Supporting Survivors: ABA and its members have shaped the Violence Against Women Act for 30 years
When President George W. Bush signed the 2005 reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act into law, it was legislation that was influenced by the ABA. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
Maricarmen Garza was a second-year law student at St. Mary’s University School of Law in Texas when the Violence Against Women Act passed in September 1994. VAWA, as it’s commonly known, was the first federal law to focus on preventing and combating sexual assault and domestic violence. It provided training and resources to law enforcement, prosecutors and courts, and it increased the availability of services for survivors.
“It feels so monumental, especially if I think back on my career,” says Garza, who, in the three decades since law school, has assisted survivors of gender-based violence. “Really, I grew up with it—and everything I know and the work I’ve done, I can’t imagine what it would have been like before we had VAWA.”
Garza also credits VAWA for bringing her to the ABA Commission on Domestic & Sexual Violence.
She was an attorney with Texas RioGrande Legal Aid in 2000, when it received one of the first grants through the Legal Assistance for Victims Program. The program, which was established during the federal law’s reauthorization that year, aids survivors of sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence and stalking who are seeking relief in legal matters arising from their abuse.
“Really, I grew up with it—and everything I know and the work I’ve done, I can’t imagine what it would have been like before we had VAWA,” says Maricarmen Garza.
Through VAWA, the commission received its funding to provide training and technical assistance to lawyers at the organizations that received these grants. No one else at the time focused solely on gender-based violence, Garza says.
“I could go to my state bar, but they were talking about family law in general and not necessarily the kinds of issues that I was seeing daily,” Garza says.
She attended as many trainings as possible and used what she learned in court and to educate her community.
Garza became a member and then chair of the Commission on Domestic & Sexual Violence in 2022. In October, she became chief counsel of the commission.
“Having also grown up with and looked up to the commission, this feels full circle,” says Garza, who previously worked as director of strategic partnerships and community engagement for the Tahirih Justice Center, a nonprofit founded in 1997 that offers legal and social services to immigrant women, girls and all survivors of gender-based violence.
Mobilizing the bar
The Commission on Domestic & Sexual Violence and VAWA are celebrating their 30th anniversary this fall.
The ABA created the commission—initially called the Commission on Domestic Violence—a couple of months after the passage of VAWA. Among other tasks, its members were asked to promote successful policies and procedures involving domestic violence in the legal and justice systems. They also were directed to mobilize the bar to improve the legal response to domestic violence, which included implementing provisions of VAWA.
Debbie Segal, who joined the commission in 1998, says they made this happen by expanding partnerships inside and outside the ABA.
At the time, Segal worked as the executive director of the Atlanta Volunteer Lawyers Foundation, where she was responsible for its domestic violence program. Her colleagues were not only lawyers with similar experience but professionals in other fields that intersected with domestic violence. This included doctors, law enforcement and mental health providers.
“The commission was created with a multidisciplinary membership, and that was not typical in the ABA at the time,” says Segal, who was its chair from 2009 to 2013 and now is an adjunct professor at the Emory University School of Law in Georgia.
In another atypical move, the commission brought together public interest and legal aid organizations and the private bar to discuss how to best serve domestic and sexual violence survivors, including through increased pro bono efforts, says Angela Vigil, a pro bono partner and the executive director of global pro bono at Baker & McKenzie.
“Because it’s the ABA, it makes it a friendlier space for everybody to come outside of their narrow focus and really think about how we can be better together. What are all the things that need to be done in all these areas?” says Vigil, who was the commission’s chair from 2013 to 2016.
“The commission was created with a multidisciplinary membership, and that was not typical in the ABA at the time,” says Debbie Segal, an adjunct professor at the Emory University School of Law in Georgia. (Photo by Peggy McKinney Photography)
‘Long game of culture change’
The Commission on Domestic & Sexual Violence helped advocate for the addition of the Legal Assistance for Victims Program to VAWA, which vastly expanded access to justice for survivors, says Rebecca Henry, who worked with the commission, including as deputy chief counsel, for more than 16 years.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office on Violence Against Women, which manages grant initiatives authorized by VAWA, the program gave out nearly $40 million in awards in 2024.
Organizations that receive these grants provide comprehensive representation to survivors, which extends beyond assistance in protection order hearings to other issues, including divorce, child custody and housing.
“The LAV funding provides all the wraparound services that survivors need to really reorganize their lives and live free from violence,” says Henry, who in 2022 became the chief programs officer of the Battered Women’s Justice Project, a national legal resource for gender-based violence. “That’s hugely innovative. It’s the only source of funding that creates that pathway for attorneys and for clients.”
The commission, as part of its work to provide technical assistance to grantees, offers individualized support, including sample practice tools, model pleadings and access to national experts. It also provides a free trial skills institute and other training that helps attorneys, judges and advocates better understand survivors who have experienced trauma.
“It’s definitely not an approach you get in law school, but it’s evolving,” Henry says. “Honestly, I think the commission played a role in that because we were bringing it to all the grantees that we trained. … It’s a long game of culture change.”
The commission also launched projects to help attorneys who represent survivors of gender-based violence with specific areas of their work.
Its Trauma-Informed Representation Project provides attorneys strategies for trauma-informed representation and organizations tools for building trauma-informed workplaces. Its LGBTQI+ Legal Access Project helps address domestic and sexual violence in LGBTQ+ communities.
VAWA, through its support of legal representation, has impacted the lives of millions of survivors of gender-based violence, says Andrew King-Ries, a professor and supervisor of the Domestic Violence Clinic at the University of Montana Alexander Blewett III School of Law.
“VAWA has provided training to thousands of lawyers who provide critical civil legal help, and the commission has been a national leader in this effort,” says King-Ries, who was its chair from 2019 to 2022.
Influencing evolution of VAWA
President Barack Obama signed a reauthorization of VAWA in 2013, alongside then-Vice-President Joe Biden, who had campaigned for the legislation’s initial 1994 passage as a senator. (Photo by MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)In addition to creating the Legal Assistance for Victims Program, the reauthorization of VAWA in 2000 recognized dating violence and stalking as separate crimes and established U and T visas for immigrants who experienced sexual assault and domestic violence.
Congress reauthorized VAWA again in 2005, 2013 and 2022, each time improving criminal legal and community-based responses to gender-based violence. It increased access to justice for specific populations, including LGBTQ+ and indigenous survivors. It also addressed emerging issues, such as strengthening protections against cybercrimes and focusing on housing stability.
The Commission on Domestic & Sexual Violence joined the National Task Force to End Sexual and Domestic Violence in shaping the different iterations of VAWA, says Henry, who helped draft and provide feedback on the legislation.
“That was so valuable for the evolution of the civil legal services part [of the statute] because there wasn’t really anyone else in the coalition who was representing that,” Henry says.
The commission’s work with VAWA on the national level creates a “feedback loop,” Henry adds.
Because of its involvement with the coalition, it has introduced and supported resolutions related to gender-based violence in the ABA House of Delegates. When adopted, the ABA then advocates for those policies on Capitol Hill to help expand the legislation.
Henry references a 2012 resolution—which urged Congress to strengthen tribal jurisdiction to address crimes of gender-based violence committed on tribal lands in VAWA—as one successful example. Related provisions were introduced in the following year’s reauthorization.
“Sen. [Patrick] Leahy said getting a letter from the ABA was powerful,” Henry says. “There are other impacts we’ve had along the way, but that was one where we could draw a direct line from this bold policy statement to its effect on the outcome of the statute.”
Because of the ABA’s longtime leadership, Congress has asked for input in other areas related to gender-based violence. In April, U.S. senators sent then-ABA President Mary Smith a letter asking whether certain legal history disclosure requirements in state bar character and fitness examinations impacted survivors.
The Commission on Domestic & Sexual Violence quickly drafted a resolution urging bar admission authorities to provide an exception to survivors who choose not to report related legal or administrative proceedings in their applications. The House of Delegates overwhelmingly adopted the measure at the ABA Annual Meeting in August.
Garza, who spoke in favor of the resolution, was stopped afterward by someone who had to disclose their past abuse when applying to law school.
“That individual said thank you,” Garza says. “It was incredibly moving.”
“We think domestic violence and sexual assault happens to others, but it impacts our own profession,” she adds. “We can make changes that so profoundly help not only the clients that we serve but our own members.”
