November CBA Report

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Ithink one of the hardest things about being president is
writing these articles because I have never thought of myself
as a good writer. As you all know already, these articles have
been a group effort from my fellow John Williamses. I don’t blog,
tweet or use Facebook. I use the voice to text feature on my phone,
and not very well, as my family often tells me they can’t decipher
my texts.
Many times when I need to be inspired for the articles, I go to
the history room at the CBA office which is really Aris Yowell’s
office, the CBA’s communications director. Inside the office, there
are volumes of books
from the years 1900
to now. Each book
is a good looking
hard cover book that
feels and reads like a
World Book Encyclo-
pedia or Encyclopedia
Britannica depending
on what door to door salesman your parent bought them from
in the 1970’s or earlier. For those of you born after the ‘70s, your
generations may have unfortunately missed out on what I think
was some excellent non-electronic entertainment. Forgive me for
reminiscing, but I have to come up with something to get to the
requisite number of words for the article.
I was looking through volumes containing the years 1992-1994,
and to my surprise, within those articles the subject of diversity in
the profession in our legal community was referenced throughout.
The Black Lawyers Association of Cincinnati (BLAC) and the
Cincinnati Bar Association‘s Roundtable was in its early stages and
the two groups were working on issues that would help the legal
community become more diverse. In particular, in 1992, Lawyer
to Lawyer was started and it was a new BLAC-CBA program in
which several black and white attorneys were partnered with a
commitment to share certain social and professional experiences
over the course of one year. The Lawyer to Lawyer partners had
to agree to include their families and significant others in the
process and also share professional experiences. It was the goal
of the program that participants be committed to changing their
behavior in a manner
that would enhance
race relations. The
CBA presidents
for the years 1993
(Michael Hawkins)
and 1994 (Hon. Jack
Sherman) chaired the
first group of part-
ners in the program. Hawkins and Sherman were not only the
chairs, but law partners as well. Their partnership was profiled on
the Today Show in 1995.
In 1994, I was interviewed for a CBA article and I reported
that I was participating in the Lawyer to Lawyer program and at
the time I was partnered with Kenny Peller. Peller was at least 20
years older than me at the time (so it seemed). He was a native
Cincinnatian and father of one teenager daughter and a son
who was close to being a teenager. He was married to Sara and
he was Jewish. Peller and I included our families in our partner-
By John J. Williams
Revisiting
Diversity
I have been in too many meetings where people are
not comfortable saying what is really on their minds
regarding diversity. Please don’t do that. Share your
thoughts so we can all move forward together.
4 l November 2017 CBA REPORT
President’s Brief