Standout athlete returns to practice law

LaDray Gilbert, 28, will open a law office in Marianna on Jan. 23 at 2880 Green St., in the Daffin Building next to the offices of Melvin Engineering and Dr. Willie Spires.
The former high school athlete and scholarship winner’s entry into the local law community will make him the only African-American lawyer in private practice in Jackson County.
The Gilbert Firm will specialize in family, criminal and injury law.
A 2000 graduate of Malone High School, Gilbert earned his law degree at the FAMU College of Law, Orlando, in May of 2008. He lived and worked almost a year in Orlando at various law firms after his graduation, but moved back to Jackson County in February 2009 to care for his parents.
He is the son of Johnnie Lee Gilbert and of the late Carnell Gilbert of Malone, who died about a month ago.
Gilbert is a member of Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church, where he is a youth Sunday school teacher. While in Orlando, he volunteered at various organizations and served as a mentor to other law school students. He expects to continue that volunteer work here.
Gilbert said it was his father who helped him realize that opening an office here was a better idea than moving back to Orlando to practice.
“By the time I got to the point of thinking about going back, I’d become really involved in my church and re-established a lot of relationships with people that I cherish,” Gilbert said. “It was that, and my dad also told me, ‘They need you here a whole lot more than in Orlando,’ and I realized that maybe I could make more of a difference here.”
Gilbert said he wants to live his life and conduct his career in a way that will serve as an example for others.
“My main thing is to help my family and other kids similarly situated like me,” he said. “I feel like I can show them that there are things and opportunities out there that they may never have thought about. I hope that I can be an example to other young people of what you can achieve with hard work.”
Gilbert said his parents gave him the foundation he needed.
“I never wanted for a thing coming up — some people kid me and say I’m spoiled — but that was because my parents were very hard-working people,” he said. “My mother was a custodian in the school system and she had other jobs, for private companies, too, and my father worked for the airport in Dothan. They instilled it in me that there are no excuses, that hard work is necessary to get what you want in life. I realized more and more how much I wanted to be around for the kids here, to show them what can happen.”
Gilbert also holds a B.A. degree in business administration. He earned that at FAMU’s School of Business in Tallahassee. It was in his sophomore year there that he decided to enter law school.
“Daryl Parks at the Parks and Crump law firm in Tallahassee gave me a job at Christmas break,” he recalled, “and it blossomed from there. Until then, I’d always figured that I’d work for a big accounting firm and work behind a desk for 30 years. It was something I knew I could make good money at, but being in a law office, I was able to see more opportunity and more meaning in law.”
Gilbert said he sees opportunities beyond the money in his work. It was less limiting than business in terms of interest and scope, and is also closer to his personal goals.
“It gives me the chance to give people a voice who have no voice for themselves,” he said. “I think about my mother. She was once injured on the job, and she didn’t really know how to fight for herself in the corporate world. As a result, it was just swept under the rug. I’ve got the knowledge now to help other people like her, and I think this is a more rewarding way to spend my life. I just wake up every day and thank God that I have the opportunity.”
Gilbert said that, although it is coincidental that he’s opening his firm around the time Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is being celebrated, he finds it a special and meaningful circumstance.
Gilbert said he believes he will be accepted in his new role as the only African-American lawyer in private practice here.
“The Lord has blessed me, and I’m not trying to gear myself to a particular people, although I realize what this may mean symbolically to some,” Gilbert said. “But everybody needs help and information and I think I will be accepted across the board in my community.
“My grandparents taught me that if you go and treat people fairly, then that will speak for you, and that’s what speaks the loudest about you. I was one of the few black people on my academic team and my baseball team in high school, and I forged some very strong relationships will a lot of different kinds of people,” he continued. “I’m not just a lawyer doing a job, but a person trying to help others. That’s at the forefront of what I do and I think people of all kinds will respect and appreciate that.”
The Jackson County Chamber of Commerce is hosting a grand opening and ribbon-cutting ceremony to officially open his business. It will be held at his office on Jan. 23 at 2:30 p..m. It is the chamber’s first ribbon cutting of the new year.
“The entrepreneurial spirit is alive and well in Jackson County, and we are excited to help new businesses get off to a quick and profitable start,” chamber CEO Art Kimbrough said in a press release about the event.
“Besides being an outstanding young man who excelled academically, LaDray is remembered by many local sports enthusiasts as an exceptional athlete who earned a baseball scholarship to FAMU after graduating from Malone High School,” Kimbrough said. “Beyond just celebrating the opening of LaDray Gilbert’s new law practice in Marianna, it is wonderful to celebrate the return of one of our community’s bright young people right after college to establish their business in their home community. We hope he will serve as an example for other young people to follow.”
For more information, contact Gilbert at 482-2223, or call the chamber at 482-8060.