Patricia Lee “Trish” Refo of Phoenix, a partner in the law firm Snell & Wilmer, on August 14 assumed the role of president-elect of the American Bar Association at the end of the ABA Annual Meeting in San Francisco. She will serve a one-year term and become ABA president in August 2020.
Refo, who has practiced law for more than 30 years, received both her J.D. and B.A. from the University of Michigan.
Refo was the ABA’s second-highest-ranking elected official from 2014-16 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 grass-roots advocacy activity, ABA Day in Washington. Refo was also a member of the ABA Commission on Civic Education and the Separation of Powers.
In addition to her ABA involvement, 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 many awards and recognitions, Refo received the President’s Award from the State Bar of Arizona and was the 2009 winner of the ABA Jury System Impact Award.
She has been named to Best Lawyers in America since 2003, listed as a Southwest Super Lawyer since 2007, was the Phoenix Legal Malpractice Law “Lawyer of the Year” in 2012, received the Distinguished Achievement Award from the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University and was named one of The 50 Most Influential Women Lawyers in America by The National Law Journal.
- Posted August 29, 2019
- Tweet This | Share on Facebook
U-M Law alumna Patricia Lee Refo becomes ABA's president-elect
headlines Washtenaw County
- Law firm donates legal fees to ACLU of Michigan
- Foster Swift selects Taylor A. Gast as Business & Tax Practice co-leader
- MLaw Civil-Criminal Litigation Clinic partners on suit against online “ghost gun” seller
- Student in the Dual JD Program explores criminal defense work
- ABA Free Legal Answers announces 2023 leaders lending pro bono support
headlines National
- 50 Years of Service: ABA has been a ‘stalwart ally’ for LSC funding
- ACLU and BigLaw firm use ‘Orange is the New Black’ in hashtag effort to promote NY jail reform
- Biden recalls time he bluffed knowledge of torts case and why he changed his mind about civil-trial work
- Lawyers’ ‘barrage of personal attacks’ on opponents started with tissue-box toss, appeals court says
- Longtime prosecutor resigns after judge tosses him from case, citing Perry Mason-type revelations
- 24% of law students expect to work in public service, survey says