Commencement Profile: Carolyn B. Lamm

Carolyn B. Lamm, '70, an international arbitration, litigation, and trade lawyer, is the past president of the American Bar Association (ABA) and the District of Columbia Bar. She is currently a partner with White & Case LLP in Washington, D.C.

Lamm will receive the honorary doctor of laws from the State University of New York during the 10:00 a.m. baccalaureate ceremony and will deliver the Commencement Address at both undergraduate ceremonies at Buffalo State's 140th Commencement, Saturday, May 12, in the Sports Arena.

Lamm was named one of the 50 Most Influential Women Lawyers in America by the National Law Journal in 2007, one of Washington’s Top 30 Lawyers by Washingtonian magazine in 2009, and one of the Visionaries for 2010 by Legal Times.

Lamm’s practice concentrates on international dispute resolution through arbitration, litigation, and trade matters. She has substantial experience with the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes, the North American Free Trade Agreement, and other commercial arbitral forums, including the American Arbitration Association’s International Centre for Dispute Resolution, the Vienna Centre, the Stockholm Chamber, and the Swiss Chamber, and in federal court litigation. Lamm serves as a faculty member for the Institute for Transnational Arbitration and has been an advisory board member since 2007.

Before joining White & Case, Lamm worked for the U.S. Department of Justice under the Attorney General’s Honors Program for law graduates, as a trial attorney in the Civil Division’s Fraud Section, and as assistant director for the Civil Division’s Commercial Litigation Branch.

In addition to serving as president of the ABA from 2009 to 2010, Lamm has held a variety of leadership posts within the organization. She served as a representative to the United Nations from 2010 to 2011, as a member of the ABA Board of Governors from 2002 to 2005, and as a member of the ABA House of Delegates from 1982 to 2008.

A former chair of the ABA Young Lawyers Division and of the ABA Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary, Lamm has also served on numerous committees and in leadership positions with the ABA sections of Litigation, International Law, and Business Law. She has established commissions on diversity and on the impact of the economic crisis on the law profession and legal needs. She appointed the ABA Commission on Ethics 20/20, which will consider possible changes to lawyer ethics rules in light of globalization and changes in technology use by lawyers.

Lamm is a council member of the American Law Institute and a board member of the American Turkish Chamber of Commerce, the American Indonesian Chamber of Commerce, and the American Uzbekistan Chamber of Commerce.

A native of Buffalo, she received her bachelor of science in exceptional education from Buffalo State and her law degree from the University of Miami School of Law.