| Membership level: Hall of Fame Michael S. Greco Inductee Year 2006 |  |
| Michael S. Greco, a partner with Kirkpatrick & Lockhart Nicholson Graham, LLP, in its Boston office, is Immediate Past President of the American Bar Association. He served as President during the 2005-2006 bar year. He is a trial lawyer with 35 years of business litigation experience, as well as an arbitrator and mediator at the state, national and international levels. As President, he led the Association's efforts to protect the rights and freedoms of American citizens, safeguard the independence of the judiciary and the institutions of our democracy, address the legal needs of lower-income Americans, and make improvements to the ABA and the legal profession. During his term of office, he appointed two commissions and five task forces to implement a range of initiatives. The ABA Commission on a Renaissance of Idealism in the Legal Profession helped re-invigorate lawyers' historical commitment to providing pro bono legal services to those in need and public service to communities throughout America. The ABA Commission on Civic Education and the Separation of Powers made recommendations to enhance civics education policy in the states, and will continue to educate Americans about the fundamental principles of American government. The ABA Task Force on Access to Civil Justice proposed a new policy statement, adopted by the ABA House of Delegates at the 2006 Annual Meeting, calling for the creation of a defined right to counsel, paid by the state, for lower-income Americans facing serious legal problems that threaten basic human needs such as family, home, and health. Greco appointed the ABA Task Force on Hurricane Katrina to coordinate the legal profession's effort to provide desperately needed legal services to thousands of hurricane victims. He also appointed two bi-partisan, blue-ribbon task forces' the ABA Task Force on Domestic Surveillance in the Fight Against Terrorism, and the ABA Task Force on Presidential Signing Statements and the Separation of Powers Doctrine to protect Americans' constitutional rights and our democratic form of government. Greco earned his J.D. from Boston College Law School in 1972, where he served as Editor in Chief of the Boston College Law Review and as class president, and clerked for the Hon. Leonard P. Moore on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. In addition to serving as its President, he has long been active in the American Bar Association, including serving on the Board of Governors and in the House of Delegates for more than twenty years. He chaired the Association's Standing Committee on Federal Judiciary, the Section of Individual Rights & Responsibilities, the Executive Committee of the Conference of State Delegates, and other committees. He was raised and educated in Hinsdale, Illinois. For the past thirty-seven years he has resided with his family in Wellesley, Massachusetts. | |
