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Gerald A. Williams

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Gerald A. Williams 1950-2010

Class of 1975           

Served as president of the UF Law Black Law Student Association and was among the first African-American graduates of UF Law; Served as Staff Attorney for the National Labor Relations Board before establishing Haygood & Williams, P.A. in West Palm Beach (1981); served as Counsel to numerous public schools in South Florida, including the Palm Beach County School Board until 2010.

“It is not enough to want to be good; to be successful one must aspire to be great.” This was the motto of Gerald A. Williams. Born Oct. 9, 1950, in Pensacola, Fla., to the late Fred L. and Ophelia M. Williams, Gerald Williams was conditioned for greatness at an early age. Nurtured through two decades of profound social and cultural change, he emerged as an inspiring and transformational leader.

Mr. Williams was among the first African-Americans to attend the all-white A.V. Clubbs Junior High School in Escambia County, Fla. “That (experience) developed my concept of survival. People didn’t want us there … (But) they didn’t have a choice but to respect me,” Williams told the South Florida Business Journal in 1992. “That time helped me understand the good and bad about this country. There’s more good than bad.”

After graduating from Pensacola High School, Williams earned a political science degree from the University of Tennessee in 1972. He served as chief justice of the honor court as an undergraduate, which awakened his passion for the law and the impact it has on society. In 1975, he earned his degree from UF Law and was among the college’s first African-American graduates.

Williams began his legal career as a staff attorney with the Florida Public Employees Relations Commission and served as staff attorney for the National Labor Relations Board. In 1978, he joined the fourth largest school district in the nation, Miami-Dade County Public Schools, as assistant special counsel.

In 1981, he relocated to West Palm Beach, Fla., and co-founded Haygood & Williams, P.A. with law school classmate J. Michael Haygood. Williams practiced labor and employment law, and their partnership began with just four clients. By 1987, the Miami Review hailed Haygood & Williams as the largest all African-American law firm in South Florida. In 1992, the law firm merged with Atlanta-based Mack, Williams, Haygood & McLean, P.A. Williams was now managing partner of Florida operations for one of the largest African-American-controlled firms in the country.

In 1997, Williams left private practice and returned to Miami-Dade County Public Schools where he served as chief labor counsel and chief officer of labor and legislative relations. In 2001, he was recruited by the superintendent of the School District of Palm Beach County where he rose to chief counsel.

In 2009, Florida Trend Magazine and his peers recognized him as one of Florida’s Legal Elite. He was named one of the top government attorneys in the State of Florida.

In addition to his stellar legal career, Williams was devoted to family, loyal to friends and committed to his community through leadership positions in professional and civic organizations, including as general counsel for the Virgil Hawkins Florida Chapter of the National Bar Association.

Published: June 27th, 2014

Category: Alumni

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The Florida Constitutional Law Endowment in memory of Justice Ben F. Overton was created by Judge Karen Miller in 2013. This fund supports lectures and presentations by Justices of the Florida Supreme Court at the Fredric G. Levin College of Law.

HISTORY

Justice Overton, who earned his B.S. in 1951 and his Juris Doctor in 1952 from the University of Florida, was the first merit appointment to the Florida Supreme Court. Throughout his career he was active in legal education and served as an Adjunct Professor at the Levin College of Law through December 2012, the month of his death. Although he resided at Oak Hammock at the University of Florida, a continuing care retirement community developed in cooperation with UF, he also considered the Florida Supreme Court “home.” Among the high points of his later years was hosting Justices of the Florida Supreme Court in Gainesville and taking his class to Tallahassee to hear oral arguments at the Florida Supreme Court.
Judge Miller, who earned her B.S. cum laude from New York University in 1974 and her Juris Doctor from New York Law School in 1977, served as Chief Administrative Law Judge of the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs, New York City’s business regulatory agency, before she retired to Oak Hammock at the University of Florida. Having accompanied Justice Overton on his excursions to Tallahassee and joined him in welcoming guests to Oak Hammock at the University of Florida, she created the endowment in memory of Justice Overton to ensure that the Levin College of Law continues to have the funding necessary to continue and enhance the interaction between its students and the Florida Supreme Court.

 

Judge Miller remembered the event that motivated the endowment.

 

Prior to a dinner at the home of Dean Robert Jerry and Lisa Jerry shortly after Justice Overton’s death, Justice Barbara Pariente and I were discussing a suitable memorial. Justice Pariente, who had been Justice Overton’s colleague on the Florida Supreme Court and who understood the importance to him of the interaction between his students and the Court, suggested the outline of what has become the Overton lectures. Dean Jerry, who has since retired, as has Dean Emeritus Jon Mills, who assumed responsibility for implementing the Overton lectures, were very supportive from the beginning. Since Dean Mills’ retirement, Professor Timothy McClendon, who assisted both Justice Overton and Dean Mills teaching Florida Constitutional Law and who co-authored the recent Florida Constitutional Law casebook, has continued the Overton lectures with the support of Interim Dean Merritt McAlister and CGR director, Professor Danaya Wright.

Justice Overton was a devoted jurist, educator, and ethical leader of the Florida legal profession. The Overton Lecture Series brings Florida Supreme Court Justices to the University of Florida, Levin College of Law, and serves to introduce students to the inner workings of the Court. CGR and the students of the College of Law extend our deepest gratitude to Judge Karen Miller for making the Overton Lectures possible in perpetuity.

You can watch an interview for the Florida Historical Society by Mary Adkins, professor emeritus of the UF Levin College of Law, with Justice Overton here.

Justice Overton was also interviewed for the Samuel Proctor Oral History Project and a transcript of his interview is available at the Smathers Library, and here.
Justice Overton sat on the Constitution Revision Commission of 1977-78 that proposed a right to privacy in the Florida Constitution. Although it failed as part of the Constitution Revision Commission recommendations, it passed in 1980 when proposed by the legislature. The bill was co-sponsored by our very own Jon Mills. The privacy provision prevailed by greater than 60%. Justice Overton then wrote a concurrence in a critical reproductive rights case in 1989 affirming that the privacy provision of the Florida Constitution included the right to obtain an abortion. That decision was overruled in Planned Parenthood of SW and Central Florida v. Florida. You can read about the role of Justice Overton, Jon Mills – director emeritus of CGR, and the history of the 1989 case here.