washington. Refo was also a member of the ABA Commission on Civic Education and the Separation of Powers.

Refo has served on the Advisory Committee on the Federal Rules of Evidence of the United States Judicial Conference, appointed by Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, and on the Arizona Supreme Court's Advisory Committee on Rules of Evidence. She is a member of the American Law Institute and its Litigation Advisory Panel and is a fellow of the American Bar Foundation and the Arizona Foundation for Legal Services & Education. Previously, Refo served as a director of the American Bar Endowment and as co-chair of the National Association of Women Lawyers Committee for the Evaluation of Supreme Court Nominees.

Among her awards and recognitions, Refo in 2007 was named to the National Law Journal’s list of The 50 Most Influential Women Lawyers in America. She received the President’s Award from the State Bar of Arizona and has been inducted into the Maricopa County Bar Association Hall of Fame. She received her B.A. with high honours and high distinction and her J.D. cum laude from the University of Michigan.

This event may be photographed. Images may be used in UQ advertising and promotional material. If you do not want your image used, please let the photographer or one of our events staff know on the day.

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