Anthony Collier
“Before coming to law school, I was excited to join the William Wayne Justice Center’s rich legacy of public service. Now, as a law student, the Justice Center is a safe haven for me, a place to recoup and recharge. Every time I enter the Justice Center, I am reminded of why I came to law school -- to be equipped with tools to improve the lives of others and to help make America as good as her promise.”
Anthony Collier is director of criminal justice at the National Urban League in New York City. Immediately after graduating from law school, he served as general counsel to Texas State Senator John Whitmire, chair of the Criminal Justice Committee.
At Texas Law, Anthony was a member of the Justice Center's student advisory board, the Public Interest Law Association, First Generation Law Students, and the Thurgood Marshall Legal Society (TMLS), Texas Law's affiliate of the National Black Law Students Association. As a 2L, he was president of Texas Law's Student Bar Association and served as the 2020-21 chair of the Southwest Region of the National Black Law Students Association. In spring 2021, he was elected to serve as chair of the National Black Law Students Association, the largest student-run nonprofit in the nation, for a one-year term. He also served on the executive board of the National Bar Association, the nation's oldest and largest network of predominantly African-American attorneys and judges.
As a 1L, Anthony volunteered with Law For Black Lives, a pro bono project researching how to deploy legal strategies to seek relief for the scores of Black people and others harmed by narcotic-related convictions, part of a nationwide effort to help address the racialized impact of the War on Drugs. He participated in the Civil Rights Clinic, Legislative Lawyering Clinic, and Criminal Defense Clinic. Anthony spent the summer after his 1L year working as a 2020 Law Fellow with the NAACP’s national legal department in Washington, D.C. He spent the summer after his 2L year working on Capitol Hill as a Judiciary Fellow for U.S. Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, the senior member of the House Committees on the Judiciary and Homeland Security. Lee represents Collier’s home district, the historic 18th Congressional District in Houston once led by Barbara Jordan.
Anthony graduated from Texas Southern University in Houston with a BA in Political Science and Communications. At TSU, Anthony was student body president of the Barbara Jordan-Mickey Leland School of Public Affairs and worked for the Texas State NAACP and as a policy analyst with the Texas Senate. After graduating from college, he worked as a legislative director at the Texas House of Representatives. He’s interested in criminal justice reform and community empowerment.