Faces:

The responsibility of being first

N.Y. judge works to open doors for other African Americans

Lance Clarke is excited and honored to be the first. He just doesn’t want to be the last.

Clarke, a member of Epiphany Lutheran Church, Hempstead, N.Y., was named president of the Nassau County Bar Association, the state’s largest suburban bar association. He is the first African American president in the bar’s 108-year history.

Judge Lance Clarke: “Racial and social barriers can be defeated by exposure.”

The journey toward Nassau’s top lawyer began during college when Clarke spent much of his non-class time watching the Watergate hearings on TV. “At the time I wasn’t sure what I wanted to be,” he said. “I just thought about graduating and getting a good job. Watching those hearings, I thought maybe the law was for me.”

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