2022 Legal Legends of Color Award Winners: “Why They Mattered”

August 16, 2022

The 2022 NCBA Annual Meeting in Winston-Salem featured recognition of four Legal Legends of Color. This marked the seventh time these awards have been presented by the Legal Legends of Color Subcommittee of the NCBA Minorities in the Profession Committee.

Margaret Dudley, Georgia Jacquez Lewis, Arlinda F. Locklear and the late Judge Ola M. Lewis joined the ranks of Legal Legends of Color who have been recognized since the award was first presented in 2016.

Coverage of the awards ceremony and biographical information on each of this year’s honorees, as well as a listing of previous recipients, are accessible here.

Soaking in the richness of the presentation ceremony, and looking around the crowded room at the distinguished gathering of legal professionals young and old, it is obvious that each of this year’s honorees had a profound impact on the lives and careers of countless individuals. Like those who were honored before them, the contributions of these Legal Legends of Color mattered significantly, as evidenced in the following tributes to each of this year’s recipients.

Georgia Jacquez Lewis

Long before Judge Albert Diaz was confirmed by the U.S. Senate to serve on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in December 2010, and prior to his service as a judge of any kind, he was engaged in private practice in Charlotte and relatively new to the North Carolina Bar Association.

The NCBA had just established a Hispanic Lawyers Committee, and as the son of Puerto Rican parents, Diaz had found the perfect place to expand his engagement in the organization. The committee, chaired by Georgia Jacquez Lewis, held its first meeting at the N.C. Bar Center in September 1998.

“The thing I remember about Georgia is that she is such a go-getter,” Diaz said. “She was very passionate about everything she did. Frankly, I don’t know if we hit it off right away. I am more reticent, low-key, and she did not hesitate to speak her mind. But when I got to know her, I quickly realized she was passionate about the law, in particular making sure the law properly reflected the community around her and North Carolina, and that there were opportunities for diverse voices to be heard.

“She frankly saw something in me that I don’t know I saw initially, but she saw from the get-go – that I should push forward and at some point get on the bench. She asked me to think about it, and at every turn, whenever I asked her for help, or support, or just to be there, she was there.

“It was no surprise that she was sitting there behind me at my confirmation hearing, because she was frankly, besides my family and other close friends and colleagues, one of the reasons why I was there. Because she kept pushing me to reach higher, so that is why she mattered to me.

“But I am not alone in that. If you ask a number of different people they would say the same thing in a different capacity. When I think about Georgia, I think about the fact I’m here in large part because of her prodding and pushing and supporting and recommending at every step of the way.”

Judge Ola M. Lewis

Tawanda Foster Artis serves as General Counsel and Head of the Legal Affairs Division of the North Carolina Community College System. She is also a member of the NCBA Board of Governors.

But it wasn’t all that long ago that she was completing her studies at UNC School of Law and preparing to take the bar exam. That is when Judge Ola M. Lewis made an indelible mark on her formative legal career.

“I met Judge Lewis at a networking event,” Artis stated, recounting a story she told when presenting the Legal Legends of Color Award posthumously to Judge Lewis. “I had gone with a lawyer I was working for part time. It was probably near the end of my 3L year, because I know the conversation was about me preparing to take the bar exam. I talked about how I was going to keep my job, part time with this attorney, because I needed the money.”

Judge Lewis would hear nothing of working while studying for the bar exam.

“No, you shouldn’t do that, that’s not wise, you need to be focused on studying,” Artis recalled Judge Lewis saying. “Do what you have to do, but folks studying for the bar don’t work.”

“And I politely said OK,” Artis said, “but that wasn’t my reality. I have to work and I am going to work. The bills weren’t going to stop coming just because I was taking the bar exam.”

Artis planned on attending the BARBRI prep course in the morning and working in the afternoon, then studying for the bar exam in the evening.

“When I got to work,” Artis continued, “the attorney told me that I was only to come in on Fridays and only to pick up my paycheck, and that my job for the next six weeks or however long it was before the bar exam was to study. He was going to pay me my normal rate for 20 hours a week, or however long I was working.

“I never knew if Judge Lewis contributed some of that money, or if it was all his money. I have no idea where the money came from. But I have no doubt it was her comments, that night at the networking mixer, that sparked that. And the community felt like they needed to do whatever they could do to make sure I was successful and pass the bar on my first attempt. And I did. I did pass the bar exam on my first attempt, and I don’t think that would likely have happened if I did not heed that advice and make it possible for me to do so.”

For the next several years, before Judge Lewis succumbed to cancer in December 2019, she stayed in contact with Artis.

“She would send me cards or notes if I did something noteworthy, and send me a little congratulatory note,” Artis said. “The fact that she always remembered me meant a lot to me as a young attorney, because clearly at that point she was already on the bench and did not have to care about who I am as a new attorney. That was very impactful for me.”

Artis agreed when asked if Judge Lewis felt it was especially important to encourage minority attorneys as well as female attorneys.

“I am sure she did,” Artis concluded, “and I think that is probably a feeling that I am sure lots of us carry. We are so fortunate to be where we are, and we want not just to make sure the door is open for everyone who comes behind us but that it is open wider, and that they can go further and sail farther than we ever did.

“I am excited when I see young attorneys go further and do more than I could possibly do in my career. She was the perfect role model, an example of what we all want to be as minority attorneys and, quite frankly, a role model for everyone.”

Margaret Dudley*

Providing context as to why the work of Margaret Dudley mattered to her colleagues and the citizens of North Carolina is as easy as looking at the work she continues to do as the founding director of the Emergency Legal Services Program at the Elon University School of Law.

The program was established in conjunction with the Family Justice Centers of Guilford County and Alamance County to “drastically reduce gaps and unmet needs for legal advocacy and support for victims of domestic violence.”

“I have always derived professional satisfaction from helping children in custody cases,” Dudley stated in coverage provided by Elon Law when the program was launched in 2017. “That feeling will now be even more rewarding by providing legal guidance and support for people facing trauma in areas of domestic abuse.

“Our main goal is to empower clients to hopefully be able to extricate themselves from environments that profoundly destabilize families. And some of the clients we serve would not otherwise be able to get this kind of legal advice.”

Five years later, the Emergency Legal Services Program has served some 5,000 citizens, including many whose legal needs no doubt would have otherwise gone unmet.

“Tonight we recognize that her accolades and her resume are extensive,” stated Elon Law graduate Gwendolyn Lewis in presenting the Legal Legends of Color Award to Dudley. “But it is the force that she carries in every room that she enters that makes her so memorable and impactful to the students, the clients, the people, the friends, the soon-to-be-friends, and all of the members of the bar that she encounters.”

Dudley does indeed bring a powerful force to the room, as witnessed by everyone in attendance at this year’s awards ceremony. Her energy and enthusiasm have never waned over the course of a legal career of 46 years.

“This honor gives me cause to carefully reflect on the many reasons why I am at this place in my career,” Dudley stated in a recent Elon Law article. “I am so humbled to be recognized in a category of lawyers that includes two of my most valued mentors, the late Judge Elreta Alexander Ralston and retired Chief Justice Henry Frye of the Supreme Court of North Carolina, as well as my dear friend, former Judge Karen Bethea-Shields.

“Practicing law is really service to your community with conviction, courage, and an unyielding commitment to the pursuit of justice.”

* Special thanks to Eric Townsend, Director of Communications at Elon University School of Law, for quotations and background information included in this section of the article.

Arlinda F. Locklear*

Arlinda Locklear was born at Fort Bragg, and has made an impact on the lives of Native Americans across the country, especially in Robeson County.

“She may have a Washington, D.C., address, but her home will always be Robeson County, North Carolina.”

Thus begins an understated introduction that occurred 10 years prior to Locklear’s recognition at the 2022 NCBA Annual Meeting as a Legal Legend of Color. The introduction and acceptance speech, which are accessible here, were provided in conjunction with her recognition as a recipient of the Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement Award from the ABA Commission on Women in the Profession in 2012.

Established in 1991, the Margaret Brent Award “recognizes and celebrates the accomplishments of women lawyers who have excelled in their field and have paved the way to success for other women lawyers” in much the same way that the NCBA Minorities in the Profession Committee Legal Legends of Color Award “recognizes attorneys of color who have had undeniable impacts on the legal profession and whose legacies represent ceilings broken for all attorneys who follow in their footsteps.”

“I consider myself greatly blessed,” Locklear stated in accepting the Margaret Brent Award. “I had the great good fortune to be born into an Indian community that fostered values much like those that the Margaret Brent Award represents. These are the values of commitment to each other – the values of community, and the value that we are all in this together, whatever your place is, whatever your world consists of, we are all in this together, and we have a mutual responsibility to provide for the future well-being of those who come after us.”

“As a member of an Indian community,” Locklear continued, “I witnessed and experienced the pain and humiliation that discrimination can cause. It is a very hurtful thing, and it injures not only communities but individuals. The good fortune of coming from an Indian community served also as my inspiration for the dedication of my life. It occurred to me early on that it should be my place, if I can at all make any difference to any Indian community, that that’s my job.”

A member of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina, Locklear has devoted the better part of her career advocating for the passage of Lumbee recognition bills. In a recent interview published in Duke Law Magazine accessible here, the 1976 Duke Law graduate spoke of the ongoing effort to attain full federal recognition for the Lumbee Tribe and her lifelong commitment to Indian law.

“I have a lot of the same clients from years ago,” Locklear stated in the interview. “For example, I’ve represented my water client for 35 years now because these things take time. Like the Lumbee recognition bill, it’s just a question of sticking to it and trying to get things done. Judges change and there is usually a subtle adjustment in attitudes on the Hill, which is something we have to pay a lot of attention to, but other than that it’s pretty much the same.

“My son’s master’s degree is in international affairs and my daughter’s is in women and gender studies and public administration, so they are not following me into law. I think they watched me over the years and said, ‘Oh my goodness, I don’t know why Mom keeps beating her head against some of these stone walls.’ But every now and then there’s a crack.”

* Special thanks to Duke University School of Law and the ABA Commission on Women in the Profession for quotations attributed to those organizations in this section of the article.

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Russell Rawlings is director of external affairs and communications for the North Carolina Bar Association.

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