News Releases
Valparaiso Law graduate to head National Bar Association
Friday, August 3, 2007
Vanita Banks, a 1980 graduate of Valparaiso University School of Law, is being installed today, Aug. 3, as president of the National Bar Association, the oldest and largest national association of predominantly African-American lawyers and judges.
The installation of Banks, an attorney in the corporate litigation group of Allstate Insurance Co., is taking place during the NBA’s annual convention in Atlanta.
Banks will serve as the association’s president for one year, representing the more than 20,000 lawyers, judges, legal scholars and law students who are members of the organization. She is only the second female attorney to be elected as NBA president since the organization’s founding in 1925.
“The National Bar Association is comprised of talented leaders whose collaborative efforts uplift our communities, and I am extremely honored and humbled to serve as president,” Banks said.
Her long record of enhancing diversity in the legal profession includes being a founding member of the Allstate Law and Regulation Department Diversity Committee. She helped establish a summer internship program at Allstate that provides learning and employment opportunities for minority law school students, and was instrumental in expanding the legal pipeline to minority high school students through her work at the company’s Street Law initiative, which encourages students to continue their education and consider careers in the legal profession.
In addition to holding the position of president-elect for the past year, Banks has served as NBA vice president for membership and several terms as chair of the association’s corporate law section.
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