Wednesday, October 4, 2006
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Judge Edmon Becomes President of American Bar Endowment
By a MetNews Staff Writer
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Lee Smalley Edmon has been elected to serve a one-year term as president of the American Bar Endowment, a non-profit affiliate of the 413,000-member American Bar Association, the group announced yesterday.
The selection took place at the recently concluded Annual Meeting of the American Bar Association in Hawaii.
As president of the ABE, Edmon will be charged with leading its Board of Directors through the planning process for a five-year strategic plan, the group said. She will also focus on broadening communication about the ABE’s unique insurance program.
ABA members who participate in ABE’s insurance program and donate their dividends to the Endowment help to support more than 200 law-related public service, educational and research programs. Programs funded by the ABE include research on improvement of the criminal justice system and the legal profession and projects to address the legal needs of children, the elderly, minorities and victims of domestic violence.
“Through ABE’s many insurance programs, our Charitable Gift Fund and our members donating their annual dividends, the ABE funds good works in our profession,” Edmon said in a statement. “For more than 60 years, through the generosity of its members and the prudent investment of donated funds, the ABE has provided grants of more than $209 million to fund law-related research, public service and educational projects.”
Edmon, assistant supervising judge of the civil departments of the Superior Court, was appointed to the bench in 2000 by Gov. Gray Davis.
Before joining the bench, she was a partner with Dewey Ballantine, which she joined as an associate in 1987 after beginning her legal career with the law firm of Adams, Duque and Hazeltine. Edmon has been active in charitable and civic activities her entire career, participating in organizations including the Los Angeles County Bar Association (serving as president in 1998/1999), the Association of Business Trial Lawyers, the University of Illinois College of Law (Board of Visitors), the Los Angeles County Law Library, Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles, Alliance for Children’s Rights, Inner City Law Center and the Constitutional Rights Foundation.
In 2006 Edmon was named the Alfred J. McCourtney Trial Judge of the Year by the Consumer Attorneys Association of Los Angeles.
Edmon is a 1981 graduate of the University of Illinois College Of Law.
Copyright 2006, Metropolitan News Company