UMLawyer

First black law graduate honored
as Alumnus of the Year

Reuben Anderson, the first black student to graduate from the UM School of Law, has been honored as the university’s Law Alumnus of the Year.

Anderson, a 1967 law school graduate, is a partner at Phelps Dunbar, LLP, in Jackson. He practices in commercial litigation, regulatory and governmental matters, and gaming.

“He has outstanding leadership qualities that have served him well as a practicing attorney, as a justice on the Mississippi Supreme Court and as president of the Mississippi Bar,” said Samuel Davis, dean of the law school. “I have the utmost respect for him, and I am proud to call him my friend.”

“Being named Law Alumnus of the Year is one of the highest honors that I have received in my long legal career,” Anderson said.

Davis, a first-year law student at UM when Anderson was in his third year, remembers that Anderson exhibited an “aura of quiet confidence and dignity.”

“The Ole Miss law school has always been a special place for me,” Anderson said. “It is the only law school I ever wanted to attend. I recommended it to my daughter, who also graduated there. It prepared me well for my legal career.”

Tim Walsh, associate director of alumni affairs, said Anderson was selected for the alumni award for his untiring support of the law school and his many contributions to society.

“He is a trailblazer in the legal community in Mississippi,” Walsh said. “The committee chose to honor him this year for all he has meant to the law school, to the university and to Mississippi.”

Marjorie O’Donnell, president of the Law Alumni Chapter, said Anderson is “an outstanding role model for both law students and undergraduate students.”

Anderson’s law career encompasses many firsts, including serving as the state’s first black Supreme Court justice and being the first black alumnus named to UM’s Alumni Hall of Fame. He also held the law school’s Jamie L. Whitten Chair of Law and Government in 1995.

—Kara Givens