Texas Christian University issued the following announcement on Oct. 12
Each summer Judge Zuberi Williams ’00 hosts up to half-a-dozen law school students as interns through the American Bar Association’s Judicial Intern Opportunity Program. (He’s a JIOP alum.) This year, in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, Williams had the option to take his internship program virtual.
He declined.
“I understand the severity of COVID, but at the same time, I like to think that we’re in a position to do a lot of good for a lot of people if we really push ourselves. We get a lot of hands-on work here, and I think it would be a shame for law students to miss that,” said Williams, an associate judge in the District Court of Maryland, District 6 in Montgomery County.
“These are the moments where people can let go of their dreams, and we don’t want that to happen.”
A native of Washington, D.C., Williams earned a BBA in marketing from TCU and both a JD and an MBA from American University. Prior to his 2015 appointment as associate judge, he served as assistant attorney general for the District of Columbia (2007-10) and administrative law judge in the Maryland Office of Administrative Hearings (2010-15). Since taking the bench, he has won a litany of state and national awards, including the National Bar Association’s Top 40 Under 40, the Maryland Daily Record’s VIP List of Most Successful by 40, its Top Leader in the Law in the State of Maryland, and the Leadership Center of Excellence’s Top 40 Under 40 trailblazers in the DC Metro Area.
Williams shared what it was like hosting his summer internship program during a pandemic:
What originally brought you to TCU?
Like most 17-year-olds, I was keen on getting out of my parents’ house. We had this Christian college catalog and I flipped it open and found the Horned Frog. So I picked a real faraway place and applied. They accepted me and I got a scholarship and a grant. It’s the one college I never visited. I went there on a leap of faith, and it was the best decision I ever made.
What did you love most about your time at TCU?
The main thing is the friends that I made there. You never know what to expect when you go halfway across the country to a place where there aren’t a lot of folks who look like you. I was overwhelmed with a big core group of friends.
What drew you to law?
Growing up, my parents were teachers and would talk about folks from the civil rights era who were heroic and stepped in on behalf of people who were disenfranchised, people of color, immigrants and took up for them in a way that changed their lives.
How did TCU prepare you for your career?
It wasn’t just academic. Interactions I had challenged my view and also broadened my view about other people. It helped me learn about people who were different than me and how to listen and try to do good.
What qualities do you think make the best interns?
No. 1, you are there to do a job. A lot your friends will have it easier at their internships and work less. I promise that they will also earn less in the wealth of knowledge and pragmatism, and their boss will not be their biggest cheerleader. No. 2, somebody who is coachable. Someone who listens but who will also make changes. No. 3 is more pragmatic — folks who have stories and who are trying to understand the way the world works because the decisions we make as judges affect the arc of people’s lives.
What do you enjoy most about working with interns?
Their energy. While they have to be coachable, I have to be coachable too. I learn a lot about the technology they use. Their thoughtfulness reminds me of how I was when I was coming up, and every now and then it’s the shot I need to keep moving forward and doing good on the bench. This summer I had my interns do an art project. With COVID and George Floyd, they came in with their heads hanging low. They did a Black Lives Matter’s art piece to show what other judiciaries around the country were doing to make sure we were moving forward together. It was so inspiring. I hang it in my office as a reminder of the good that can be done by the judiciary.
Why are internships so important?
Internships are an opportunity to do real work and understand what people do in the law. You’ve read what’s in the book. Here’s what’s really going on. We have people who are counting on us. Internships allow you to do practical and pragmatic work.
What kind of experience do you try to provide for your interns?
There are three types of experiences I want my interns to get over the summer:
First, I want them to sharpen their skills — research, writing, being able to argue and think about other arguments and counterarguments. I want them to sharpen all those attributes they “kind of” learned in school. Second, I want them to learn how networking works in the legal world. They have to discover that you must win people over toward what you want to do and find pockets of people who understand what they are going for so you can be part of their network. I demonstrate the way that I network. Third, I want them to strengthen their heart. Especially in this age of anxiety, we cling to tiny victories. Judges have to be authentic leaders. Part of that is letting people know they’re not alone and that there’s a path forward.
Why were you determined to host in-person internships this past summer?
I got a phone call from one of my mentors, a retired federal judge. We talked about the effect COVID-19 was having on internships — especially for people of color, women and people below the poverty level. He said, wouldn’t it be a shame if this prevented them from having a good experience. Knowing these folks are disproportionately affected because of the coronavirus, I felt moved to do it. I just wanted to make sure it was safe.
What sort of adjustments did you have to make because of the pandemic?
All the things the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, our governor and our chief judge say — 6 feet apart and masks all the time. During my internships, I partner with different companies and agencies — Facebook, Under Armour, Microsoft, the Discovery Channel, the State Department — and we go on field trips there. We had to do all the field trips via Zoom while still finding a way to make them comprehensive and letting the interns talk to some of the top lawyers in the country. We limited the time so they were mostly only here for half days. We met in large conference rooms and the actual courtrooms when they were empty so I could teach them the stuff I wanted them to know — but I’m used to huddling in my office. We had to be careful. A lot of companies stepped up. Microsoft was amazing. Facebook was absolutely on point. Under Armour was just amazing. And Discovery Channel hired one of the interns for their internship after meeting them.
What was the biggest challenge?
The biggest challenge was not to be too comfortable and let our guard down when it came to social distancing. Talking about really intense issues — domestic violence and case law — sometimes you just want to huddle together. What we learned is the more distance socially that we give people, it shows a feeling that there’s not trust. But we could overcome that. The other challenge was abiding by the science to make sure we kept families healthy. I have a wife, three young children, parents who are aging and colleagues, so I wanted to make sure we kept everyone safe.
What was the biggest highlight?
The biggest highlight was the interns doing the art project at the end. Art and law don’t always go together. After all the things we talked about the law, criminal justice, civil justice, systematic racism and how to overcome that, they unveiled for me this art project. It showed people and the state judiciary and a culmination of a lot concepts and actual law that we talked about, and to see that presentation in a form other than a brief — and they are not artists, they’re law students — I was overwhelmed. It was a tiny victory and it makes happy.
How would you describe the overall experience of this summer’s internship program?
The experience was definitely different. It had a different, quiet power. We weren’t as loud. We weren’t as visible. We weren’t sitting in conference rooms at companies. I wasn’t traipsing them all of over town. We weren’t eating out. We were more quiet. But there’s a certain power in quiet. It was a quiet storm of excellence.
Hear more from Williams on a recent Frog 4 Life podcast.
Original source can be found here.
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