Christopher Lomax, B.M. ’05, J.D. ’08, a former federal prosecutor with the U.S. Department of Justice and an associate with Jones Day, enlightened new graduates with a moving speech at the Annual Senior Mwambo Ceremony. Lomax is a proud two-time graduate of the University of Miami. He earned a Bachelor of Music in Music Business and Entertainment Industry from the Frost School of Music in 2005 and a Juris Doctor Degree, with honors, from the University of Miami School of Law in 2008.
“I arrived on the University of Miami’s campus as an eighteen-year-old freshman - just a few months removed from senior prom,” Lomax said. “I departed at the age of 25 with the training and credentials necessary to jump right into arguing high stakes civil rights cases in federal court as a United States Department of Justice trial attorney.”
During his undergraduate years at UM, Chris was an active member of United Black Students, B.O.N.D., and Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Incorporated. During law school, he was a member of the Black Law Students Association, International and Comparative Law Review, Trial Team, Moot Court Board, and the Center for Ethics and Public Service. In the spring of 2008, Chris was inducted into the Iron Arrow Society.
"In my view, I grew up at the University of Miami," Lomax said. "Suffice it to say, my experiences at the University of Miami and the relationships I developed there have played—and continue to play—a pivotal role in my career."
Chris began his legal career in Washington, DC as a trial attorney with the United States Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, under the leadership of Eric Holder and Tom Perez. While at the Department of Justice, Chris prosecuted hate crimes, human trafficking, and police brutality cases in federal courts throughout the United States. He subsequently completed a federal clerkship with Chief Judge Carl E. Stewart of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
Chris currently works as an attorney with Jones Day, a law firm with over 2500 lawyers on 5 continents. There, his practice focuses primarily on complex commercial litigation, white-collar criminal defense, and pro bono representation of indigent criminal defendants. In addition to his full time legal practice, Chris serves on the teaching faculty of Harvard Law School’s trial advocacy workshop and as a guest lecturer at the University of Miami School of Law.
He is also a member of the Board of Directors of the University of Miami Law Alumni Association and the Advisory Board for the Center of Ethics and Public Service. Chris is married to Bunmi Lomax, an Assistant Federal Public Defender and fellow graduate of the University of Miami School of Law. They have a two year old daughter, Arya Lomax, and look forward to the arrival of their second daughter in August 2018.
In his keynote speech at the Mwambo Ceremony, Lomax focused his message on the lyrics in Nina Simone’s song “To Be Young, Gifted, and Black,” challenging the graduates to laugh a lot and to enjoy life, but also to work to address the systemic oppression that has evolved through the legacy of slavery.
“Class of ’18, the ball is in our court. Don’t forget about our brothers and sisters who live on the margins of society,” Lomax said. “’Young’—you are full of potential. ‘Gifted’—you are full of promise, and ‘black’—is to be beautiful, bold, brilliant, and uncompromising in your convictions. You have a tremendous opportunity to shake up the world.”
