Virginia Lawyer Roderick B. Mathews Becomes President Of The American Bar Endowment

Chicago, IL  (CompNewsNetwork) - Roderick B. Mathews of Richmond, Va., has been elected to serve as president of the American Bar Endowment, a charitable affiliate of the 400,000-member American Bar Association. The election took place at the August Annual meeting of the association in New York City.  Mr. Mathews is the first Virginian to serve as President of the Endowment.

The Endowment funds more than 200 law-related public service, educational and research programs to promote the rule of law around the world; to improve delivery of, and access to, legal services; and to provide for special legal needs of children, the elderly, minorities and victims of domestic violence.  More than $224 million has been invested in such worthwhile projects by the Endowment since its founding in 1942.  ABE-sponsored group insurance, with approximately 30,000 certificates in force, is among a very few programs that combines quality insurance for participants with the opportunity to make tax deduction-eligible donations of insurance dividends for those worthwhile charitable endeavors.  Mathews' focus as president will be to increase participation by ABA-member lawyers in the insurance programs that generate those dividends and in the Endowment's Charitable Gift Fund, a donor-advised fund for ABA members.

Mathews is a graduate of Hampden Sydney College, the University of Richmond Law School and the Executive Program of the University of Michigan Business School. He has served as president of Richmond's children's hospital and serves as a member of the board for its foundation.  He is a member of the Virginia Board of Medicine by gubernatorial appointment.  He is a past president of the Virginia State Bar.  He has twice served as a member of the ABA Board of Governors and its Executive Committee and served for 20 years in the ABA House of Delegates, including as state delegate for Virginia and a member of the ABA's officer nominating committee.

Mathews is an arbitrator and mediator, having retired from the Richmond office of Troutman Sanders LLP. He is a member of the large and complex commercial disputes panel of arbitrators of the American Arbitration Association, a member of panels of arbitrators for CPR International Institute for Conflict Prevention & Resolution, the American Health Lawyers Association and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.  He is a certified mediator under the Rules of the Supreme Court of Virginia and has been recognized by Best Lawyers in America for alternate dispute resolution.

With more than 400,000 members, the American Bar Association is the largest voluntary professional membership organization in the world.  As the national voice of the legal profession, the ABA works to improve the administration of justice, promotes programs that assist lawyers and judges in their work, accredits law schools, provides continuing legal education, and works to build public understanding around the world of the importance of the rule of law.

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