Lisa Rickard

Lisa A. Rickard has served as president of the U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform (ILR) since March 2003, providing strategic leadership to ILR’s comprehensive program aimed at changing the legal culture that has resulted in our nation’s litigation explosion. ILR’s multifaceted campaign takes the fight for legal reform to legislators, the courts, and the public by engaging in legislative advocacy, strategic communications, and voter education. Conducting seminal research to strengthen the case for reform and building strategic alliances are also cornerstones of ILR’s mission to restore fairness to our nation’s civil justice system.



Rickard has led comprehensive legal reform campaigns at the state level, particularly in notorious trial bar strongholds. She has also directed numerous voter education initiatives, resulting in fairer and more balanced legal climates in those states. At the federal level, Rickard played a role in passage of the Class Action Fairness Act, the culmination of a five-year effort. In the international arena, Rickard is leading the Coalition to Curb Global Forum Shopping, which seeks to stop the importation of foreign lawsuits to U.S. courts and stem the export of U.S.-style litigation features to other countries.



Since March 2010, Rickard has also served as executive vice president of the U.S. Chamber, where she leads several key strategic initiatives and manages multiple responsibilities and cross-divisional U.S. Chamber teams. In addition, she leads the Chamber’s Workforce Freedom Initiative, a multimillion-dollar grassroots mobilization and advocacy campaign to preserve democracy in the American workplace, restrain abusive union pension fund activism, and block the anti-competitive agenda advocated by many labor unions.



Rickard has spent more than 25 years as a public policy advocate, most recently as vice president, federal and state government affairs, for The Dow Chemical Company. Previously, she was senior vice president, federal and state government relations, for Ryder System, Inc.



Rickard was a partner in the Washington, D.C., law firm of Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld where she represented corporate and public sector interests before Congress, the White House, and regulatory agencies. She also has worked in the offices of former Sens. Frank Murkowski (R-AK) and Richard Stone (D-FL).



She currently serves on the board of directors of the Women’s Research and Education Institute and is a member of the Business Government Relations Council, the Carlton Club, and the International Women's Forum. In March 2011, Rickard was named as one of the nation's Most Influential Lawyers -- one of only four in the Government Affairs practice area -- by the editors of The National Law Journal, who had previously declared her among Washington's Most Influential Women Lawyers in June 2010.



Rickard graduated from Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania, and received her juris doctorate from American University in Washington, D.C., where she was executive editor of the Law Review. She is a member of the District of Columbia Bar.