ABA, NBA Presidents on Black Legal Leadership: Is There a Shift?

Though Black women have helmed the American Bar Association and National Bar Association in the past, the presidencies of Deborah Enix-Ross, who now leads the ABA, and Lonita Baker, the new NBA head, mark the first time Black women have led both simultaneously.

Baker, lead co-counsel for the team that represented Breonna Taylor’s family in their civil suit against the City of Louisville, is hesitant to call this a “shift in things.” She hopes, however, that Black lawyers’ work over the last two years, including 2020’s justice struggles, will bring prestige for their contributions to the legal profession.

“I’m hoping ...