WBA LEADERSHIP

Dear WBA Members and Friends,

As we embark on the 2021-2022 bar year, I invite you to join me and the WBA’s executive leadership team for what promises to be an amazing and transformational year. This year’s theme is “Embracing a Legacy of Black Legal Excellence.” The WBA has a rich history, a wealth of tradition and a distinguished legacy, which I hope to continue. To do this, we must leverage the tremendous talent and significant resources of our members—as well as those available to us here in the nation’s capital. This will position us to build capacity, create member value, and pursue mission-focused programming to preserve the WBA’s history and embrace its legacy. In my view, the WBA’s legendary past should serve as the guide for charting its illustrious future.

Consistent with the overall theme for this year, each month, we will focus attention on an aspect of the Black legal excellence that is synonymous with the WBA. This includes highlighting the excellence of our members, particularly those working in public service as well as the amazing advocacy that the WBA and its members has demonstrated throughout history. We will also acknowledge the excellence the WBA exhibits in the pursuit of equal justice under law. Additionally, we plan to recognize excellence across the board as we bring together a cross-section of Black professionals within the local region for our annual holiday charity gala.

In the new year, we will honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. by displaying excellence in public service and the fight for social justice. We will also invoke the spirit of excellence embodied by our ancestors during Black History Month and then celebrate the excellence of Black women in the law during Women’s History Month. We will round out the year by showcasing Black legal excellence in the technology sector, in addition to recognizing and continuing the WBA’s legacy of legal excellence during our annual Law Day dinner. For the first time, the WBA will close the bar year by celebrating the nationally recognized Juneteenth holiday as part of our Annual Meeting weekend, which will focus on the bridge that emancipation provided to the Black legal excellence on display today.

I am both honored and humbled to serve as President of this legendary organization. I encourage all WBA members to demonstrate the spirit of excellence established by our founders by staying committed to our mission, objectives, and purpose. Our programming is designed to support members’ professional development and related needs, and we are steadfast in our quest for social and racial justice on behalf of the Black community. Please join us in this noble endeavor.

Onward and upward,

Kendra Perkins Norwood
52nd President of the Washington Bar Association