Paulette Brown is an American lawyer who was the president of the

American Bar Association The American Bar Association (ABA) is a voluntary bar association of lawyers and law students, which is not specific to any jurisdiction in the United States. Founded in 1878, the ABA's most important stated activities are the setting of aca ...

for a one-year term from August 4, 2015 to August 2016. She was nominated for the presidency and was later confirmed by the organization's House of Delegates as president-elect in August 2014. She thus became the first woman of color and third African-American person to be president of the ABA. Brown is a partner with

Locke Lord LLP Locke Lord LLP is an international law firm formed on October 2, 2007, after the combination of Texas-based Locke Liddell & Sapp PLLC and Lord Bissell & Brook LLP. Locke Lord's earliest predecessor firms date from 1887 and 1891. The firm is hea ...

, where she is chief diversity officer. She is a mediator for the

United States District Court for the District of New Jersey The United States District Court for the District of New Jersey (in case citations, D.N.J.) is a federal court in the Third Circuit (except for patent claims and claims against the U.S. government under the Tucker Act, which are appealed to the ...

. She was formerly the president of the

National Bar Association The National Bar Association (NBA) was founded in 1925 and is the nation's oldest and largest national network of predominantly African-American attorneys and judges. It represents the interests of approximately 65,000 lawyers, judges, law profess ...

and the Association of Black Women Lawyers of New Jersey. Brown was educated in

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

, where she attended segregated schools. She earned a B.A. from

Howard University Howard University (Howard) is a Private university, private, University charter#Federal, federally chartered historically black research university in Washington, D.C. It is Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, classifie ...

and a J.D. from

Seton Hall University School of Law Seton Hall University School of Law is the law school of Seton Hall University, and is located in downtown Newark, New Jersey. Seton Hall Law is the only private law school in New Jersey, and, according to the ''U.S. News & World Report'' rankin ...

. She started her law practice in 1976. Brown was a municipal court judge in

Plainfield, New Jersey Plainfield is a city in Union County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, known by its nickname as "The Queen City."

. She was previously in-house counsel for several companies and worked at Duane Morris.

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* 1950s births Living people Presidents of the American Bar Association African-American women lawyers 21st-century American women lawyers 21st-century American lawyers American lawyers Howard University alumni New Jersey lawyers Seton Hall University School of Law alumni Date of birth missing (living people) 21st-century African-American women 20th-century African-American people 20th-century African-American women 21st-century African-American lawyers {{US-law-bio-stub