Sharon Mcphail 1948–

President of the National Bar Association

Labeled a “crusader against injustice” by Angelo B. Henderson in the Detroit News, attorney Sharon McPhail, president of the National Bar Association (NBA), works tirelessly to promote the advancement of black Americans. Aside from her influential position as chief of screening and district courts for the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office in Detroit, Michigan, McPhail volunteers for numerous organizations and has been honored for her community leadership and professional accomplishments. Her most visible work has been on the board of directors of the Detroit branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), helping to improve the status of blacks in such areas as business and the film industry. “Everybody always says that America is a great melting pot, and it isn’t,” McPhail explained to Contemporary Black Biography (CBB). “People have not melted into a melting pot; there are not equal opportunities out there for everybody.”

The oldest of seven children, McPhail was born on November 6, 1948, to a jazz vocalist and a jazz musician and grew up in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She first thought about becoming a lawyer when she was only “eight or nine years old. I knew I wanted to do it, but I didn’t think I was going to be able to,” she told CBB. “My father died when I was 15, and my youngest sister was then two; everybody was younger than me. My mother got sick and went into the hospital, and I didn’t think I was going to go to college, much less law school.” With the help of scholarships, loans, and grants, McPhail earned a bachelor’s degree in English and sociology in 1972 and a law degree in 1976 from Northeastern University.

“Before I went to law school,” McPhail recalled to Carole Boston Weatherford in NBA Magazine, “I thought I’d probably become a criminal defense lawyer. When I went to law school, I thought I might be able to make more things happen as a general counsel at a large corporation.” Upon receiving her law degree, she joined the staff of Ford Motor Company where she was involved in regulatory matters and in the company’s Federal Trade Commission administrative proceedings. Throughout her four years at Ford, McPhail noticed “differences in the way white male lawyers were treated and promoted,” as quoted by Weatherford. “I realized that I could be in that organization a lifetime and not

At a Glance…

Born November 6, 1948, in Cambridge, MA; daughter of Robson and Natalie McPhail; divorced; children: Angela and Erika. Education: Northeastern University, B.A., 1972;J.D., 1976; attended University of Michigan Law School, 1976. Politics: Democrat.

Attorney, 1976—. Ford Motor Company, Dearborn, Ml, staff attorney, 1976-80; assistant U.S. attorney for Eastern District of Michigan, 1980-82; special assistant U.S. attorney for Eastern District of Michigan, 1982-83; Dickinson, Wright, Moon, Van Dusen & Freeman, Detroit, Ml, associate, 1982-84; Bushnell, Gage, Doctoroff & Reizen, Southfield, Ml, associate; Wayne County Corporation Counsel, Detroit, Principal attorney, 1986-87; Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office, Detroit, chief of screening and district courts, 1987—. Member of Detroit Board of Police Commissioners, 1985-90, and board of directors of Federal Bar Association; chair of Operation Fair Share Committee of Detroit branch of NAACP; vice-chair of state Officers Compensation Commission, 1988—, and Wayne County Neighborhood Legal Services.

Awards: Member of the Year, Wolverine Bar Association, 1987; Cora T. Walker Award, National Black Law Students Association, 1989; NAACP Unsung Heroine, 1989-90; presented with the key to the city of Cambridge, MA, and the city of St. Louis, MO, both 1991; Women of Excellence Award, Renaissance Chapter of the Links, Inc., 1991.

Member: National Bar Association (president, 1991-92), Wolverine Bar Association (president, 1985-86).

Addresses: Office—Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office, Frank Murphy Hall of Justice, 1441 St. Antoine, Detroit, Ml 48226.

develop the comfort level needed to advance to upperlevel management.”

McPhail went on to work as an assistant U.S. attorney, a position that prompted her aspiration to become U.S. Attorney General. “I got on the old [former Democratic presidential candidate Michael] Dukakis bandwagon, and I was going to be the first black female U.S. Attorney General under President Dukakis.” She later abandoned the ambition; “To be the U.S. Attorney General at 38 would have been wonderful,” she told CBB in 1991, “but it’s not so great now four years later. It doesn’t hold the same kind of interest for me.” McPhail realized after leaving the U.S. Attorney’s office that the experience she gained there was not a guarantee of future career advancement in a private law firm. “Everybody that I know who left the U.S. Attorney’s office who was a woman, with the exception of one person,” she commented to CBB, “did not go on to a partnership in a firm. They sort of got out of there and did the best they could somewhere.”

Although McPhail worked as a senior associate at two different law firms, specializing in such areas as product liability and medical malpractice defense, she never went on to a partnership. The attorney faced the same barriers to promotion at the two firms as she had at Ford and found that though an increasing number of African-Americans are practicing law, they are not equally represented in prominent positions. “You just have to give up more than I’m willing to give up to make [a partnership] work,” she pointed out to Weatherford, “unless you find a law firm that’s accepting of individual differences.”

Works to promote Status of Blacks

McPhail’s involvement with such organizations as the Wolverine Bar Association—an affiliate of the NBA for which she was the first female president—and her 1985 appointment to the Detroit Board of Police Commissioners helped her land an important position in the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office. As the chief of screening and district courts under Wayne County Prosecutor John D.O’Hair, the attorney is part of the Michigan court system’s appellate process. “If you come in as a defendant or complainant and don’t like what the prosecutor does, you can appeal and go to the head of the warrant section. If You don’t like him, you get to my deputy, and if you don’t like what he says, you get me,” McPhail told CBB. “It’s a good position to be in because you can insure some equality. You can be sure people aren’t being overcharged or undercharged.”

Involved in the Victim Services department of the office, McPhail commented to CBB about her accomplishments in this area: “We’ve built our Victim Services department from just a couple of people to 26 people, and they really do deliver a service to victims. Under my direction we have what are called child advocates. They really deliver a service that is absolutely critical to the successful prosecution of child abuse cases. They basically acquaint the child with the court system, so he or she isn’t intimidated by it.… It makes a higher rate of convictions possible.”

McPhail also spends more than 20 hours per week working with the NAACP on business matters. As head of the organization’s Operation Fair Share—“a program for the development of free will contracts between the NAACP and major corporations,” she told Weatherford—McPhail examines the minority hiring and purchasing records of various Detroit-based companies, including General Motors and Chrysler Corporation. She also conducts research on opportunities for minorities in the film industry, which she believes, as quoted by Henderson in the Detroit News, are “Just awful. The situation is bad, if not worse, than anything you can imagine for black actors and actresses and other minorities.”

When she was elected the fourth woman president of the NBA in 1991, McPhail was given a platform from which she can work to elevate the position of blacks in the legal profession. Her plans include meeting with chief executive officers of major corporations to promote the hiring of black lawyers to higher level management positions and forming ties with civil rights groups and other minority bar associations. Also an active member of her Baptist church in Detroit and the mother of two daughters, McPhail reflected to Weatherford, “As I move on, I just try to do a little better so I can help more people. If I can’t do that on the job, I do it as volunteer work.”