Fellowship | Leadership | Positive Change
Driven by Purpose.
Fellowship
The cornerstone of BMLA is for African American male lawyers, judges, law professors, and law students to network and fellowship with one another on a regular basis in order to create organic relationships and mentorship opportunities. Our main avenues for accomplishing this goal are the Annual Leadership Summit and Quarterly Round Table Discussions.
Leadership
You can either lead, follow, or do nothing. We choose to lead. It is no secret that various obstacles impact African American males in the legal field, including the alarmingly low number of partners and associates in law firms, the retention of African American lawyers in law firms, lack of business development opportunities, incredibly low numbers on the judiciary, low law school attendance, and a lack of mentorship opportunities. BMLA has been and is implementing initiatives to directly address these serious issues.
Positive Change
As lawyers, we are in a unique position to effectuate positive change not only within our bar association and other like-minded bar associations but also within our community. We seek to be the positive change that lifts our communities.
Board of Directors
Michael A. Wilder, Chairman/Co-Founder, BMLA | Chair, Board of Directors, Littler Mendelson, P.C.
Sunga Mkwezalamba, Co-Founder, BMLA | Corporate Counsel, Amazon
The Hon. Travis Richardson (Ret.), Chief Legal Counsel, Office of the Cook County Clerk
Steven Hunter, Partner, Chairman, National Diversity Committee, Quarles & Brady LLP
Lindsey D.G. Dates, Partner, Barnes & Thornburg LLP
Jimmie Covington, Vice President, Counsel, AllianceBernstein
Reginald Guy II, Partner, Mercer Oak
Azuka C. Dike, Intellectual Property Attorney, Banner Witcoff
Abiola Kalejaiye, Founder, Big Leaf
Gino Betts, Assistant State's Attorney, Director of Seattle’s Office of Police Accountability
Calvin Townsend II, Founder, Townsend Law Group, LLC
Yoshi Haynie, Associate, Faegre Drinker
Marcellus H. Moore, Jr., Partner, Child Advocate Law Group
Keith Allen, Of Counsel, Evans & Dixon, LLC
Eric L. Mackie, Senior Associate, Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP
Dominique Price, Associate, • Scharf Banks Marmor
Alton Bradley, Corporate Investigations Counsel, Accenture
Associate Board
Fredrick "TJ" Joshua, Chairman, Associate Board, BMLA | Associate, Reed Smith LLP
Edward L. Speights, Jr., Managing Partner, SOS Legal Services LLP
Joseph S. Deloney, Judicial Law Clerk, Illinois Appellate Court, First District
Jason A. Pica II, Associate, Dussias Wittenberg Koenigsberger, LLP
Alexander Hardaway, Commercial Manager of North America, DYWIDAG International-USA
Gerard Belfort, Associate, Ballard Spahr LLP
Christopher Jones, Law Student, University of Pennsylvania, Carey Law School
Avai D. Beck, Associate, Schouest, Bamdas, Soshea, BenMaier & Eastham
Stahili Muhammad, Associate, Dussias, Wittenberg, & Koenigsberger, LLP
Robert Johnson, 3L Student, The University of Chicago Law School
Victor Aberdeen, Cook County State's Attorney