[fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_4″ last=”no” spacing=”yes” center_content=”no” hide_on_mobile=”no” background_color=”” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” background_position=”left top” hover_type=”none” link=”” border_position=”all” border_size=”0px” border_color=”” border_style=”” padding=”” margin_top=”” margin_bottom=”” animation_type=”” animation_direction=”” animation_speed=”0.1″ animation_offset=”” class=”” id=””][fusion_imageframe lightbox=”no” lightbox_image=”” style_type=”none” hover_type=”none” bordercolor=”” bordersize=”0px” borderradius=”0″ stylecolor=”” align=”none” link=”” linktarget=”_self” animation_type=”0″ animation_direction=”down” animation_speed=”0.1″ animation_offset=”” hide_on_mobile=”no” class=”” id=””] 
[/fusion_imageframe][/fusion_builder_column][fusion_builder_column type=”3_4″ last=”yes” spacing=”yes” center_content=”no” hide_on_mobile=”no” background_color=”” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” background_position=”left top” hover_type=”none” link=”” border_position=”all” border_size=”0px” border_color=”” border_style=”” padding=”” margin_top=”” margin_bottom=”” animation_type=”” animation_direction=”” animation_speed=”0.1″ animation_offset=”” class=”” id=””][fusion_text]By Mark Curriden
(Feb. 28) – Ron White has scored huge courtroom victories and represented some of the nation’s largest corporate clients. He’s mentored some of the most successful lawyers in Dallas, including several judges.
White successfully built his law firm from scratch. He’s served in some of the most prestigious positions for business and community organizations in North Texas. Like the other Lions of the Texas Bar, he has been honored with just about every award state and local bar associations hand out.
But White is unlike the other 49 Lions. None of them have experienced anything close to White’s life and career. He is the only who is African-American.
“I got used to being the only one a long time ago,” White says. “Today, I am one of this group of 50, which is a huge honor because these are the best of the best lawyers. But 45 years ago, I was also the only one… I mean, the only one black business lawyer in all of Dallas.
“Back then, at bar association meetings, I really stood out,” he says.
The impact that White has had on the DFW legal community has been immeasurable.
“Ron is a true trailblazer,” says former American Airlines General Counsel Gary Kennedy. “It doesn’t hurt that he’s an excellent lawyer and an extraordinarily nice guy.”
White’s place in Dallas legal history is secured. He was the first African-American male to serve as a state District Court judge in Dallas. He was a co-founder of the General Counsel Forum, a long-serving board member of the Urban League and a member of the executive board of Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law.
Ron White was born on Feb. 10, 1941 in Richmond, Va.
“Opportunities were few, but education was the road-map to success,” White says.
White went to Hampton University, where he graduated in 1962 with a degree in biology. That year, he joined the Army, where he served as a captain in Germany and Vietnam. In 1967, he was appointed to the General’s Staff as the Regional Petroleum Logistical Supply Officer in Quinn Yan Vietnam in 1967.
In 1969, he began his legal studies at Howard University Law School. He clerked for the general counsel of the Federal Power Commission, now known as FERC.
Atlantic Richfield Co., an oil refinery and extraction company now owned by Tesoro, recruited White when he graduated from law school in 1971 to be an in-house lawyer handling environmental- and employment-related matters. A condition of the employment was a move to Dallas.
“Dallas was such a small town back then,” he says. “No African-Americans worked at any of the corporate law firms. Racial attitudes were not ideal, but they were changing.”
White handled land issues, drafted opinions on various regulatory matters and supervised outside counsel.
“There was actually some concern that I would not be admitted to the Dallas Bar because there were only two black lawyers who were members at the time,” he says. “There was not a lot of interaction with white lawyers who worked for ARCO. I would say it was less than a warm welcome.”
According to state bar records, there were 17 lawyers of color practicing in Dallas in 1972. Nearly all of them were criminal defense lawyers.
“Most African-American lawyers operated at small practices or shared office space,” White said at a CLE program at SMU Dedman School of Law in 2016.
White left ARCO in 1977 to start a downtown law firm capable of competing against the biggest business law firms in Dallas. He said he took cases he did not plan to take because he needed to “pay bills and put food on the table.”
“I remember the day we went from manual typewriters to an IBM electric type writer,” he says. “Then I got a fax machine and we were kicking out documents. We were paddling fast, trying to build a law firm that we knew the city and the business community needed.”
In 1983, Texas Gov. Mark White appointed White to be Dallas’s first black male state District Court judge, where he served for two years.
White campaigned to be elected for the district court for a full term in 1985, but he lost by 3,000 votes.
“It hurt a lot because it was such a close margin,” he says. “But it was an amazing experience.
Rejoining the private sector, White decided he wanted to build a new law firm, but he also recognized he needed help.
White developed a unique marketing and business development partnership with the global law firm Jones Day that allowed lawyers with White’s law firm, which is now called White & Wiggins, to move into the Trammel Crow Tower offices of the mega-firm.
“Jones Day had a floor they were not using,” he says. “They provided us with business opportunities we could not otherwise have had and we provided them opportunities that they otherwise could not have had.
“We wanted to be able to practice our craft at a level that only a large business law firm would provide,” he says.
In the past two decades, White & Wiggins has successfully represented the DFW International Airport Board, Ford Motor Company and American Airlines.
White was lead counsel for the DFW Airport in an environmental qui tam lawsuit that alleged that fuels and residue from the airport had made its way into nearby streams and creeks. The plaintiffs sought $300 million in actual damages, which could be trebled under the U.S. False Claims Act.
White successfully turned the multi-week trial into a battle of experts, which favored his defense. The courtroom victory showcased the legal skills of White and his team.
White was co-counsel with Locke Lord to shepherd a $700 million bond issuance that funded the construction of a sewage system and a separate $300 million bond issuance that helped build the American Airlines Center in downtown Dallas.
As successful as White’s representation of clients has been, it pales in comparison to his record of mentoring great lawyers and leaders, including Dallas Court of Appeals Chief Judge Carolyn Wright and state District judges Brenda Green and Tonya Parker.
“He was more than just a boss,” says Potter House General Counsel and Chief Operating Officer Darwin Bruce. “Ron is a leader who is passionate about his career. As a young lawyer, he cares about you as an individual and your success.”
Bruce and others say that White had a dream and many lawyers benefited from it.
“African-American lawyers and Hispanic lawyers are just as capable of doing highly sophisticated legal work as others,” White says. “Our goal has been to get business lawyers to recognize our abilities.
“Lawyers determine the rules in life. For that reason, it is important that African-Americans be at the table,” he says.[/fusion_text][/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]