23-year-old Nigerian leads Columbia Law Review as Editor in Chief in US
Tomi Williams ’19 couldn’t believe his ears when he was called to become the Editor-in-Chief of Columbia Law Review earlier this year.
“I thought I was being pranked. I was mostly in disbelief,” he said in an interview, few weeks after he resumed his new office.
The Amherst College alumnus was quite popular in his college days, as he successfully led the student body twice. While an undergraduate, he had also served as editor in chief of the Amherst College Law Review.
He attended the Columbia Law School and nursed the idea of being a prosecutor. He said he enrolled in the Challenging the Consequences of Mass Incarceration Clinic because he “wanted to make sure before [he] entered that type of work that [he] understood the seriousness of putting someone behind bars.”
His strides since resuming his new role at Law Review have attracted praises from several quarters, with his predecessor Kelsey Austin Ruescher ’18, saying that the 23-year-old “inspires” him.
“Tomi is the epitome of dedicated and humble leadership,” Ruescher had said, while adding that his successor also has “an unparalleled work ethic” and is “unafraid to think big.”
Tomi’s Nigerian parents had moved to the United States from the UK where he was born, and had expected that himself and his elder brother, Tunji, would follow suit in their chosen lines of medical profession.
Both brothers, however, followed in the footsteps of their paternal grandparents who attended law school in England before moving back to Nigeria. Tomi’s grandmother had been a magistrate judge, while his grandfather was a BBC correspondent.
During his high school days, Tomi founded a nonprofit organisation called Hands on Works, to introduce underserved Baltimore students to professional career paths through internships.
He was also elected by his peers to represent them as the student member of the Howard County Board of Education, a feat which got him featured in the Baltimore Sun.
In March, he attended a convention of law review editors in Austin, Texas. At the convention, there were three other black editors in chief and according to Tomi, it’s the first time four of the top schools have black editors in chief.
As editor of the Law Review, Tomi and other Law School students have worked at the Capital Appeals Project, which provides representation to indigent defendants sentenced to death in Louisiana.
Tomi, who assumed the position in February, has quickly set his sights on moving the Law Review forward as a reputable organisation.
“We have to have a more original online presence,” he says of his targets as editor of the print-based platform during an interview in April.
“The Law Review has to catch up with the rest of the media. Maybe we won’t have any of these things this year, but we are trying to make a digital plan for the next five years.
“We need to make sure that the scholarship and the voices that we’re pulling in are diverse in terms of ideology and topics, in terms of where our contributors are in their professional lives, whether they’re a fellow, or assistant professor, or full professor.
“We’re looking at how to make sure we’re bringing in enough diverse individuals in terms of gender, race, socioeconomic status, disabilities, religious backgrounds, and ideologies of all types.
“We want to make sure that the culture and the conversations here are as fruitful as possible because it’s just a better conversation and a more intellectually vibrant community when there is a diversity of thought and background and making sure that we bring folks in with a full sense of participation and ownership.”
