Corette Black Carlson & Mickelson, P.C.–Shareholder
Butte, MT

Bob Carlson, a shareholder with the Butte, Montana, law firm of Corette Black Carlson and Mickelson, P.C., was president of the ABA from August 2018 to August 2019.

During his term as president, Bob focused on enhancing the benefits to members and broadly marketing the value of membership to potential members. He consistently delivered the message that the ABA is essential to all lawyers—as the voice of the legal profession and as an organization that can make them better practicing attorneys. He also spoke often on ABA initiatives to promote lawyer and law student wellness; advance diversity in the association and the profession; fight for access to justice for all, including those seeking refuge in the United States; and argue in defense of an independent judiciary.

As shareholder, Bob has a civil trial and mediation practice that primarily involves insurance defense, products liability, and insurance coverage. Before entering private practice in 1981, he was a staff attorney for the Montana Department of Business Regulation and a law clerk for the Montana Supreme Court.

Bob has a long record of service to the ABA. From 2012–2014, he was chair of the ABA’s policymaking House of Delegates, the association’s second-highest elected office. He currently serves as the chair of the House of Delegates Working Group on Policy and Operations. He served three terms on the ABA Board of Governors and its Executive Committee, chairing its Executive Compensation Committee. Bob has also served in the ABA House of Delegates as both Montana’s state bar delegate and state delegate and as a delegate at large. He is a Life Patron Fellow and past state chair of the Fellows of the American Bar Foundation.

In addition to his firm and ABA service, bob was president of the State Bar of Montana from 1993–1994 and chaired its board of trustees from 1990–1992. He has also served as a member of the Montana Supreme Court’s Character and Fitness Commission. Since 1994, he has been a member of the University of Montana Law School’s Clinical Board of Visitors. He has served as lawyer representative to the Federal District of Montana, Montana co-chair of the Ninth Circuit’s Lawyer Representatives Coordinating Committee, and chair of the state bar’s Ad Hoc Committee on Discipline.

Bob earned his B.A. with honors from the University of Montana and his J.D. from the University of Montana School of Law.