Young attorneys return home for work as appellate court law clerks
Law clerks Ford Morrison and Imani Brooks at the Halifax office of Court of Appeals Judge Kimberley S. White.
Two newly minted attorneys are carrying on family traditions of lawyering in the hometown where they grew up, but with the rare opportunity to do work that reverberates statewide.
South Boston natives Imani Brooks and Ford Morrison have begun promising careers in the law by becoming law clerks for Virginia Court of Appeals Judge Kimberley S. White. Brooks and Morrison graduated law school in May and accepted the clerkship jobs in August for White, who ascended to Virginia’s second highest court in November 2022.
The opportunity is a full-circle moment for Brooks and Morrison, both the children of local lawyers. Brooks’ father and mother, Clarence Brooks and Tonja Roberts, both are attorneys, and her late grandfather, Allen G. Roberts, was one of Halifax County’s first Black lawyers. Morrison is the son of Ren and Robert Morrison, the latter of whom is a circuit judge for the 10th Judicial Circuit, which includes Halifax County.
White said she was thrilled to find young attorneys with local ties to fill her office openings.
“To have young lawyers who were raised in the community as clerks was a dream of mine when I first became an appellate judge,” said White. The job, she added, is essential to the functioning of the appellate court, as law clerks provide a first-pass interpretation of cases that come before the Court of Appeals. Oftentimes, their legal reasoning shapes the thinking of appellate judges as they hand down rulings.
“Law clerks perform an invaluable service to the court in that they are able to do deep dives into the facts and provide interpretations of law that can be the starting point of judicial opinions,” said White.
The far-ranging caseload before the Virginia Court of Appeals represents not only an intellectual challenge but a heady opportunity for a couple of 20-somethings just out of law school, and that fact is not lost on the young clerks.
“Judge White is the reason I am starting my career in the area I grew up in,” said Brooks. “She has been a fantastic mentor to me since high school when she let me job shadow her as a Circuit Court judge. It is an honor to finally have a Court of Appeals judge sitting in Halifax County. It was important to me to be a part of Judge White’s legacy and to contribute to the legal profession in Southside Virginia.”
Morrison offered similar praise of White. “We are obviously at this job to help her in her job as a Court of Appeals judge, but in the end, she is an extremely helpful resource for us to learn from as we begin our legal careers.
“When Judge White got this incredible appointment to the Court of Appeals and started looking for clerks, I threw my hat in the ring,” he said. “It ended up being a perfect fit, as I was not entirely sure what area of law I wanted to go into. This clerkship provided me an opportunity to get fantastic experience and work with many different areas of law, all in the town where I grew up.”
Working as clerks, the two have waded into a deep pool of Virginia law, researching, writing draft opinions, and assisting White in her work as one of Virginia’s 17 appellate judges. The Virginia Court of Appeals hears appeals from circuit courts around the state and also the Virginia Workers’ Compensation Commission. Continued appeals go to the Virginia Supreme Court, the state’s highest judicial body.
The Court of Appeals sits in panels of at least three judges, and sometimes all 17 judges meet en banc. As part of the job, judges are required to travel around the state to preside at panel hearings.
That aspect of the work has afforded Brooks and Morrison a number of chances to venture beyond the confines of White’s law office in Halifax. “So far, we have sat in on panels in Alexandria and Christiansburg. Coming into the job, and now after a few months, I’m very excited, interested, and confident in the work we are doing,” said Morrison.
Brooks said she also appreciates the wide-ranging nature of the job, and the learning opportunities it presents. “I love how lawyers are constantly problem-solving and staying up to date with current law. Recognizing the immense responsibility and excitement of working in the legal profession made me interested in this career,” she said. “I am very grateful for this job because I get to learn a wide range of Virginia law and observe advocacy styles from hearings and briefs that shape who I am as a lawyer.”
For both clerks, a career in the law was always a possibility growing up — seeing as how they had parents in the profession — but Brooks and Morrison took their respective paths to law school with much different mindsets.
For Brooks, the appeal of becoming an attorney was established early on, as a way of carrying on a family legacy invested with deep personal meaning, going back two generations. “My grandfather [Allen G. Roberts] certainly inspired me during my law school journey,” said Brooks. “He passed away when I was in high school, but my family kept alive his legacy as a lawyer. He was one of the first Black lawyers in Halifax County, so it is very special to me to be starting my legal career in Halifax.”
By coincidence, Brooks graduated from law school —Washington College of Law at American University in Washington, D.C. — 50 years after her grandfather did the same.
With a mother and father who were both attorneys, Brooks was studying for the bar exam by the time she was in high school. (She attended Halifax County Public Schools before transferring to Chatham Hall in Chatham. She earned her undergraduate degree at Emory University in Atlanta.) Her exposure to the legal profession came at a very young age, Brooks recalled.
“As an infant, my parents and grandfather took me to the National Bar Association annual conferences where legal trailblazers gathered to learn new law and create community for up-and-coming lawyers. Now as a young lawyer, my dad and I go to Old Dominion Bar Association meetings around Virginia where I can network with judges and lawyers like my parents and grandfather did,” she said.
From serving on honor councils in high school and college, to working with the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, Brooks gained early lessons on civil rights law, employment law, and voting rights.
At one point in college, she briefly considered going into the Peace Corps until she traveled to Cape Town, South Africa to study health care access for women who are victims of sex trafficking. That stint overseas involved researching laws that both protected or criminalized victims of sex crimes. She also was involved in opening a clinic for persons with HIV/AIDS.
The experience deepened her appreciation for how the law can affect the everyday lives of individuals. “During those nine weeks [in South Africa], I saw that the law impacts people at various intersections of their life. Those experiences and my current clerking position encourage me to be an advocate for the rule of law who understands when to challenge the law to protect its citizens,” said Brooks.
Morrison, meantime, took time warming up to his future profession. The son of a local lawyer, later a judge — Ford’s father Robert Morrison joined the bench as a juvenile and domestic relations court judge, and was elevated to circuit judge in 2022 — the idea of pursuing a career in law was always in the background growing up. “Obviously, my dad was a big inspiration and guide through the law school and early legal career process,” he said.
But Morrison said it bothered him whenever others thought he would automatically follow in his dad’s footsteps. “I always strongly pushed back against anyone telling me I would also go into the legal profession,” he explained — before doing just that.
He had always resolved to excel in school, should the day come that he would decide to become an attorney. After graduating from Halifax County High School in 2017, Morrison earned his undergraduate degree at Virginia Tech. He graduated law school in May, from George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School.
While at George Mason, Morrison interned at a small, family-run civil law firm. The experience exposed him to many different areas of the law, and cemented his understanding that being a lawyer is not always — or often — about arguing in a courtroom, clashing with witnesses on the stand or pleading with judges and juries.
“What I wish people understood is that being a lawyer is not at all like the show ‘Suits’ — even though it is an amazing show,” said Morrison jokingly.
“Very few of us argue in court, and it’s not all huge corporate clients. Instead of dramatically arguing in front of a jury, a lot of the work we do is research and writing, going on deep dives to solve complicated issues.”
That challenge — and the opportunity to focus on diverse areas of the law — attracted him to the legal profession, and stands as much of the reason why he enjoys being a law clerk. It doesn’t hurt that he can turn to his father for counsel when confronted with an especially knotty case to interpret for his boss, White. “Just being able to always be in contact with someone who totally understands what you’re dealing with is extremely helpful,” he said.
“Whenever I solve a particularly difficult issue or help someone, I do realize that this is the job for me,” said Morrison. The chance to use his legal training in Halifax is simply icing on the cake. “From the beginning of law school, I assumed I would stay in the Northern Virginia area after graduation,” he said.
Following her clerkship, Brooks will be joining the law firm of Woods Rogers Vandeventer Black, based in Roanoke with law offices throughout Virginia. She hopes to build a career that will allow her to give back someday to prospective young lawyers just like herself.
“It is not unusual for law students to graduate with student loan debt that only grows while they study for the bar exam, because it is recommended not to work during that stressful time. I am grateful for the scholarships I received in law school from bar associations, and I hope to one day be in a situation where I can support other students from rural areas to go to law school and come back to their communities to pay it forward and provide needed legal representation,” she said.
As they both take the first steps in their blossoming law careers, Brooks and Morrison say they enjoy the chance to return home to do work they’re proud of.
“Even with my undergrad and law school studies out of state, I knew that I wanted to return to Virginia,” said Brooks.
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