Deborah Enix-Ross, Senior Advisor to Debevoise & Plimpton’s International Dispute Resolution practice, has been elected Chair of the American Bar Association’s House of Delegates for the 2016 - 2018 term. The position is the second-highest office within the ABA, one of the world’s largest voluntary professional organizations, with nearly 400,000 members and more than 3,500 entities. She is the first House of Delegates Chair to hail from New York.
The House of Delegates is the policy-making body of the ABA and is comprised of more than 580 members, including representatives of state and local bar associations, substantive legal sections and divisions of the ABA, and affiliated organizations and conferences of the Judicial Division, as well as former ABA officers, members of the Board of Governors, at-large delegates and state delegates. The House meets twice each year, at ABA Annual and Midyear Meetings. At the Midyear Meeting, the Nominating Committee nominates officers and members of the Board of Governors. During the Annual Meeting, the full House votes on these nominees and on any nominations made by petition. Action taken by the House of Delegates on specific issues becomes official ABA policy.
Ms. Enix-Ross becomes the fourth lawyer at Debevoise to hold a prominent leadership position within the legal profession. Currently, partner David W. Rivkin serves as President of the International Bar Association, the world's leading organization of international legal practitioners, bar associations and law societies. In addition, partner Donald Francis Donovan serves as President of the International Council for Commercial Arbitration (ICCA), which has long played a leading role in the field of international commercial arbitration and, more recently, investor-state arbitration, and whose biennial congress is widely regarded as the most important gathering of international arbitrators and arbitration practitioners. Further, partner John S. Kiernan was elected President of the New York City Bar Association in May, becoming the fourth Debevoise partner to lead the prestigious organization.
In her time as Chair of the ABA Section of International Law, Ms. Enix-Ross was the Goal IX Officer and cofounded the Women’s Interest Network (WIN). As the WIN Chair, Ms. Enix-Ross was instrumental in working with the International Bar Association to create their Women’s Interest Group (WIG), and she participated in the inaugural meeting of WIG. During her tenure as Chair of the International Law Section, she led an International Legal Exchange (ILEX) delegation to Ghana (where she delivered an address commemorating the country’s 50th anniversary of independence), Liberia and Sierra Leone. Ms. Enix-Ross is a Vice President of the World Justice Project and a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation.
“I am honored to be elected Chair of the House of Delegates,” Ms. Enix-Ross said. “I plan to continue to cultivate an environment in which delegates have a forum to debate resolutions that are critical to the profession, the clients we serve and the public. I look forward to working on behalf of the ABA and its delegates.”
Ms. Enix-Ross joined Debevoise in 2002. She received her J.D. from the University of Miami School of Law in 1981, a Diploma in Comparative Law from the Parker School of Foreign and Comparative Law of Columbia University in 1989 and a Certificate in International Law from the London School of Economics in 1979.
Debevoise & Plimpton LLP is a premier law firm with market-leading practices, a global perspective and strong New York roots. We deliver effective solutions to our clients’ most important legal challenges, applying clear commercial judgment and a distinctively collaborative approach.