Reflecting on a Unique “Boot Camp” Internship Opportunity Program with a JIOP Alumnus

Judge Zuberi Bakari Williams

Brimming with pop culture references, elite multitasking capabilities, and a tireless drive to mentor, Judge Williams embodies the “adrenaline of excellence” that his mentor—the great Judge Gerald Bruce Lee—was well-known for. In turn, Judge Williams passes on the values he learned in his federal clerkship to his own past and present interns, a group of dozens of law students, lawyers, law clerks, and advocates.

In 2015, Judge Williams was sworn in as one of the youngest judges in the history of the District Court of Maryland at age 35. Despite being fresh on the bench and many years younger than his colleagues, Judge Williams decided to become a mentor to current and potential law students and give back to the Judicial Intern Opportunity Program (JIOP). Judge Williams is a former participant in the program and the first JIOP intern to serve as a judge, encapsulating the meaning of the word “opportunity” in JIOP.

Judge Williams has taken JIOP interns since he was appointed to the bench. In seven short years, he has dutifully mentored over 50 interns through a multi-student, intensive “boot camp” program. The program was unique because most JIOP judges take on one intern per year. The class of 2022 is Judge Williams’s last multi-student intern class, and we—Ibrahim Ahmed Ijaz, one of Judge Williams’s summer 2021 interns, and Murad Ali Bhatti, one of Judge Williams’s summer 2022 interns—wrote this article to take a moment and reflect on how Judge Williams changed each of our lives to encourage and inspire judges and law students alike. Judge Williams will continue to participate in JIOP, taking on one intern annually.

Internship Practice Points We Leaned

As interns there is so much that we did not know about the legal profession or how to chart our paths as future lawyers. That is where Judge Williams came in.

1. Judge Williams built the internship to instill confidence, know-how, and skill sets.
2. Throughout the internship, he taught interns to exist in spaces where no one looks or identifies like us.
3. This internship showed us that the legal profession is a service industry, and it also taught us practical ways to serve.
4. We learned that it is important to not to take ourselves too seriously.
5. This internship helped us analyze facts and prepare arguments without being afraid of the rulings.
6. This internship revolutionized our mentality on growing up as diverse individuals.

Learning In and Out of the Court

From domestic violence cases to landlord-tenant matters, Judge Williams is extremely meticulous in how he deals with each case. There are three things in particular that make Judge Williams an outstanding teacher on the bench: his knowledge of the law, the consistent framework he uses to make his decisions, and his understanding that this is a service industry.

When he is explaining matters in court, Judge Williams will use the verbiage exactly as it written in the code or his favorite law guide, the jury instructions. Judge Williams’s method ensures that the people understand the law and that the rules are being applied fairly and accurately. Further, Judge Williams asks the exact same set of relevant questions for every particular case type. No matter how tedious asking the same questions over and over may seem, the point is to emphasize how important those questions are to an expert fact finder. These questions provide Judge Williams a road map for him to best explain his decisions to the people he serves. “And that is who this is all about,” he would say. The trait that makes Judge Williams truly unique and excellent is his understanding of the people.

With his background as a Black, Maryland-native with an immigrant parent, Judge Williams listens to the stories of the people who are deprived of a voice. As he himself said, “trying hard to listen to people’s stories, being respectful and being sensitive to people’s lives” is his main focus and aim as a judge. When you are in Judge Williams’s orbit, you are heard—no matter your background, race, gender or sexual affiliation, or religion.

Oftentimes, professionals from diverse backgrounds are caught between a rock and a hard place when it comes to uplifting others. The “rock” is the desire to pull others up, but the “hard place” is the pressure to not appear radical in the pursuit of increased diversity. It is an unfortunate conundrum that plagues up-and-comers from every identity in every profession. But it’s not something that stops Judge Williams because he adheres to a principle that he teaches all of his interns: Fifty percent of the people will love the same trait or quality about you that 50 percent will hate, so why are you going to listen to the haters? With this mentality, Judge Williams has single-handedly changed the lives of law students across the country, setting off a wave of inspiration and opportunity across the legal profession. For his teaching, mentorship, and friendship, we are gratefully indebted to the Honorable Zuberi Bakari Williams.