President’s Perspective
(Note: As your President and in honor of Black History Month, I felt it appropriate to highlight notable North Carolina Black attorneys and spotlight their actions to improve our state and profession. However, I quickly discerned my dilemma. There were many renowned Black attorneys (along with their accomplishments) who I desired to write about, but my column size could not accommodate my desire to fully express their impacts. Therefore, at the risk of omitting key names or having to shorten their achievements and impacts, I chose to limit my comments to one profound day in 1991 which I will never forget).
One Person’s Impact
I sat in awe as I watched one of my childhood champions engage the presenting counsel. I was actually sitting there watching him in person. I was a 3L in law school, and (along with a handful of my classmates) had made the trip to Washington, D.C., to sit in on a United States Supreme Court session. When the opportunity presented itself to the 3Ls, without hesitation, I jumped at it, as I instinctively knew that it would be the only time I would ever get to see Justice Thurgood Marshall in person.
As the case progressed, I vividly remember his distinguished demeanor, his polished persona and his sharp legal mind. Those traits were all evident from his questions and follow up. I also remember sitting there thinking that at age 82 he had done so much since spearheading legendary civil rights cases, leading the NAACP and since being appointed to the Supreme Court by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1967. Like many others, I knew his time on the bench was drawing to a close. So, on that day some 32 years ago, I purposed in my heart to hang on his every word and soak up as much of the entire Supreme Court experience that I possibly could.
Thurgood Marshall, the U.S. Supreme Court’s first African American justice.
While waiting on my ride after I left the Supreme Court that day, I just stood on those steps for a long moment and paused. I looked at the architecture of the building more closely than I had when I first entered. I focused on the large statue representing the “Contemplation of Justice” as she reflects on the smaller figure of “Justice” who is blindfolded and cradles a set of scales in her arms. However, what struck me the most were four very powerful words located on the front of the building: “Equal Justice Under Law.”
As I read those words, I wondered how this man seemingly carried the weight of an entire race on his shoulders for over six decades. After all, he had served as the nation’s leading civil rights lawyer, Chief Counsel to the NAACP, head of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Federal judge, Solicitor General and finally the nation’s first Black Supreme Court Justice. Here I was just beginning my legal journey, and here he was having amassed a resume like none other. What a privilege and what a burden that must have been for this man to make it his life’s mission/work to give every American solace that those four words applied to them and would always apply to their posterity. I could only image how those words weighed on him throughout his career as he won 29 of the 32 cases he argued before the very Supreme Court where he now sat.
At that point, my ride pulled up. As we drove away, I wondered aloud if I would ever enter that building again as either a practitioner or observer. However, at the same time, I hoped that all who did enter it would feel the warmth of a nation embracing them and see how our nation’s highest Justices struggled with vital issues which define us as a country and which affect generations to come.
Above the main entrance to the U.S. Supreme Court appear these four words: Equal Justice Under Law.
Justice Marshall would retire only months later. I saw his retirement interview and realized how fortunate I was as a Black man to be a direct beneficiary of his life’s work and how it was such an honor to have seen this legal giant in person.
While my personalized adulation for Justice Marshall caused me to strategically hone in on his exchange with counsel that day, it was not lost upon me how the entire Supreme Court (as well as the presenting attorneys) handled the case at bar. The preparation of the attorneys and the probative questions of the Justices were all focused on getting to the right result. As a young law student and future attorney, I shared a sense of investment in that session and in that outcome; as I remember feeling that the eyes of America were not only upon the Court that day, but they were also upon all of us as either current or future legal practitioners.
Whether you utilize your law degree to serve as a legislator, in government, as a member of the judiciary, in private practice, in-house counsel or in some other capacity, our country looks upon our profession as a whole and expects us to always embody those four words – “Equal Justice Under Law” – in our conduct and actions. So, with every new attorney who becomes a member of our state’s prestigious Bar, I personally rejoice. I rejoice because there is now one more person who has dedicated themselves in their chosen capacity to lend their individualized expertise and creativity to problem solving and making this state better than it was the day before.
No one can duplicate “you” and what you personally bring to the profession. Our profession needs your perspective, we want to hear your differing opinions, and we desire to genuinely understand the “why behind” your position. Our profession does not shy away from conflict. Rather, we understand that through conflict comes dialogue and discussion and hopefully mutual respect and understanding. It is that mutual respect and understanding which should always underpin our interaction and association with one another and with the public at large. One example of that mutual respect and understanding is when I meet our state’s attorneys and see them interact, disagree, represent and negotiate; and then I see those same attorneys break bread and sincerely inquire about each other’s families and lives.
Yes – we are trained to be zealous advocates, and we are trained to utilize all of our gifts in that endeavor. However, regardless of our differences, our state is fortunate to first and foremost have attorneys who take their oath to heart and who maintain a fervent desire to make this state the best place in the nation to live, work and raise a family.
After all, when each one of us begins with those foregoing premises in mind (and when we each keep those four penetrating words at the forefront of all we do), I remain ever so confident that greater good outcomes will surely follow. Like Justice Marshall, we can never underestimate the transformative power of just one person’s impact.
Clayton Morgan serves as president of the North Carolina Bar Association and the North Carolina Bar Foundation.