Legal Practice Hall of Fame Class of 2024: Joseph A. Williams

Attorney Joseph “Joe” Williams, is a retired trial lawyer. A Vietnam war veteran, he graduated from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University and North Carolina Central University School of Law. Upon graduation he served as an assistant district attorney in Guilford County until Governor James Hunt appointed him the first black male District Court Judge in the history of Guilford County North Carolina. In1980, he entered into the practice of law with his life long friend and fellow member of Dudley High School class 1963; Mike Lee. He subsequently founded his own law firm in 1982. He has served on numerous boards of directors including; North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, National Conference for Community and Justice, Eastern Music Festival, Branch Bank and Trust (local Board), First Citizens Bank (local board), Greensboro National Bank, Greensboro Chamber of Commerce (legal advisor to the executive committee), Greensboro Bar Association (first African-American president in its history), North Carolina Association of Trial Lawyers, the American Board of Trial Advocates. Over the years, he has been a member of numerous social, professional and fraternal associations including The Guardsmen (past president), Beta Epsilon Boule (charter member), CW Lawrence Masonic Lodge (founding member), United Supreme Council DC (3 3 Mason, charter member and Grand Chancellor), Greensboro Men’s club (past president), Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, The Simkins PAC, the NCBA, The 4th Circuit Judicial Conference (member since the 1980’s),The Trial Lawyers Million Dollar Roundtable and National Trial Lawyers top 100. He along with Don Vaughn, Paul Coates and Kenneth Johnson, successfully represented thousands in a class action lawsuit. He has received many honors including; Order of the Long Leaf Pine, NAACP Man of the Year (Greensboro Chapter), the North Carolina Association of Black Lawyers Community Service Award, Greensboro Bar Association “Distinguished Service Award 2019”. He, along with many of the class of 1963, was arrested in May of 1963 for blocking the entrance to the S&W cafeteria. Fourteen years later he was a District Court Judge. While serving as a District Court Judge, he and his mentor the late Judge Elrita Alexander (the first African American Judge in Guilford County history) were accused of unlawfully dismissing cases involving young people who were charged with minor offences. The two were “hauled” before the North Carolina Supreme Court on a Writ of Mandamus to explain what “monkey shines” they were engaging in. Many members of the country club set whose children were beneficiaries, along with numbers of disadvantaged children, of the contested dismissals were in court. When the Justices found out that the parents were there to support Alexander and Williams, they called a recess and never resumed court. The general assembly subsequently passed legislation that mirrored the “Judgement Day “process. Williams has travelled in 30 countries and as a child lived with his parents in Indonesia. He is married to the former Georgia Guest of Greensboro (President of the Guest-Williams Scholarship Foundation) and they have two children: Joseph (CEO of IAM Health Cloud) and Andria Williams Patterson (senior vice president and associate General Counsel of Bank America). It should be noted that Andria W. Patterson clerked at both the North Carolina Court of Appeals and the North Carolina Supreme Court. They have three granddaughters.