The POWER 30: Kristine Kubes

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Kubes Law Office

Kristine Kubes’ law practice combines two passions — construction law and a mediation practice that helps people hear one another. Her father was a master carpenter, and she learned at a young age what it’s like to be a contractor by hanging around his workshop, where she was instructed to “stand still, don’t talk and don’t touch anything.”

Those are valuable tools to someone who believes in communication, listening and the power of being heard in transactional, dispute resolution and litigation work.

Kubes developed into a national leader in construction law through the American Bar Association. Kubes is the past national chair of the ABA Construction Law Forum, where she started on her leadership track in 2004. She was made a Fellow of the ABA in 2016.

One of her priorities when head of the construction law forum was diversity and inclusion. In the forum’s publication, The Construction Lawyer, she wrote, “[The] critical competency lawyers need is inclusive intelligence: the ability to understand ourselves — including our biases and how to overcome them — and how to create inclusive environments…

“Lawyers who do this work and adopt inclusive practices themselves will be better suited to advise their clients on how they can create an environment of inclusion in their companies and worksites. Clients today want and need that advice from their legal counsel.”

The forum educates young lawyers and law students about opportunities and includes a program where experienced lawyers provide advice on how to move ahead professionally. She sees growing diversity and women progressing in leadership in the forum. Kubes also has been involved in the forum’s growing “Building for Good,” which provides pro bono legal services to organizations throughout the U.S.

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