Please join the Supreme Court Historical Society and the Historical Society for the District of Columbia for a Juneteenth conversation about the new biography of Judge William Benson Bryant, Soul of the Court: The Trailblazing Life of Judge William Benson Bryant Sr.
William B. Bryant served on the United States District Court for the District of Columbia beginning in 1965, when he was appointed by President Lyndon B. Johnson, until his death in 2005. He was Chief Judge from 1977 to 1981.
Prior to being appointed to the federal bench, Judge Bryant was a prominent criminal lawyer at the firm of Houston, Bryant and Gardner in Washington, D.C. While in private practice, Judge Bryant litigated a number of high-profile criminal cases, including the landmark case of Mallory v. United States, in which the Supreme Court overturned a criminal conviction on the ground that the defendant’s confession was obtained unlawfully.
After law school, Judge Bryant served as a research assistant to Ralph Bunche and in the Army during World War II, rising to the rank of lieutenant colonel. From 1951 to 1954, he was an Assistant U.S. Attorney. Judge Bryant was born in Wetumpka, Alabama, but lived in Washington, D.C. from the age of one. He graduated from Howard University and Howard University Law School.
Our Panel Includes:
Michelle Coles – An award-winning young adult novelist, former civil rights attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice, and public speaker. She currently serves as a Commissioner on the Maryland Lynching Truth and Reconciliation Commission, a first of its kind in the United States. She is a proud alumna of Howard University School of Law, where she graduated as valedictorian of her class, and the University of Virginia.
William B. Schultz – Partner at Zuckerman Spaeder. He has argued numerous cases in the federal trial and appellate courts, including three in the United States Supreme Court. As general counsel at Health and Human Services from 2011 to 2016, Bill served as counsel to two HHS secretaries on all legal matters and managed an office of 500 lawyers across eight offices, covering 10 regions across the country. HHS administers $1 trillion per year in federal programs, including Medicare, Medicaid, the Affordable Care Act, the FDA, the National Institutes of Health, and the Centers for Disease Control. The office of general counsel is responsible for all litigation where HHS is a party, ensuring regulations and policy decisions are consistent with the law, reviewing legal issues involving appropriations, and ensuring ethical rules are followed. He served as a Law Clerk to Judge Bryant.
Roger A. Fairfax, Jr., (Moderator) – Dean and Professor of Law at Howard University School of Law. Dean Fairfax previously served as the 19th Dean of the American University Washington College of Law, the first Black man to lead that law school. He previously served as Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Patricia Roberts Harris Research Professor of Law at George Washington University Law School, where he founded and directed the Criminal Law and Policy Initiative.
He clerked for federal judges in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, and then Dean Fairfax served as an Attorney General Honors Program Trial Attorney in the Public Integrity Section of the U.S. Department of Justice Criminal Division, where he handled a wide array of white-collar and corruption investigations and prosecutions. Dean Fairfax currently serves on the boards of the National Institute for Trial Advocacy, the ABA Criminal Justice magazine, City Year DC, and the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, and he is a member of the American Law Institute and the Judicial Conference of the United States advisory committee responsible for drafting and revising the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure.
