By Judge Luther T. Simmons, Jr. (Ret.)
Shareholder, Simmons Hanly Conroy

Public service is the giving back to the less fortunate and the underserved, and that is how to advance society. By giving back, you lift yourself up. No one understands this better than me. I am the son of a Tennessee sharecropper and the great-grandson of slaves. My father was the Rev. Luther T. Simmons, and he was the first man in the history of our family in America to be paid for his labor.

What I think is important to understand is that in 2020 there are still people alive who, like my father was, are attached to history. I have dedicated my decades-long legal career to remember this, and by attempting to lift others up – through my practice, my pro bono work, my work as a judge, and most recently as a shareholder at one of the largest plaintiffs' firms in the country, Simmons Hanly Conroy.

I have been a lawyer for 46 years. As my career path reflects, a law degree is one of the most flexible advanced degrees.

I started as an associate in a 10-person law firm and then became a solo practitioner. I have represented aspiring minority businesses and served as in-house counsel and corporate officer for a minority business that, during my tenure, became the third-largest minority-owned business in the United States with sales of $100 million. For that same business, I personally negotiated a $500 million contract with the U.S. Department of Energy to build and manage its strategic petroleum reserves. This was then the largest contract awarded by the federal government to a minority company.

I have personally met and successfully worked with U.S. Attorney General Griffin Bell and Hamilton Jordan, White House Chief of Staff for the Carter Administration, on behalf of my client's business interests and in support of candidates for the federal bench. I've been an entrepreneur with ownership interests and management responsibilities in a multi-million-dollar certified MBE. I've served as a proud Assistant Public Defender, representing the interests of the indigent in nearly 1,000 felony cases, and also served as an Assistant's State's Attorney, prosecuting felony cases. I've tried criminal, including murder, and civil cases to verdict. I've been a Special Assistant Attorney General for Illinois, representing the state in civil matters.

These were my life experiences before becoming a state court judge. All of this equipped me to become a judge. There is no substitute for life experience and legal experience for anyone aspiring to the bench. Judges are tasked with the responsibility of applying the law objectively. Lawyers' jobs, on the other hand, are to represent the facts as best benefits their clients, and to attempt to persuade the court that their understanding of the law is the correct one. While serving on the bench, I presided over both jury trials and high volume court dockets.

However, I didn't just become a judge and retire. Being a judge was not the culmination of my career. I have gone on and done something equally meaningful. I'm now a shareholder at the prominent national law firm, Simmons Hanly Conroy. I am currently a manager on the firm's asbestos docket, where we help thousands of people whose lives have been knowingly and tragically terminated by companies that exposed workers and their families to asbestos. In addition, I seek out and forge new strategic alliances between Simmons Hanly Conroy and other law firms.

Over the decades, I have still made time to give back by handling over 2,000 individual cases on a pro bono basis. Those individual cases, aggregately, have added up to a significant positive impact on my community. I've also supported the Boys and Girls Club and served as a mentor for minority youth for more than 50 years in my local community of Alton, Illinois.

The motto at Simmons Hanly Conroy is "We Stand for Our Clients." It's a phrase that can apply to all of us at the National Black Lawyers Top 100. As leaders in our field, we must live up to that.

I've been inspired as a lawyer and as a judge to try to make a difference in someone's life every day. If we do that for individuals whose paths we cross in our daily lives, the aggregate effect will be to uplift our communities.

And, together, our society will advance.