ALI Oral History Series: Roberta Cooper Ramo and Michael Traynor

Reasonably Speaking

Mike served as ALI's eighth president from 2000 to 2008, and Roberta as ALI's ninth and first woman president from 2008 to 2017. Both are recipients of ALI's Distinguished Service Award. Beyond the ALI, Mike is senior counsel at Cobalt in Berkeley, California. He's a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers, among others. He's the recipient of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit's John P. Frank Award. Mike is an honorary life trustee of Earthjustice as well as on the Environmental Law Institute's Leadership Council and the advisory boards of Sustainable Conservation and the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Roberta is a shareholder at Modrall Sperling in Albuquerque, New Mexico. In addition to being ALI's first woman president, she was also the first woman president of the ABA from 1995 to 1996. Among other honors, she's an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a fellow of both the American College of Trust and Estate Council and the American Bar Foundation, and has served as a panel member for the American Arbitration Association. Roberta is board chair of Think New Mexico, and a member of the board of the Santa Fe Opera. In 2015, Roberta received the American Bar Association's highest award, the ABA medal. We are so pleased Mike and Roberta have joined us in person to record this dual oral history for the Institute.