Trish Refo is president of the American Bar Association, the largest voluntary association of attorneys and legal professionals in the world. Trish has been a member of the Arizona Women Lawyers Association since 2003, and has been a Sustaining Member since 2008.
As a partner at Snell & Wilmer in Phoenix, Trish concentrates on complex commercial litigation and internal investigations. She chairs the firm’s Professional Liability Litigation Group.
From 2014 to 2016, Trish was the ABA’s second highest-ranking elected official as chair of its policymaking House of Delegates. She has also served as chair of the ABA’s largest practice group, the Section of Litigation, and as chair of the ABA Standing Committee on Membership, the American Jury Project, and the Association’s grassroots advocacy activity, ABA Day in Washington. Trish was also a member of the ABA Commission on Civic Education and the Separation of Powers.
Trish has served on the Advisory Committee on the Federal Rules of Evidence of the United States Judicial Conference, appointed by Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, and on the Arizona Supreme Court's Advisory Committee on Rules of Evidence. She is a member of the American Law Institute and its Litigation Advisory Panel and is a fellow of the American Bar Foundation and the Arizona Foundation for Legal Services & Education. Previously, Trish served as a director of the American Bar Endowment and as co-chair of the National Association of Women Lawyers Committee for the Evaluation of Supreme Court Nominees.
Among her awards and recognitions, Trish in 2007 was named to the National Law Journal’s list of The 50 Most Influential Women Lawyers in America. She received the President’s Award from the State Bar of Arizona and has been inducted into the Maricopa County Bar Association Hall of Fame. She received her B.A. with high honors and high distinction and her J.D. cum laude from the University of Michigan.