The Starkville Rotary Club got to hear about the Mississippi Justice Institute and its mission, when its director, attorney Shad White, spoke Monday.
White has worked for the institute since 2017, and has also worked in private practice and as a special prosecutor in Rankin County. He also managed Gov. Phil Bryant’s successful 2015 reelection campaign, and worked for Bryant when he was lieutenant governor under Haley Barbour. He is an alumnus of the University of Mississippi and the Harvard Law School.
He described his journey from private practice to the institute.
“I was very fulfilled at law school fighting for things I believed in, but in private practice, I did not feel that same sort of drive and motivation,” White said.
He said he began seeing causes worth fighting for while still in private practice and began to gravitate away from wanting to practice as a private attorney.
“The more I read about our government and the economy, the more I was bothered by this notion that government in many ways, has tilted a lot of rules to hurt working people and help bigger businesses that typically are out-of-state,” White said. “I was bothered by these two things, so I quit my job, which was a hard thing to do, because I was what my grandfather would have called a ‘tall building lawyer.’ I had an office on the eleventh floor, and it was great, and I had a check coming in every month. I was on the partnership track, but I was just not fulfilled in the way I knew I could be doing something else.”
As the institute’s sole attorney, White has taken cases in instances where government and other entities threaten Mississippians, and has also sent letters to many other entities threatening legal action if they don’t change their direction. To handle the caseload, White works with pro bono attorneys on each case. So far, the institute, which was founded in 2016, has argued five cases in court, and sent out many more letters threatening action.
“We’re part of a non-profit, and we represent people in court when their constitutional rights have been taken away,” White said.
White gave two examples of cases the institute had been involved in, including one involving two men wishing to start a taxicab company in Jackson, but were blocked by regulations the city was later found to be ignoring with existing cab firms. He also discussed a case involving students of charter schools being threatened.
“We see things like that happening occasionally in little bitty pockets around Mississippi, and for folks like our cab drivers, without us they just sort of have to take it, and that’s the end of their business plan,” White said. “They can’t afford a lawyer. They don’t have any revenue coming in, because they haven’t started their company yet, but in a world where the Mississippi Justice Institute exists, we can jump in and represent them for free.”
White also said the institute was looking for potential cases, and pro bono attorneys. Those interested can email white@msjustice.org.
The Mississippi Justice Institute is a component of the Mississippi Institute for Public Policy, which works to promote and protect the concepts of free markets, limited government and strong traditional families.