Mary L. Smith, vice chair of the VENG Group and a nationally recognized health care executive, was sworn in as president of the American Bar Association during the ABA’s House of Delegates meeting in early August in Denver. She is the first female Native American president of the largest voluntary bar association in the world.
“The American Bar Association and the legal profession have always lifted their voices to lead and chart the future,” Smith said. “Our country is at an inflection point, and we are called again to lead to address threats to democracy and both the promise and peril of emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence. Law touches all aspects of society, and I hope that the ABA can welcome in all lawyers, as well as non-lawyers, who are invested in improving the profession, serving the public and protecting the rule of law.”
Smith has held many leadership roles in the ABA, including serving as secretary of the association from 2018-2020. She has previously served on the ABA Board of Governors for two terms and served in elected capacities in the Section of Litigation and Section of Civil Rights and Social Justice. She also served as an ABA representative to the United Nations Economic and Social Council.
Smith is an independent board member and former CEO of a $6 billion national healthcare organization, the Indian Health Service. In 2022, she was appointed by the U.S. courts as trustee of the Tribal Abatement Fund Trust, a $1 billion+ fund to address the opioid epidemic. She has served at the highest levels of government, both at the federal and state level, including on the senior management team of the Civil Division at the U.S. Department of Justice and as general counsel at the Illinois Department of Insurance. Earlier in her career, Smith served in the White House as associate counsel to the president and associate director of policy planning. She previously served in a senior role at Tyco International Inc., managing one of the country’s most high-profile corporate governance and accounting matters.
Smith is past president of the National Native American Bar Association and founded and serves as president and chair of the Caroline and Ora Smith Foundation, named after her mother and grandmother, respectively, to train Native American girls in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. She is also a member of the Council of Foreign Relations.
In her private sector experience, Smith served in a senior role at Tyco International (US) Inc., a $40 billion public company, where she managed a $60 million budget.
She also served as special counsel & estate trust officer at the Office of Special Deputy Receiver; a partner in the Chicago office of Schoeman, Updike & Kaufman, a women-owned firm; and an attorney at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP in Washington, D.C., where she specialized in governmental investigations and securities class actions.
She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Economic Club of Chicago, the International Women’s Forum, and the National Association of Corporate Directors.
In 2023, Chicago United selected her as a Business Leader of Color, and she was the recipient of the ABA Government and Public Sector Lawyers Division’s Nelson award, which recognizes exceptional service by a public sector lawyer. She also was selected as a 2023 Director to Watch by Directors & Board magazine. In 2022, she received the Abner J. Mikva Award from the American Constitution Society Chicago Lawyer Chapter. She was also selected to Crain’s Chicago Business' Notable Women in STEM in 2020 and Crain’s Custom Media’s “Chicago’s Notable Women Lawyers” in 2018. In 2017, she received a Special Recognition Award from the National Congress of American Indians for her work at the helm of the Indian Health Service. In 2015, she was recognized on the Lawyers of Color Fourth Annual Power List. In 2012, she was a recipient of the ABA Commission on Racial and Ethnic Diversity in the Profession’s Spirit of Excellence Award. At the conclusion of her time in the White House in 2001, she received the U.S. Office of Personnel Management Director’s Citation for Exemplary Public Service.
Smith graduated from the University of Chicago School of Law, cum laude, and received a B.S. in mathematics and computer science, magna cum laude, from Loyola University Chicago. She served on the Law Review and clerked for the Hon. R. Lanier Anderson III in the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals.
Michigan Law alumnus Bill Bay, a partner with the St. Louis office of national law firm Thompson Coburn LLP, is ABA president-elect and will assume the role of ABA president in August 2024.
“It is a great honor and privilege to follow in the footsteps of so many extraordinary leaders,” Bay said “It is also a humbling experience to be chosen for leadership in these times of challenge and change. Now more than ever, lawyers need the American Bar Association. The ABA is a place where every lawyer can find a home, value, worth and fulfillment. I look forward to working with President Mary Smith, our volunteers and staff on this great adventure as we prepare for an exciting future for our association and profession.”
A longtime leader in the ABA, Bay co-chaired the Practice Forward initiative, which arose from and addressed member concerns regarding the COVID-19 pandemic as well as the future of the profession. Bay also served as chair of the House of Delegates from 2018 to 2020 and, from 2012 to 2013, chaired the Section of Litigation. He chaired the ABA Day Planning Committee in both 2021 and 2022.
A fellow in the American Bar Foundation, Bay served on the ABA Board of Governors and chaired its Finance Committee from 2015 to 2016. For more than 20 years, he has been a member of the ABA House of Delegates, serving on numerous committees.
Bay’s leadership has extended to other ABA entities, including the Standing Committee on Bar Activities and Services (chair, 2009 to 2012); Commission on Racial and Ethnic Diversity in the Profession; Commission on Governance; Legal Opportunity Scholarship Fundraising Committee; Death Penalty Representation Project; and Young Lawyers Division.
Bay is a past president of the Bar Association of Metropolitan St. Louis and a past member of the Missouri Bar Board of Governors, where he chaired several committees. He is a fellow of The Missouri Bar Foundation. He has been selected to co-chair several statewide commissions focused on increasing access and opportunities for women attorneys; achieving equal access to justice for litigants, regardless of race or ethnicity; and exploring the future of the legal profession in Missouri. He currently co-chairs the Supreme Court of Missouri’s Commission on Racial and Ethnic Fairness.
Bay is a highly experienced litigator who has represented major corporations in high-stakes litigation for more than 30 years. His clients vary from major financial institutions to manufacturers to postsecondary institutions, and he regularly helps organizations manage and respond to large portfolios of litigation in multiple jurisdictions. He is also a member of the American Law Institute, the leading independent organization in the United States that produces scholarly work to clarify, modernize and improve the law.
In recent years Bay has been honored with the Spurgeon Smithson award, a top honor given by The Missouri Bar; the Distinguished Lawyer Award, the highest honor awarded by the Bar Association of Metropolitan St. Louis; an Excellence in Law Award from St. Louis Magazine; and Missouri Lawyers Weekly’s Influential Lawyer Award. He has appeared in The Best Lawyers in America since 2012 and has been recognized by Best Lawyers multiple times as the St. Louis Lawyer of the Year for Litigation-Banking and Finance.
Bay received his B.A. from the University of Missouri and his J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School.
