American Bar Association section honors attorneys with Difference Makers Awards

The American Bar Association Solo, Small Firm and General Practice Division (GPSolo) honored several attorneys with 2021 Difference Makers Awards on October 21 during the 2021 GPSolo Fall Meeting.

Lawyer Haley Moss of Coral Gables, Florida, received the Making a Difference by Breaking Barriers Award which honors an attorney who broke barriers for gender, color, disabilities or sexual orientation.

Moss made headlines as Florida’s first openly autistic attorney. She also is a neurodiversity expert, keynote speaker, educator and author of four books that guide neurodivergent individuals through professional and personal challenges. Moss is a consultant to top corporations and nonprofits that seek her guidance in creating a diverse workplace, and is a sought-after commentator on disability rights issues.

Books written by Moss include “Great Minds Think Differently: Neurodiversity for Lawyers and Other Professionals” (ABA Book Publishing; June 2021); “The Young Autistic Adult’s Independence Handbook” (Jessica Kingsley Publishers; November 2021); “A Freshman Survival Guide for College Students With Autism Spectrum Disorders” (Jessica Kingsley Publishers; October 2014); and “Middle School — The Stuff Nobody Tells You About: A Teenage Girl With High-Functioning Autism Shares Her Experiences” (AAPC Publishing; March 2010). Her articles have appeared in The Washington Post, Teen Vogue, GQ, Bustle, Fast Company, Law360 Pulse and the ABA Journal.
Moss also co-hosts the Spectrumly Speaking podcast, dedicated to women on the autism spectrum.

Moss earned her law degree from the University of Miami School of Law and is a governor for the Florida Bar Young Lawyers Division. She serves on the Florida Bar Journal Editorial Board as well as the Board of Directors for the University of Miami-Nova Southeastern University Center for Autism and Related Disabilities.

Bob Carlson received the Making a Difference Through Service to the Profession Award which honors an attorney, living or deceased, who has made a significant contribution to the legal profession through service to the profession.

Carlson, a shareholder with the Butte, Montana, law firm of Corette, Black, Carlson ,and Mickelson PC, has a civil trial and mediation practice that primarily involves insurance defense, products liability and insurance coverage. He was president of the American Bar Association from August 2018 to August 2019. While ABA president, Carlson focused on enhancing the benefits to members and marketing the value of membership to potential members. He spoke often on ABA initiatives to promote lawyer and law student wellness, advance diversity in the association and the profession, fight for access to justice for all, including those seeking refuge in the United States, and in defense of an independent judiciary.

Before entering private practice in 1981, Carlson was staff attorney for the Montana Department of Business Regulation and a law clerk for the Montana Supreme Court.

Carlson has a long record of service to the ABA. From 2012-14, he was chair of the ABA House of Delegates, and he currently serves as chair of the House of Delegates’ working group on policy and operations. He served three terms on the ABA Board of Governors and its executive committee, chairing its executive compensation committee. Carlson has also served in the ABA House of Delegates as both Montana’s state bar delegate and state delegate and as a delegate at large. He is a life patron fellow and past state chair of the Fellows of the American Bar Foundation.

Carlson also served as president of the State Bar of Montana from 1993-94 and chaired its Board of Trustees from 1990 to 1992. He also was a member of the Montana Supreme Court’s Character and Fitness Commission. Since 1994, he has been a member of the University of Montana Law School’s clinical board of visitors. He has served as lawyer representative to the Federal District of Montana, as Montana co-chair of the Ninth Circuit’s lawyer representatives coordinating committee and as chair of the state bar’s ad hoc committee on discipline.

In 2016, Carlson received the William J. Jameson Award, the State Bar of Montana’s highest honor. In 2019, he received the President’s Award from the Hispanic National Bar Association and in 2021, he received the National Conference of Bar President’s Fellows Award.

Carlson earned a bachelor’s degree with honors from the University of Montana in 1976 and a law degree from the University of Montana School of Law in 1979.

Aurora Abella-Austriaco received the Difference Maker Award which recognizes an individual who has made a difference in the local community.

Abella-Austriaco is a partner at Valentine, Austriaco, & Bueschel PC in Chicago, an all-women-owned law firm concentrating in the areas of commercial litigation, business litigation and real estate. Her clients range from multinational corporations, state and federal credit unions, title insurance companies, hotel and restaurant owners, home health care agencies, government agencies and business owners.

Abella-Austriaco serves on the Illinois Court Commission and is immediate past president of the National Conference of Bar Presidents. She was on the Park Ridge Planning and Zoning Commission, the Cook County Human Rights Commission and was an elected District 207 school board member. She is past president of the Chicago Bar Association, past president of the Lawyer’s Trust Fund of Illinois and past president of the Illinois Real Estate Lawyers Association.

Abella-Austriaco is currently serving her second term as state delegate to the ABA House of Delegates and is a member of its credentials and admissions committee and the ABA Rule of Law Initiative Council. She also is chair of DePaul University College of Law Diversity Council and sits on the DePaul University College of Law Dean’s Advisory Council. She was appointed by Northern District of Illinois Chief Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer to serve on the first-ever racial justice diversity committee. She also served as chair of the 2012 and 2013 Magistrate Merit Selection Panel.

Abella-Austriaco also currently serves on the Illinois Courts Commission, the Board of Attorneys’ Title Guaranty Fund Inc. and previously served as chair of the Board of ATG Legal Serve Inc.

She was named one of Private Company Director Magazine’s 2021 Outstanding Directors to Watch, and is one of 50 honorees for the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin and Chicago Lawyer Salute! Women in Law awards. She has received numerous awards and honors, including the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Outstanding Community Leader Award, the Secretary of State “Justice Laura Liu Trailblazer” Award, the “Sister Margaret Traxler” Award by the Institute of Women Today and the CBA Alliance for Women “Alta Mae Hulett” award.

She also was recognized as one of the Top 20 Global Women of Excellence by the 7th Congressional District Multi Ethnic Task Force Day, and was named one of Chicago United’s “50 Business Leaders of Color” and one of “100 Women of Influence in Chicago” by Today’s Chicago Woman and twice as one of “100 Women Making a Difference.”

Alan O. Olson received the Making a Difference Through Community Service Award which honors an attorney, living or deceased, who made a significant lifetime contribution to the local community through community service.
Olson is a solo practitioner at Olson Law Office PC in Des Moines, Iowa, specializing in personal injury/wrongful death, civil rights and commercial law. He currently serves on the board of directors of the Iowa Legal Aid Foundation, and previously served as president of both the Drake University Law School board of counselors and the Iowa Legal Aid board of directors.

He was a clerk for Iowa Court of Appeals Judge Dick R. Schlegel from 1992-1993 and was assistant editor of the Iowa Academy of Trial Lawyers handbook cumulative supplement in 1993.

Olson has been a member of Polk County and Iowa State Bar associations, having served on the Iowa State Bar’s board of governors, administrative committee and its scope and correlation committee, and he chaired its CLE division from 2005-2010. He was the Iowa State Bar Association ABA Bar Delegate from 2006-2013 and has served as the Iowa state delegate to the ABA House of Delegates since 2013. 

Olson has served numerous roles within the ABA, including on the standing committee on membership and the standing committee on CLE. He also was chair of the ABA House of Delegates technology and communications committee and chair of the resolution impact committee. He also served on the presidential appointments committee, the committee on credentials and admissions and the committee on rules and calendar.

Olson was chair of the ABA Young Lawyers Division and has served on the ABA Solo, Small Firm and General Practice Division Council since 2011, and as its budget officer since 2018.

Olson received the Iowa Association for Justice meritorious achievement award in 2005, and served on its administration committee from 2007-2013, including a term as president. He also was named the American Mock Trial Association national champion in 1989 and 1992, received the Chief Justice W.W. Reynoldson Award in 1993 and was inducted into the Judges Hall of Fame in 1999.

He was inducted into the American Board of Trial Advocates and the National Order of Barristers. Olson is also a fellow with the American Bar Foundation, a lifetime fellow of the Iowa State Bar Foundation, a fellow of the Iowa Legal Aid Foundation and the Iowa Civil Justice Foundation.

Olson earned a bachelor’s degree in 1989 from Drake University and a law degree from Drake University Law School in 1992. He has been admitted to the bar of the U.S. Supreme Court, U.S. Court of Appeals, 8th Circuit and the U.S. District Court, Northern and Southern Districts of Iowa.

With more than 20,000 members, the ABA Solo, Small Firm and General Practice Division (GPSolo) is committed to providing unique resources exclusively for solo, small-firm and general practitioners, who represent half of the nation’s lawyers.  For additional information, visit www.americanbar.org/groups/gpsolo.