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When William W. “Will” Davis, Jr. ’93 arrived at Saint James School as a new student, he was sure of one thing: he was going to be a music producer.

“I was involved in music before then,” he said. “My nickname when I was at Saint James was the Music Man. I brought all my keyboards on campus and I’m thinking I’m making rap beats and stuff, right? So, it’s great.”

Those beats were supposed to be his future. Instead, they became the soundtrack to an unexpected journey—from reluctant boarding student to English major, from would-be entertainment lawyer to criminal defense attorney, and ultimately to Circuit Court Judge in Cecil County, Maryland.

After graduating from Saint James, Will headed to Morehouse College in Atlanta with his sights still firmly set on the music world.

“My whole thought was, I’m going to become this big-time music producer,” he said. “I went to college in Atlanta with a goal of getting a degree of some sort and following my dreams into music.”

Atlanta in the 1990s was emerging as a powerhouse in hip-hop and R&B. Will was in the right city, with the right dream, but the timing didn’t quite cooperate. He moved from college into law school at Georgia State University.

“I really kind of stumbled my way into law,” he said. “When I was getting ready to graduate undergrad, I still hadn’t made my million dollars as a musician. So, I said, oh man, what am I going to do?”

His “genius idea,” as he calls it, was to go to law school and become an entertainment lawyer, staying close to the industry he loved. He focused on intellectual property courses, but one class changed everything.

“I actually took a litigation class. I really did well,” he said. “That was my first time doing something courtroom related. I got honors in litigation—the first time I got honors for much of anything. So, I kind of put a pin in that.”

An externship with the Georgia Justice Project, a nonprofit criminal law organization, turned that “pin” into a serious interest. “I really started getting the bug for criminal law,” he said.

Life soon pulled Will north to the Delaware–Pennsylvania–Maryland region. He hoped to build an entertainment law practice in Philadelphia, but again, the timing was off.

“Unfortunately, I kind of missed the Philadelphia scene. When I left Atlanta, that’s when the Atlanta music scene blew up. And when I got to Philly, that whole scene was on the way out,” he said.

He took the Pennsylvania bar exam and then the Maryland bar when he settled in Cecil County. That’s where a local public defender introduced him to “panel work”—serving as a privately practicing lawyer appointed to represent indigent defendants when the public defender’s office has a conflict.

“I started doing a lot of that,” he said. “That helped me to start my own private practice. I was representing so many people in the county they started to get to know me. Then they would hire me to do criminal work in a private capacity. I was always doing criminal defense work, it was just in different capacities.”

From 2004 to 2016, Will ran his own firm, the Will Davis Law Firm, P.C., gradually focusing almost exclusively on criminal defense. At the same time, he was serving on boards across the community—the YMCA, the local college, a mental health facility—because it felt like the right way to give back to the community.

In Maryland, circuit court judges are appointed by the governor after a rigorous vetting process that begins with local bar groups and ends with the Judicial Nominating Commission’s “short list.” Will hadn’t always envisioned becoming a judge. The idea took root when he heard a district court judge discussing retirement and the possibility of serving as a visiting judge.

He applied when two positions opened in Cecil County. After multiple interviews, he was nominated and eventually selected by Governor Larry Hogan in 2016 to serve on the Circuit Court.

“I made the short list for the governor,” he said. “I had my first time meeting Governor Hogan and went through my interview process, and he selected me to be a judge.”

The appointment was historic. “I became the first African-American judge in my county,” Will said. “Now, out of six judges, the majority are minority. It’s a total change in how the bench looks.”

For Will, that change reflects a community ready for a more representative judiciary. 

“I’ve been greeted with nothing but positivity,” he said. “I love what I do. I enjoy the lawyers. I enjoy the people.”

As a circuit court judge, his docket spans serious criminal matters, family law, and more. He especially values his juvenile delinquency docket.

“That’s one of my favorites,” he said. “I do have a soft spot for trying to help these kids out.”

When jury trials are underway, he sees his role in simple terms. 

“All I am in a jury trial, I’m just a referee,” he said. “I just call balls and strikes.”

Ask Will where he truly began to grow into the person he is today, and he doesn’t start with college or law school. He starts with Saint James.

“I think Saint James really helped to make me who I am,” he said. “I can say I feel like the Saint James experience was more impactful even than my secondary school experience. There was no experience quite like Saint James.”

His path to campus was reluctant. His family moved from Delaware to Prince George’s County, Maryland, and his father worried about the local public schools. When his parents found Saint James, Will was skeptical.

“I remember going to visit Saint James and seeing cows in the fields,” he said. “I think I laughed. I was like, ‘oh, this is not happening.’”
But it did happen. And it changed his life.

“I was an average student in public school,” he said. “Some people talk about falling between the cracks. I looked for a crack and dove into the crack in public school, seriously. You can’t do that at Saint James. It’s too small a student body. You cannot hide there.”

That environment, combined with dedicated teachers, helped him turn things around academically. 

“I needed to be somewhere where everybody cared about me,” he said. “Being determined and having those teachers there, having the atmosphere as it was, helped me to become a decent enough student and get into college.”

In his sixth form year, Will served as a prefect and fully embraced the community he once resisted. 

“It became an extended family that I got at Saint James,” he said. “It was just a wonderful experience.”

Will was in Father Dunnan’s first graduating class, so it was meaningful when he took part in Will’s investiture as a circuit court judge. 
“Father Dunnan came and spoke at my investiture,” Will said. “It really was an honor because I feel like Saint James helped to make me who I am.”

Today, Will is in his tenth year on the bench. He continues to speak at career days, church events, and Martin Luther King Day programs. He has served on statewide committees focused on equal justice and juvenile law, and he still thinks about how to bring his first love, music, into his work with young people.

“I would love to get back to music dealing with the youth,” he said. “If I could do something to help troubled youth, I would like to do that.”

From “Music Man” in a Saint James dorm room to a circuit court judge, Will's story may not be what he imagined but he is a leader for good shaping lives in his community.