Deborah Enix-Ross, B.A. ’78, J.D. ’81, is a changemaker who has used her intellect, compassion, and commitment to make the world more equitable and blaze trails in the legal profession. During her 41-year legal career, Enix-Ross has broken through numerous barriers to become one of the world’s top dispute resolution lawyers and legal leaders.
In 2022 she began her term as president of the American Bar Association (ABA), the world's largest voluntary association of lawyers, judges, and other legal professionals. Enix-Ross has approached the position with the same goals she has used throughout her life—to pay it forward and “lift as you climb.”
As the second Black woman and the third School of Law alumna to lead the ABA, Enix-Ross is focusing her presidency on civics, civility, and collaboration. “The legal profession's values must be heard loud and clear in our communities,” Enix-Ross said at the 2023 midyear ABA meeting in Chicago.
The road to top attorney and ABA president was a hard one. Enix-Ross was fortunate that her childhood Harlem church bolstered her, taking notice of her aptitude for writing and speaking, and fostering it by choosing her whenever a speech was to be written or a welcome address given.
The first high school graduate in her family, Enix-Ross chose the University for her bachelor's degree because of its elite journalism program, with the plan to combine her passions for writing and public speaking into one discipline. She took those talents to the School of Law, where Enix-Ross was encouraged to join the American Bar Association, an organization dedicated to enhancing the legal profession and to which she would be elected to lead decades later.
Since graduating from the School of Law in 1981, Enix-Ross’ ascent has been steady though not easy. She has dealt with the struggle of being a Black female attorney in an industry dominated by white men. After graduating, though interested in international law and hoping to land a job at a global New York firm, she was turned down at every turn.
Eventually, she accepted a job with MFY Legal Services in New York City. It took her seven years to get a job in international law when the U.S. Council for International Business hired her.
In her element, she rose quickly. Enix-Ross served as in-house counsel and director of legal affairs and was named the American representative to the International Chamber of Commerce International Court of Arbitration, the first for a Black woman.
Enix-Ross joined Debevoise & Plimpton in 2002 and is now the senior advisor in its International Dispute Resolution Group. Previously, she was a senior legal officer with the World Intellectual Property Organization Arbitration and Mediation Center in Geneva, Switzerland. She also was a director of international litigation with Price Waterhouse.
Enix-Ross has always abided by her ethic of effecting change at the ABA. She has been a part of the association’s leadership for years, as chair of the ABA’s policymaking House of Delegates and of the ABA Center for Human Rights. As chair of the ABA International Law Section, she co-founded the Women’s Interest Network, which spotlighted women and women’s legal issues. She also worked with the International Bar Association to create its Women’s Interest Group.
In addition to her work with the ABA, Enix-Ross is active in other organizations. She is a fellow of the American Bar Foundation and has served as vice president of the World Justice Project. She is a member of the American Law Institute. Enix-Ross was appointed by the U.S. Departments of Commerce and State as one of the original eight U.S. members of the trilateral NAFTA Advisory Committee on Private Commercial Disputes.
A double ’Cane, Enix-Ross also received a diploma in comparative law from the Parker School of Foreign and Comparative Law of Columbia University and a certificate in international law from the London School of Economics.
In fall 2022, the School of Law Alumni Association presented her with its Distinguished Alumna Award. Upon accepting the award, Enix-Ross said, “I was mentored at the University of Miami…every step of the way I felt supported by my classmates and by the University. From the day that I stepped at Miami Law, I was determined to make the law school proud, and I hope that I have done that.’’
For helping to make a difference in gender and racial equality in the legal profession, the University of Miami is proud to welcome Deborah Enix-Ross as the School of Law’s commencement speaker.
