Law Schools, Public Interest

Bayou Brief Founder Lamar White Discusses Disability, Louisiana, And The Law

A conversation about cerebral palsy, his career, and advice for those thinking about attending law school.

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Lamar White Jr.

“Feeling like Katrina with no FEMA / Like Martin with no Gina / Like a flight with no visa.” — Kanye West

Earlier this summer, Lamar White launched The Bayou Brief, a non-profit progressive web publication. For more than 11 years, White published CenLamar, one of Louisiana’s most acclaimed and well-known progressive blogs, which has received wide recognition from national and international news organizations.

As a law student, White broke stories that landed him in the national news. He was the writer who first revealed that House Majority Whip Steve Scalise had once attended a white supremacist conference. He was the last person with whom Andrew Breitbart had ever written online, less than an hour before the conservative firebrand’s tragic death.

White made headlines in Texas for his defense of gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis, after her opponent’s campaign accused her of ridiculing the physically disabled. He tweeted a photograph of a whitened portrait, prominently displayed in the Louisiana state Capitol, of Bobby Jindal, the nation’s first Indian-American governor, inspiring an intense national conversation on race, a series of internet memes, and the hashtag #bobbyjindalissowhite.

Nowadays, he is back home in Louisiana and publishing the The Bayou Brief. Yesterday, I had the opportunity to catch up with Lamar White to talk about cerebral palsy, his career, and his advice for those thinking about attending law school. Without further ado, here are some excerpts from our conversation:

Renwei Chung (RC): What motivated you to attend law school?

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Lamar White (LW): I was born and raised in Alexandria, a city of around 50,000 people in the exact geographic center of Louisiana. When I graduated from high school, I promised myself I’d never live there again. It was too close-minded and conservative and provincial, I thought. So, I enrolled at Rice in Houston, and I flourished in the “big city.” It was a natural fit for me.

But in August of 2005, I watched in complete disbelief and total shock as Hurricane Katrina devastated a city I’d always loved, New Orleans, and a place I recognized as my home, Louisiana. My father died when I was a freshman in college, and then, there was the storm. While most people were moving away, I knew I had to move back. Alexandria is about three hours from New Orleans, but it was still Louisiana. I wanted to serve my community.

I got a job with the newly-elected mayor of my hometown, and for nearly five years, I was able to do something, each and every day, that made me feel like I was making a difference. At some point, though, I recognized I wasn’t going to be a twentysomething mayoral assistant for the rest of my life and that I needed to arm myself with an education in the law. I didn’t ever want to be a lawyer, though; I wanted to have the education, which, in many ways, freed me up from the overwhelming pressure that so many of my classmates were experiencing.

RC: You were diagnosed with cerebral palsy when you were only a year old, though the disability had occurred as a result of a traumatic birth. What are people’s biggest misconception about such a diagnosis?

LW: There are several different forms and expressions, for lack of a better term, of CP. I am extraordinarily lucky. My mom carted me to clinics and hospitals and university labs all over the country when I was a very small child, less than six years old, and even though my motor skills were pretty pathetic, I tested at genius levels on IQ tests. If I hadn’t — or even if I had tested average — I would have likely been placed in a special education class and never had an opportunity to attend Rice on my own merit.

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The greatest misconception about people with cerebral palsy is that we are intellectually challenged as well. Some of us look differently; most of us walk differently, if we can walk at all.

People infantilize the disabled. They assume we do not have agency. Ask any disabled person with a noticeable, lifelong physical disability how often a waiter or waitress will ask one of their friends or family members to order for them. It’s a weak attempt at kindness that really just validates dehumanization.

When I am seated in a classroom, I look like an average white guy. I sound “normal.” Nowadays, I’m frequently on the radio, and no one “hears” my disability. But when I stand up and walk across the room, everyone can see my disability.

As a younger man, I felt obligated to outsmart everyone; it was a defense mechanism. I was over-compensating, and it came across as arrogant and stupidly competitive. But it is how I learned to survive and adapt. Society is skeptical about smart disabled people. We are supposed to be flawed, because our bodies are like fine watches that cannot keep time. We are broken vessels and novelties.

RC: How can writers survive law school?

LW: Work on their craft every single day. Learn and master every rule in legal writing and then learn to break all of those rules.

RC: You’re not practicing law right now. Do you think you’d be doing what you’re doing today without a law degree?

LW: Probably, but I would be much worse at it. Law school taught me much more than I could have possibly learned at an MFA program. The study of law is, at its core, about the analysis of short stories, except we are given a much bigger toolkit. 

RC: What advice do you have for someone thinking about law school?

LW: Don’t enroll in law school if your ego is fragile. Don’t wear a suit to class. Don’t EVER raise your hand like an obnoxious dork, especially on your first day, but always be prepared for every question, every day. If you’re a 23-year-old 1L dude in a class with a 45-year-old 1L woman with three kids, she is smarter, more accomplished, and more impressive than you are. Don’t be jealous of that, and don’t forget it either.

And remember to keep it real: Make friends and make fun of yourself. If you have a healthy sense of humor, you will survive; it’s a more important indicator than an LSAT score.

RC: What does career success look like to you?

LW: When Louisiana becomes a national model for best practices in education, health care, criminal justice, and government ethics, I will retire.

On behalf of everyone here at Above the Law, I would like to thank Lamar White for sharing his story with our audience. We wish him continued success in his career.

To learn more about Lamar White and his recent work, be sure to visit http://www.bayoubrief.com, a 501(c)(4) funded entirely by its readers.

Renwei Chung is the DEI Columnist at Above the Law. He currently serves as a Board Advisor for The Diversity Movement (TDM), whose integrated approach enables law firms to build and strengthen culture by tying real-world business outcomes to DEI initiatives via a scalable subscription-based employee experience platform. And he is excited to host TDM’s and Footnote 4’s new podcast Charge the Wave — focused on entrepreneurs, executives, and icons who are assiduously building companies, cultures, and communities.

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