Advice to Minorities: Increase Visibility
By Kathleen Baydala Joyner, Aug. 15, 2013
It may be difficult for minority lawyers to obtain judicial appointments or run for elected office, but increasing visibility, especially in service organizations, will inevitably lead to opportunity.
That was the overarching advice from a career development forum Tuesday night at McKenna, Long & Aldridge hosted by the Georgia Asian American & Pacific Islander Task Force and several statewide Asian-American bar associations.
The forum, titled "Building the Pipeline of Georgia's Asian Pacific American Judges," included personal stories from a panel of minority jurists from state appellate and federal courts, as well as keynote speeches by top government lawyers.
One of those keynote speakers, Georgia Attorney General Sam Olens, was blunt. "It's easier if you're a white Christian. That's a fact," said Olens, who was the first Jew to win a statewide partisan election in Georgia. "But if you have what it takes—the drive and the intelligence—you can do anything you want in our state."
Olens noted his office employs three Asian-American lawyers in its public safety, civil rights and Medicaid fraud sections.
"But it's not enough to simply say, 'They'll embrace me because of the need for diversity,'" Olens added. "You've got to show that you're out there in the community, which is frankly kind of difficult for some Asians, to end that insular background and be external."
Olens recommended that Asian-American lawyers join charitable organizations and groups that serve the larger community because the governor's Judicial Nominating Commission specifically asks judicial candidates to list their nonprofit activities.
"If you're Korean-American, I don't mean the Korean-American church. If you're Indian-American, I don't mean the Indian-American cultural center. You've got to get out there in the greater, nonprofit community," he said.
Olens, who is a member of the JNC, then told of a lawyer in his office who applied for a judgeship but left the application question related to nonprofit activities blank—despite his involvement in them.
"I had to go up to him and say, 'You didn't make the shortlist.' And he said, 'Well, why didn't I make the shortlist?' And I had to say, 'Look at your answer to Number 30 or 36—whatever it is. You left it blank,'" Olens recalled. "Leaving the question blank about nonprofit is akin to not walking in the door, because we want to see not just that you're electable but that you care about your community."
Georgia Supreme Court Justice Robert Benham, the first African-American on the state high court bench, chalked some of his success up to his engagements in northwest Georgia, where he began his law career as a litigator. He was president of his local bar association and chairman of an 11-county planning and development commission. He also said he belonged to several fraternal organizations.
"I think you have to be inextricably intertwined in the community," Benham said. "It takes more than just putting your name on the ballot."
You also have to work harder than your non-minority peers, he said.
"I'd like to think as a minority that you don't have to prove yourself, but that's an unrealistic expectation," Benham said. "People are watching. You will have to work harder. You'll have to work smarter. You'll have to come earlier, stay later. All the time. ... If you commit yourself to being in it for the long haul, then it won't be as difficult for you. Your colleagues may be judged differently, but it's not a perfect world."
Georgia Court of Appeals Judge Carla Wong McMillian said appointments and elections to judicial posts are possible even in counties that are not very diverse. She was appointed by Governor Sonny Perdue to the Fayette County State Court in 2010, re-elected in 2012 and then elevated by Governor Nathan Deal to the appellate court in January. The most recent census data shows the county's Asian population in Fayette County to be 4.2 percent.
McMillian advised lawyers seeking judicial appointments to get to know the members of the JNC and learn the kinds of questions its members ask. For those running for election, fortitude is an asset, she said.
"I was a lawyer like you. I had been in the courtroom; I had my civil litigation practice. But I wasn't really a political person," she said. "I think the best advice I got on the campaign trail from people who had done it before is: You have to go out and ask people for their vote. So I went out and met people and shook their hands."
McMillian also cautioned, "You will have people who say ugly things about you in the campaign, but the great majority of people—they just want to know that you're going to be fair and impartial and that you'll do a good job and work hard."
Sally Quillian Yates, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia, told the forum she believes diversity is key not just in the judiciary but throughout the criminal justice system as well.
"If we are going to have a criminal justice system that's strong and effective, we have to be reflective of the public we serve," she said. "The criminal justice system is about asking people to entrust us with making decisions that impact the most important right we have, and that's justice."
Read more: http://www.dailyreportonline.com/PubArticleDRO.jsp?id=1202615510294&Advice_To_Minorities_Increase_Visibility#ixzz2cBKOQRNj
It may be difficult for minority lawyers to obtain judicial appointments or run for elected office, but increasing visibility, especially in service organizations, will inevitably lead to opportunity.
That was the overarching advice from a career development forum Tuesday night at McKenna, Long & Aldridge hosted by the Georgia Asian American & Pacific Islander Task Force and several statewide Asian-American bar associations.
The forum, titled "Building the Pipeline of Georgia's Asian Pacific American Judges," included personal stories from a panel of minority jurists from state appellate and federal courts, as well as keynote speeches by top government lawyers.
One of those keynote speakers, Georgia Attorney General Sam Olens, was blunt. "It's easier if you're a white Christian. That's a fact," said Olens, who was the first Jew to win a statewide partisan election in Georgia. "But if you have what it takes—the drive and the intelligence—you can do anything you want in our state."
Olens noted his office employs three Asian-American lawyers in its public safety, civil rights and Medicaid fraud sections.
"But it's not enough to simply say, 'They'll embrace me because of the need for diversity,'" Olens added. "You've got to show that you're out there in the community, which is frankly kind of difficult for some Asians, to end that insular background and be external."
Olens recommended that Asian-American lawyers join charitable organizations and groups that serve the larger community because the governor's Judicial Nominating Commission specifically asks judicial candidates to list their nonprofit activities.
"If you're Korean-American, I don't mean the Korean-American church. If you're Indian-American, I don't mean the Indian-American cultural center. You've got to get out there in the greater, nonprofit community," he said.
Olens, who is a member of the JNC, then told of a lawyer in his office who applied for a judgeship but left the application question related to nonprofit activities blank—despite his involvement in them.
"I had to go up to him and say, 'You didn't make the shortlist.' And he said, 'Well, why didn't I make the shortlist?' And I had to say, 'Look at your answer to Number 30 or 36—whatever it is. You left it blank,'" Olens recalled. "Leaving the question blank about nonprofit is akin to not walking in the door, because we want to see not just that you're electable but that you care about your community."
Georgia Supreme Court Justice Robert Benham, the first African-American on the state high court bench, chalked some of his success up to his engagements in northwest Georgia, where he began his law career as a litigator. He was president of his local bar association and chairman of an 11-county planning and development commission. He also said he belonged to several fraternal organizations.
"I think you have to be inextricably intertwined in the community," Benham said. "It takes more than just putting your name on the ballot."
You also have to work harder than your non-minority peers, he said.
"I'd like to think as a minority that you don't have to prove yourself, but that's an unrealistic expectation," Benham said. "People are watching. You will have to work harder. You'll have to work smarter. You'll have to come earlier, stay later. All the time. ... If you commit yourself to being in it for the long haul, then it won't be as difficult for you. Your colleagues may be judged differently, but it's not a perfect world."
Georgia Court of Appeals Judge Carla Wong McMillian said appointments and elections to judicial posts are possible even in counties that are not very diverse. She was appointed by Governor Sonny Perdue to the Fayette County State Court in 2010, re-elected in 2012 and then elevated by Governor Nathan Deal to the appellate court in January. The most recent census data shows the county's Asian population in Fayette County to be 4.2 percent.
McMillian advised lawyers seeking judicial appointments to get to know the members of the JNC and learn the kinds of questions its members ask. For those running for election, fortitude is an asset, she said.
"I was a lawyer like you. I had been in the courtroom; I had my civil litigation practice. But I wasn't really a political person," she said. "I think the best advice I got on the campaign trail from people who had done it before is: You have to go out and ask people for their vote. So I went out and met people and shook their hands."
McMillian also cautioned, "You will have people who say ugly things about you in the campaign, but the great majority of people—they just want to know that you're going to be fair and impartial and that you'll do a good job and work hard."
Sally Quillian Yates, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia, told the forum she believes diversity is key not just in the judiciary but throughout the criminal justice system as well.
"If we are going to have a criminal justice system that's strong and effective, we have to be reflective of the public we serve," she said. "The criminal justice system is about asking people to entrust us with making decisions that impact the most important right we have, and that's justice."
Read more: http://www.dailyreportonline.com/PubArticleDRO.jsp?id=1202615510294&Advice_To_Minorities_Increase_Visibility#ixzz2cBKOQRNj