Ep. 20 Remembering Judge Richard Dinkins

In this episode, Court of Appeals Judge Frank Clement Jr., Chancellor Anne Martin of Davidson County Chancery Court, Part II, Chief Deputy Clerk Lisa Marsh and Ian Dinkins remember Judge Richard Dinkins for his integrity, fairness, and humbleness while becoming a luminary in the law community. 

Produced by Nick Morgan

Transcript

00;00;15;16 - 00;00;16;13
Judge Clement
Kind.

00;00;16;15 - 00;00;17;14
Ian Dinkins
Servant.

00;00;17;17 - 00;00;18;02
Lisa Marsh
Fair.

00;00;18;04 - 00;00;18;26
Ian Dinkins
Humble.

00;00;18;27 - 00;00;21;07
Chancellor Martin
Very real and very human.

00;00;21;09 - 00;00;22;07
Judge Clement
Honest.

00;00;22;09 - 00;00;23;21
Lisa Marsh
He cared about people.

00;00;23;22 - 00;01;02;22
Host
Those are just a few words to describe the late Judge Richard Dickens, who passed away on October 1st, 2023. Judge Dickens had a storied career as a civil rights activist, lawyer, jurist, and, most important of all, father. On this episode, you will hear from Tennessee Court of Appeals Judge Frank Clement, Jr. Chief Deputy Clerk Lisa marsh, Davidson County Chancellor, and Martin and his son Ian Dinkins, as they reflect not only on his career but tell stories of Judge Dinkins, the person, and share some of their more personal interactions with their coworker, friend and dad.

00;01;02;24 - 00;01;16;21
Host
Welcome to Tennessee Court. Talk. After graduating from Vanderbilt Law School in 1977, Richard Dinkins would go on to join the law firm led by prominent civil rights advocate and former state Senator Evan Williams.

00;01;16;23 - 00;02;03;26
Judge Clement
And Senator Williams had a substantial legal practice and was one of the lead counsel in the litigation to desegregate public schools in Tennessee and particularly in Nashville. And Richard was highly involved in that throughout the remainder of Senator Williams life. Richard took the lead and continued on and it's it's an incredible thought that Richard Dinkins was a first grader when Tennessee public Schools first integrated, and then later on, he would be the lead counsel in the litigation that resulted in a major settlement.

00;02;03;26 - 00;02;15;24
Judge Clement
After about 20 plus years of litigation to help move forward, the desegregation in practice of the public schools in Tennessee.

00;02;15;27 - 00;02;40;07
Ian Dinkins
Im Ian Dinkins, I am Judge Dinkins son. My dad spent a lot of time working on education and specifically education equity causes. What had to be through charter schools or through the Nashville Public Education Foundation or the Oasis Center. You know, education has been something that's always mattered a lot to our family. And I think my dad saw at a pretty young age how important it was.

00;02;40;07 - 00;02;53;13
Ian Dinkins
And he saw that a lot of students in Nashville weren't getting those opportunities. So I think he really took it upon himself to, you know, finish finish the fight that Avon started and, you know, keep working on it long after the court case had been settled.

00;02;53;15 - 00;02;59;11
Host
Judge Frank Clement also knew Judge Dinkins as a lawyer before becoming his colleague on the Court of Appeals.

00;02;59;15 - 00;03;21;19
Judge Clement
Appeared in my court on several occasions and, as you can imagine, was always very well prepared, was extremely courteous to all involved witnesses in court personnel and what have you. And he was just a pleasure to work with. When I was a judge, and he was the lawyer.

00;03;21;25 - 00;03;34;15
Host
In 1999, the law firm of Dotson, Parker and Boehm merged with the law firm of Williams and Dinkins, joining Richard Dinkins with now Chancellor Anne Martin six years into her young legal career.

00;03;34;16 - 00;03;54;09
Chancellor Martin
We worked on several cases together that were mostly plaintiff's employment cases. You're dealing with people who are really in crisis because work is so important. And so I got to sit in with Richard with a lot of clients, as well as work on the the legal part of the cases. Richard had this great way of connecting with people and feeling very real.

00;03;54;09 - 00;04;34;11
Chancellor Martin
And even though he was such a luminary and many people who sought out Richard's services felt like they knew him, even though they didn't. But they might go to church with someone who knew him or be related to someone who knew him. And he always made people feel welcome and connected to him, and was really good at helping people appreciate and understand what their rights were, what could be accomplished, what might not be able to be accomplished through the legal process, to sort of set expectations, but also be empathetic and caring and make people feel taken care of by him as a lawyer.

00;04;34;14 - 00;04;41;22
Host
In 2003, Richard Dinkins became Judge Dinkins when he was appointed to the Davidson County Chancery Court, part four.

00;04;41;26 - 00;05;01;03
Chancellor Martin
Even after he went on the bench and I appeared before him, I almost felt like he was teaching me, even though he was adjudicating my case and he was a neutral because he really guided the lawyers through, you know, what he wanted to hear and what the issues were. And it was good. It sort of redirecting you back to things if you got off on a tangent.

00;05;01;06 - 00;05;23;26
Chancellor Martin
And I have always had a lot of energy and spoken quickly and been an excitable advocate, and I think he found that amusing and familiar when I would appear before him. And sometimes he would tell me now slow down and, you know, can you focus on this issue for me? Because this is what I'm interested in hearing, that kind of thing. So he was always teaching.

00;05;24;03 - 00;05;42;18
Ian Dinkins
And, well, he gave out a lot of life lessons. There was once when he was a chancellor, in Davidson County. We were at it at the courthouse at about 430 on a Friday, and I was ready to go. It was the summertime, you know, it was still light outside and someone, you know, called and said, hey, we're going to come get married.

00;05;42;18 - 00;06;01;18
Ian Dinkins
Can you mind waiting for a little bit? And my dad said, sure, sure. And so it's about 515 and we didn't hear back. So we called them back and they said, we'll be there in like five minutes. So naturally, you know, about an hour and a half later, these people, they finally showed up and, you know, it was a 6:30..7:00 at that point.

00;06;01;19 - 00;06;17;09
Ian Dinkins
I was pretty, I was pretty, you know, mad as a nine year old. But we found out that it was a soldier from Fort Campbell who drove down, and he was, being deployed to Iraq. The very next day. So one of his life lessons was just take your time and do your best, and that's the best you can ask for.

00;06;17;15 - 00;06;20;18
Ian Dinkins
You know, it's kind of those small things that made him who he is.

00;06;20;20 - 00;06;34;10
Host
In 2008, Judge Dinkins was appointed to the Tennessee Court of Appeals by Governor Phil Bredesen, joining Judge Clement at the National Supreme Court building. It's also where he would form a friendship with now Chief Clerk Lisa Marsh.

00;06;34;12 - 00;07;10;29
Lisa Marsh
He's an easy person to get to know. He's easy to get to know. That's one of the beautiful things about him. So just working in the clerk's office, first and foremost, who at that time, judges would still bring their written opinions, their orders to the clerk's office. So he would hand-deliver his own documents a lot of times, normally, when he would bring something to the clerk's office for filing or ask a question or pull a record of his pull of record, he would just start chatting, but then he would ask, what's going on with you?

00;07;10;29 - 00;07;34;18
Lisa Marsh
How you doing? He would talk about his son, his family, a little bit different things. It was just on a personal basis. And then milling around the the building, he would just always stop, talk and gotten very close with him in our work. All of us were I mean, he treated all of us the same in the clerks offices as if we were one of the judges.

00;07;34;23 - 00;08;02;05
Lisa Marsh
It didn't matter to him. So, at that point in 2009, our son was living out of state. And, he was engaged to be married the following spring. In the northeast, where he lived. So I got a phone call in October of, ‘09 saying, hey, when we come home for Christmas, we'd like to get married while we're there.

00;08;02;07 - 00;08;24;29
Lisa Marsh
The day after Christmas with just immediate family. The his fiancee's family was going to fly down, and all of our immediate family. Can you find somebody to marry? As I'm like, oh, no problem. So I thought about it. I went to Judge Dinkins, explained the situation, and, he goes, oh, I'd be more than happy, of course.

00;08;24;29 - 00;08;51;23
Lisa Marsh
And I said, there's a catch, judge. It's the day after Christmas, December 26th at 6 p.m.. You'll have all of your family. And he said, no problem. They'll be glad to to not be with me for a little while. I'll be by that point. I'll need out of the house. So, long story short. We all. Our son and, his fiancee, they rented a the penthouse at the Hutton Hotel was a frigid, cold night.

00;08;51;25 - 00;09;19;12
Lisa Marsh
And lo and behold, Judge Dinkins shows up, for the ceremony, and, he comes. And he just became one of our family immediately, our daughter, was there with her, almost one year old, and, he was about a month away from his first birthday. So Judge Jenkins immediately picks up the baby and just meanders around the apartment.

00;09;19;14 - 00;09;42;26
Lisa Marsh
You know, with the baby playing with him talking. He's just one of us. And so one of the things I laugh about, Judge Jenkins disappeared, went into another room, had the baby with him, and he yells, hey, everybody, come in here. Come look at this. And we're like, where'd you go? He goes in the bathroom. Well, laughing like, seriously?

00;09;42;28 - 00;10;03;16
Lisa Marsh
He goes, yeah, they're TV's in the mirrors. So we all go in. He's in there with the baby on his head, with a remote in one hand. He's changing these TV channels in all the different mirrors. So we just. We had a good time, but our all of our family just fell in love with him. We all. He fit in immediately.

00;10;03;18 - 00;10;19;01
Lisa Marsh
Had the ceremony, which was perfect and then went downstairs. Had a nice family dinner and he was just one of us. But he's just that down to earth and, open and receptive to everybody. Everybody just just thought the world of him from very beginning.

00;10;19;03 - 00;10;44;27
Judge Clement
I have a couple of, memories of his, playfulness. After the judges on the Court of Appeals hear oral arguments, we will adjourn court and go to what we call the robing room to discuss the cases that we just heard and, when we would discuss a case, I would look to him and say, Richard, what what do you think about this case?

00;10;44;27 - 00;11;00;14
Judge Clement
And I remember one day he pushed his chair back from the table and appeared to be looking under the table, and I said, what are you doing? He says, I'm looking for a lawsuit because I don't see one here. And that was his way of saying that there was no merit to the appeal that we had just heard.

00;11;00;14 - 00;11;14;14
Judge Clement
So I, found that charming. And occasionally after that, I would push away from the table and look under the table and tell my colleagues from other cases that, like Richard Dinkins, I'm still looking for a case here.

00;11;14;15 - 00;11;19;12
Host
Judge Dinkins was also a man of faith, his father a pastor, as well as his best friend, a pastor.

00;11;19;17 - 00;11;39;29
Judge Clement
Loved his family, loved his church. And he was an elder there and sung in the choir and, frequently when we would say, can you have, can we have a meeting at 2:00 on Wednesday? He would say, well, I've, I've got a meeting at the church, but I can do it at three.

00;11;40;01 - 00;11;44;26
Judge Clement
And so we would always say, oh, sure, what have you. But but he was clearly highly involved in that.

00;11;44;28 - 00;12;03;12
Chancellor Martin
So when I was running for office in 2017 and 2018, Richard invited me to attend his church with him. And, you know, there are rules about what judges can do. And they're also, you know, limits to what judges are comfortable doing in terms of, you know, supporting or endorsing someone, but invited me to come to church with him.

00;12;03;14 - 00;12;29;26
Chancellor Martin
And, he was in the choir at his church. So we weren't really sitting together, but we we shared a meal at the church after. But during that service, he participated in a announcement or presentation where there was an older single lady member of the church who had a special needs child. And this woman, I think, had always been worried about what was going to happen to her child after she passed.

00;12;29;26 - 00;12;59;12
Chancellor Martin
And it may have been a grandchild, but the net net is that Richard announced and was participating in this decision by the church to make sure that they always took care of this child. And he teared up and cried when he was making the presentation. And it was just so amazing because, you know, it told you how much he cared about people and how important his church family was to him and how, you know, family was really a part of that.

00;12;59;12 - 00;13;14;21
Chancellor Martin
And it was really, lovely and sweet. And again, he is such a tower of a figure in the legal community, in the civil rights community. But he was such a kind person who wanted to take care of everyone.

00;13;14;22 - 00;13;23;09
Host
We end this episode with Ian Dinkins discussing his father's legacy from his service to the city of Nashville to his family and his children.

00;13;23;12 - 00;13;44;00
Ian Dinkins
The sacrifices that he made for me personally. So I thank you for the sacrifices that he made just for, you know, Nashville and the city at large, and just know that, you know, you know, me, my siblings and everyone who comes after him doesn't take that lightly. And it's kind of on us to carry the torch. And that's our responsibility that, you know, I don't take lightly.

00;13;44;00 - 00;13;59;18
Ian Dinkins
That's responsibility that my siblings don't take lightly. And that's something that, we know will make him proud. And we know that he'll be up, you know, up in heaven with Yvonne Williams and the rest of the group. As far as, like a legacy you want to leave? It wasn't in law or wasn't being a judge. It was helping people.

00;13;59;18 - 00;14;14;10
Ian Dinkins
You know, I wasn't even one. To be a judge was to help people. So, you know, in my current field, you know, in my siblings current fields, you know, we all in different ways help people. And so I think that's the legacy that he wanted us to carry on and the legacy that we're all doing right now.

00;14;14;10 - 00;14;20;28
Host
Thank you for joining us on this episode of Tennessee Court Talk, celebrating the life and legacy of Judge Richard Dinkins.