Wilbur O. Colom, 52, is the founding partner of The Colom Law Firm in Columbus, Miss. Colom, a native of Ripley, Miss., graduated from Howard University in 1968 and went on to attend the Antioch School of Law. While in law school, he served as a judicial intern for the Administrative Office of the U.S. Chief Justice.

He graduated from Antioch in 1976, and was admitted to the Mississippi Bar in 1977; to the U.S. District Court, Northern and Southern Districts of Mississippi in 1978; to the U.S. Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit in 1978; to the U.S. Court of Appeals, 11th Circuit, in 1981; and to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1982.

Colom opened his law practice in Columbus in 1977.

In 1982, barely five years out of law school, he argued before the U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of Joe Hogan, a male hospital employee who wanted to attend nursing school at Mississippi University for Women. Hogan won his case, and MUW is now a co-ed institution.

Colom served on the Board of Governors of Antioch College School of Law from 1978 to 1984. He was a adjunct professor at Mississippi University for Women in 1980, and at the University of Mississippi School of Law in 1985. He was awarded the Michigan School of Law's DeRoy Fellowship in 1983.

He served as a municipal court judge in Columbus from 1985-87, and in 1987 he ran for state treasurer. Colom is also an accomplished writer. While a student at Howard University he interned as a reporter for the Washington Post, where he was mentored by nationally syndicated columnist William Raspberry.

He was writer-in-residence for the District of Columbia Commission on Arts in 1973. He is co-author of the appellate advocacy chapter of Statsky and Warnet’s Case Analysis and Legal Writing, and has written numerous articles for the Washington Post, Miami Herald, JET, Democratic Review, New York Times Magazine, Newsday and The Commercial Dispatch.