Linda Rexer

Linda Rexer has served as Treasurer, Vice-Chair and Chair of the Stratford Festival of America Board and is also a member of the Michigan Members of the Stratford Festival Executive Committee. She has attended theatre in Stratford since 1966. Ms. Rexer is a lawyer who began her career managing a nonprofit legal aid program and providing representation for indigent families with civil legal problems. Then she became the first Executive Director of a statewide charitable foundation, the Michigan State Bar Foundation, which she led for 30 years in its mission to provide leadership and funding for access to justice. During her tenure, she oversaw grant making that grew from a start of $10,000 per year to up to $11 million annually for nonprofit legal aid services to the poor and projects enhancing access to justice for those in need. Ms. Rexer served on numerous state level groups seeking to improve access to justice, such as founding member of the State Bar of Michigan's Access to Justice Task Force and Co-Chair of its successor entity, the Committee on Justice Initiatives; co-chair of the Access and Affordability Committee of the State Bar of Michigan's 21st Century Practice Task Force; chair of the State Bar of Michigan Task Force designing rules to allow limited scope legal practice to assist low-income persons in accessing the services of private lawyers. In 2010 the Michigan Supreme Court Chief Justice named Ms. Rexer co-chair of the statewide Solutions on Self-Help Task Force to expand and coordinate resources for self-represented litigants, which established numerous local self-help centers as well as a cutting edge web resource that each week continues to help thousands of people who cannot afford a lawyer to handle their own civil matter. She also served on or helped lead various national entities, including appointment by the president of the American Bar Association to the ABA Commission on IOLTA (Interest on Lawyer Trust Accounts), election as president of the National Association of IOLTA programs, Trustee of the National Conference of Bar Foundations and various committees for the federal Legal Services Corporation. She has made numerous presentations and written articles on access to justice and was also active on committees with the Michigan Council of Foundations. Among her awards are the National Legal Aid and Defender Association's Charles Dorsey Award for service that expands and improves access to justice for low-income people; the State Bar of Michigan's Michael Franck Award for contributions to the legal profession; the State Bar of Michigan's highest award, the Hudson Award, given for service to the Bar, the legal profession, and public, and the Michigan State Bar Foundation's highest award, the Founders Award for exemplifying the highest traditional of the legal profession. She has been elected Fellow of the Michigan State Bar Foundation and Fellow of the American Bar Foundation. Since her retirement in 2017, Ms. Rexer has continued her nonprofit service through positions on several nonprofit boards and committees, as co-chair of a citizens group studying data on racial disparities in the criminal legal system, and as an advisor on governance issues to nonprofits and community groups. She received her undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan and her Juris Doctor from the University of Notre Dame. She is admitted to practice law in Michigan and before the U.S. Supreme Court. She joined the Festival's Board of Governors in April 2022 as a director and will serve on the Advancement and Marketing & Communications committees.