Arizona Litigator Named New Chair of ABA Center for Innovation

An Arizona litigator and former chair of the American Bar Association’s Section of Litigation has been named as the new chair of the governing council of the ABA Center for Innovation, a program whose mission is to encourage and accelerate innovations the improve the affordability, effectiveness, efficiency and accessibility of legal services.

The new chair, Don Bivens, is a partner in the Phoenix firm Snell & Wilmer, where his practice focuses on complex litigation and corporate investigations.

He is the husband of ABA President-elect Trish Refo, who is also his law partner.

Bivens takes over as chair from Daniel B. Rodriguez, the former dean of Northwestern University’s Pritzker School of Law, who recently resigned from the position.

The Center for Innovation was created in 2016 on the recommendation of the ABA’s Commission on the Future of Legal Services, whose 2016 Report on the Future of Legal Services in the United States called for, among other things, the ABA to create a center that “would be responsible for proactively and comprehensively encouraging, supporting, and driving innovation in the legal profession and justice system.”

Bivens, according to his law firm biography, is a former chair of the Supreme Court of Arizona’s Committee on Civil Justice Reform and is a member of its Task Force on the Delivery of Legal Services.

He is a member of the American Law Institute and a past president of the Western States Bar Conference, the State Bar of Arizona, and the Maricopa County Bar Association.

He has held a number of leadership roles within the ABA, including as a member of the board of governors from 2007 to 2010 and as both a former and current member of the House of Delegates. He chaired the Litigation section in 2013 to 2014.

I have reached out to both Bivens and the ABA for more information about the appointment.