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Achievement Honorees
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Historic Changemaker
Clarence B. Jones, Emeritus Director, The USF Institute for Nonviolence and Social Justice
Drawing from his 91 years of life, Dr. Clarence B. Jones has some stories to tell. And when he does, he is animated, warm and also a testament to some of the most profound moments in our nation’s history.
Even into his ninth decade of life, Jones hasn’t really slowed down from the trailblazing turn he took starting
in the 1960s working with Martin Luther King Jr. He is currently the retired emeritus director of the University of San Francisco Institute for Nonviolence and Social Justice.
Jones continues to mentor future leaders and civil rights advocates, some of whom are very much household names.
“I think Clarence really, to me, represents someone who was able to facilitate transformational change but was incredibly selfless in the sense that he was not someone who said ‘I want credit,’” Ken Chenault, former
CEO of American Express and only the third Black American to be the CEO of a Fortune 500 company, says. “And he was not a bystander, not a groupie. He was a change agent.”
Chenault said Jones had the rare ability to, at a time of social upheaval during the American civil rights movement of the 1960s, “gain the confidence of both Blacks and whites who were in power but also mold a number of leaders in the civil rights movement, and he kept his eye on the prize.”
To Jones, that prize was not about gaining notoriety, fame or money. It was about furthering the work—work that he happily and readily gives credit for to others.
“Yes, I represented Martin Luther King, but I am just a representative of some of the great lawyers who worked just as hard if not harder than I did and devoted their time and lives to the civil rights movement.”
Jones mentions civil rights heavyweights such as Norman Amaker, Willie Williams and Charles Connolly as examples of those who gave so much while remaining, to most of the general public, anonymous.
“They were well-known in their communities but not nationally known,” Jones says. “But they were no less deserving or important than me. Any award that I receive, I receive in their honor.”
While Jones may want to pass credit to others, those who were inspired by the man see a luminary who possessed the necessary skill and drive to be a “catalytic agent of change.”
“Mr. Jones is frequently seen as Martin Luther King’s lawyer, but the reality is he stands on his own in a group of what I call the “second founding fathers,” says Eric Holder, the first Black person to become U.S. attorney
general and now a partner at Covington & Burling. “John Lewis, King … he is right there. Without that second group of founding fathers, Barack Obama doesn’t exist. I don’t exist.”
Ted Wells of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison [and a man Jones himself refers to as a “bad mother*cker”], says that to him, Jones is a “national treasure.”
“Clarence is one of my heroes, mentors and close friends,” Wells said. “He has stayed close with people like myself, Eric [Holder] and Chenault. He calls us his godchildren. And it is a real friendship. He is a very warm person.”
While warm, Jones was also persuasive and driven. When he was working with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference during the landmark free speech
case Times v. Sullivan, Jones said he was asked to a meeting with the New York Times attorneys, who wanted to take a course of action Jones disagreed with.
“The Times had something to lose, so they wanted to issue a retraction,” Jones recalls. “And I said no. I said I know you have to look after your clients, but I have to look after mine. This was an effort to decapitate the leadership of the Southern civil rights movement. If we don’t fight this, no civil rights leader will be able to do or say anything in public without being sued.” Clearly, Jones was persuasive enough.
Jones is best known as one of the writers for King’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech and for being the “smuggler” who took King’s letters from the Birmingham jail he was being held in after the Birmingham campaign in 1963.
By Patrick Smith
MLK’s attorney Clarence Jones says he’s just a one of many lawyers dedicated to civil rights.
MLK’s attorney Clarence Jones says he’s just a one of many lawyers dedicated to civil rights.
MLK’s attorney Clarence Jones says he’s just a one of many lawyers dedicated to civil rights.
MLK’s attorney Clarence Jones says he’s just a one of many lawyers dedicated to civil rights.
Photo by Fabrice Trombert
Design by Hyeon Jin Kim/ALM
enforcement—have become so renowned that her skill and technique is now taught in law schools and MBA negotiation programs around the globe.
James Sebenius, director of Harvard Business School’s Harvard Negotiation Project, says her handling of the IP piracy negotiations is a particularly insightful lesson for serious negotiators.
Instead of focusing only on the negotiation table, Barshefsky “zoomed out” to examine how to shape the big picture so that the U.S. could achieve its ultimate target, Sebenius says.
“She conditioned the situation so that when she was at the table, she had the best shot at achieving what she wanted,” Sebenius recalls. “What tends to distinguish the truly great negotiators is how they can smoothly iterate between the big picture and the micro—the strategic and interpersonal. Charlene is a master at that.”
Public service makes one a “more efficient and accurate adviser.” —Charlene Barshefsky
“I really looked up to her because she seemed to have this dazzling talent,” Susan Esserman, Barshefsky’s longtime colleague at both Steptoe and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, recounts.
Esserman says that trade ministers and other negotiating counterparts recognized Barshefsky’s formidability, with a mix of “respect, envy, and fear.”
In 1993, after almost two decades as an international trade lawyer, that success led to an invitation to join the government as a deputy USTR.
Then in 1997, Barshefsky earned her place in the history books. Vaulted to the top job as USTR and a member of Clinton’s cabinet, it came down to her to negotiate with China over the country’s historic entry into the World Trade Organization.
Barshefsky’s WTO negotiations—and earlier negotiations with China over intellectual property piracy
Public service makes one a “more efficient and accurate adviser.” —Charlene Barshefsky
Barshefsky believes that this early client interaction at Wilmer is a good example of what public service does for a lawyer’s practice, and part of the essence of her success over her career.
“You become a more efficient and accurate adviser. You have a skill set that you didn’t have before, which is vital to all sorts of clients in different situations,” she says.
The irony of her own opinion is not lost on Barshefsky. When asked to serve as Clinton’s deputy U.S. Trade Representative, the last thing she wanted to do was leave private practice for government.
For the previous 18 years, she had built up a successful international practice at Steptoe & Johnson, working with a team she knew, loved and respected.
Public service makes one a “more efficient and accurate adviser.” —Charlene Barshefsky
“I said to him, ‘Look, here are the factors that the folks in government are thinking about, and here’s what you’re up against—actually,’” she says, adding that the true problem wasn’t anything like what the client thought it was.
“Here’s what you should do,” she advised. “Nothing. Leave it alone, and in about two weeks, call the person you’ve been dealing with, and just recalibrate your response and recalibrate your tone.”
The client took her advice and it all worked out OK.
“I didn’t have to research anything. I didn’t have to look at anything. I just knew exactly why he was in the situation he was in,” Barshefsky tells The American Lawyer. “The substance of the matter was less important than how he had dug himself into the hole. And I knew how we could get out.”
Public service makes one a “more efficient and accurate adviser.” —Charlene Barshefsky
In 2001—barely a week after returning to private practice from eight-years in the Clinton administration—international trade lawyer Charlene Barshefsky received a frantic call from one of her new colleagues.
“I have a client in crisis,” said the partner at her new firm—Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr. “He’s in a
deep hole with the government and needs a way out.”
“Yeah, I’ll talk to him,” she told the partner.
Twenty years later, in an interview with The American Lawyer, Barshefsky recounted the conversation that followed.
“The client goes through this tale of woe. And I’m listening—but only half listening, because immediately I know what he’s going to say,” she says. “It was the kind of thing you hear so often when you’re in government.”
The client finished his tale, and Barshefsky took a beat before replying.
Historic Dealings
Charlene Barshefsky, Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr
By Bruce Love
Amy Mudge, now a partner at Baker & Hostetler, was new to Arnold & Porter when the unassuming Sandman introduced himself, never mentioning he was head of the firm. Mudge, like so many others who know Sandman well, rave about him as a human, lawyer and leader.
“He was the opposite of managing up,” Mudge says. “He spent the most time with the staff and the most junior lawyers. He was genuinely caring, treating us with respect, dignity, compassion, inclusivity and real concern for our well-being and our lives, not just our professional contributions. It was obvious to everyone that wasn’t an act. And he was years ahead of his time in paying attention to ‘well-being’ in Big Law.”
Sandman hired Caren Ulrich Stacy, now founder of Diversity Lab, as Arnold & Porter's first head of lawyer talent.
There need never be any inconsistency between kindness and success. —James Sandman
Sandman is quick to deflect credit for getting what he says feels like special attention just because he left Big Law. He says he feels like Rosie Ruiz, a woman who
“won” the 1980 Boston marathon only to find out she entered the race shortly before the finish line.
“My heroes are people who have devoted themselves fulltime for the entirety of their careers to the service of others,” Sandman says.
He now continues his service to others in the University of Pennsylvania School of Law’s Future of the Profession initiative where he teaches professional responsibility and leadership and works on access to justice issues.
“I wanted to teach introverts. People who went to law school to make a difference,” Sandman says of his leadership course.
There need never be any inconsistency between kindness and success. —James Sandman
Now his clients were the students and citizens of the nation’s capital.
"I had a sense of what I could do to help them in a way that I hadn’t experienced as an outside lawyer,” he recalls.
When a new administration came in, Sandman again took another job, becoming president of the Legal Services Corporation. He devoted the next nine years of his life to what he calls “the most fundamental problems of our civil justice system.” Despite being involved in pro bono work for decades in private practice, Sandman says he was “stunned” to learn of the magnitude of problems, seeing a lack of access to justice as a threat to rule of law.
“To compel people who can’t afford a lawyer to play by the rules of a system created for people who can is not fair. It’s not just,” Sandman says.
There need never be any inconsistency between kindness and success. —James Sandman
“I just came to feel as though I was devoting my life to making rich people richer,” Sandman says. “Not the clients, my colleagues. That’s not why I went to law school. I just felt there was a disconnect with who I was as a person and my values and what I was doing.”
He found himself in the lonely position of being a leader of an organization quietly looking for another job. Fate quickly played its hand, and while at a pro bono breakfast in Washington in 2007, the newly appointed chancellor of the D.C. public school system, Michelle Rhee, was giving an impassioned speech on the challenges the district faced. How was the legal community going to help, she asked. Sandman decided on the spot he wanted that job. Seven weeks later he was working for the school system in his hometown.
“It was wild. The best career move I’ve ever made. It shoved me out of my comfort zone,” Sandman says.
There need never be any inconsistency between kindness and success. —James Sandman
Jim Sandman reached Big Law’s peak by many accounts, serving for a decade as managing partner of Arnold & Porter, a role he reached after proving his management and entrepreneurial muscle by opening new locations for the firm in Denver and Los Angeles in the preceding 20 years. But he wasn’t content.
By all means, his 30 years at a firm that shared his passion for pro bono work was fulfilling and served, in many ways, as multiple different jobs as he moved through varying positions. After all, the firm represented Clarence Gideon in Gideon v. Wainwright—work that would factor into his future in a notable way. But something was missing.
“I loved the job for a very long time. I loved my firm, but eventually I became disillusioned with the direction the big firm segment has gone in,” Sandman says, lamenting the pressures to make everyone more money.
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A Drive to Do More
James Sandman, the University of Pennsylvania Carey School of Law
By Gina Passarella
Photo by Diego M. Radzinschi/ALM
might ask about, and a very good courtroom style,” says Clements, who considers Miers her mentor as a leader and a litigator.
Clements, who was chair of Locke Lord from 2006 to 2017, says Miers was good about providing her and other young lawyers, particularly women and minorities, with leadership opportunities. But just as critically, Clements says, Miers gave young lawyers the opportunity to build relationships with clients and be involved in decision making.
“When we were working on a matter with Harriet, if you were second chair or third chair, you weren’t going to be sitting in the library,” Clements says.
Shonn Brown, a former partner at Locke Lord who is now a deputy general counsel at Kimberly-Clark Corp., says she met Miers at a recruiting event while she was still a law student at SMU. Brown wrote thank you notes
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“Providing legal service to those who need it most is front and center to me.” —Harriet Miers
Miers had served as assistant to the president and staff secretary, then deputy chief of staff. She became White House counsel in 2005. It was Bush, at an awards ceremony in 1996, who described Miers as “a pit bull in size-6 shoes.”
In October 2005, President Bush nominated Miers to the U.S. Supreme Court, but she withdrew her name from consideration amid controversy over her qualifications.
Jerry Clements, chair emeritus of Locke Lord, says Miers considered the nomination a great honor, but when it did not happen, she was willing to continue serving Bush.
“I’m sure it was hard, but when it didn’t happen, she went right back to work, doing what she does,” Clements recalls.
Throughout her career, Miers worked as a commercial litigator, representing clients such as Microsoft Corp., Walt Disney Co. and SunGard Data Systems.
“She was incredibly well-prepared, knew every detail of the case and every relevant legal authority that the judge
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“Providing legal service to those who need it most is front and center to me.” —Harriet Miers
for Estes for two years, but was having trouble finding a job after that, because Dallas firms in the early 1970s weren’t open-minded about hiring women.
“It wasn’t until Judge Estes himself called partners in firms he knew, and suggested to them that I’d be a good associate for them” that she got a job offer from Dallas’ Locke Purnell Boren Laney & Neely, which she accepted on Estes’ advice.
“He was and stayed a very close mentor,” Miers says, noting her time as a clerk in federal court cemented her interest in becoming a trial lawyer.
Miers was ultimatley elected firm president in 1996. Miers was president of the Dallas Bar Association in 1985, then elected in 1989 to the Dallas City Council. She was elected president of the State Bar in 1992. In 1995, then-Gov. George W. Bush appointed her chairman of the Texas Lottery Commission.Miers then went to work in the White House, returning to the firm in 2007.
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“Providing legal service to those who need it most is front and center to me.” —Harriet Miers
That career goes on for the 77-year-old Miers. A former managing partner of Locke Lord, Miers remains a partner in the litigation and public policy sections, maintaining offices in Dallas and Washington, D.C. While she continues to represent clients, she serves as a co-chair of the Legal Services Corporation’s Leaders Council, and chair of the Texas Equal Access to Justice Commission.
“Providing legal service to those people who need it the most is certainly front and center to me at this point,” she says.
Locke Lord vice chair Thomas Yoxall says Miers is active is developing clients. She is consistently generous with her time when lawyers go to her for advice, he notes.
“Harriet is tireless,” Yoxall says.
Miers, who grew up in Dallas, received her law degree from SMU Dedman School of Law in 1970. She clerked
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Locke Lord partner Harriet Miers has racked up a long list of firsts during her 52-year career as a litigator. She was the first woman hired at her Dallas firm, first woman to run that firm, first woman president of the Dallas Bar Association and first woman president of the State Bar of Texas.
On the public service side, she served on the Dallas City Council, and then as President George W. Bush’s staff secretary, deputy chief of staff for policy, and counsel. She was even nominated for a seat on the U.S. Supreme Court.
Despite those accomplishments, Miers doesn’t care to say what she’s most proud of, but rather what she’s grateful for—her family, Southern Methodist University, the late U.S. District Judge Joe Estes of the Northern District of Texas, her law firm, and President George W. Bush and Laura Bush. Each contributed to her career, Miers says.
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A Force, but Not Forceful
Harriet Miers, Locke Lord
By Brenda Sapino Jeffreys
“Providing legal service to those who need it most is front and center to me.” —Harriet Miers
framing and understanding these issues that you don’t feel like you are asking for an unprecedented decision,” Rosenbaum says. “You feel that you’re asking about what is just within the framework of existing law and basic decency.”
On top of his practice, Phillips took on a string of firm management roles at Sidley, serving as managing partner of its Washington, D.C., office from 1995 to 2012, a member of its management and executive committees from 1994 to 2018, and chairing the executive committee from 2012 to 2018.
Balancing a practice and leadership wasn’t always easy.
“When I was managing, I thought I should be practicing and when I was practicing, I thought I should be managing,” Phillips recalls.
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“I think the most important trait we can have as lawyers is just to be nice.” —Carter Phillips
courts, with another at the Second Circuit later this year set to be the 150th. Among those cases is one the firm handled pro bono alongside Public Counsel for students at some of Detroit’s worst-performing public schools. The 2020 win at the Sixth Circuit marked the first time a court recognized a fundamental constitutional right of access to literacy.
“We had right on our side—just didn’t have much law,” Phillips notes.
Mark Rosenbaum, executive director of Public Counsel, says Phillips “put together an army” at the firm to handle the case “and he also made clear that he was part of that army.” Rosenbaum recalls how at oral argument Phillips repeated a refrain about kids without teachers, without books, and without facilities, putting the stakes of the case in stark terms. “He has a way of
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Even nearly two decades after his name was dropped during oral argument at the high court, Phillips marvels. That’s the sort of recognition reserved for the Louis Brandeises of the world, he says. Still, his instinct is to share credit. “My only regret is that it should have been called ‘the Virginia Seitz and Carter Phillips brief,’” says Phillips, nodding to his partner who co-authored the brief.
Norfolk Southern deputy general counsel T. Matthew Lockhart says “you would never know that Carter Phillips is Carter Phillips.”
“When you think of people that reached the pinnacle of their career, you often think of people that—rightfully so, probably—have some ego and exude that ego,” Lockhart says. “I’ve never encountered that with Carter.”
Beyond the Supreme Court, Phillips has also tallied 149 arguments at the federal intermediate appellate
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“Rex asked me what I thought about the idea and I wisely said, ‘Let’s go do it,’” Phillips said. “We did have the first-entry advantage.”
But “first-entry advantage” alone doesn’t build the sort of practice where justices reference you by name. During a 2003 oral argument in a case focusing on the University of Michigan Law School’s admissions process, Justice John Paul Stevens asked a lawyer for the government to “comment on the Carter Phillips brief.” The amicus brief, filed on behalf of retired military officers, argued that affirmative action was a national security issue since military academies needed to build a racially integrated officer corps to command a diverse force. The brief was ultimately cited in Justice Sandra Day O’Connor’s majority opinion upholding the law school’s use of affirmative action in admissions.
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In nearly four decades at Sidley Austin, Carter
Phillips has argued more cases at the U.S. Supreme Court than anyone else in private practice. Seventy-nine of Phillips’ 88 oral arguments before the court have come since he joined Sidley from the U.S. Solicitor General’s Office in 1984. He’s set to handle another potential blockbuster business case for railroad client Norfolk Southern Corp. this term.
But try to talk to Phillips about laying the blueprint for how big law firms have become Supreme Court regulars, and he’ll deflect credit to former U.S. Solicitor General Rex Lee, his former boss at the SG’s office, who joined the firm shortly after him. Lee, Phillips points out, got the idea to take on business-focused cases against the government over a lunch with then-Justice Lewis Powell Jr.
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With Conviction and Kindness
Carter Phillips, Sidley Austin
By Ross Todd
“I think the most important trait we can have as lawyers is just to be nice.” —Carter Phillips
“I think the most important trait we can have as lawyers is just to be nice.” —Carter Phillips
“I think the most important trait we can have as lawyers is just to be nice.” —Carter Phillips
Photo by Marc Olivier Le Blanc
from IBM. Documents were in a war room and every member of the firm, from partner to legal assistant, sifted through the papers whenever they had a spare 15 minutes. The team found the smoking gun, and IBM settled the matter for $400 million. “That was a team victory,” Davidson says.
“We have a self-reinforcing culture because our victories are shared and our difficult times are shared,” he says.
As Fenwick turns the corner on its 50th anniversary this year, it has a lot to celebrate. Today the firm stands around 478 lawyers and 95 partners. In 2021, it saw a 33% increase in revenue to $723.3 million which was nearly matched by its remarkable 31.5% spike in profits.
Despite his many contributions to the firm, Davidson returns credit to those around him. Fenwick co-founder Bill Fenwick, who died in September 2021, “taught us to be fearless,” Davidson says.
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“Our victories are shared and our difficult times are shared.”
—Gordon “Gordy” Davidson
teamwork meant that our work with them was like a strong fabric with many seamless overlapping layers.”
That’s been a common thread throughout Davidson’s career. As the chairman of Fenwick between 1995 and 2013, Davidson steered the firm through the dot.com boom, bust and beyond. By the time he stepped down, the firm had expanded to San Francisco and Seattle, launched its in-house staffing platform FLEX, and beat $270 million in revenue.
But the financial gains were never as important as keeping the team together, Davidson says. One of his proudest accomplishments to this day, he says, was landing on Fortune Magazine’s Top 100 Best Companies to Work For for several years, including in 2001.
Davidson recalls a large litigation matter against IBM that helped the firm as it recovered from the dot.com bust. Days before trial, the firm was buried in paperwork
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WhatsApp’s $19 billion sale to Facebook and Cisco Systems’ $6.9 billion acquisition of Scientific-Atlanta.
“On countless matters, Gordy’s wise counsel, patient manner and effective execution made a huge difference for the company,” says Mark Chandler, the chief legal officer at Cisco from 2001 to 2021. “He’s my model for what a great lawyer and firm leader should be,” he says.
Chandler hired Davidson as the company’s boardroom counsel and lead for all corporate, securities and M&A work in 2003. Davidson developed deep relationships
with the company’s two CEOs over the past 20 years while empowering the legal department and its decisions, according to Chandler.
“Gordy built teams for us,” Chandler continues. “He had a strong team at Fenwick and always gave away the credit, which meant that our team at Cisco worked well across multiple groups at Fenwick. Gordy’s approach to
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There, he was tasked with selecting and negotiating a contract with a vendor. He selected a small startup in Cupertino that had only secured five purchase agreements before Measurex came along with an order of 50.
“We were going to put this company on the map, and we were a dinky startup ourselves,” Davidson laughs. “I thought, ‘this is magic.’ How can I work with startups for the rest of my career?” The answer: become a lawyer.
Davidson was one of the first associates at Fenwick, just three years after its inception. A year later, the firm incorporated Apple. In the following years, Davidson advised on IPOs for Oracle, Symantec, Intuit, Facebook and ServiceNow.
Today Davidson’s deal roster spans more than 60 IPOs including Facebook, and over 100 mergers and acquisitions valued at more than $75 billion, including
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Thanks to his keen ability to speak the language of the pioneers of the Internet and the computer, Fenwick & West partner Gordy Davidson’s fingerprints are on several of the largest tech deals of all time.
But like the visionary entrepreneurs Davidson advised throughout his storied career, he encountered twists and turns. “It hasn’t been a straight line,” Davidson quips.
Davidson moved to Northern California to attend Stanford University in the late 60s. There, he worked at Stanford Research Institute in a group led by Douglas Engelbart, the inventor of the computer mouse and a great contributor to the birth of the Internet.
“That was a truly serendipitous vision of the future that I was privileged to participate in,” Davidson says.
After completing his master’s degree in engineering, Davidson went to work—in a garage space near the San Jose airport—for a startup called Measurex Corporation.
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Industry Builder
Gordon “Gordy” Davidson, Fenwick & West (Law Firm Distinguished Leader)
By Jessie Yount
“Our victories are shared and our difficult times are shared.”
—Gordon “Gordy” Davidson
“Our victories are shared and our difficult times are shared.”
—Gordon “Gordy” Davidson
“Our victories are shared and our difficult times are shared.”
—Gordon “Gordy” Davidson
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“I was the only person who could go see him,” Jones says. “The parents of these kids who were locked up with him were asking when they could get their children out. King wasn’t having it. He pulled a full-page ad from a Birmingham paper that was signed by eight white religious leaders in the South, and he wanted to respond.”
Jones says King was so upset by the ad that he wanted to respond immediately. From jail.
“When I would go to the jail, they wouldn’t pat me down,” Jones recalls. “They only asked me to empty my pockets. So, I would bring in blank sheets of paper under my shirt. I would visit him twice a day and give him the blanks and take what he wrote.”
King was arrested on April 16, 1963, and Jones went twice a day, bringing papers in and out, until King was released on April 20. The resulting “Letter from
MLK’s attorney Clarence Jones says he’s just a one of many lawyers dedicated to civil rights.
Birmingham Jail,” a culmination of many of King’s ideas on civil rights, has been described as “one of the most important historical documents penned by a modern political prisoner.”
When all was said and done, Chenault says, Jones should be viewed as a “catalytic agent of change.”
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MLK’s attorney Clarence Jones says he’s just a one of many lawyers dedicated to civil rights.
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After serving as trade representative, she joined Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale & Dorr. Robert Novick—a current co-managing partner of the firm, and Barshefsky’s general counsel at the trade office—joined around the same time.
“Charlene affected the course of global international trade in ways few others ever have,” says Novick, adding that for that alone she deserves a lifetime achievement award. “But she has given so much more to the profession by mentoring generations that have followed, and for that we are proud.”
In the next 20 years at Wilmer, Barshefsky carved out a reputation as the go-to international trade lawyer not only in D.C., but around the country and the world. She rose to chair the firm’s international trade, investment and market access group, and retired in 2021.
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Public service makes one a “more efficient and accurate adviser.” —Charlene Barshefsky
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"He often asked me 'what do you think we should do?' when we were managing tough lawyer hiring, development and advancement issues," Stacy recalls. "Most managing partners I had worked with in the past told me what they thought we should do. Jim, in contrast, surrounded himself with experts who he proactively engaged in hopes of providing a different and diverse perspective and to reveal blind spots that he might not think about. I was in awe of that unique approach."
All Sandman does, particularly as it relates to teaching leadership, is driven by a mentor that is his guidepost to this day—Max Rosenn, a former judge on
the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, for whom Sandman clerked right out of law school. Rosenn, who continued to play prominently in
There need never be any inconsistency between kindness and success. —James Sandman
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Sandman’s life until the judge’s death in 2006 at age 96, focused on always giving back.
“There need never be any inconsistency between kindness and generosity on the one hand and
professional success on the other,” Sandman says of what he learned from Rosenn.
In terms of what he has learned from his own career, Sandman’s advice to younger lawyers is short and sweet: take risks.
“Any time I reached a point where I thought I was plateauing or I had given what I had to give, I decided to move on, and that’s hard,” Sandman says. “I’ve seen too many lawyers get trapped by inertia. They’ve stopped enjoying it years ago but are afraid to make the change.” If it doesn’t work out, make another change. “You get do-overs,” Sandman says. Sandman’s “do-overs” certainly worked out for him—and the rest of society benefitted, too.
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There need never be any inconsistency between kindness and success. —James Sandman
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to several partners, but Miers was the only one who responded.
“That shaped how I have interacted with peers, with potential mentees and with mentors, because she took the time,” Brown says.
Miers also modeled how a lawyer could practice law at a high level while also broadly participating in bar, community and civic organizations, Brown notes.
As for Miers’ leadership at the firm, Brown says, “She was a force without being forceful. She was a strong listener, but she made tough decisions when she needed to.”
She hasn’t made the tough decision to retire.
“I don’t know what my overall plans will be, but I have not indicated any interest in retirement,” Miers says. “I’ll do something if I’m able.”
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“Providing legal service to those who need it most is front and center to me.” —Harriet Miers
But even when it comes to management, Phillips credits the firm’s professional staff with limiting his own administrative burden. “Basically, all I was required to do
was exercise judgment about what I thought was the right way to solve whatever the problem happened to be,” Phillips says. “My colleagues worked with me a lot throughout the years and I think it’s fair to say we almost think for each other in some respects. Because we’ve worked so much together that we can complete each other’s sentences.”
For up-and-coming lawyers, Phillips has some advice that has carried him throughout his career.
“The most important trait we can have as lawyers is just to be nice. Be nice to everyone,” Phillips says, adding that “being a decent person is a trait that will
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“I think the most important trait we can have as lawyers is just to be nice.” —Carter Phillips
hold you in much greater stead than almost everything else. You could be the smartest lawyer in the world, but if you’re really a jerk, to me, that’s going to be a big black mark on your reputation. And it’s pretty easy to be nice.
“If you’ve got that, people overlook a lot of other negative qualities and mistakes that you make.”
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“I think the most important trait we can have as lawyers is just to be nice.” —Carter Phillips
“Most lawyers, if they don’t have familiarity with a particular legal issue, they shy away. But Bill always dug in. He taught us that as lawyers, we have to participate in shaping the rules of the road and the law,” he says.
That sentiment continues to inspire Davidson at 74. Today he remains highly involved in shaping the future of the legal industry, from mentoring the next generation of dealmakers to counseling some of the largest names in tech—and the startups that you haven’t heard of just yet.
Advice for young lawyers: “Be humble. Many of us have had amazing successes in our careers. Sometimes we think it’s because of what we did, but it’s more because we had a great team,” Davidson advises.
6/6
“Our victories are shared and our difficult times are shared.”
—Gordon “Gordy” Davidson