It’s not every day that garbage collector and steel mill employee appear on a résumé alongside roles at the NAACP, the Department of Defense, and in nonprofit housing and mortgage services. But for Charles Lowery, ’79—who recently completed a one-year term as president of the District of Columbia Bar Association—his nontraditional path to the law, and his varied experiences within it, provide perspective that has served him well in his career and in his work with professional associations.
“The idea of being president of the bar was an interesting challenge because my background is in government and the nonprofit and legal services arena, and generally the presidents of the bar come from law firms,” he says. “I wanted to show that different people with different experiences can also lead the organization.”
Bringing people together
Lowery, who was most recently a senior policy director at the National Housing Conference, assumed the role of bar president in summer 2023, and he brought a simple mantra with him: Connect the dots. The legal community in Washington, DC, offers a wealth of associations and other groups dedicated to the profession, but Lowery says there are additional opportunities for beneficial collaborations.
“I’ve been in a lot of different jobs, and all of those experiences gave me a sense of relationship building—and that’s one of the key things I wanted to bring to the bar,” he says. “If you can connect the different pieces that are around you, you can move things forward or help someone, or make a new connection that could be valuable down the road.”
Charles Lowery, ’79If you can connect the different pieces that are around you, you can move things forward or help someone, or make a new connection that could be valuable down the road.
One initiative that Lowery spearheaded was organizing a meeting with DC-area law school deans to discuss how to connect law students more effectively with the activities of the DC Bar and other local professional associations. Deans from the law schools at American University, The Catholic University of America, George Washington University, Georgetown University, Howard University, and the University of the District of Columbia convened with Lowery and his colleagues to discuss challenges facing law students and young lawyers.
“It was pretty amazing to see them in the same room with the DC Bar and for them to talk about the law students and what they are going through, especially around artificial intelligence and other trends,” he says. “It was valuable to discuss with them the work the DC Bar is doing and how we could connect on these issues. And now they have that relationship, and they can build on that with the next president and the staff.”
Broadening partnerships
Lowery also spent considerable time deepening the relationship between the DC Bar and other professional associations, such as voluntary bars like the Washington Bar Association, which represents the interests of Black lawyers in DC, as well as other affinity-based groups, including the Hispanic Bar Association of the District of Columbia and the Asian Pacific American Bar Association of DC.
“Sometimes you find that members of the DC Bar are very involved with voluntary bars, but they’re not as engaged with us. So connecting with those groups has been helpful in demonstrating the benefits of being a member of the DC Bar,” he says. “For people working in nonprofit or government, annual bar dues are a pretty substantial payment, so we have been trying to show what the bar has to offer—resources like continuing legal education classes, our leadership academy for young lawyers, groups organized around practice areas, and so on.”
He also participated in an event with the presidents of the Maryland and Virginia bar associations to celebrate all three groups being led by Black men for the first time. Lisa Helem, ’09, the executive editor at Bloomberg Industry Group, moderated the panel.
Lowery is one of many Michigan Law alumni who have risen to leadership positions in prominent bar associations.
“At the University of Michigan, I think there’s a sense of service and giving of yourself and your skills, and that stays with us after we leave Ann Arbor,” Lowery says. “Sometimes you’re serving from a variety of perspectives, as a volunteer, or part of an organization, or even leading the bar. It’s a service in helping others and helping things move forward to be better.”
