Practice Local, Think Global

What do five-minute interviews, going broke on the first day of a fellowship in Nairobi, opening a high-end hosiery franchise, and being appointed to an international trade committee by the Obama administration have in common? They are all experiences that shaped the fascinating life and legal career of Craig Owen White.

Nurtured by his father and teachers to be curious, Craig knew he wanted to be an attorney at a young age. A fellowship after college sent him on a yearlong journey of self-discovery in Kenya and Ghana and cemented a pattern of listening and learning as much as he instructed. 

After law school and several years as a corporate law associate, Craig and his wife opened a high-end retail hosiery business in downtown Cleveland to create jobs in the Black community. That experience shaped his work with the International Senior Lawyers Project in Africa, as well as an appointment by the Cleveland City Council to negotiate with the NFL to bring the Browns back to town. The current partner in charge at Hahn Loeser & Parks’ Cleveland office, Craig is also the chair of the Trade Advisory Committee on Africa to which he was appointed by the Obama Administration. This sticky lawyer has left his imprint all over the world. Enjoy his story.

Chapters

• 2:51 Early influence of fathers in 1960s Cleveland
• 3:56 Deciding to be a lawyer at age 7 after visiting the corporate office of a friend's dad
• 4:45 Close relationship with his father fostered his curiosity
• 6:01 Encouragement by an English teacher to share his thoughts with an author led to a habit of asking people for 5 minutes of their time
• 8:06 Applying for and becoming a Thomas J. Watson, Jr., Foundation fellow for a year of self-journey and self-discovery after college graduation
• 9:10 Devising a comparative study of the provision of low-income housing in Nairobi, Kenya, and Accra, Ghana, with no on-site sponsors
• 10:05 Out of money after his first day in Nairobi
• 10:58 Relying on the kindness of strangers
• 12:21 Starting law school at UVA, confident in his survival skills
• 13:09 Volunteering for the International Senior Lawyers Project (ISLP) to help support the rule of law and equitable ecomonic development around the world
• 14:55 Travling to S. Africa with ISLP to teach the Commercial Law Training Course in the post-apartheid era
• 17:22 Redesigning the Commercial Law Training Course in terms of the S. African lawyers understood
• 19:06 Reminding western lawyers to learn as much as they teach with their African counterparts
• 23:46 Practicing law in Cleveland and starting a retail high-end hosiery business to create jobs within the Black community
• 25:36 Stretched thin, practicing law, and opening Socks Appeal location #2
• 28:08 Negotiating with the NFL to bring the Browns back to Cleveland and serving on the Board of Central State University
• 29:27 Being appointed to the Trade Advisory Committee on Africa (TACA) by the Obama Administration
• 31:08 Mentoring young lawyers in his firm about what is means to be a lawyer and seeing it as a calling