Member Spotlight: William McCaskill Stays True to His Social Justice Roots
August 03, 2021
William McCaskill almost left Morehouse College during his sophomore year. “I owed six or seven thousand dollars, but it might as well have been six or seven million because I didn’t have it,” he says. With no scholarships or other financial help available, his mother suggested he return home to Greenwood, Mississippi.
Although home was comfortable and familiar, McCaskill didn’t want to leave the disadvantaged youth he was serving through the Boys and Girls Club of America. So he decided to get a job and work nonstop all summer. “I was from an environment where you had to figure it out,” says McCaskill. “I had built a great support system of friends and I was like, this is my family now, and that’s what kept me in school.”
A passion for community service has defined the life and legacy that McCaskill is building. His zeal for education and social justice began as a child, with a mother who was a registered nurse and a father who served in Vietnam. They instilled in him a recipe for success that included service to others and dedication to educational pursuits.
As a direct result of McCaskill’s decision to stay at Morehouse, life awarded him a rare opportunity that would further shape his focus and career. During his junior year and senior year of college, McCaskill interned with renowned civil rights leader and history maker Rev. Joseph Lowery in the youth division of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). Under Lowery’s tutelage, McCaskill went on to launch the Morehouse chapter of the SCLC.
“It was an incredible time; I learned a lot,” says McCaskill, recalling his involvement in various marches and mass demonstrations around the state of Georgia in the late 1990s. “I have the founding letter I wrote to begin the SCLC chapter at Morehouse. On the letterhead you can still see the watermark on the back that reads, ‘Stop the Killing.’ [We] were fighting police brutality way before cameras or iPhones.”
Immersed in the struggle for equality, McCaskill enrolled at Howard University School of Law in 2000. “At Howard Law, they drill into you to be of service, and there are all these people who want to do great things in social justice, so it was a great fit,” he says. “I had this whole idea that I was going to save the world. I was going to be a social justice lawyer. So I applied for an internship with the Neighborhood Legal Services in Pittsburgh after my first year. That’s when I understood what it meant to be of service.”
That internship also made McCaskill realize that saving the world was a complicated endeavor. He remembers being knocked off-kilter after a client in the first landlord–tenant case he assisted with as an intern got evicted. “By the time we got involved, it was pretty much too late. If there had been some intervention sooner, maybe we could fix the situation,” McCaskill says.
After completing internships at other organizations, including Hidden Beach Recordings, McCaskill earned his JD in 2003. He worked at Howrey LLP from 2006 to 2009 before deciding to start his own firm. “I told my wife, ‘I’m leaving the house, but I feel like I’m not going anywhere. I think I want to quit and open my own firm,’ and that’s when I realized you have to have awesome people around you,” he says.
Today McCaskill is a successful solo specializing in personal injury law in Maryland and the District of Columbia. He considers his personal injury practice an extension of his community service work. “I love it; we do over 300 cases per year. It’s a lot like my time at Neighborhood Legal Services. People call, and because I am familiar with my community, I have a unique understanding of their case and their situations. I like trying cases and being honest with people,” he says.
McCaskill also has earned a reputation as a major philanthropist in many circles, focusing on empowering the next generation of social justice “drum majors” through education.
Remembering the financial obstacle he had to overcome, McCaskill spends time organizing several scholarship events. Of note are banquets for the Morehouse College Alumni Association’s D.C. chapter and the J. Franklyn Bourne Bar Association, which assist local students with needed funds to complete their education. He also participates in the Prince George’s Community College Mentorship Program.
“My most recent mentee just graduated in 2020 and was named valedictorian. I was so proud of that accomplishment,” he says.
June Phillips is a D.C. Bar member and founder of TrueBliss Television.
