Bill Bay elected to ABA Board of Governors

Thompson Coburn partner Bill Bay has been elected to the American Bar Association Board of Governors, the governing body of the world’s largest voluntary professional organization. The 38-member Board of Governors oversees the general operation of the ABA and develops specific plans of action.

Bill was elected to three-year term that began in August 2014. During his tenure as a Governor, he serves on the Board’s Finance Committee. Bill is the only current Governor from Missouri and one of a small number of Missouri attorneys to ever serve on the Board of Governors. He is a past Chair of the 60,000-member ABA Section of Litigation, the ABA’s largest specialty section.

Bill’s litigation practice at Thompson Coburn includes more than 30 years of experience in the representation and trial of business disputes. Bill's clients vary from major financial institutions to manufacturers to for-profit colleges. He has litigated cases on behalf of companies facing high-risk litigation and helped businesses manage and respond to large portfolios of litigation in multiple jurisdictions. In 2013, Missouri Lawyers Media selected Bill as an Influential Lawyer as part of its Missouri Lawyers Awards, which honor the top innovators and influencers in Missouri's legal community.

Bill is active in a number of legal and community organizations throughout the region and country. He has been elected to leadership posts in several local, state and national bar associations, including president of the Bar Association of Metropolitan St. Louis, president of the St. Louis Bar Foundation and member of the Missouri Bar Board of Governors. For more than a decade, Bill has been a member of the ABA's House of Delegates representing St. Louis, a position he held until assuming his Board of Governors position. He also served as Chair of the ABA Standing Committee on Bar Activities and Services.

Bill is currently co-chair of the Missouri Supreme Court and Missouri Bar’s Joint Commission on Women in the Profession and a past member of the ABA Commission on Racial and Ethnic Diversity in the Profession. He also served on the board of FOCUS St. Louis, which seeks to train, promote and educate leaders on regional issues.