Melvin White to be Sworn in as the 36th President of the D.C. Bar
WASHINGTON, D.C. (June 20, 2007) — On Thursday, June 21, 2007, Melvin White, a partner in McDermott Will & Emery’s Trial Department, will be sworn in as the 36th President of the District of Columbia Bar. The swearing in will take place at the Bar’s annual meeting and awards dinner to be held at the Hyatt Regency Washington on Capitol Hill.
Mr. White has an extensive history of voluntary service to the D.C. Bar, the community and the legal profession. He is a two-term member of the D.C. Bar's Board of Governors (2000–2006), and he serves on the Executive Committee with prior service on the Budget and Finance Committees.
"As president, my focus will be to continue our strong tradition of community service, to safeguard the proper professional interest of the members of the Bar, to highlight and enhance service to our members, and to aid our courts in carrying out and improving the administration of justice,” commented Mr. White. “My priorities range from fostering greater inclusion in the D.C. Bar with respect to its programs and services and in the profession, to facilitating more partnerships between D.C. Bar members and local pro bono service providers, to initiatives focusing on the mentoring and retention of junior attorneys.”
A graduate of Morehouse College and the University of Virginia School of Law, Mr. White was a law clerk for the Honorable G. Thomas Eisele, Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas. He is an honorably discharged veteran of the U.S. Air Force.
Mr. White focuses his practice on complex commercial litigation and dispute resolution. He is a member of the American Bar Association, the National Conference of Bar Presidents, the Fellows of the American Bar Foundation, the National Bar Association, the Women’s Bar Association of the District of Columbia, GAYLAW, the Washington Bar Association, and the Edward Bennett Williams Inn of Court, an organization of judges, attorneys and prosecutors dedicated to fostering civility and higher learning in all areas of white-collar criminal law.
Additionally, he is the director and co-chair of the Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs, and is a director at the Dance Institute of Washington. He has served as the National and Eastern Region Internal Fundraising Chair, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. National Memorial Foundation from 1998 to 2001, and was the President of the Mu Lambda Chapter, Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. from 1996 to 1998.
With more than 85,000 members, the D.C. Bar is the second largest state bar in the nation and has more than 50,000 District of Columbia members practicing law in the Metro area. Created by the District of Columbia Court of Appeals in 1972, the D.C. Bar aids the courts in carrying out and improving the administration of justice and works to foster and maintain integrity, learning and competence in public service along with high standards of professional conduct among its attorney members.
McDermott Will & Emery is a premier international law firm with a diversified business practice. Numbering more than 1,100 lawyers, the Firm has 14 offices worldwide. Mr. White will be carrying on the Firm's tradition of leadership in the legal industry, specifically in Bar Associations. Edward “Ned” P. Leibensberger, a partner in McDermott's Boston office, is a former president of the Boston Bar Association, and Charles R. Work, a partner in McDermott's Washington, D.C. office, is a former president of the D.C. Bar.
