Legal Community Pays Tribute to Former D.C. Court of Appeals Chief Judge William C. Pryor
November 24, 2020
Former D.C. Court of Appeals Chief Judge William C. Pryor addressing attendees of the University of the District of Columbia David A. Clarke School of Law’s 2017 annual gala where he was an honoree. (Photo courtesy of UDC Law)
The D.C. Bar mourns the passing of former D.C. Court of Appeals chief judge William C. Pryor, who dedicated more than 50 years of his life to serving on the D.C. bench. Judge Pryor died on November 19 in Silver Spring, Maryland, from renal failure. He was 88.
A native Washingtonian, Pryor was appointed to the D.C. Court of General Sessions (now D.C. Superior Court) in 1968 by President Lyndon B. Johnson. A decade later in 1979, he was appointed by President Jimmy Carter to the D.C. Court of Appeals, where he served as chief judge from 1984 to 1988. After retirement, Judge Pryor continued to hear appellate cases as a senior judge until 2019.
“Judge Pryor was a D.C. institution. As a law professor, a corporate lawyer, a prosecutor, a trial judge, a mediator, and a former chief judge of the D.C. Court of Appeals, he excelled in virtually every job a lawyer can have,” says D.C. Bar President Geoffrey M. Klineberg. “Born and raised in a segregated Washington, D.C., Judge Pryor grew to become a role model and beloved teacher of countless leaders in our profession. While we mourn his death, we also celebrate his extraordinary life and the innumerable ways he worked to improve the lives of so many throughout our great city.”
D.C. Court of Appeals Chief Judge Anna Blackburne-Rigsby echoed those sentiments: “He was a beloved friend and colleague. He was unassuming, warm, and brilliant; he always took the time to talk to court staff and mentor court employees — law clerks and other judges. We will miss him dearly.”
Born on May 29, 1932, Judge Pryor rose through the city’s legal ranks amidst racial segregation and social upheaval. He aspired to become a doctor after graduating from Dartmouth College in 1954. However, the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education inspired him to go to law school instead.
Before attending Georgetown University’s law school, Judge Pryor served two years in the Army. Upon graduation from law school in 1959, he struggled to land a job at any of the District’s large firms.
“I was told — both directly and indirectly — that race was a factor,” Judge Pryor told the D.C. Bar’s The Bar Report in 1995. “Back then, the number of black attorneys was small, and the practice area was limited. Black lawyers were pretty much confined to doing criminal law and domestic disputes like divorce. The big corporations and the prestigious law firms didn't hire attorneys of color, and we were not being appointed in appreciable numbers as judges.”
With the private legal sector seemingly closed to him, Pryor joined the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Division. During a routine staff meeting, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy asked the attorneys if anyone was interested to “try something new.” Pryor replied that he would like to get more insight into litigation after spending so much time writing memos on technical questions for attorneys in the field. The following day, Pryor was placed on loan from the Justice Department to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the District.
“I think the U.S. Attorney’s Office was the making of me as a lawyer,” Judge Pryor told The Bar Report. “I was coming from a job where I did a lot of research and writing to a position where everything moved at an intense pace. As a prosecutor I was presenting cases to the grand jury, trying cases on quick notice, getting lots of experience in criminal law. It was wonderful. I loved it. I was learning something new every day. I'd go to work thinking, ‘This is what real lawyers do!’”
Pryor’s appointment originally was to last only 60 days, but he never returned to the Justice Department; instead, he accepted a position as an assistant U.S. attorney in D.C. Pryor then moved to Cleveland to work as a corporate lawyer with the Bell Telephone Company, returning to the District in 1967.
A few months later, Pryor received a call from President Johnson about the D.C. Court of General Sessions appointment. Soon after Pryor took the bench, Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, which led to protests and riots throughout the city and country. Some of the defendants brought before the court were people Pryor had known during childhood. And while he empathized with their simmering anger at racial injustice, Pryor understood his role in upholding the law.
“I felt it was important to make a clear distinction: rioting and looting was not an expression of civil rights, nor was it an appropriate form of protest,” Judge Pryor explained to The Bar Report. “It was criminal conduct.”
At D.C. Superior Court, Judge Pryor mostly handled cases involving landlord–tenant disputes, torts, juvenile crimes, criminal matters, divorces, and contracts. After moving to the D.C. Court of Appeals, Pryor recalled a noticeable shift. “The lawyers, the action, the commotion — all of that disappeared when I left the trial court,” he told The Bar Report. “A trial judge is in the courtroom every day, constantly making decisions. Whereas at the Court of Appeals, a judge might only spend one day a week in court. The difference is that the decision you make is usually a very important one, because when the Court of Appeals speaks, it is announcing the law. That part of it is challenging and demanding.”
After retiring as chief judge of the D.C. Court of Appeals, Judge Pryor joined the faculty of the University of the District of Columbia (UDC) David A. Clarke School of Law, where he taught criminal law and other courses from 1988 to 2018. In 2011, he received UDC’s Dr. Paul Phillips Cooke Lifetime Achievement Award. Between 2001 and 2019, Judge Pryor worked as a mediator for the Richmond, Virginia-based firm McCammon Group.
“Judge Pryor embodied the soul of UDC Law, explaining in his [job] interview that he wanted to teach at a school where students who could not otherwise afford to go to law school would have that chance,” says Renée Hutchins, UDC Law’s current dean. “Throughout his time on the faculty, Judge Pryor’s office door was always open for students to discuss the law, reaffirming his deep commitment to their success. UDC Law was better because he was among us. He will be sorely missed.”
