2017_Annual Report_single page

CELEBRATING A CAREER
Everett L. Greene
Ev Greene was having
mixed emotions. He’d
made a deal with his
wife and daughter that,
on reaching age 70,
he’d retire and become
a grandpa. It would mean
that, sometime after Dec. 13,
2017, he’d be obliged to end his law
practice and move to Maryland.
Summer was winding down, and a deal was a deal. On one
hand, Ev felt a deep and abiding sense of accomplishment.
After a 30-year career as a Navy SEAL -- in itself a
remarkable achievement, particularly for an African-
American in the late 1960s, no less for someone who had
failed the swimming test at the U.S. Naval Academy three
times – he was accepted at Howard University School of
Law and went on to have a fulfilling second career with
Cincinnati’s oldest general practice law firm.
“As I think back on law school, I’ve always considered it a
young person’s sport. I was the oldest student, definitely.
My then-adult children were older than any of my
classmates, and I was older than all my professors, except
for two or three World War II veterans who were my
parents’ age and who probably should have been retired.”
But he had advantages. For one, he knew why he was there.
Some of his classmates might not have had the same
commitment, he says. He looked at law school as if it were
his job. He showed up at 8 a.m., even when he didn’t have
classes. If he wasn’t in class, he was in the library until 5
p.m.
His reason for being there, for
choosing to become a lawyer, requires
some peeling of the onion. Toward
the end of his career with the Navy, he
was a captain, rank O6, a senior officer,
equivalent to an army colonel. One of
his jobs was to head up the Navy’s Equal
Opportunity Office in Washington,
D.C. A large part of the role focused on
reviewing and adjudicating complaints
of discrimination relating to race,
gender, sexual harassment, whatever.
He didn’t like what he saw. “I was
disappointed in the way some of the
JAGs -- judge advocate generals -- were
biased in favor of the chain of command.
Early on, I had expected a fair process.
But I was in a position where I could see
what went on behind admirals’ closed
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