ALI-ABA Executive Director Richard E. Carter to Retire in 2005; Special Committee Seeks Successor

Richard E. Carter, Executive Director of ALI-ABA, the nonprofit organization established in 1947 by The American Law Institute and the American Bar Association to provide continuing legal education on a national basis, will retire in 2005. A Special Committee, chaired by ALI First Vice President and former ABA President Roberta C. Ramo, has been appointed to seek a successor and to consider ALI-ABA’s governance structure and its strategic direction as a leader in providing high-quality education for lawyers.

Mr. Carter has had a prominent career in legal education for more than three decades. In the 1970s, he directed the Legal Services Training Program for lawyers representing poor clients. Later, he led the Attorney General’s Advocacy Institute, which trained lawyers in the U.S. Department of Justice. When that Institute was combined with the Legal Education Institute to form the Office of Legal Education, which became responsible for the continuing education of lawyers and paralegals in all federal agencies, Mr. Carter was its first director. He then served from 1985 to 1993 as Director of the Division for Professional Education of the American Bar Association.

As Executive Director of ALI-ABA since February 1993, Richard Carter led the organization’s expansion. During his tenure, the number of courses and other offerings rose significantly, and revenue from all ALI-ABA operations grew by more than 32 percent. The period also saw major changes in the method of delivery of continuing legal education, a response to new communication technologies and to client and other professional demands limiting the time lawyers can take to attend live courses in distant locations. In-house continuing education provided by ALI-ABA increased by more than 150 percent, and the ALI-ABA website has become a source of programming as well as of information and sales.

Michael Traynor, ALI President and Chair of the ALI-ABA Committee, said, "Richard Carter’s leadership has kept ALI-ABA innovative and strong as the continuing education of lawyers has become more important and as both the content and the means of delivery have changed significantly. He dealt effectively with the decline in course enrollments that followed the events of September 11, 2001. And he has guided and nourished ALI-ABA’s outstanding staff. ALI-ABA has reaped the benefits of Mr. Carter’s strong reputation as a leader in CLE established earlier in his career at the U.S. Department of Justice and at the ABA."

The Special Committee has engaged the executive-recruitment firm Korn/Ferry International to conduct the search for ALI-ABA’s next Executive Director. A position description has been posted online at both ALI’s website (www.ali.org) and ALI-ABA’s website (www.ali-aba.org). Interested candidates are encouraged to send a resume and cover letter to Julie Goldberg, Senior Client Partner, Korn/Ferry International, 200 Park Ave., 37th Floor, New York, NY 10166; or to Keith Wimbush, Senior Client Partner, Korn/Ferry International, Financial Centre, 695 East Main St., Stamford, CT 06901. The Special Committee hopes to be able to interview its final candidates at the end of April and to be in a position to make a recommendation to the ALI and the ABA within weeks thereafter.

In addition to Committee Chair Ramo, who practices law in Albuquerque, New Mexico, the other members of the Special Committee are ALI Council member William C. Hubbard of Columbia, South Carolina; Ralph C. Martin II of Boston, a past Chair of the ABA’s Criminal Justice Section; Professor Susan R. Martyn of the University of Toledo College of Law, a member of the ALI-ABA Committee; Roger B. Meilton, Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Bar Institute and a former member of the ALI-ABA Committee; ALI-ABA Committee member James R. Myers of the District of Columbia; and California Court of Appeal Justice Laurie D. Zelon of Los Angeles, a past Chair of the ABA’s Standing Committee on Legal Aid and Indigent Defendants.