Washington Lawyer July/August 2026
By John Murph
About 10 years ago, Zenia Wilson Laws noticed a void in Washington, D.C.'s legal landscape. There was no voluntary bar association that catered to her Caribbean heritage. In 2025 Laws changed that, cofounding the DC Caribbean Bar Association with Maryland-based attorney Gabriel J. Christian.
Approximately 83,400 Caribbean immigrants reside in the Washington, D.C., and Baltimore metro areas, according to the Institute for Immigration Research at George Mason University. "There are a lot of people who come here to go to the universities or start their careers, but they are away from their homes in many ways," says Laws, who works as special counsel for nuisance abatement with the D.C. Office of the Attorney General. "So, I wanted to create something that celebrates our culture and heritage while also building a community that helps with professional development and advancement."
Laws cites her participation in the D.C. Bar John Payton Leadership Academy in 2024 as a major catalyst for forming the DC Caribbean Bar Association. "Graduating from the Leadership Academy got my gears running a bit," Laws says. "I kept thinking about how to bring my authentic self to my professional life with my cultural identity. I feel my freest when I can celebrate my culture."
Laws says there was a time when her Caribbean heritage and her legal career were siloed. But as she began to network more, she noticed more people in the D.C. legal community with roots in the Caribbean diaspora. "We have a big diplomatic influence here," she says. "There are diplomats from the Caribbean living here; there are people working in policy. So, I was thinking of ways to funnel that professional collective energy into something powerful."
"Zenia was made for this moment," Christian says. "Through her superior intelligence, zealous pursuit of a noble objective, kindness, and commitment to friendship and togetherness, she has helped birth an organization that reflects the very soul of the Caribbean in our nation's capital."
Community and Discipline
Growing up in West Baltimore with a Trinidadian father and American mother, Laws understood the high premium Caribbean people place on community. "I grew up in a household of just celebrating our heritage, celebrating our roots, and listening to soca, calypso, reggae, and dancehall," says Laws, who lived primarily with her father, Curtis Wilson.
Her mother, Angela Riley, struggled with drug addiction during Laws's early life. "Now, she's in recovery," Laws says. "She's been sober for 22 years."
The emphasis on community was paired with a strong regard for discipline. Laws says her father was a laborer who worked on planes in the U.S. Air Force, and for him, "hard work, education, and household discipline" were paramount.
"That discipline was not something I appreciated at the time because it felt very stifling," Laws says. "It didn't feel like freedom. However, later in life, I understood why he was so hard on me and my three siblings. He did not get an education like we were able to. I can appreciate the discipline now."
That strict discipline at home was offset by moments of joy, Laws recalls, particularly when her father's friends and family would come over to listen to music by Jamaican artists such as Garnett Silk, Sanchez, and Luciano and enjoy comfort food such as roti, oxtail, and curry goat or chicken. "When my father was able to express himself through his culture, he was the happiest," Laws says.
Pathway to Law School
After high school, Laws attended Morgan State University, where she earned a bachelor's degree in philosophy and pre-law. During her freshman year, Laws learned about the Baltimore Scholars Program (now called the Fannie Angelos Program for Academic Excellence), which provides financial assistance to students from underrepresented and underserved populations seeking to enter law school.
Even though the program was intended for upperclass students, Laws applied anyway and got accepted. "I ended up being the only person who applied," she recalls. "Also, my plan was to graduate from Morgan State in three years, which I did."
The program assisted Laws with preparing for the LSAT, paving the way for a full scholarship to the University of Baltimore School of Law. "Getting a full scholarship to law school was not really heard of," Laws says. "I jumped on that opportunity."
Laws says that witnessing some of her family members get involved with the criminal justice system inspired her to study law. "I remember feeling that the judicial system was unfair," she says. "I wanted to right the wrongs I saw. I felt like the law would be a good place where I could improve my life and create opportunities where I could do good for other people."
Navigating the Legal Profession
Law school, however, presented challenges. "I knew I wanted to go, but I just didn't know how to navigate it once I was there," Laws recalls. "There was the Black Law Students Association, where I made some connections. But I didn't understand the big picture that showed me what was going to happen after law school. I didn't have anyone in my family who was a lawyer."
After graduating in 2012, still unclear about her legal career path, Laws decided to volunteer with AmeriCorps VISTA in Portland, working with the Fair Housing Council of Oregon. She also secured a three-month clerkship with the city's Multnomah County Health Department.
It was while living in Portland that Laws learned that she'd passed the Maryland bar exam. Still, Laws says she felt "directionless." She left Oregon for California, working as a volunteer attorney at the Los Angeles County Bar Association Immigration Legal Assistance Project for three months. Soon after, she returned to the East Coast, working as a contractor at the U.S. Department of Justice for more than a year before landing a job as a staff attorney with Maryland Legal Aid.
"I really liked my job there," Laws says of her two-year stint at Maryland Legal Aid. "I did community lawyering. One part of my job was working in West Baltimore at the library. We had this program called 'Lawyer in the Library,' in which we did expungements. It was in the same neighborhood where I grew up. Sometimes I would even see people whom I knew there. That was really a full-circle moment."
During that time, Laws commuted back and forth between Washington, D.C., and Baltimore. She knew that she wanted to practice in the District, so she waived into the D.C. Bar in 2018 and joined Legal Aid DC in 2019 as a staff attorney in its consumer law unit.
Becoming a Leader
It was during her five-year tenure at Legal Aid DC that Laws became interested in the John Payton Leadership Academy. "When I first started going to events at the D.C. Bar, there were so many people and new faces. I didn't understand much about the offerings the D.C. Bar had," Laws says. "I just felt a little out of place. I felt like a lot of the programs were geared toward people in Big Law."
"The John Payton Leadership Academy opened my eyes to all of the different things that are available for lawyers at the D.C. Bar," Laws adds. "I saw so many other attorneys doing the same things I was doing in different workspaces. People were doing jobs that I did not even know existed."
The Leadership Academy also provided Laws a new platform to do some deep "soul searching." "I felt very connected to the people who were a part of my cohort at the academy. Had I not done the Leadership Academy, I would have just stayed in my bubble. It opened up possibilities for me," Laws says.
Laws went on to join the D.C. Office of the Attorney General as special counsel in June 2024 and to launch the DC Caribbean Bar Association in October 2025.
To Laws, forming the association was like launching a start-up business, which involved registering it with the city, obtaining 501(c)(6) status, building an online presence, and establishing its bylaws and board.
"[The DC Caribbean Bar Association] is definitely in its start-up phase, but it's something that should be sustainable," Laws says. "While I'm the founder and president, the next person who becomes president will bring their vision and so on into the future. I'm hoping that will happen."
There also has been an outpouring of support from people who are not lawyers — "just Caribbean people who are excited about the existence of a professional organization in D.C. where we acknowledge lawyers in this space," Laws says. "Some people come to our events seeking a lawyer with a similar cultural background."
"Caribbean people work hard, but we also play hard. We like having a good time. That work–life balance thing is something that a lot of Caribbean people have figured out," adds Laws.
D.C. Bar staff writer John Murph has received three Luminary Awards from the Association for Bar Professionals for his feature articles. Reach him at [email protected].
