UMKC Defying the Odds Alumni Award

Press Coverage: UMKC School of Law, 2017

In 2017, UMKC honored me with its Defying the Odds Alumni Award. The award recognized a career built on defying the odds: from public housing to a distinguished career spanning law, government, real estate development, and education.

I appreciate the recognition, but what I value more is what the award represents. A law school does not give its alumni achievement award to someone who simply practiced law successfully. They give it to someone whose legal education became a foundation for impact that extended far beyond the courtroom.

What Law School Actually Taught Me

People assume lawyers learn to argue. That is the least important thing law school teaches. What law school actually teaches is how to read complex systems, identify the rules that govern those systems, and use those rules to achieve outcomes.

Real estate development is a system governed by rules. Zoning codes. Building codes. Tax credit regulations. Environmental requirements. Fair housing laws. Public incentive statutes. Every project I have developed operates within a web of legal frameworks that most developers navigate by hiring lawyers. I navigate them because I trained as one.

The legal training I received at UMKC gave me a direct advantage in development that has compounded over 30 years. When I structure a LIHTC deal, I understand the Internal Revenue Code provisions that govern tax credit allocation. When I negotiate a TIF agreement, I understand the statutory framework that authorizes tax increment financing. When I engage with community opposition, I understand the legal rights of all parties involved.

This is not abstract knowledge. It is operational capability. The difference between a developer who understands the law and one who depends on outside counsel for every question is the difference between a firm that moves quickly and one that waits for legal review at every decision point.

The legal training also taught me how to read contracts with precision. In affordable housing development, the contracts are complex: partnership agreements with tax credit investors, construction contracts with general contractors, loan agreements with lenders, regulatory agreements with housing agencies. Each document contains provisions that affect the project's risk profile, timeline, and financial performance. A developer who signs contracts without understanding them is accepting risks that a legally trained developer would negotiate away.

The Odds That Were Defied

The law school specifically cited my background in framing the award. A kid from public housing earning a law degree and using it to build a career of national significance was not a likely outcome. The statistics on educational attainment for people from my background are clear: the vast majority do not finish college, let alone law school, let alone build careers that warrant alumni achievement awards.

I am not interested in presenting myself as an exception that proves the rule. I am interested in presenting myself as evidence that the rule is wrong. The barriers I overcame were systemic, not personal. I had the ability from the beginning. What I lacked was access. The access came through education, through mentors who believed in me, and through my own refusal to accept anyone else's assessment of my potential.

The law degree was one of nine degrees, and each one was a tool for a specific purpose. The law degree was arguably the most versatile because legal reasoning applies to everything: development, policy, governance, education, and advocacy. It is the Swiss Army knife of professional credentials.

What This Award Told Me

The alumni achievement award told me that the institution recognized the arc. Not just the degree, but what I did with it. Government service. Community activism. National recognition. Institutional leadership. All of it built on a legal education that gave me the analytical tools to operate in complex environments.

It also told me that UMKC takes pride in graduates who use their education for community impact, not just personal success. The law school could have given this award to someone who built a lucrative practice at a major firm. Instead, they gave it to someone who used a legal education to transform neighborhoods, shape policy, and teach the next generation.

That alignment between institutional values and personal mission is why I stayed connected to UMKC throughout my career. The university invested in me. I have spent 30 years repaying that investment by giving back to the institution and the community it serves.

Every skill I use at The Nash Group has roots in my legal education. Contract negotiation. Regulatory compliance. Risk assessment. Stakeholder management. These are legal skills applied to development contexts. Clients who work with us benefit from a firm led by someone who does not just understand the business side of development but the legal side as well.

The UMKC School of Law gave me the foundation. The alumni achievement award in 2017 was the acknowledgment that the foundation held.