2021 Legal Legends of Color: Judge Wanda Bryant
What does it mean to be a Legal Legend of Color?
“First of all, it means I am getting pretty old,” jokes Wanda Bryant when discussing her recent recognition. The Minorities in the Profession Committee of the North Carolina Bar Association honored Judge Bryant at the 2021 Annual Meeting as a member of the sixth class to receive the Legal Legends of Color Award.
“When you talk about somebody being a legend,” Bryant continues, “it usually implies that they have had enough of a life span to even have that consideration. And I just reached Medicare age last month!
“When I retired at the end of last year, it was after working for 48 years, for Social Security purposes. I say that because I worked constantly as an undergrad and even in law school. And before that when I was in high school, I worked during summers and at other times as well, and that was before Social Security was taken from my wages.”
Bryant was recognized in large part for her 20 years of service as a judge on the N.C. Court of Appeals, which culminated with her also serving for six years as chair of the N.C. Judicial Standards Commission. She received the N.C. Judicial Branch’s highest honor, the Friend of the Court Award, upon her retirement in December.
But in many ways it was her early work, in jobs that she had before receiving Social Security wages, that informs us as to the legendary, trailblazing individual who is to follow.
“I worked for cash,” Bryant said, “picking beans and berries and cotton. And I worked in a restaurant – one in particular –where I went from being a dishwasher to a food service worker to being one of the first Black waitresses in that restaurant at Holden Beach. I have worked a lot in a lot of different jobs with a lot of different people, and my legal work accounted for 40 years of that, so when I retired, I felt like I had been working even longer than I had.
“I may not be as old as some of the other people, but I have worked for a long time, and I am certainly honored to have received this award. I would not necessarily call myself a ‘legal legend,’ but I will graciously accept the fact that they have honored me with that title.”
It is a title that is richly deserved, and one that also recognizes her role as a mentor to those who have followed in her footsteps.
Born in Brunswick County in the town of Southport, Bryant is a graduate of Duke University (1977) and North Carolina Central University School of Law (1982). Following a brief stint in private practice, then-District Attorney Mike Easley hired Bryant to serve as an assistant district attorney in the 13th Prosecutorial District (Brunswick, Columbus and Bladen counties), where she was the first woman and the first African American to serve in that capacity.
After serving as an assistant U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, Bryant returned to North Carolina in 1993 when then-Attorney General Easley hired her as the state’s first African American female senior deputy attorney general. She remained in the Attorney General’s Office until 2001, when then-Gov. Easley appointed her to the Court of Appeals. Bryant later won election to eight-year terms in 2004 and 2012.
“I recently had the honor of being on a panel with the NCBA Women in the Profession Committee,” said Bryant. “It had to do with diversity and mentoring, and that was good because it made me think back to about how many times Mike Easley and his wife, Mary, had been mentors for me when I first started working as an assistant district attorney. And then when he appointed me as the first African American female Senior Deputy attorney general, I was still being mentored by him in so many ways.
“But at the same time I mentored other people. I’ve had many law clerks who helped me mentor dozens of interns and externs during my judicial tenure. One of my former law clerks is now a judge on the Court of Appeals. One of the people I mentored while working in the Attorney General’s Office was the current attorney general, Josh Stein, who has reminded me that he had worked in my division of the Attorney General’s Office when he was in law school. And I have written a letter on behalf of young Mike Easley who is being considered for appointment as U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina, and I held him the day after he was born!”
Bryant’s message to aspiring attorneys and young lawyers is straightforward and straight from the heart.
“I try to emphasize when I talk to law students to make the most of those years, to learn as much as you can, and then to maintain your reputation as a lawyer because your reputation will take you far,” Bryant said. “And if you have a reputation for being fair and honest, with personal integrity, if you can maintain that throughout your career, then nobody can take that away from you.
“I think you always have to be mindful of the way that you treat people and the way that you handle your cases and interact with other members of the bar. I did not do a lot of private practice, but I know that other people get in trouble by doing things such as not returning phone calls. We are all deluged with too many phone calls, and spam, but if a person has a case, as a litigant or a complainant, if they are trying to hire a lawyer, the most professional thing and the right thing is to get back to that person as soon as possible.”
It is especially meaningful, Bryant added, to be recognized in an induction class that includes James E. Coleman Jr., Karen Bethea-Shields, the late Julian Pierce and the late Elreta Melton Alexander.
“Oh my goodness,” Bryant exclaimed. “I was even more honored to see the others who were chosen. I was definitely in pretty high company!”
“I remember in the early ’80s when Judge Bethea-Shields was involved in the JoAnn Little case and did really well. Being a young African American female lawyer, and knowing that she was an African American female lawyer involved in such a high-profile case, had a profound impact on me. And I appreciated it even more when I went on to specialize in prosecuting child sexual assault and adult rape cases. She was always special – to me in so many ways that she never even knew.”
Russell Rawlings is director of external affairs and communications for the North Carolina Bar Association.