Mary Alice McLarty will be the new president of the American Association for Justice (AAJ). Mary Alice will lead AAJ in its continued mission to protect the legal rights of Americans when they are injured by negligence or misconduct, even when it means taking on the most powerful corporations and interests. Mary Alice had this to say:

I’m proud to be a trial lawyer and a member of AAJ. My goal is to get new and existing members excited about what this organization stands for—fighting to keep the court house doors open. We need to work together and face down the enemies of justice.

Mary Alice has been an outspoken supporter over the years of AAJ and a defender of the civil justice system. She will follow outgoing president Gary M. Paul, a partner at Waters, Kraus & Paul in Los Angeles, Calif., who did an outstanding job. Mary Alice is with the McLarty Pope Firm, in Dallas, Texas. She has been practicing law for over 28 years, concentrating on catastrophic injury cases, including Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy (RSD) and brain injuries. Mary Alice has been in several leadership posts at AAJ—serving on the Board of Governors and chairing the Women Trial Lawyers Caucus, the RSD/CRPS Litigation Group and the Sole Practitioner & Small Firm Section.

Mary Alice has held leadership positions with the Texas Trial Lawyers Association and the Dallas Trial Lawyers Association, serving as their president in 2004. In addition to Mary Alice, AAJ’s new set of officers includes:

• President-Elect J. Burton LeBlanc of Baron and Budd, P.C. in Baton Rouge, La.;

• Vice-President Lisa Blue Baron of Baron & Blue Law Firm in Dallas, Texas;

• Secretary Larry A. Tawwater of the Tawwater Law Firm, P.L.L.C. in Oklahoma City, Okla.;

• Treasurer Julie Braman Kane of Colson Hicks Eidson in Coral Gables, Fla.; and

• Parliamentarian Laird M. Ozmon of the Law Offices of Laird M. Ozmon, LTD. in Joliet, Ill.

We wish Mary Alice the very best as she takes over the reins as President of AAJ. I predict – based on her history – that she will do an outstanding job