Profile / James Williams: Master ‘Three-Pointer’.jpg)
By Nancy Willams
You may think you know James Williams, Seattle Office Managing Partner at Perkins Coie. He’s your Washington State delegate to the American Bar Association’s House of Delegates. Or maybe you know him as a founder and, until recently, co-chair of the Washington Leadership Institute. And, of course, he’s been a leader in the local bar—not just the KCBA, but also the Loren Miller Bar Association, of which he is a past president. But a leader like James doesn’t just pop up fully formed. He is an amalgam of his life experiences. And that’s what brings us to the many things you likely don’t yet know about James Williams.
If you’ve heard James speak on almost any occasion, he leads by summarizing his subject matter with three key points. When asked what three points were most important in forming the man he is today, he first mentioned his humble beginnings in life. The place was Rembert, South Carolina, where James was born in 1963, a direct descendent of enslaved people. (He’s proud that three of his great-grandfathers registered to vote as soon as possible after emancipation.) His mom Annie Mae was a schoolteacher. His dad, also named James, grew staple crops on a small farm and owned and operated the Williams Barber Shop. Both parents had grown up in the Jim Crow South but believed that hard work could provide a road to success.
James describes his father’s influence on him as transformative. To ensure James understood the importance of a strong work ethic, his father put him to work at age 11 picking cotton on the family farm. And, to fill in any spare hours when James might otherwise be tempted to slouch, he shined shoes at the barber shop. (These days, James likes to stop by Nordstrom’s for a buff-up, but he knows well how to do it himself.) When James turned 15, his father registered him to become an apprentice barber as soon as he attained the minimum legal age of 16. For the next several years, James regularly cut hair at the shop whenever his school schedule permitted. Under his father’s guidance, James learned what it meant to be in a service business and to be comfortable with anyone who crossed the threshold. Safe to say, the thought of becoming a lawyer had not yet entered his mind—even though the same principles would later apply to his practice of law.
The second formative factor James mentioned was the military. As a young Black man in the South, he knew that military service offered an opportunity to raise one’s station in life. James’s father did not complete high school, but nonetheless advanced himself through army service during the Korean War. Uncles and cousins were military veterans too, making it a norm in the family. Based on his own interest in history, James also concluded that military officers were generally esteemed in society. He did not have the right political connections for a service academy appointment, so he applied to The Citadel, South Carolina’s military college.
At The Citadel, James thrived, eventually graduating with honors. He won a U.S. Air Force scholarship that helped cover the costs of his education in exchange for his obligation to serve in the Air Force following graduation. Since he envisioned the military as a potential career path, James was undaunted by the four-year service obligation. But his political science studies led to another possibility being thrown into the mix when a professor suggested that he would likely be successful as a lawyer. This idea sparked James’s imagination for a new direction for the future, and he decided to pursue it. He was able to defer his active-duty service until after attending law school.
And, thus, James embarked on the vocation that he deems the third major factor in his development—the practice of law. He attended the University of Virginia Law School, graduating in 1988 and honored with a faculty award recognizing Honor, Character and Integrity. During summer breaks, he worked at the McNair Law Firm in Columbia, South Carolina, assuming that he would likely return there eventually. However, first he had to take the bar exam and commence his service as an Air Force Judge Advocate General (JAG).
The Air Force assigned new JAGs to locations ranging from the mundane to the glamorous, but plum assignments generally went to those emerging from an Officer Candidate program. Lacking that credential, James ended up first in Montgomery, Alabama, and then in Enid, Oklahoma. In Oklahoma, he was the deputy staff JAG, handling a variety of assignments including criminal trials and Federal Tort Claims Act matters. At some point, he was asked to make a presentation to a group of visiting officers. Might this have been when he developed his approach of distilling information into a three-point oratorical outline? Whatever his approach, it was a big success. One of the officers asked James point blank: “What are you doing here??”
That’s all it took for James to find himself catapulted to a post at Ramstad Air Force Base in Germany, one of the most desirable JAG locations. He was there for two years, which he describes as “fabulous.” He got plenty of trial experience prosecuting military courts martial under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Ramstad was also an ideal location from which to explore Europe—London, Paris and Berlin. He even learned to ski in Austria.
Next came an assignment to a base in Brindisi, Italy. James tried a number of cases there, learning from fellow JAGs whom he recalls as some of the finest trial lawyers he’s seen. (One was Marty Martin, whom James encountered post-Air Force when Martin was dean of Gonzaga Law School.) James enjoyed the work in Italy so much that he extended his active duty for an additional six months, during which he began thinking about returning home to private practice. The McNair Firm was still a tempting prospect, but he also considered firms in Atlanta. He assembled his resume and supporting materials and lined up interviews.
So now you may be asking yourself, how did Seattle ever come into the picture? You could call it serendipity, or you could see it as a confirmation that, wherever he goes, James makes a lasting impression. One evening when James was working late at his desk in Brindisi, the phone rang. Much to his surprise, the caller was Marcella Fleming (now Marcella Fleming Reid), a close friend and classmate from UVA law school. Marcella, who was practicing at a Seattle firm, had recently run into an Air Force vet at a meeting of the Loren Miller Bar Association. She asked for his help in locating a dear friend and classmate who was now an Air Force JAG. Through a circuitous route, she managed to get James’s phone number in Italy. When Marcella learned from James that he was planning to interview with firms in Atlanta and South Carolina, she told him he should follow her lead and give Seattle a try. He agreed to send her his resume package and consider adding a week to his state-side trip. When Marcella reviewed the information, including evaluations by James’s superiors, she asked him, “How does it feel to walk on water?”
On the strength of James’s resume packet, she lined up interviews with him at four Seattle firms. Under the circumstances, James could hardly refuse to add Seattle to his itinerary, sight unseen. During his interviews here, James was struck by the fact that each firm he spoke with introduced him to successful African American lawyers, something that was less common at firms in the South. He also noticed that Norm Rice, Seattle’s mayor at the time, was African American. And, in this “most literate city,” James was impressed to see that, when he rode the bus, other riders were all engrossed in reading material.
Back in Brindisi, James was weighing competing offers when he received another surprise phone call from the States. This time, the caller was Dave Andrews, himself a former Air Force officer and a long-time partner at Perkins Coie. Dave presented a forceful argument to seal the deal: James should join Perkins Coie. James did so in 1992.
(Exercising authorial privilege, I will note that I clearly recall meeting James on his first day at the firm, down to the very place on the 47th floor where he introduced himself. My immediate reaction: We should get this guy to give lessons to new lawyers on how to present themselves as confident, competent professionals.)
James launched himself into a career as a commercial litigator, where his JAG experience stood him in good stead. Marcella recalls that, in those early years in Seattle, James was humble about his contributions but worked tremendously hard to be successful (just as he had at UVA). Dave Burman, one of his partners, attributes James’s strength in part to his “listening intently and with true curiosity . . . always testing his conclusions against what others think.”
But James did not limit his efforts to Perkins Coie. He wanted to give back to the community. He recognized that new lawyers from communities of color and/or of limited means were frequently at a disadvantage as they began their careers. With inspiration from Ron Ward, then WSBA president, James envisioned an outreach program to help these newcomers begin to network and learn how to build their practices. The result was the Washington Leadership Institute, founded in 2004, in which James joined forces with Justice Mary Yu (then a Superior Court judge). Hundreds of new lawyers have benefited from this program in the 20 years since.
Justice Yu found this work rewarding as well, describing James as “among the most compassionate and loyal friends” she has ever had. In her words,
James is able to recognize the leadership potential in others, especially younger or newer lawyers. He possesses an intuitive skill of being able to nurture the potential of another through his truth-telling gentle ways, which is especially effective for lawyers from diverse backgrounds. We often come from backgrounds where we just don’t have access or knowledge about the real rules or expectations, and James is simply brilliant in his ability to honestly communicate those rules while empowering that lawyer to discover their greatness.
Justice Yu also noted James’s extensive work on behalf o the American Bar Association, where he has represented Washington in the House of Delegates for a number of years. His powerful presentation there in support of an ethics code for the U.S. Supreme Court is just one example of his forceful persuasive skills in pursuit of a worthy cause. James says he loves being in the thick of such policy discussions.
In addition, James has thrown himself into important pro bono litigation, including as a cooperating attorney with the ACLU. He has been recognized with multiple awards for the important decision achieved in Wilbur v. City of Mount Vernon, a class action successfully challenging the failure to provide adequate representation to indigent criminal defendants in misdemeanor cases.
In 2017, James became Office Managing Partner of Perkins Coie’s Seattle Office—its founding and largest office, with more than 300 lawyers. Yet, he has also found time for community involvement—serving on the board of Treehouse for 15 years, on the Seattle Foundation Board of Trustees, the King County Bar Foundation Board of Trustees, on the YMCA of Greater Seattle A.K. Guy Awards Committee, as well as other community involvement. His long list of awards and leadership roles exceeds the space the Bar Bulletin can accommodate.
How does he do it all? James stays close to his professional and personal ideals. He describes himself as a patriot, and he firmly believes in the founding principles of our country and the value of its legal system. For him, God, country and family are his guiding influences. His daughter Jacqueline, who graduated from the University of Virginia earlier this year, plans to apply to law school and follow in her father’s footsteps. That will mean a third lawyer in the family, as James’s wife is Carolyn Ladd, a senior counsel at The Boeing Company.
James says he loves being part of the “big family of law” and so experiences joy on a daily basis. Now that’s a sentiment of inspiration and aspiration for all of us!
Nancy Williams is Of Council and a colleague at Perkins Coie. She can be reached by via email at nwilliams@perkinscoie.com.
