Deborah Enix-Ross, senior advisor to the firm’s International Dispute Resolution Group and a member of the firm’s Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Council, has accepted the nomination to serve as the president-elect nominee of the American Bar Association (ABA) for the 2021-2022 term.

Ms. Enix-Ross announced her candidacy in February 2020 and outlined three areas for action: civics, civility and collaboration. When addressing the ABA House of Delegates in her acceptance speech, Ms. Enix-Ross emphasized that after the events that overtook us this past year, from the Covid-19 pandemic, social unrest and a contentious national election, her call to action is “as important today as it was a year ago” and pledged that lawyers “are the ones who can lead the way in these areas and bring required progress, the ones who can restore confidence in the judicial system, fight for the independence of the judiciary and protect the rule of law.”

Prior to her president-elect nomination, she has long been involved with the American Bar Association, and served in other leading roles for the organization, including:

• Past Chair of the ABA House of Delegates
• Former Chair of the ABA Center for Human Rights and Chair of the Center’s Business and Human Rights Project
• Former Chair of the ABA Section of International Law
• Past ABA representative to the IBA

In these capacities, she has improved policy initiatives for women and international communities. In her role as Chair of the ABA Section of International Law, she was the Goal IX Officer and co-founded 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 participated in the WIG’s inaugural meeting. Also 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.

Prior to joining the firm, Ms. Enix-Ross held legal positions with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Arbitration and Mediation Center in Geneva, Switzerland, the Dispute Analysis and Corporate Recovery Services Group (DA&CR) of Price Waterhouse, and as the American representative to the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) International Court of Arbitration. In addition to her involvement with the ABA, her other current and past leadership positions include the ADR Advisory Board of New York Law School, serving as an original member of the trilateral NAFTA Advisory Committee on Private Commercial Disputes, the Advisory Board of the Institute for Transnational Arbitration, and the Board of Directors of the American Arbitration Association.

Ms. Enix-Ross 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.