Determined to Make an Impact

From Atlanta Tribune - The Magazine, April, 2011

Born in Nashville, Tenn., at a time when his namesake grandfather was president of Fisk University and his father was a student at Meharry Medical College, Charles S. Johnson Ill was raised in an era where the legal profession for African Americans was not considered "the ticket " to success.

That said, Johnson went to Boston College Law School in 1970, hoping that law would give him insight into what made society tick and because -­ as he understood it - a law degree offered a variety of opportunities to "make a difference." Disturbed by the demise of Freedom Foods, a black-owned supermarket chain, Johnson wondered if they would have survived if they had had a good antitrust lawyer. It occurred to him that the next civil rights frontier would be a struggle for economic equality, to be fought in both the court systems and society at large.

Four decades later, a Gate City Hall of Fame attorney and perennial Super Lawyer, Johnson has climbed to the top ladder of success at Atlanta 's best law firms, and held as many civic leadership positions as anyone, in or outside of the legal profession. The Holland & Knight LLP public policy and commercial litigation partner has seen more progress than he could have ever imagined, and continues to be "in the arena" as it happens.

Many forget that you were the first African American to make partner at Alston & Bird, before resigning to enter the 1986 race for U.S. Congress in which John Lewis and Julian Bond were also candidates - Seemingly an "all or nothing" risk, yet you have accomplished tons in law and society since. What is your secret?

Putting together a sustainable law practice after my political hiatus was not the easiest task. But I worked hard, and pursued a passion for taking a legal challenge, assembling a team to meet that challenge, and achieving results that many thought were unattainable. Being partner at a major firm - whether at Alston or presently at Holland & Knight - has enabled me to bring big firm resources and techniques to the table.

You have held a plethora of Atlanta leadership roles. Which do you consider to be your top outside leadership positions and why?

As (the first African-American) chairman of Georgia State Board of Bar Examiners, I think that I was able to strengthen public confidence in the Board's work. As chairman of the Atlanta Judicial Commission, I worked with three mayors, but especially Mayors Jackson and Young, to crea te a municipal court bench that was highly qualified and representative. As chairman of the Atlanta Urban League, I tried to push the League to envision strategies for economic independence. During my chairmanship of Atlanta Legal Aid Society, we saw the Society successfully complete its first lawyers giving campaign. As chairman of Leadership Atlanta, and previously as its membership chairman, I pushed for the development of impact teams in the areas of race relations and education. As president of Gate City Bar Association, we established the bar's involvement in judicial selection, placing special emphasis on the federal bench. And I cannot wait to get going in my new role as founder and co-chair (with Verna Cleveland) of the Advisory Committee for the Future Foundation.

Discuss what you consider to be your top legal victories.

I filed an amicus brief in the DeKalb School Desegregation Case, and saw the U.S. Supreme Court embrace the position which we had advanced. After the case was remanded to the District Court, we used this ruling to force the school board to build more classrooms in South DeKalb. I also persuaded U.S. District Judge William O'Kelly to rule that there is a federally protected right to engage in "testing" activity, proven to be the most effective way to enforce the provisions of the 1968 Fair Housing Act. More recently, I was able to persuade several courts to rule that the State of Georgia can't just do what it wants in its administration of the State Medicaid program but that, instead, it must follow its own rules. These Medicaid rulings have been important to the sustainability of Grady Hospital.

Do you have a legal mentor?

Lots of them. At the Alston firm - corporate lawyers Harvey Hill and Neal Williams. antitrust lawyers Mike Doyle and John Train, and litigators like Ben Johnson, Neal Batson and Chip Peabody. Outside of the Alston firm, attorneys like John L. Kennedy, P Andrew Patterson and Thomas G. Sampson. •

Speaking Truth to Power in a Time of Crisis

Can you make a difference with a law degree?

It was 1973, and the nation was in crisis. After agents of the Committee to Re-Elect the President were arrested for attempting to burglarize the offices of the Democratic National Committee at the Watergate Hotel, Independent Prosecutor Archibald Cox issued a subpoena to President Richard Nixon, asking for copies of taped conversations recorded in the Oval Office and authorized by Nixon as evidence.

President Nixon acted to dismiss Cox from his office the next night, a Saturday, October 20th. He contacted Attorney General Elliott Richardson and ordered him to fire the special prosecutor. Richardson refused, and instead resigned in protest. Nixon then ordered Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus to fire Cox. He also refused and resigned in protest. Nixon then contacted the Solicitor General, Robert Bork, and ordered him as acting head of the Justice Department to fire Cox, and Bork complied

The nation was stunned by this series of events, which became known as the Saturday Night Massacre. In the private sector, the leading voice of outrage was that of Chesterfield Smith, President of the American Bar Association, who issued a statement on behalf of the nation’s legal profession declaring that no person - not even the President - is above the law.