Reflecting on Local Law Firm Racial Integration

Thirty-five years ago, in August of 1985, the Nashville legal community quietly began its transition toward racial integration. The large law firms at that time were still segregated. Some small law firms had started to integrate, as had the government sector, but large firms in the private sector had resisted the opportunity.

It was a strange time then, reflecting a curious vestige of the past forced segregation when minority members of the bar were excluded from participation in the bar association and the wider legal community. I completed a judicial clerkship in August of 1985 for the late Harry Phillips, Senior Circuit Judge for the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Having a fascination for constitutional law and a familiarity with federal trial practice, I looked for opportunities in civil rights litigation.

The chance to enter that type of practice came about in a historically Black firm on Second Avenue, Williams and Dinkins. The principal partner, Avon N. Williams, Jr., was a lawyer whose career was an instrument of social change. He had started as the associate of Z. Alexander Looby, and had learned and gained confidence from handling desegregation, voting rights, and other civil rights cases while affiliated with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. Mr. Williams was ill with ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease) and was retiring from law practice. His partner, Richard Dinkins, who is now a Tennessee Court of Appeals Judge, was the managing attorney. Russell T. Perkins, who is now a Chancellor in the Davidson County Chancery Court, was an associate. Mr. Williams’ son, Avon Williams, III, was a bright attorney and recent law school graduate, but he was disinterested in pursuing work in the firm and moved on to pursue an opportunity in the State Department. It was a happy but anxiety-producing event when Judge Dinkins told me I was hired.

Before I decided to apply, some of the people I spoke to seemed skeptical about the prospect of a tightly knit minority firm hiring a white lawyer. I had enjoyed working with Black people before and I admired Mr. Williams for his work and legal skills. Still, it took some courage for me to accept the offer. I feared people would assume I was being rebellious, trying to prove a point, or was just arrogant.

I think it was a little later that summer when a large allwhite law firm, Dearborn and Ewing, hired an African Amer(continued on page 14)

ican associate, Cyrus Booker. Mr. Booker was taller and more polished than I, and he had a more impressive educational background. He obviously faced bigger challenges and risks than I did, but in some ways, I thought we were both quietly and deliberately intent on making the process of promoting diversity work.

Sheepishly and tentatively, I began telling people I was going to work for Williams and Dinkins. Young lawyers are competitive, and I felt vulnerable. Still, I knew I was making the right decision. My conviction was affirmed one afternoon in Judge Phillips’ chambers. I had told his secretary, Dene Bailey, about my plans. Judge Phillips approached me, beaming with happiness, and said, “Say, I hear you’re going to work for a fine law firm.” I could hardly believe my ears. He said that he frequently defended Mr. Williams’s reputation in conversations at the Belle Meade Country Club, saying that he always “used the law to change the law.”

Shortly afterward, Judge Phillips was hit by a car in London and died. I was devastated by the loss, but in August of 1985, I began a civil rights litigation practice at Williams and Dinkins. We were in a competitive and stressful environment, and the economic and social challenges we experienced were serious. There were exhilarating and defeating moments, hard choices, and humiliating defeats—and I loved it.

Over the years, I saw great changes to the city and its legal community. Businesses, such as Saturn Corporation, urged the major firms to hire minority lawyers. The Nashville Bar Association, which had excluded minorities past the 1960s, actively began to facilitate the hiring of Black attorneys by the major firms. In the mid- to late-1980s, there were several lateral transfers of Black attorneys from the public sector to major law firms. By April of 2006, the idea of a minority firm had become an anachronism and I moved on to work for the Attorney General of Tennessee.

I had experienced great personal changes. At the time I started out, I was

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3825 BEDFORD AVE | STE 202 | NASHVILLE, TN 37215 615.385.0686 | www.pricecpas.com disillusioned with organized religion. But the church in the Black community was the cornerstone of the movement for racial equality. Mr. Williams, Judge Dinkins, and Chancellor Perkins were active in their churches, and their strength of character inspired me. Judge Dinkins’s frank and direct approach to his work was refreshing, and Chancellor Perkins had a genuine humility that rested on his deep faith and profound respect for humanity. Gradually, I came back to the Presbyterian Church, which had been the church of my grandparents, and of Mr. Williams as well.

My experience was an adventure, but it was a singular opportunity to share the company of some stellar men and to help some wonderful people rising above oppression. n

RON McNUTT has been an attorney for the State of Tennessee for 20 years, and has been an attorney in Nashville for 36 years. Most of his work with the state has been in the field of workers’ compensation law as a litigation attorney for the Subsequent Injury and Vocational Recovery Fund. He was in private practice at Williams and Dinkins for over 10 years.