Martha Barnett’s career is full of firsts. She was the first woman to practice law at Holland & Knight and the first to make partner there. She was the first woman to chair the American Bar Association’s House of Delegates. But being first was not the goal. “I never wanted to be a lone experiment, but the beginning of a sea change regarding who could practice law,” she says. “I always thought second, third and fourth were more important than first, because that showed women were being more fully accepted into the profession.”
Much of Barnett’s work in achieving this goal was at the ABA. She was a member of the inaugural ABA Commission on Women in the Profession, which documented barriers that women faced, as well as other ABA boards, committees and task forces. “Martha has always shown herself to be at the forefront of improving the legal profession and the administration of justice,” says California Second District Court of Appeal Judge Lee Edmon, who has served with Barnett on the American Bar Endowment Board of Directors.
