Esther Lim Receives Women’s Bar Association’s “Star of the Bar” Award

The Women’s Bar Association of the District of Columbia has honored Finnegan partner and Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer Esther Lim with its 2023 “Star of the Bar” award. This year’s theme “Leading Forward” honors “Champions of Women” trailblazers who advocate for women lawyers and women in leadership. Past honorees of this prestigious award include the Honorable Annice M. Wagner, Marna S. Tucker, Carolyn Lamm, Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, the Honorable Anna Blackburne-Rigsby, the Honorable Inez Smith Reid, the Honorable Ketanji Brown Jackson, the Honorable Beryl A. Howell, Congressman John Lewis (posthumously), and Kristen Clarke.

Esther has advocated for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in the legal profession through active bar leadership, community outreach, and pro bono work. In her bar leadership roles, Esther has garnered high visibility and wide respect for her work creating innovative DEI initiatives and successful programs. Esther is past president of the 110,000-member District of Columbia Bar. She is the first immigrant to serve in that position and the first ever Korean American state bar president in the continental United States. As president of the D.C. Bar, she established the Pro Bono Task Force, and currently serves as the co-chair of the D.C. Bar’s DEIA Task Force. Over 20 years ago, as the president of the Asian Pacific American Bar Association of DC (APABA-DC), Esther created the Women’s Forum and the Practicing Attorneys’ Resources to provide resources, mentoring, and practice support for women and diverse attorneys. Those programs continue to this day. She also co-chaired the Women’s Leadership Committee of the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA) to champion, celebrate, and support women lawyers of color.

Esther received the Corporate Counsel’s Women Influence & Power in Law Award for Innovative Leadership and the World IP Review’s Diversity Champion Award. She received the IP and Social Justice Award from Howard University School of Law, where she has been teaching as an adjunct since 2003, in recognition of her contributions in promoting diversity in the legal profession and mentoring students of color. Esther has been recognized as one of the Top 250 Women in IP Law by Managing Intellectual Property.

The “Stars of the Bar” award ceremony will take place on Wednesday, September 20, 2023, at the D.C. Bar Headquarters.