HEAD OF COUNTY BAR WANTS TO AMEND LAWYERS' IMAGE

EAST ST. LOUIS - Circuit Judge Milton Wharton, the new president of the St.
Clair County Bar Association, wants to polish lawyers' image by having the
association work with community groups.

"The first thing that concerns all lawyers - black, white and female - is
the unfortunate negative image that many members of the public have about
lawyers," said Wharton, 55.

Wharton, who on July 1 became the first African-American to head the local
group, also wants to attract more blacks to the 600-member group - the
largest bar association in Southern Illinois. Only about a third of the 34
blacks who practice law in the area belong to the SCCBA, while almost all
white area lawyers belong to the group, he said.

"I want to make (the association) more visible and more inclusive," Wharton
said.

As part of that effort, Wharton's first association meeting will be held at
the Jackie Joyner-Kersee Community Center in East St. Louis, rather than
the group's usual meeting sites.

Wharton, of East St. Louis, also wants the group to meet at a site in
downtown East St. Louis. At the same time, Wharton plans to hold his
meetings throughout the area during his year term, so that St. Clair County
residents will become more familiar with its work.

At the meeting Sept. 25, Wharton wants the group of lawyers and judges to
bring their children so they can interact with other youngsters at the center.

He also plans to invite author Mark Curriden, who wrote "Contempt of
Court," a book about a lynching in Tennessee in the early 1900s. In the
book, Noah Parden, who eventually moved to East St. Louis, becomes the
first black to successfully argue a case before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Other Wharton plans include:

* Forming a committee to deal with Hispanic legal issues.

* Sponsoring programs with other groups.

* Establishing ties to other bar associations in the area.

Wharton said he wants to restart the dormant Metro East Bar Association, a
black legal group, to help deal with issues affecting black lawyers and
African-Americans at large.

For example, he would like to see efforts to educate more black county
residents about the importance of serving on juries. He said that,
typically, there are one or two blacks out of a dozen jurors in his
courtroom, yet most of the victims and criminals are black. Many blacks are
removed as prospective jurors because they have been victimized by crime,
he said.

Wharton would like to see both local associations do more to decrease the
number of people sentenced for drug offenses.

"When I first became judge, there were only 6,000 people incarcerated in
Illinois in 1976," Wharton said. "Now, there are almost 50,000 people
serving time for mostly drug offenses.

"I would like to see if we are doing everything to make sure alternatives
are utilized and doing everything to remedy the cause of this horrendous
situation."

He also intends to publicize lawyers' free legal work for the poor and the
donations they make to community groups.

Wharton's friends said his voluntarism serves as an example of lawyers
giving back to the community. "He has been always been very active in the
community," said Betty Blaes, executive secretary of the local bar.

Just last week, Wharton was voluntarily building houses in East St. Louis
for Habitat for Humanity. "It is important for people to have a legal
system that we have confidence in," Wharton said. "Clearly, if people lose
confidence in the justice system, then we are headed toward anarchy."