Law Schools

Remembering David Williams

How did this law professor turned university administrator handle the role of running the athletic program of a Southeastern Conference school?

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David Williams (Screenshot via Vanderbilt)

At any large organization, be it a law firm, law school, or corporate entity, it can be easy to develop tunnel vision and become walled off in your own employment cluster.  One often sees the same people day in and day out and it is difficult to remember that your small group is but a portion of a much larger whole.  The Career Services Office at Vanderbilt Law School is not only a part of the Law School but also part of the broader Vanderbilt community, and that community recently lost a beloved member with the passing of David Williams at the age of 71.

At the time of his death, Williams was teaching a course at the Law School on Sports Law while also preparing to launch Vanderbilt’s new Sports, Law, and Society Program.  But while beloved by law students, his time in the classroom was but a portion of his impact to Vanderbilt as a whole.  Williams came to Vanderbilt in August 2000 from Ohio State University where he had served on the faculty of OSU Law since 1986.  For seven years, Williams served as Vice President for Student and Urban/Community Affairs for the entirety of Ohio State.  When former OSU President Gordon Gee came to Nashville to become Chancellor of Vanderbilt, he convinced Williams, his trusted advisor, to come along as well.

For 19 years, from 2000 through January of this year, Williams served as Vice Chancellor for University Affairs and Athletics, the first African-American to serve as a Vice Chancellor at Vanderbilt.  For his first 13 years in Nashville, he complimented this role by also serving as Vanderbilt’s General Counsel and Secretary of the University.  How he was able to wear that many hats at once, I have no idea.  But this level of multitasking was only the beginning for David Williams.

As someone who spends an inordinate, and probably unhealthy, amount of time watching collegiate student-athletes engage in an array of competitions, I am quite familiar with the insane arms race that has developed in major college athletics.  Facilities, especially for large revenue-producing sports such as football, are so opulent they would inspire envy from a 17th-century French monarch.

But it is not just the indoor miniature golf courses or waterfalls that make up this arms race; the salaries given to the head coaches and athletic administrators have reached such heights that one wonders when someone like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez will start agitating for a change, or at least higher tax rates.  ESPN reported that in 2017, the highest paid public employee in 39 states was either a collegiate football or men’s basketball coach.  “That’s not even including private institutions such as Duke or Stanford, where Coach K and David Shaw, respectively, would top North Carolina and California if they were public employees.”

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Why are the above two paragraphs in the middle of a remembrance of David Williams?  Because while much of collegiate athletics zigged, Vanderbilt decided to zag.  Chancellor Gee placed Vanderbilt’s athletic department in the hands of Williams in an effort to better emphasize the student portion of student-athlete.  By 2013, Williams had formally taken the title of Athletic Director, though his control over the department extended back much further.  How did this law professor turned university administrator handle the role of running the athletic program of a Southeastern Conference school?  During Williams’s tenure, Vanderbilt won its first national championships in school history.  Two in bowling, one in women’s tennis, and the one that garnered the most headlines, the 2014 College World Series.

David Williams stepped down from his role as AD earlier this year — in a cruel bit of irony, his retirement party was to be held the day he died — and was ready to return to teaching law students.  The entire Vanderbilt community is better off for his service to our institution.

Nicholas Alexiou is the Director of LL.M. and Alumni Advising as well as the Associate Director of Career Services at Vanderbilt University Law School. He will, hopefully, respond to your emails at abovethelawcso@gmail.com.

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