Member Focus: Graham Williams

Where are you from?

I grew up in River Ridge right outside of New Orleans—I come from a big family, they're all from here, which is really nice. When I was growing up, I was always about five minutes away from any family member's house. It's really nice to have a big network of family so closeby.

New Orleans and family are kind of interchangeable. And so that's what keeps me here and that's what will always keep me here. When the city and your family become one and the same there's really nowhere else to go.

What is your favorite part about living here?

The weirdness. You know people say Keep Austin weird; but New Orleans has it’s own weirdness that is unique. People live exactly how they want to live here, and it's very much a work to live place. A Happiness first place. And that's how I view life as well. I live in the French Quarter, so I get a lot of weirdness on a daily basis.

What was the moment you realize you wanted to come back?

It was my third year in college at UVA in Charlottesville, Virginia. I was missing Mardi Gras. It was snowing in Virginia and my 4Runner got stuck in the snow. My friends from back home had sent me a bunch of beads and I had to take all of the beads and stuff them under my tires to get my car out of the snow. And at that moment, I thought: ‘this is not it, I need to get back to where life makes sense.’ Every morning after that, there were crushed mardi gras beads on the ground everywhere I went because my car basically had no treads. 

What is your professional background? 

I'm an attorney, I do a lot of land use work representing small hotels. I also do plaintiff side work, but mostly business disputes. So when you think about the lawyers you see on the billboards, they're doing personal injury on contingency. I do business disputes on contingency which is not as common in New Orleans.

What is your favorite part about your job?

I like being the person that people call. I became a lawyer because my uncle was that person in my family. And he was the lawyer and everyone went to him. You know, most of the problems that they had weren't legal issues, but whenever they had a problem, they would go to him. I like being that kind of go-to person for people.

How did you hear about Common House

I went to school in Virginia so I had heard about it while living there. I also heard about it from my friend Taylor Jackson. Anything she's involved in, I want to be as well. Once she said she was involved, I knew I had to join.

Are you excited about anything in particular about Common House? 

I'm looking forward to the nostalgia of being in the old Children's Museum, but with the beautiful current touches. I think it's going to be a mix of beautiful design and childhood flashbacks. I'm dying to see how it's gonna look because we all (New Orleanians) grew up going to that museum!