Gordon Weekes hopes to turn Black History into Black Normalcy in legal professions.
As a newly elected public defender, Weekes joins other Black leaders in the top ranks in the Broward County Courthouse. Harold Pryor was elected Broward state attorney and Brenda Foreman was re-elected as clerk of courts. They join the county’s first Black sheriff, Gregory Tony.
Broward County, for the first time ever, has Blacks atop the flow chart for its public defender and state attorney offices with Weekes and Pryor, respectively.
And while that may indicate that participation is improving for Black people in the legal professions, Weekes still wants to see more.
“I’ve always advocated we need to have black professionals in every area of law – as prosecutors, as judges, as law enforcement professionals, as chiefs of police, as sheriffs, as public defenders,” Weekes said.
There’s more work to be done in private law practices in particular. An annual diversity report issued earlier this month by the National Association for Law Placement showed the number of Black partners at 2.1% and Black lawyers at 5.1% in U.S. law firms. Those are low numbers, but they’re also the highest marks in the 28 years the association has compiled such data.
