Emerging Leader Guides Next Generation

Erick Russell had advice for an African-American woman from New Haven about to begin a legal career: You belong.

“You’re right where you’re supposed to be,” Russell told the woman, fellow University of Connecticut Law School grad Ashley McWilliams.

Russell spends a lot of time mentoring students and young lawyers of color like McWilliams, as well as young LGBT lawyers and young people getting involved in local and state politics. He knows what it’s like to feel you might not belong in the legal world after growing up in New Haven — and how important it is to get past that feeling.

Russell did. At 30, he specializes in government finance as an attorney with the firm of Pullman & Comley. He’s a rising star: In the past six months he has won four separate awards, from Super Lawyers Connecticut, the UConn Alumni Association, Fairfield County Business Journal, and the George W. Crawford Black Bar Association.

The latter organization, named after New Haven government’s first African-American corporation counsel and consisting of black lawyers, helped Russell navigate law school and the work world.

“I was the first person in my family to go to college. I didn’t grow up around lawyers. I didn’t see other lawyers who looked like me,” he recalled during an appearance on WNHH FM’s ​“Dateline New Haven” program.

Russell is part of a generational changing of the guard in his hometown. A millennial campaign manager helped elect the city’s first post-Baby Boomer mayor on Nov. 5. Millennials and Gen Yers have taken leadership roles in the nonprofit and business development sectors. From promoting high-tech to advancing in law to assuming Democratic Party positions, Russell has emerged as one of the new leaders to watch.

Russell had his eyes on a legal career since he began stocking shelves and running the register at 9 years old in his parents’ store, Fast Food Deli on Congress Avenue. He met a lot of cops there. He liked them.

“I didn’t see many cops that looked like me,” Russell recalled. ​“I thought that might be a way I could contribute.”

So he went to University of New Haven, intending to be a cop. Then-State Rep. Michael Lawlor took him to the state Capitol to watch a debate over banning the death penalty; that ​“sparked my interest in policy.”

It didn’t occur to him he could be a lawyer. He decided to apply to law school anyway — one law school, UConn — and got in.

It was only in law school that he came out as gay, he said. (Two years ago he married Chris Lyddy.) He was one of only a handful of African-Americans at UConn law. So he knew what it was like to be an outsider.

He also discovered that he belonged. He thrived at UConn.

He interned for a summer in the state prosecutor’s office in Milford, seeing a possibility of following a similar path. It didn’t occur to him he would ever work at a private law firm. Didn’t seem he would fit in.

Until a summer internship at Pullman & Comley.

“All the concerns I had about being accepted and comfortable” vanished, he said. And the work intrigued him. So, with some helpful advice from mentors, he decided to make that plunge after graduation. He now represents municipal and state governments in issuing bonds, among other tasks.

Ashley McWilliams (pictured) navigated a similar path — with Russell’s help.

Growing up, McWilliams knew his family from the People’s Choice, the Dixwell Avenue convenience store they opened after running the one in the Hill. Like Russell, she graduated from Hillhouse and eventually ended up at UConn, then took a job with an established firm, in her case concentrating on insurance law.

Russell connected with her through a UConn alumni mentoring network while she was still studying there. They remain in touch.

Sometimes they meet in person over lunch. More often she calls or emails or texts him. He helped her deal with ​“culturally insensitive” moments in constitutional law class. He helped her work through what kind of law to practice, in what setting to practice it, questions about billable hours and client and partner interaction.

She spoke of how, ​“often in certain spaces” she finds herself ​“having to question whether it was the proper place for me, be it my color, be it my gender.” Russell has reassured her, and has always offered ​“sound advice.” He continues to. 

Russell has devoted long hours not just to mentoring up-and-coming students, but to participating in policy and politics. He spent two terms chairing the state bar association’s LGBT section. When he lived in the City Point neighborhood (he has since moved to Upper Westville), he served as co-chair of the Democratic ward committee. Now he serves as vice-chair of the state Democratic Party. He’s part of a group of younger people working hard to draw a new generation into the party. The national party has tapped him to serve as Eastern Region vice-chair of the Association of State Democratic Committees.

“These are the young people we’re looking for. We’re looking for diversity, professionalism, dedication to the community and to the state and to the nation,” said state Democratic Party Chair Nancy Wyman. ​“He’s going to inspire more and more young people to get involved. He’s showing that you can balance” a law career with public service.

“Erick is a bright young lawyer with a keen sense of right and wrong,” said New Haven Democratic Town Chair Vincent Mauro Jr. ​“His contributions will only continue to make this city a more inclusive and compassionate place.”

Russell’s name has already popped up as a potential future candidate, when it appeared in 2018 that Ned Lamont might invite Gary Winfield to run as his lieutenant governor candidate and Winfield’s state Senate seat might open. (Lamont reneged on the offer.)

But Russell insisted pursuing elected office is not ​“my plan.”

“I don’t have any plans to run for office. My thing has always been making contributions,” he said. ​“I don’t think that you need to be elected to contribute.”

Whatever roads he ends up following, Russell is among the drivers at the helm of generational change in New Haven.

Click on the video below to watch the full interview with Erick Russell on WNHH FM’s ​“Dateline New Haven.”