Roy William Ide III

Early life Ide was born in Chicago, Illinois, to R. William Ide Jr. and Jenny Coleman.

Early in his career, he argued Davis v. Pontiac Motor Division of General Motors Corp. (1969) in the Court of Appeals of Georgia.

In 1971, Ide joined Stell Huie of Huie and Harland in working to create a rapid transit authority for the growing metropolitan Atlanta.

Ide worked for MARTA for five years, leading the construction of a $1B capital project, navigating various competing interests including race, socioeconomic differences, and environmental concerns. Soon after, the firm began hiring women and lawyers of color.

During his presidency, Ide traveled extensively to speak at various conferences on topics such as the rule of law, civil justice, and the drug epidemic. He traveled to Ghana, Kenya, Uganda, and Ethiopia in 1993, shortly after he started his term, to see how American lawyers could help African countries develop the rule of law. This resulted in long term exchanges between American and African bars and benches. He was heavily involved in encouraging more laypersons involvement in the civil justice system.

In 1994, Ide filed an amicus curiae brief to support the defendant's claim for habeas corpus in McFarland v. Scott.

Ide also founded the American Bar Association's Standing Committee on Drug Abuse.

Ide’s ABA presidency laid the groundwork for his later global rule-of-law work, including leadership of the Central and Eastern European Law Initiative (CEELI). He later chaired the American Bar Association Rule of Law Initiative from 1997 to 2009, guiding programs supporting judicial and legal reform abroad.

Following his ABA presidency, Ide became Chair of the Central Eastern European Institute which worked to establish justice systems in the former Soviet Bloc countries. Ide served as General Counsel and until its partnership with the College of Charleston in 2021.

United States Olympic Board Ide was appointed by Mayor Maynard Jackson to the ACOG Board Executive Committee to oversee The 1996 Atlanta Olympics. Ide served as General Counsel and Secretary of the EastWest Institute until its partnership with the College of Charleston in 2021. The organization conducts listening tours to improve public trust of the electoral process and outlines ways lawyers can help protect democracy.

Ide served on the board of trustees of Clark Atlanta University, and as an honorary consul general for the Kingdom of Thailand.

Ide died on July 8, 2025, at the age of 85.

Publications The Role of the Justice System in the Product Liability Debate National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 1994. Ide, R., III. Civil and Criminal Justice Issues. 1993. C-SPAN. Retrieved December 18, 2024, from https://www.c-span.org/video/?38284-1 Product Liability and Innovation: Managing Public Independent Fact-Finding: A Trust-Generating Institution for an Age of Corporate Illegitimacy and Public MistrustRisk in an Uncertain Environment. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/4768.] Ide, R., III. Retrieved December 18, 2024. Wisconsin's Journey to Just Solutions. Marquette Law Review. https:// [https://scholarship.law.marquette.edu/mulr/vol80/iss3/7/