by Amy McFarlin
“Each one must teach one,” says Mavis Thompson. It is a wonderfully succinct way to describe the spirit of her career, as well as the career of her fellow 2023 BAMSL Legal Pioneer Award recipient, Keith Williamson. Each has learned from pioneers who came before. Each has become an amazing lawyer-leader. And each is still busy blazing trails for others.
On February 27, 2023, BAMSL and its Minorities in the Legal Profession section will be honoring both at the annual Gallery of Legal Pioneers event—taking place at the Missouri History Museum in Forest Park—for their outstanding achievements as lawyers and community leaders.
Thompson and Williamson have accomplished so much on journeys that have taken them so many places: Washington, D.C., New York City, and Harvard University among them. But St. Louis is where their pioneering paths began and where they ultimately returned.
Thompson was the first in her family to attend college, earning a nursing degree from the University of Missouri – Columbia. She recalls fondly how happy her family and neighbors were for her; they arrived in limos to celebrate her graduation. Thompson then journeyed east, taking work as a nurse in Washington D.C., and it was there that she was inspired to help others through a career in the law.
Thompson recalls witnessing so many inequities in the D.C. hospitals. The screams of women as they endured labor in insufficient facilities and with deficient care are still seared in her brain. It lit a fire under her to seek justice for these people, and she and her fellow nurses joined efforts for a patient’s bill of rights. They met with a member of Congress, and Thompson remembers being talked down to. “You ladies should learn the law,” he chided. Thompson took this as a challenge—she decided to do just that. She returned home and earned her JD from the University of Missouri – Columbia, later graduating from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard.
Williamson, too, grew up in St. Louis’s Northside. “I did a great job selecting parents,” Williamson jokes, “they were wonderful role models of civic involvement.” His father was a journalist and photographer for the Argus, Mirror, and Sentinel newspapers, and his mother was the director of admissions and financial aid for Washington University’s School of Social Work.
Williamson recalls his family regularly watching the evening news together and discussing the Civil Rights Movement. His father and older sister traveled to the March on Washington, which his father covered in his work as a journalist. His sister ultimately graduated from business school and his brother, graduated from the George Washington School of Law in Washington, D.C.
In addition to his brother’s example, the idea of becoming a lawyer entered Williamson’s mind during his years at Thomas Jefferson High School on South Lindbergh Road, where he was the only Black student at the time. It was there that a teacher’s backhanded compliment about his talents for argument got him thinking about a career in the law. Williamson’s journey down that road, like Thompson’s, began on the east coast.
Following his brother’s footsteps, Williamson also left to study at Brown University In Rhode Island, earning his BA in economics and sociology. He then attended Harvard University, earning both his JD and MBA, and later added an LLM in taxation from New York University, as well.
Having graduated from the University of Missouri – Columbia with her fire for justice still alight, Thompson joined the Sandberg Phoenix firm, becoming a litigator and senior associate in its health practice group. She later moved into the public sector, where she has served the community in many roles: as an assistant attorney general in the state’s Medicaid fraud control unit; a member of the state’s Division of Employment Security Appeals Tribunal; a prosecuting attorney for the Cities of Berkley, Dellwood, and Wellston; the Circuit Clerk for the 22nd Judicial Circuit; and presently the License Collector for the City of Saint Louis. She has been recognized as the first Black woman to serve in two different citywide elected offices through her roles as Circuit Clerk and License Collector.
Williamson began his legal career practicing tax law with firms in Washington D.C. and New York before moving to Connecticut to become director of tax for the global shipping company Pitney Bowes. He also worked for the company as assistant general counsel for financial services and deputy general counsel for mergers, eventually becoming president of its capital services division.
It was in 2007, thirty years after leaving St. Louis, when Williamson returned to become the senior vice president, general counsel, and secretary of the Fortune 500 healthcare company Centene. In 2020, Williamson became Centene’s chief charitable giving officer and president of its charitable foundation, where he continues to work today, making transformational investments in the St. Louis community.
Williamson’s career recognitions include the Whitfield Foundation for Success 2022 honorees; Christian Hospital Foundation’s 2021 “Drum Major Award;” Missouri Lawyers 2019 “Lifetime Achievement Award;” Savoy Magazine’s “2018 Most Influential Black Lawyers;” and the St. Louis Business Journal’s 2017 “Corporate Counsel of the Year.”
Judge Theodore McMillian, near the end of his own accomplished and pioneering life, once shared with Thompson “don’t go to the grave empty,” encouraging her to pass knowledge and experience to the next generation. She and her fellow awardee Williamson have done just that. Each have given so much to the community above and beyond their official roles.
Thompson leads and mentors the next generation of lawyers in numerous professional organizations. She has served as the president of the National Bar Association, our nation's oldest and largest national network of predominantly Black lawyers and judges. She has also been active in the Mound City Bar Association, American Bar Association, the Women Lawyers’ Association of Greater St. Louis, and Legal Services of Eastern Missouri. Thompson has also sat on the board of trustees at the Herald Missionary Baptist Church, and she credits her faith for nourishing her spirit in her many endeavors. “Give God the glory in everything you have and everything you do,” Thompson advises, “It is the sustenance of life.”
Williamson’s volunteer work includes serving as board chair of the United Way of Greater St. Louis; board chair of The Opportunity Trust; commissioner and search committee chair for the St. Louis Art Museum; the National Urban League; the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis; the Mathews-Dickey Boys & Girls Club; the Knowledge is Power Program of St. Louis; and the Mound City Bar Association. With the National Urban League, Williamson has volunteered in the Black Executive Exchange Program, establishing mentoring relationships for young Black college students.
As a source of inspiration for his many charitable and community endeavors, Williamson reflects on his reaction in returning to St. Louis after being away for thirty years: he was alarmed at the difficulties the Northside was experiencing since he had left. It gave him a very tangible motivation to work toward increasing equal opportunity and justice in the St. Louis area.
Thompson, too, has seen a need for greater fairness and justice in her community. In starting her work with the License Collector, she encountered a problem: businesses being shut down when they struggled to pay for their licenses. So, Thompson and her colleagues in the Collector’s office have brought greater due process to St. Louis businesses. She helps businesses find solutions to their challenges, make their payments, and stay licensed to keep serving the region.
For this approach, Thompson takes inspiration from her family. She remembers her grandparents living at her family’s home, which they called the “home house” because it welcomed anyone who needed help. This included her uncle, who suffered a major stroke, and whom she helped care for personally. Based on these experiences, Thompson advises newer generations to remember and cherish their elders’ contributions. She knows that it took a village to help her get to where she is now. It is her responsibility—and the responsibility of everyone in positions like hers—to give back to that village.
Regarding the village that is the St. Louis legal community, Williamson observes that great strides have been made in expanding its horizons. He sees many more lawyers of color and women lawyers today in local law firms, building on the legacies of trailblazers in St. Louis history. A group of those historic trailblazers founded the Mound City Bar Association, and both Williamson and Thompson have been active members. From its founding in 1922, the Mound City Bar has helped diversify the legal community, making it possible for Thompson and Williamson to not just belong to but be honored by BAMSL.
As a prominent example of how the Mound City Bar Association continues this work today, Williamson proudly points to its Equity Scholars Program. Williamson helped develop and launch the program, which strives to promote diversity and inclusion in the legal profession, in partnership with local law schools as well as several St. Louis law firms. Its inaugural class of four scholars are currently at or soon to enroll in the St. Louis University School of Law and Washington University – St. Louis School of Law. Each of these scholars is receiving a financial assistance package that includes full tuition as well as customized financial supports. The program also connects scholars with experienced St. Louis lawyer-mentors.
And just last year, Williamson notes, the Washington University Journal of Law and Policy dedicated an issue honoring the Mound City Bar’s centennial. The issue documents a century of efforts by Mound City lawyers and their allies to eliminate racial discrimination and break down barriers to equal justice. It also examines the necessary work still to be done in striving for equal justice in St. Louis and beyond.
BAMSL is humbled and honored to join in this work through groups like its Minorities in the Legal Profession Section and events like the annual Legal Pioneer Award ceremony. Please join us for this year’s ceremony at the Missouri History Museum on February 27, 2023. Together we will celebrate Mavis Thompson and Keith Williamson’s incredible pioneering careers and proudly add them to the Legal Pioneer Wall of Fame. For those interested in sponsorships or in advertising in connection with the event, please contact Sebrina Colvin at scolvin@bamsl.org. We cannot wait to honor our newest Legal Pioneer Award recipients!
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