A Young Lawyer's Rendezvous with Destiny

Making a Difference with a Law Degree

Having finished first in his class at Harvard Law School, having clerked on the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, and having been the first African American to serve as law clerk to a U.S. Supreme Court Justice, William Coleman couldn’t get a job with a major Philadelphia law firm, so he went to work with a major New York firm.

After a year, he got a call from Thurgood Marshall, who needed help with a series of cases challenging segregation in public education. Thus began his involvement with the team of brilliant lawyers that changed the face of American society.

Coleman eventually became a key legal strategist for the plaintiffs in Brown v. Board of Education, the 1954 Supreme Court case that declared racial separation in schools unconstitutional. He coauthored the antisegregation legal brief in that case. In 1982, he successfully argued before the Supreme Court in favor of upholding a ban on tax exemptions for private schools that refuse to admit black students. He has served in several leadership positions with the NAACP.

In 1975, President Gerald R. Ford named Coleman secretary of transportation. In two years on the job, Coleman oversaw the opening of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s car testing center in Ohio and the enactment of regulations covering the safety of pipelines and hazardous materials shipment.

William Coleman recently retired from a six-year stint as a judge on the United States Court of Military Commission Review, charged with hearing appeals of Guantanamo military commissions’ decisions. He continues to advise corporate boards and the NAACP.

“From his perspective, it’s the combination of public and private involvement that’s so instructive,” Hardin Coleman says. “That combination is what made him, he feels, most useful.”

President Bill Clinton awarded Coleman the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1996. The native Philadelphian received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1941 and his law degree five years later. He is a senior partner and the senior counselor at O’Melveny & Myers LLP, an international law firm.