Contact: Sasha Steinberg

STARKVILLE, Miss. —“Mississippi State can prepare you for anything,” Mississippi Supreme Court Chief Justice William L. “Bill” Waller Jr. said Friday [Sept. 16] at the university’s Constitution Day program.

“Mississippi State is a real player in preparing people for law school. I’m counting on some big things from all of you,” Waller told students gathered in the Dave C. Swalm Chemical Engineering Building’s fourth-floor suite.

Organized by the Office of the Provost and Executive Vice President and the Department of Political Science and Public Administration, Waller’s presentation was part of the university’s Lamar Conerly Governance Lecture Series.

The lecture series is made possible by major support from Conerly, a 1971 MSU accounting/pre-law graduate and longtime partner in the Destin, Florida, law firm of Conerly, Bowman and Dykes LLP. He is both a former national MSU Alumni Association president and continuing College of Business Alumni Fellow.

“In my opinion, the pre-law program here that is shepherded under (PSPA Assistant Clinical Professor) Whit Waide is one of the finest in the Southeast if not the nation,” Waller said. “If you’re interested in law school, that’s where you need to go.”

To ensure the rule of law is preserved in America’s courthouses, Waller said citizens and lawyers need to support and be involved in that process.

“You need to learn who the candidates are, what they stand for, what they’ve done, and make your own opinion and impression about who would be a good judge, and support that person. That’s very, very important,” Waller emphasized.

“There are lots of opportunities for Mississippi State students. We need good, honest folks,” Waller said.

At the conclusion of Waller’s address, Waide presented him with a cowbell on behalf of the Mississippi State Bulldog family. Waller was accompanied by his wife Charlotte, an Alcorn County native and fellow MSU graduate.

A Jackson native and Murrah High School graduate, Waller received an MSU business information systems degree in 1974 and a University of Mississippi Law School degree three years later. His father, the late William Waller Sr., served as Mississippi’s 55th Governor from 1972-76.

In addition to practicing law with the Waller and Waller firm for more than two decades, he served from 1995-96 as a municipal judge for the City of Jackson.

Waller was elected to the Mississippi Supreme Court in 1996 and was re-elected in 2004 and 2012. He served as a Presiding Justice from 2004 to 2008 before becoming Chief Justice in 2009. That same year, Waller received the university Pre-Law Society’s Distinguished Jurist Award.

Presently assigned to the Retired Reserve, Waller also has more than 30 years commissioned service in the Mississippi Army National Guard and the United States Army Reserve. A member of MSU’s John C. Stennis Institute Advisory Board, he is a graduate of the U.S. Army War College and Legion of Merit recipient. For complete biographical information, visit https://courts.ms.gov/appellate_courts/sc/bios/justicewaller.html.

Information about MSU’s Department of Political Science and Public Administration can be found at www.pspa.msstate.edu.

MSU is Mississippi’s leading university, available online at www.msstate.edu.