Speaker and panelist biographies
Dennis W. Archer is Chairman of Dickinson Wright, a Detroit-based law firm with more than 200 attorneys, with offices in Michigan and Washington, D.C. He sits on the corporate boards of Johnson Controls Inc., Compuware Corporation and Masco Corporation. He also is on the nonprofit boards of the CATCH Foundation and the Community Foundation of Southeast Michigan.
Archer served two four-year terms as mayor of the city of Detroit (1994-2001) and earned national and international respect for his success in changing Detroit's image and direction. Archer earned his Juris Doctor from Detroit College of Law in 1970. He began practicing law thereafter, working as a trial lawyer and a partner in several Detroit firms, serving as associate professor of the Detroit College of Law and adjunct professor at Wayne State University Law School.
In 1985, Governor James Blanchard appointed Archer an Associate Justice of the Michigan Supreme Court. He was elected to an eight-year term the following year. In his final year on the bench in 1990, Archer was named the most respected judge in Michigan by Michigan Lawyers Weekly.
Archer has long been active in the organized bar. He was the first person of color elected president of the American Bar Association (2003-2004) as well as the State Bar of Michigan. He has also served as president of the Wolverine Bar Association and the National Bar Association. Archer is a Life Member of the Fellows of The American Bar Foundation and the National Bar Association, a Fellow of the International Society of Barristers, a Fellow of the College of Law Office Management and Life Member of the Sixth Circuit Judicial Conference.
Charles W. Bone is the founder and chairman of Bone McAllester Norton PLLC. Mr. Bone concentrates his law practice in the areas of media, banking, mergers and acquisitions, commercial litigation and government relations. He has extensive experience in advising business organizations with regard to combination alternatives and the consolidation of industries. Mr. Bone has written articles for legal publications and lectured at numerous educational seminars on legal ethics, business law, and financial institution topics. In 2003 and 2004, Mr. Bone’s peers in the Nashville legal community named him to the Nashville Business Journal’s Best of the Bar. He received his B.A. from Vanderbilt University in 1967 and his Juris Doctor from the University Of Tennessee College Of Law in 1970.
J. Michael Brown has had a long career of public service, including Law Director for the City of Louisville, District Court Judge, and board chairman of the Louisville Regional Airport Authority. He practices in airport and aviation law, labor and employment, administrative law, entertainment and commercial litigation.
He also co-chairs Stites & Harbison’s Diversity Committee. He was recognized by the DuPont Legal Network for his contributions to diversity in 2001, when the company created the J. Michael Brown Service Award—an honor given annually "...to a DuPont Primary Law Firm attorney who demonstrates a personal commitment to the Network and a public commitment to diversity in the legal profession."
J. Michael's clients have included Louisville Mayor Jerry E. Abramson, General Electric Company, Ford Motor Company, DuPont, Rohm and Haas, Jefferson County Board of Education, and Allstate Insurance Company. Michael earned his J.D. from the University of Louisville and is admitted to practice in Kentucky and Tennessee.
Paulette Brown is a member of the Labor & Employment Group of Edwards, Angell, Palmer & Dodge LLP in Short Hills New Jersey. Throughout her career of nearly 30 years, she has held a number of positions, including in-house counsel to a number of Fortune 500 companies and as a Municipal Court Judge. For the past 20 years, Paulette has engaged in the private practice of law, focusing on all facets of labor and employment and commercial litigation. She has successfully defended employers in cases involving discrimination on the basis of age, sex, marital status, sexual harassment, disability, race and national origin. Paulette has received successful results in class action employment discrimination cases based upon race. She is also experienced in all aspects of workplace training and collective bargaining.
Additionally, Paulette has been recognized by the New Jersey Law Journal as one of the prominent women and minority attorneys in the State of New Jersey. Paulette earned her J.D. from Seton Hall University, School of Law.
Thomas E. Evans is Vice President and General Counsel-Logistics for Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. in Bentonville, Arkansas where he has responsibility for the legal affairs of Wal-Mart’s domestic logistics operations (including the nation’s second largest private fleet with approximately 7,000 power units), aviation, corporate travel, trade, global sourcing, and direct import functions. Prior to coming to Wal-Mart, he was an Associate General Counsel at McLane Company, Inc. in Temple, Texas, a former subsidiary and now a wholly owned subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway. He graduated with a B.A. from Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas and obtained his law degree from Washington & Lee University School of Law in Lexington, Virginia. Mr. Evans has been involved in transportation and logistic related matters for most of his legal career.
Naomi K. McLaurin is the Managing Director, Southeast Region for the Minority Corporate Counsel Association (MCCA). Founded in 1997, MCCA’s mission is to advocate for the expanded hiring, retention and promotion of minority attorneys in corporate law departments and the law firms that serve them. In this newly created position, Ms. McLaurin will further MCCA’s mission by managing and supporting several key programs, services, and research initiatives. She will assist with the development of successful CLE programs, professional development fora, and scholarship and internship programs, and contribute to the development of MCCA’s diversity knowledge and information resources.Ms. McLaurin is the Co-Founder and former Executive Director of The Atlanta Legal Diversity Consortium, Inc. (ALDC). She served as Dean of Career Services at Emory Law School and Director of Diversity & Outreach at Georgetown University Law Center. She practiced law at large firms in New York City and Washington, DC, and two minority owned DC firms. Prior to, and during law school, Ms. McLaurin was a claims representative with a major insurance company. Ms. McLaurin received a BA in Political Science cum laude from North Carolina Central University in 1982, and a JD from Brooklyn Law School in 1989 where she was the recipient of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Scholarship and a member of the Moot Court Honor Society.
Clarence Risin, shareholder in the Knoxville office of Baker Donelson Bearman Caldwell & Berkowitz, concentrates his practice in litigation. His experience includes commercial litigation, employment litigation, products liability and personal injury. Mr. Risin's commercial litigation experience includes representing national corporations in complex commercial cases, including, but not limited to, general contract disputes, franchise disputes and disputes alleging breach of fiduciary duties. His personal injury & products liability experience includes representing various industries in complex multimillion dollar litigation. Mr. Risin has significant experience in bench and jury trials in federal and state courts. Mr. Risin earned his Juris Doctor from the Universiy of Tennessee College of Law in 1994. He is a member of the Knoxville County, Tennessee and American Bar Associations. Mr. Risiin serves as chair of the Baker Doneslon Diversiy Committee and has previously served as Commissioner of the Tennessee Human Rights Commission for the State of Tennessee (1999-2001).
Carl Smallwood is a partner in the Columbus office if Vorys, Sater, Seymour & Pease, LLP. He represents clients in the litigation, arbitration and mediation of employment-related injury, wrongful termination, professional negligence and commercial disputes. His substantial jury trial experience includes professional negligence actions, serious personal injury and death claims, toxic exposure claims and employment tort claims. Mr. Smallwood appears throughout Ohio representing self-insured and state-funded employers in the defense of intentional tort and retaliatory discharge litigation arising under the Ohio Workers' Compensation Act. He serves as trial counsel to several companies defending asbestos products liability litigation pending in Ohio courts. Mr. Smallwood is admitted to practice before the United States District Court, Southern District of Ohio; United States District Court, Northern District of Ohio; and United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.
Mr. Smallwood is a Past President of the Columbus Bar Association, and the first African-American officer in its history. Under his leadership, twenty-two firms in Columbus signed the Managing Partners' Diversity Initiative, a five-year plan to increase diversity in Columbus' law firms. Through 2005, the number of lawyers of color practicing at the participating law firms has risen by 137 percent. This initiative has received national recognition, has won an American Bar Association Partnership Award and was featured in the July/August 2005 issue of Diversity and The Bar. He currently serves in the House of Delegates of the American Bar Association, and as Past President of the Metropolitan Bar Caucus in the National Conference of Bar Presidents. He is a member of the Ohio (Litigation Section Board of Governors (2001-2003); Council of Delegates, District VII) State Bar Association and the Defense Research Institute.
Larry D. Wilks is currently the owner of a law practice in Springfield, Tennessee, and is the president of the Tennessee Bar Association. He graduated from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville in 1977, and then graduated from the University of Tennessee College of Law with a J.D. in 1980.
Professional affiliations include the American, Tennessee, Nashville and Robertson County Bar Associations. He is also a member of the Association of Trial Lawyers of America, the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, and the Tennessee Trial Lawyers Association. Past appointments with the Tennessee Bar Association include Treasurer (2000-03), General Counsel, and Leadership Law Co-Chair (2003-04). Wilks is also past chair of the Democratic Party in Robertson County, University of Tennessee Law School Dean’s Alumni Advisory Council, and Robertson County Alumni Association President (2003) for the University of Tennessee.
David Williams joined the law faculty of Vanderbilt University in 2000, when he also joined the university's administration. Vice-Chancellor Williams formerly served as Vice President for Student and Urban/Community Affairs and Professor of Law at Ohio State University, where he also directed the University of Oxford-Ohio State University Summer Program. He has published several articles on tax and tax-related matters and sports law, and has taught federal income taxation, business taxation and sports law. Vice Chancellor Williams has served as Vanderbilt's Faculty Athletic Representative (FAR) and is a member of a number of ABA and NCAA committees, including the NCAA's A/E/C Cabinet and the ABA's Standing Committee on Public Education. In addition, he is a member of the American Law Institute (ALI). Before entering academia, Professor Williams worked as a tax specialist at Coopers & Lybrand in Detroit. He teaches a course on higher education law for law students and graduate students in education as well as law classes in Taxation of Non-profit Entities and Sports Law. He is a member of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta's Nashville Branch Board of Directors.
Sheree C. Wright is a University Counsel in the Office of the General Counsel at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. Her practice involves all areas of employment law, as well as legal ethics.
Ms. Wright has produced and spoken at a number of seminars on various topics, including legal ethics and employment law. She was the recipient of the Nashville Bar Association CLE Excellence Award in 2002. She is a member of the Tennessee Bar Association Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility and was a part of the team that argued on behalf of the TBA for the adoption of the Tennessee Rules of Professional Conduct, a new set of ethical rules governing attorneys in Tennessee.
She currently serves as President on the Board of Directors of the Nashville Bar Association, and has served as Chair for the Continuing Legal Education Committee and Chair of the Corporate Counsel Committee for that organization. She has served on the Board of Directors of the Lawyer’s Association for Women, is a member of the Tennessee Bar Association, a member of the American Bar Association, and a Fellow of the Nashville Bar Foundation.
Ms. Wright received both her bachelor’s degree, magna cum laude, and her law degree from Vanderbilt University. She is a member of Phi Beta Kappa.
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