2021 speakers

Don Bivens is the founder and managing partner of Don Bivens, PLLC in Scottsdale, Arizona.  He is a former Governor of the American Bar Association, former Chair of the ABA Section of Litigation, and former President of the State Bar of Arizona and the Western States Bar Conference.   Don currently chairs the ABA Center for Innovation, and the Arizona Supreme Court’s Board of Non-Lawyer Legal Service Providers.   Don was a member of the Task Force that recommended Arizona’s new ethical rules to the Supreme Court, which among other things permits non-lawyers to share fees and firm ownership with lawyers.  Don has been recognized three times by his peers as “Lawyer of the Year” for Financial and Banking Litigation.   He advises companies that want to learn more about forming an Alternative Business Structure.  Don is a member of the American Law Institute, and a recipient of the Arizona bar’s highest award for service to the profession and the community.

Don is a graduate of Yale University and the University of Texas School of Law.  He is married to Trish Refo, the immediate past President of the ABA.   Don harbors illusions as a musician and singer.   True, he led an accomplished singing group in college, but today his performances are mostly relegated to groups of liquored-up lawyers and judges.  He and Trish formed a singing group within the ABA deemed the Tortfeasors, whose every performance was better than the next.  Trish and Don live in Paradise Valley, Arizona.