William J. Trezvant grew up surrounded by Black lawyers and judges, thanks to his dad’s leadership of the Newport chapter of the NAACP.
Those early role models inspired Trezvant, who is also Black, to become a lawyer and a judge.
“I always say I had a goal of becoming an attorney and a dream of becoming a judge,” he said.
In January, that dream became reality when Trezvant was one of five new state judges – and one of two who are people of color – sworn in by Gov. Daniel J. McKee. Trezvant is now an associate judge in R.I. District Court.
Advocates lauded the appointments for helping boost diversity in the state’s judiciary to eight judges of color, or 12.7% of the 63 judge positions, up from 7% in 2009 and 4.8% in 2005.
Others say that is hardly a figure worth bragging about, especially compared with the nearly 40% of nonwhite Rhode Island residents as of the 2020 census. But how to make the state’s top arbiters of justice look more like the people they serve – and whether that’s even possible – is unclear.
“If you compare the percentage of nonwhite judges to the percentage of nonwhite Rhode Islanders generally, you are always going to come up pretty short,” said Michael J. Yelnosky, a professor and former dean for Roger Williams University School of Law.
A better comparison, according to Yelnosky, is the demographic of judges and lawyers. The Rhode Island Bar Association does not track that information, but Yelnosky guessed around 5% of bar association members were people of color.
Again, 5% seems paltry compared with the general population. But it’s a marked improvement over decades past.
‘I didn’t know anyone, didn’t really understand the political process or the players.’
WILLIAM J. TREZVANT, R.I. District Court associate judge
Trezvant says he could count on one hand the number of Black state attorneys during his childhood in the 1970s. Now, that number has swelled to several hundred, according to Trezvant, who is also chairman of the Thurgood Marshall Law Society.
Trezvant credits RWU’s law school for ushering in a new wave of diverse lawyers into the state’s legal community. The law school boasted more than one-quarter students of color as of 2020, up from 14% in 2011, according to Michael Bowden, a university spokesman.
The university has made diversity a key focus of its recruitment through scholarships and outreach, along with mentorship from already practicing attorneys and judges. Those connections with industry professionals with whom they can relate are the best tool to encourage students to follow in their footsteps.
“The more people of color who get on the bench, the more likely it is that younger people of color will say, ‘I can do that, and I want that,’ ” Yelnosky said.
Mentors can also offer practical advice to navigate the complex and insular process of reaching the bench.
“The biggest hurdle we find to achieving judicial diversity is that old ‘boys club’ dynamic, just in terms of basic information and understanding how these processes work,” said Alicia Bannon, managing director of the Democracy Program for the Brennan Center for Justice.
Trezvant experienced this firsthand when he was nominated to the R.I. Traffic Tribunal 16 years ago. The nomination fell through, caught in a dispute in the General Assembly.
“It was a big learning experience,” he said. “I didn’t know anyone, didn’t really understand the political process or the players.”
For nearly three decades, the state has relied on a nine-member R.I. Judicial Nominating Commission to review, interview and make recommendations to the governor on state judicial candidates. This helped bring fairness and transparency to the process and indirectly made it easier for candidates of color to rise through the ranks.
However, politics can’t be taken out of the mix entirely. The governor, or even the head of the commission, has major influence over improving diversity, or setting it back, Yelnosky said.
Former Gov. Gina M. Raimondo is credited for making judicial diversity a focus during her tenure, including appointing the first person of color to the R.I. Supreme Court in 2020: Melissa A. Long, a Black woman. Twenty-two other states still have an all-white high court, according to a 2021 comparison by the Brennan Center for Justice.
How the racial makeup of the state’s 63-member judiciary compares with other states has not been studied.
That racial makeup seems to be lacking to Diony Garcia, an attorney and president of the Rhode Island Hispanic Bar Association. Garcia, a Dominican native who grew up in Providence, says Rhode Island is far behind other states, especially in the representation of the Hispanic community on its bench. Two state judges today are Hispanic, while 16.6% of the state’s population are Hispanic, as of 2020.
“[Lawyers from out of state] are usually pretty blown away when they hear that, and not in a good way,” Garcia said.
More important is the perception of the people whose lives are being determined by these judges.
“Public confidence in the judiciary is its currency,” Yelnosky said. “When the only person of color in the courtroom is a litigant, it sends a message. It doesn’t mean there’s unfairness happening, but it certainly suggests it might be a place where certain people will not feel welcome and their experiences won’t be validated.”
Nancy Lavin is a PBN staff writer. Contact her at Lavin@PBN.com.
