Fred is a senior partner in the general litigation group in the Jackson office. He is a former Presiding Justice of the Mississippi Supreme Court and retired from that position in October 2001. He was appointed to the Mississippi Supreme Court in 1991. Before that he served as a circuit judge in Hinds and Yazoo counties. From 1976 until 1985, Fred served in the Mississippi House of Representatives where he Chaired the Ethics Committee, a Judiciary Committee and the Legislative Black Caucus. Fred also served as a member of the Mississippi Board of Bar Admissions from 1978 to 1980, and as a member of a number of advisory commissions at the state and federal level. He practices in the areas of commercial litigation, alternative dispute resolution, legislative and governmental relations and appellate law. Fred is among a select group of lawyers, recognized in the category of Litigation: Appellate, listed in a nationwide client survey published in Chambers USA, America?s Leading Lawyers for Business.  He is also listed in The Best Lawyers in America. 

• Howard University, J.D., cum laude, 1968; Civil Rights and Book Reviews Editor, Howard Law Journal
• Howard University, B.A. in Business Administration (Accounting), 1965

• Member: American Law Institute; Mississippi Bar Association; Magnolia Bar Association; National Bar Association; American Bar Association; District of Columbia Bar Association; Charles Clark Inn of the American Inns of Court; Sigma Pi Phi Fraternity
• Fellow: Mississippi Bar Foundation
• Boards of Directors: National Board of Directors of NAACP, Chair of the Legal Committee; Chair, Capitol City Convention Center Commission; Chair, Mississippi Center for Justice; Numerous other non-profit community improvment activities

• Mississippi Civil Procedure, Chapter 13, Trial and Post-Trial Motions, Westgroup 2001
• The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit: A Personal Perspective, 16 Mississippi College Law Review 275 (Spring 1996)
• Has made numerous speeches and presentations at seminars in the area of appellate and trial practice to such groups as the Missisippi Bar Association, Mississippi Trial Lawyers Association, Magnolia Bar Association, National Bar Association, National Judicial Counsel, Mississippi Public Defenders Association