News And Events
Marquis Who's Who Honors Ronald Lewis
September 28, 2020
OXFORD, MS, September 25, 2020 -- Marquis Who's Who, the world's premier publisher of biographical profiles, is proud to honor Ronald "Ron" W. Lewis, JD, with inclusion in Who's Who in the World. An accomplished listee, Mr. Lewis celebrates many years' experience in his professional network, and has been noted for achievements, leadership qualities, and the credentials and successes he has accrued in his field. As in all Marquis Who's Who biographical volumes, individuals profiled are selected on the basis of current reference value. Factors such as position, noteworthy accomplishments, visibility, and prominence in a field are all taken into account during the selection process.
Mr. Lewis is an attorney with more than four decades of practice dedicated to civil rights, employment discrimination and environmental protection cases. Developing his interest in legal services in a rather circuitous fashion, he attained a Bachelor of Arts from Dartmouth College in 1965, majoring in French language and literature. He then was awarded a French government grant allowing him to work as an English teaching assistant for an academic year in a high school of the city of Orleans, France. He then returned to the U.S. and earned a Master of Arts in teaching French at Harvard University in 1969 and spent several years exploring careers in education, journalism and artist blacksmithing before enrolling in law school. Driven by a desire to help defend individuals, communities and the environment, and by sensing that his skills would be better used in a legal setting than a journalistic one, Mr. Lewis attended the University of Mississippi School of Law, completing a Doctor of Jurisprudence in 1978.
Since 1978, Mr. Lewis has maintained a private legal practice in Oxford, Mississippi, currently doing business as the Lewis Law Firm. In 1981, he became an associate of the firm Hill Lewis & Bell, where he would practice until 1986, departing for an associate position with Holcomb, Dunbar, Connell, Chaffin & Willard. Mr. Lewis' early work centered on environmental law, and he successfully presented cases against two federal agencies preventing the channelization of local rivers and proposed construction of a nuclear power station in rural northeast Mississippi. Later in his career, he shifted his focus to discrimination and civil rights cases involving First, Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment case law, and was hired to represent plaintiffs, including the ACLU and several other civil rights groups, as well as many individuals, in a lawsuit against the State of Mississippi. It was a class action. He and his colleague obtained a federal consent judgment against the State, in which the State admitted it had spied on and disrupted the lives of civil rights activists and agreed to disclose confidential files about that activity. Mr. Lewis has been admitted to practice law before the United States District Courts for the Northern and Southern Districts of Mississippi, the United States Court of Federal Claims and the Supreme Court of the United States.
As an advocate for social justice and equity in the legal profession, Mr. Lewis has been involved in numerous advisory boards and professional organizations throughout his career, including service as a Criminal Justice Act panel representative to the national conference and local federal criminal defense training coordinator. He is the former chair of the Lafayette County Democratic Executive Committee, a former board director of the ACLU of Mississippi, and recently retired his membership on the University of Mississippi's Institutional Review Board, where he had served since 1999, and a former chairman of the Mississippi branch of the Sierra Club. In recognition of his outstanding record of practice, Mr. Lewis holds an AV preeminent peer rating from Martindale-Hubbell. He remains professionally affiliated with the Lafayette County Bar Association, the Mississippi Bar Association and is a longtime supporter of environmental protection organizations. He continues to practice law in state and federal courts.
About Marquis Who's Who®
Since 1899, when A. N. Marquis printed the First Edition of Who's Who in America®, Marquis Who's Who® has chronicled the lives of the most accomplished individuals and innovators from every significant field of endeavor, including politics, business, medicine, law, education, art, religion and entertainment. Today, Who's Who in America® remains an essential biographical source for thousands of researchers, journalists, librarians and executive search firms around the world. Marquis® now publishes many Who's Who titles, including Who's Who in America®, Who's Who in the World®, Who's Who in American Law®, Who's Who in Medicine and Healthcare®, Who's Who in Science and Engineering®, and Who's Who in Asia®. Marquis® publications may be visited at the official Marquis Who's Who® website at www.marquiswhoswho.com.
