Michael Greco

In addition to his law practice, Mr. Greco since 2012 has taught international criminal law as a Visiting Professor of the Practice of Law at Peking University School of Transnational Law in Shenzhen, China, and at China University of Political Science and Law in Beijing.  In 2014 he was elected to the Shenzhen Court of International Arbitration (SCIA) Panel of Arbitrators.  He has served as Chair of the ABA Center for Human Rights (CHR), Chair of the CHR’s International Criminal Court Project and its distinguished international Board of Advisors, Chair of the CHR Atrocity Crimes Initiative, Chair of the CHR’s Law and Public Health Initiative, Steering Committee Member of the International Criminal Justice Consortium, and Chair of the ABA Working Group on a Right to Counsel in Civil Cases.

An authority on the legal profession, legal aid systems, legal and judicial ethics, litigation, arbitration, mediation, international criminal law, and the International Criminal Court, he has received awards and honorary degrees for his work protecting the Legal Services Program in the US and his efforts to improve the professionalism of the legal profession and judiciary in the US and abroad.  At the invitation of the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights he served as an expert on human rights and delivery of legal aid systems in five Latin American countries.  He served as an expert advisor in Honduras on the selection of that country’s Supreme Court Justices.

• American Bar Association Robert F. Drinan Award
• Boston College Law School St. Thomas More Award
• Boston College Law School Founder's Medal
• California Western School of Law, Honorary Doctor of Laws Degree
• Colegio de Abogados de Puerto Rico Honorary Award
• Il Consiglio dell'Ordine degli Avvocati di Roma, Honorary Award
• Kosovo Chamber of Advocates Award of Gratitu 
• Massachusetts Bar Association Gold Medal Award
• New England Bar Association Lifelong Commitment and Service Award
• Northeastern University School of Law Honorary Degree
• State of Hawaii Senate and House of Representatives Certificate of Gratitude
• Suffolk University School of Law Honorary Degree
• University of Akron School of Law Honorary Degree
• Washington State Bar Leaders and Access to Justice Courage Award
• Western New England College School of Law President's Medallion
• Who's Who in American Law
• Who's Who in America

In addition to serving as president of the American Bar Association (ABA) Mr. Greco also has served as president of the Massachusetts Bar Association, the New England Bar Association, the New England Bar Foundation, the Board of Trustees of Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education, Inc., and the Board of Trustees of Massachusetts Lawyers for Nuclear Arms Control. Since 2011 he has served as Chair of the American Bar Association's International Criminal Court Project and its multi-national Board of Advisors. He served as Chair of the American Bar Association Center for Human Rights which leads the ABA's efforts to protect human rights and civil rights nationally and internationally and later as Chair of the Center's Advisory Council, and as Chair of the ABA Working Group on a Right to Counsel in Civil Matters. He served for four years as a member and Chair of the ABA's Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary, which evaluates the President's nominees to the US Supreme Court and all lower federal courts, as Chair of the ABA's Section of Civil Rights and Social Justice, as a member of the ABA's Standing Committee on Law and National Security and, after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the US, as a member of the ABA's Task Force on Terrorism and the Law. Since 2012 as Visiting Professor of the Practice of Law he has taught international criminal law at Peking University Law School, Shenzhen, China, and at China University of Political Science and Law, Beijing, China.

As president of the Massachusetts Bar Association, he was co-founder in 1986 and for seven years thereafter co-chair of Bar Leaders for the Preservation of Legal Services for the Poor, a nationwide grassroots organization of bar leaders and lawyers that helped preserve the Legal Services Corporation (LSC), and legal services for the poor in the 1980s and early 1990s, when both were in jeopardy of being eliminated by President Reagan.

During 1987-88, he chaired a Task Force that conducted the first-in-the-nation study of the legal needs of the poor, the Massachusetts Legal Needs for the Poor Assessment and Plan for Action, a first in the nation project that reliably documented that 80-85 percent of the legal needs of the poor go unmet each year. The resulting Report and Action Plan was instrumental in persuading Congress to increase funding for the Legal Services Corporation, and it inspired other state bar associations and the American Bar Association to conduct similar legal needs assessment studies throughout the nation. By appointment of the Justices of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Mr. Greco chaired the Court's Special Committee on Pro Bono Legal Services in the late 1990s, whose recommendations were adopted by the Court and increased the pro bono efforts of Massachusetts lawyers.

His professional and civic service also includes serving as a member and Vice-Chair of the Board of Bar Overseers of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (1978-81), which advises the Court on lawyer discipline for ethical violations; and as a member for ten years of the Board of Overseers of the Newton-Wellesley Hospital.

As president of the Massachusetts Bar Association he, and Governor Michael S. Dukakis, in 1986 appointed the blue-ribbon Governor's/Massachusetts Bar Association's Commission on the Unmet Legal Needs of Children whose report and recommendations led to enactment of several statutes protecting legal rights of children. He and Governor Dukakis also jointly appointed the Massachusetts Bar Association/Governor's Committee on the Alcoholic Client whose Report made recommendations regarding ways in which lawyers and judges can directly address the devastating but curable disease of alcoholism.

In 1986-88 he was asked by, and served as Special Counsel to, the Chief Justice and Associate Justices of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court and its Board of Bar Overseers, defendants in the federal court lawsuit United States v. Klubock, in which the US Department of Justice unsuccessfully challenged the Court's newly adopted ethical rule applicable to federal prosecutors to protect the historical attorney-client privilege and attorney-client relationship. In another case he served as Special Assistant Attorney General of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts representing Presiding Judge James Dolan and the associate judges, court employees and citizens in the Dorchester Court case, in which, at Judge Dolan's request, the Supreme Judicial Court ordered closure of the unhealthful and overcrowded courthouse so that it could be repaired and made safe for the public and court personnel and which, after extensive renovations, reopened five years later.

During 2012-2015 by appointment of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court he served as a member of the Court's Committee to Revise the Massachusetts Code of Judicial Conduct. He also served for ten years as a member of the Board of Overseers of the Newton-Wellesley Hospital, and for eight years as a member of Massachusetts Governor William Weld's (State Court) Judicial Nominating Council, and on Senator Edward Kennedy and Senator John Kerry's Commission on Federal Judicial Appointments in Massachusetts. As a member of the board of directors of the New England [Business] Council (NEC) during 1998-2004 he served as Chair of NEC's groundbreaking Creative Economy Initiative, a New England regional economic/cultural development effort designed to increase public financial support and private funding for the cultural arts and investment in New England's Creative Economy.

By appointment of Governor Deval Patrick in 2011, Mr. Greco served for three years on the Board of Directors of the Massachusetts Cultural Council, which funds cultural and arts programs throughout the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. He has served on the boards of directors of several nonprofit organizations including the Friends of the Law Library of Congress (Washington, D.C.) for three years, the Asian Community Development Corporation in Boston for eleven years and the national Asian American Justice Center (Washington, D.C.) for three years.

Mr. Greco has lectured on, and authored, numerous articles on litigation techniques, alternative dispute resolution methods, international arbitration, employment law, professional malpractice and ethics, state and federal environmental laws, and insurance coverage. Articles include “Getting to Yes Abroad: International Arbitration as an Effective Tool in Commercial and Political Risk Management,” in the ABA Business Law Section Journal; “The Credit Crisis and the Audit Committee,” in the Metropolitan Corporate Counsel; and “Regulation of the Legal Profession in a Global Economy,” in the Journal of the Professional Lawyer.

Other presentations in his  areas of law practice include the American Bar Association Spring Symposium in New York, "ADR in Commercial Finance Transactions - A Colloquium of the ABA Business Law and Dispute Resolution Sections;" "International Arbitration: Managing Cross-Cultural Factors," at the K&L Gates LLP Symposium, San Francisco; "International Arbitration as a Tool in Effective Risk Management," K&L Gates LLP Symposium, London; and "International Arbitration Trends," at the Union Internationale des Avocats (UIA) Annual Conference, in Salvador, Brazil, among others.

As a leader of the legal profession Mr. Greco has been invited to address judicial organizations, bar associations and other legal and public groups throughout the United States and abroad on a range of subjects including his Commencement Address on the “Role of the Lawyer in Society” at the Temple University/Tsinghua University LL.M. Program, Beijing, China; his Keynote Address, “Reflections on the Legal Profession in the United States and China,” at the Shenzhen Lawyers Association Meeting, Shenzhen, China; the Keynote Address at the Harvard University Kennedy School of Government Annual Dinner, Cambridge, MA; his Keynote Address, “Public Corruption,” to Kosovo Lawyers, Judges, Prosecutors and Government Officials, in Pristina, Kosovo; the Keynote Address at the Conference of State Court Chief Justices, “Regulation of the Legal Profession in a Global Economy,” Chicago, Illinois; Keynote Remarks to the Kentucky Bar Association Annual Convention: “Is There a Right to Counsel?” in Lexington, Kentucky; Remarks at World Justice Forum III, “Human Rights,” in Barcelona, Spain; and Keynote Remarks at the ABA International Distinguished Guests Program, “Human Rights and the Role of the Lawyer in Society,” at the ABA Annual Meeting, Toronto, Canada.

Speeches/Presentations

• Keynote Remarks, Harvard Human Rights Journal Luncheon, “The Right to Counsel in Civil Matters and Human Rights,” Harvard Law School, February 7, 2018.
• Keynote Remarks, Southern China International Model United Nations Conference, “China, the Rule of Law and E-Governance,” Shenzhen, China, March 16, 2017.
• Commencement Address, Temple University-Tsinghua University LL.M. Program, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China, November 2, 2013.
• Keynote Remarks, International Conference on the Chinese Rule of Law, “China E-Governance ant the Rule of Law,” Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China, December 15, 2012.
• Keynote Remarks, Peking University School of Transnational Law, “The Rule of Law in China and the United States,” Shangri-La Hotel, Shenzhen, China, December 14, 2012.
• Keynote Remarks, Shenzhen Lawyers Association, “Reflections on the Legal Profession in the United States and China,” Shenzhen, China, December 7, 2012.
• Keynote Remarks, Harvard University Kennedy School of Government Annual Dinner, Harvard Faculty Club, Cambridge, Massachusetts, September 21, 2012.
• Remarks, International Justice Resource Center Human Rights Conference, Boston, Massachusetts, May 18, 2012.
• Remarks, Stanford University-ABA Center for Human Rights International Criminal Court Conference, Stanford Law School, Palo Alto, CA, May 11, 2012.
• Keynote Remarks at United Nations, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Experts Meeting on “Human Rights and Legal Aid in Latin America,” Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, December 14-15, 2011.
• Remarks at ABA International Distinguished Guests Program: “Human Rights and the Role of the Lawyer in Society,” ABA Annual Meeting, Toronto, Canada, August 6, 2011.
• Keynote Remarks, Kentucky Bar Association Annual Conference, “Is There a Right to Counsel?” Lexington, KY, June 15, 2011.
• Remarks at Presentation of Portrait of the late Hon. Reginald C. Lindsay, U.S. Courthouse, Boston, MA, September 24, 2010.
• Keynote Address, Connecticut Bar Association Leadership Retreat, Westbrook, CT, September 25, 2009.
• “Regulation of the Legal Profession in a Global Economy,” Remarks to the Conference of Chief Justices, Fairmont Hotel, Chicago, IL, May 27, 2009.
• Remarks on Receiving the Robert F. Drinan Award, ABA Midyear Meeting, Boston, MA, February 13, 2009.
• Keynote Address, Oregon Bench-Bar Professionalism Conference, Portland, OR, December 8, 2008.
• Remarks to ABA Symposium on Access to Justice, Atlanta, GA, December 4, 2008.
• Remarks, Minnesota State Bar Association Task Force on Civil Gideon, Minneapolis, MN, September 11, 2008.
• Remarks to Kosovo Lawyers, Judges, Prosecutors and Government Officials at Bench-Bar Roundtable Regarding Regulating the Bench and Bar in Kosovo, Pristina, Kosovo, June 20, 2008.
• University of Akron School of Law Commencement Address, Akron, OH, May 20, 2007.
• Keynote Remarks, Pennsylvania State Bar Association, “Civil Rights in the 21st Century” Philadelphia, PA, April 12, 2007.
• Keynote Remarks to New Citizens of the United States, Naturalization Ceremony, JFK Library and Museum, Boston, MA, February 15, 2007.
• “In Remembrance of Robert F. Drinan, S.J.,” ABA House of Delegates Midyear Meeting, Miami, FL, February 12, 2007.
• Keynote Remarks, New York State Bar Association “Justice for All” Luncheon, New York, NY, January 25, 2007.
• “Civil Right to Counsel: Honoring America's Commitment to Equal Justice for All,” The Francis D. Murnaghan Lecture on Law, Civil Liberties and Public Policy, Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, MD, November 28, 2006.
• Remarks at 50th Congress of the Union International des Avocats, “International Arbitration – Getting to Yes,” Salvador, Brazil, November 1, 2006.
• Farewell Remarks to the ABA House of Delegates, American Bar Association Annual Meeting 2006, Honolulu, Hawaii, by Michael S. Greco, August 7, 2006.
• Keynote Address, “Judicial Independence,” Conference of Chief Justices and Conference of State Court Administrators Annual Meeting, Indianapolis, IN, July 31, 2006.
• Keynote Address, Italian Council of State, “The Rule of Law and the American Bar Association,” Rome, Italy, July 5, 2006.
• Keynote Address, “Access to Justice and a Civil right to Counsel,” Washington State Access to Justice Conference, Yakima, WA June 10, 2006.
• Keynote address, National Summit on the Convention on the Rights of the Child, Washington, DC, May 18, 2006.
• Keynote address, Judicial Conference of the Sixth Circuit, Detroit, MI, May 19, 2006.
• Keynote Remarks, Opening Session, American Law Institute 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC, May 15, 2006.
• Keynote Address, Human Trafficking Issues, Conference for Prosecutors, Nairobi, Kenya, April 29, 2006.
• Luncheon Remarks at ABA Day at the United Nations, New York, NY, April 4, 2006.
• Keynote Address, ABA/NLADA Equal Justice Conference, Philadelphia, PA, March 31, 2006.
• Keynote Address, “Civil Gideon: Making the Case,” at the 23rd Annual Edward V. Sparer Symposium, University of Pennsylvania Law School, Philadelphia, PA, March 28, 2006.
• Keynote Remarks to Ankara Bar Association, Ankara, Turkey , March 7, 2006.
• “The Jury Trial System and the Independence of the Legal Profession in the United States,” Remarks to the Collegium of Advocates, Almyaty, Kazakhstan, March 6, 2006.
• Remarks at Employment Discrimination Conference, “Discrimination Issues in US Employment Laws,” Moscow, Russia, March 3, 2006.
• Remarks to the ABA House of Delegates, “Adoption of Statement of Core Principles of the Legal Profession,” ABA Midyear Meeting, Chicago, IL, February 13, 2006.
• Remarks at the Association of American Law Schools Annual Meeting, Washington, DC, January 4, 2006.
• Commencement address, California Western School of Law, San Diego, CA, December 19, 2005.
• Remarks at the Constitutional Conference, Belgrade, Serbia, December 15, 2005.
• Remarks to Kosovo Chamber of Advocates, Pristina, Kosovo, December 14, 2005.
• Remarks at Kosovo Bench-Bar Roundtable, Pristina, Kosovo, December 14, 2005.
• Remarks, “Human Rights and the Death Penalty,” ABA-European Union-Japan International Leadership Conference, Tokyo, Japan, December 6, 2005.
• Keynote Address, Washington State Summit on Judicial Selection and Judicial Independence, Seattle, WA, November 11, 2005.
• Remarks on Public Interest Law, “Advanced Workshop on Public Interest Litigation, Human Rights Protection, and the Harmonious Society,” at Wang Law School, Suzhou, China, October 15, 2005
• Remarks on Judicial Independence and ABA International Rule of Law initiatives, Shanghai, China, October 14, 2005
• Remarks at U.S. Embassy Reception in honor of ABA Delegation, Hanoi, Vietnam, October 12, 2005
• Remarks to the Thai Judicial Training Institute, Bangkok, Thailand, October 11, 2005
• Remarks to Lawyer's Council of Thailand, Bangkok, Thailand, October 10, 2005
• Remarks to the Council of the International Bar Association, Prague, Czech Republic, Sept. 29, 2005
• Remarks at 49th Congress of Union Internationale des Avocats, Fez, Morocco, September 1, 2005
• Address to ABA House of Delegates, 2005 Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL, August 8, 2005.
• Remarks on Access to Civil Justice, to the Equal Justice Council of Baltimore, Maryland, May 25, 2005.
• Remarks on Attorney Ethics, Corporate Governance and Section 307 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, National Italian American Foundation Institute for International Law, Rome, Italy, May 10, 2005.
• Keynote Remarks, Ohio Access to Justice Awards Dinner, Toledo, Ohio, April 6, 2005
• Remarks to Hawaii State Bar Association Pro Bono/Service Award Ceremony, Ali'iolani Hale (Hawaii Supreme Court Building), Honolulu, Hawaii, March 21, 2005
• Keynote Remarks, to Inaugural Congress of the Georgia Bar Association, Tbilisi, Georgia, Feb. 26, 2005
• Keynote Address, “A Defined Civil Right to Counsel,” Alabama Law Foundation Annual Dinner, Montgomery, AL, January 28, 2005.
• Keynote Remarks, Ohio Bench-Bar Conference, “Charting the Course of the Justice System and Legal Profession in the Next ten Years,” Columbus, Ohio, November 9, 2004.
• Keynote Remarks, “The Role of the Judge at the Dawn of the 21st Century: A Lawyer's Perspective,” Connecticut Judges Conference, Quinnipiac, Connecticut, June 17, 2004.
• Keynote Remarks, Massachusetts Black Lawyers Conference, “Brown v. Board of Education - Fiftieth Anniversary,” Boston College Law School, Newton, Massachusetts, April 30, 2004.
• Address to ABA House of Delegates, ABA 2004 Midyear Meeting, San Antonio, Texas, February 9, 2004

American Bar Association Presidency

Mr. Greco served as President of the American Bar Association during 2005-2006.  The over-arching theme of his ABA presidency was renaissance – a reaffirmation of the legal profession's core values and America's constitutional principles. His policy priorities included protecting constitutional rights, safeguarding the independence of the judiciary, advancing the rule of law and human rights in the U.S. and abroad, and providing for the unmet legal needs of low-income persons, and advancement of women, people of color and persons with disabilities in the legal profession. During his term of office, he appointed two ABA Commissions, five ABA Task Forces and several Special Committees to implement his presidential initiatives and address issues of concern to the public and the legal profession.

He appointed the ABA Task Force on Access to Civil Justice, chaired by Maine Supreme Judicial Court Associate Justice Howard Dana, Jr., who had served on the Legal Services Corporation Board by appointment of two U.S. Presidents, to consider an idea that has been adopted in many civilized nations of world during the past century, and whose time has come in America: providing greatly needed legal services to millions of poor Americans, 80% of whose legal needs annually go unmet, through recognition of a right to counsel in civil proceedings for certain serious legal problems that threaten one's basic human needs including shelter, health, sustenance, safety and child custody.

At its August 2006 Annual Meeting the 550-member ABA House of Delegates adopted policies implementing the recommendations of the Task Force on Access to Civil Justice. In an historic vote for the Association, the House voted unanimously to support recognition of a civil right to counsel for low-income persons. Since 2006 the movement toward recognition of a right to counsel in civil proceedings has progressed in numerous states. Mr. Greco has been invited to speak to state access to justice commissions and committees in those states, and in other states throughout the US, to help implement a right to counsel in certain civil matters.

Following his ABA presidency Mr. Greco for five years chaired the ABA Working Group on a Civil Right to Counsel, comprised of leaders of a number of ABA Sections and Standing Committees, which has drafted three important tools for jurisdictions desiring to recognize the civil right to counsel: the ABA Model Access Act and the ABA Basic Principles of a Right to Counsel in Civil Proceedings, both of which were adopted as policy by the ABA House of Delegates, and a comprehensive Judge's Manual that documents and informs judges, lawyers and the public of the laws, regulations and court precedents in every state that give judges the right or discretion to appoint counsel for low income litigants in certain basic human needs civil matters. The ABA Working Group continues to help state justice system leaders implement the right to counsel through use of these tools, and in other ways.

As ABA President, Mr. Greco also appointed the ABA Commission on a Renaissance of Idealism in the Legal Profession. Led by honorary co-chairs U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and former Counselor to President John F. Kennedy, Theodore C. Sorensen, and chaired by Mark D. Agrast of Washington, D.C., the purpose, and the resulting efforts and work products, of the Commission were to help persuade private law offices and government lawyers throughout the United States to provide more time for lawyers to engage in more pro bono and public service, and to re-invigorate the lawyer's historical commitment to providing pro bono legal services to low-income persons in need.

He appointed the ABA Commission on Civic Education and the Separation of Powers, led by honorary co-chairs US Supreme Court Associate Justice Sandra Day O'Connor and former US Senator Bill Bradley, and chair Robert
H. Rawson of Cleveland, Ohio, which addressed the troubling but reliably documented fact that half of Americans are truly ignorant about their constitutional democracy due to lack of adequate civics education and therefore are 
not knowledgeable enough to protect the institutions of their democracy, particularly an independent judiciary. The Commission worked for more than two years and had significant influence on a number of state school systems and urging legislative enactments that reintroduced the teaching of civics in state school systems. The ABA continues its efforts to improve civics education in the nation's school systems and to protect the independence of the judiciary.

In connection with the important civics education efforts of the ABA Commission on Civic Education and the Separation of Powers, Mr. Greco chose as the theme of ABA Law Day 2006 “Liberty under Law – Separate Branches, Balanced Powers.” Hundreds of Law Day programs for young and adult Americans were conducted in communities and schools across the country to underscore the importance of the separation of powers in our democratic form of government and to remind everyone that democracy will not long survive without an informed, knowledgeable public that protects its cherished constitutional rights.

In the fall of 2005 Mr. Greco also appointed the ABA Task Force on Hurricane Katrina as that hurricane was still raging in order that lawyers in the Gulf States region and across America could provide free legal services to all victims of Hurricane Katrina and other hurricanes that devastated the Gulf States. The Task Force coordinated an unprecedented effort by thousands of America's lawyers and state court judges for several years to provide desperately needed free legal services to many thousands of hurricane victims.

During his ABA presidency Mr. Greco also appointed two bi-partisan, blue-ribbon Task Forces to address unconstitutional executive actions of President George W. Bush. The ABA Task Force on Domestic Surveillance in the Fight against Terrorism, and the ABA Task Force on Presidential Signing Statements and the Separation of Powers Doctrine – both comprised of distinguished constitutional scholars and former government leaders and judges, were appointed in order to protect Americans' constitutional rights, the doctrines of separation of powers and checks and balances, and America's democratic form of government.

The Task Force on Domestic Surveillance carefully considered the US government's program of spying on American citizens and issued a unanimous report and unanimous recommendations urging the President to respect the roles of Congress and the Judiciary, and to comply with the Constitution and existing federal laws and urged immediate corrective action by Congress and the Courts. The ABA House of Delegates at its February 2006 Midyear Meeting in Chicago adopted the bi-partisan Task Force's recommendations by a near-unanimous vote.

The Task Force on Presidential Signing Statements considered the misuse by any President of “signing statements” that indicate a President's intention not to enforce new laws enacted by Congress despite signing them. The bi-partisan Task Force issued a unanimous report and recommendations concluding that such misuse by a President of signing statements violates the Constitution, encroaches unlawfully on the powers of Congress and the Supreme Court and poses a direct threat to the separation of powers doctrine and the system of checks and balances that have sustained our democracy for more than two centuries. The Task Force urged legislative action by Congress and judicial review by the Supreme Court to resolve the constitutional issues presented. At its August 2006 Annual Meeting in Honolulu the ABA House of Delegates adopted the Task Force's recommendations by an overwhelming vote.

During his presidency, Mr. Greco also encouraged and co-sponsored two unprecedented American Bar Association national diversity conferences, one organized by the ABA Commission on Racial and Ethnic Diversity and other partners that addressed the importance of ensuring the continuing flow of young people of color in the pipeline to the legal profession. The conference organized by the ABA Commission on Mental and Physical Disability Law and other partners, for the first time addressed the employment needs of lawyers with physical and mental disabilities. He also supported efforts of the ABA Commission on Women in the Profession to ensure the continued advancement of women in the legal profession, particularly women of color whose discrimination and professional plight was documented in a several years-long survey and final report released at the Association's August 2006 Annual Meeting.

He also directed the ABA Commission on Immigration Law to develop new Association policies to help address the situation of America's twelve million undocumented immigrants. Congressional leaders acknowledged and commended the Commission's report and recommendations, which were overwhelmingly approved by a near- unanimous vote the House of Delegates at the February 2006 ABA Midyear Meeting, for helping to educate members of Congress and helping to craft appropriate legislation.

He also created, and appointed the boards of directors of, three new ABA legal centers. The ABA Resource Center for Access to Justice Initiatives was created to assist efforts throughout the United States to improve ways by which legal services are delivered to our nation's low-income persons, and to help implement a civil right to counsel. The ABA Center for Racial and Ethnic Diversity was created to consolidate and coordinate the Association's many diversity programs. The ABA Center for Rule of Law Initiatives (now named the Rule of Law Initiative or ROLI), was created to consolidate and enhance the Association's growing and increasingly important international rule of law programs in Africa, Asia, Central Europe/Eurasia, and Latin America, which provide legal technical assistance and training to emerging democracies in countries on five continents, including former republics of the Soviet Union.

In his efforts to unify the legal profession throughout the world to advance and protect the rule of the law and human rights in all nations, Mr. Greco at international conferences in Prague and Paris attended by hundreds of world bar leaders in November 2005 authored and urged the adoption and ratification of a Statement of Core Principles of the Legal Profession. The Statement was adopted unanimously by the world bar leaders meeting in Paris and by the ABA House of Delegates at its Midyear Meeting in February 2006, and bars throughout the world.

During his term as ABA president Mr. Greco also negotiated and executed on behalf of the American Bar Association a “Memorandum of Understanding” or collaboration agreement, between the ABA and each of the national bars of China, Russia and Japan in order to provide for mutually beneficial exchanges of lawyers, legal knowledge and expertise, to conduct joint legal education programs, and to advance justice and the rule of law in those nations. During and following his ABA presidency Mr. Greco has represented the ABA and the US lega profession in substantive meetings with leaders of many countries and has met with lawyers and judges and government leaders in forty-seven states, Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia.

After his ABA presidency, Mr. Greco has been invited to address and meet with government officials, Supreme Court justices and leaders of the bar both in the United States and abroad on issues relating to advancement of the rule of law, International criminal justice, protection of human rights, elimination and reduction of corruption in national justice systems, and access to justice for a country's citizens. His travels include multiple visits to Kosovo, El Salvador, Brazil, Honduras, England, Austria, Spain, Italy, China, The Hague (Netherlands), Canada and other countries, and he has met in the US with government leaders and Supreme Court chief justices from China, Indonesia, Viet Nam, and other countries.
 

• Op-Ed, “The Congress is Wrong on this One,” (Restricting the President's Authority Regarding Detention and Trial of Terrorist Suspects), Huff Post, December 15, 2011.
• Op-Ed, “Inequality Mustn't Pay,” Boston Herald, November 13, 2010 (favoring equal pay for equal work by women employees)
• “The Task Ahead: Challenges and Issues,” Connecticut Lawyer Magazine, November 2009.
• “Regulation of the Legal Profession in a Global Economy,” Journal of the Professional Lawyer 2009, November 2009.
• “Human Rights Hero: Sandra Day O'Connor,” ABA Human Rights Magazine, with Stephen J. Wermiel, Winter 2009.
• Op-Ed, “Restore Fairness to the Judiciary,” Boston Globe, October 30, 2009, with the Hon. Patricia Wald.
• “The Credit Crisis and the Audit Committee,” The Metropolitan Corporate Counsel, with Michael J. Missal and Robert A. Lawton, November 2008.
• “The ABA: Promoting the Rule of Law in Kosovo,” Metropolitan Corporate Counsel, October 2008.
• Whither Judicial Independence? The Metropolitan Corporate Counsel, February 2008.
• “Popular Dissatisfaction with Judicial Restraint – Do Americans Really Want an Independent Judiciary?” Indiana Law Journal, June/July 2007.
• “Getting to Yes Abroad: Arbitration as a Tool in Effective Commercial and Political Risk Management,” ABA Business Law Section Journal, May 2007, with Ian Meredith.
• “Past as Prologue: The ABA Section of Individual Rights & Responsibilities at Forty Years,” ABA Human Rights Magazine, February 2007.
• “Forgotten Colleagues – Lawyers with Disabilities,” The Metropolitan Corporate Counsel, February 2007.
• “The ABA-ACLA Memorandum of Agreement: A Strong Step Forward for the Rule of Law,” The Metropolitan Corporate Counsel, February 2007.
• “A Tale of Two Bars” (The All China Lawyers Association and the American Bar Association), The Metropolitan Corporate Counsel, December 2006.
• Twelve “ABA President's Messages,” ABA Journal, August 2005 – July 2006 (on a range of subjects).
• Law Review Article, Western New England Law Review, Vol. 28, No. 1, 2005, based on remarks delivered at the Western New England College School of Law Convocation.
• “Fulfilling the Promise of Equal Justice for All,” Allegheny County Bar Association Bar Foundation Lawyers Journal, October 14, 2005 issue.
• “Immigration in America,” ABA Human Rights Magazine, Winter 2000

Interviews

• “The ABA: Promoting the Rule of Law in Kosovo,” The Metropolitan Corporate Counsel, October 2008.
• “One World, One Profession: An Historic Opportunity to Unite,” Juriste Internationale, No. 2005-4
• “The ABA-ACLA Memorandum of Agreement: A Strong Step Forward for the Rule of Law,” The Metropolitan Corporate Counsel, February 2007.
• “Raising the Rule of Law Banner, For America and the World,” The Metropolitan Corporate Counsel, October 2006.
• “Defending the Constitution,” Princeton Alumni Weekly, November 22, 2006.
• “Standing Tall for Liberty,” Boston College Law School Magazine, Fall/Winter 2005.
• The Lawyer As Public Citizen: The American Bar Association Leads the Profession into the Future,” The Metropolitan Corporate Counsel, November 2005.
• Interview of ABA President-Elect Michael S. Greco, The Federalist Society, August 2005.
• “An Advocate for America,” Ambassador Magazine, Summer 2005.
• Interview of Michael S. Greco, Bar Leader Magazine, June 2005.
• “A Renaissance of Idealism in the Legal Profession: An Interview of Michael S. Greco, Bar Leader Magazine, June 2005,” The ABA Affiliate, May/June 2004.