Fostering Change

• Author: Jill Werner
• Pages: 62-63

62 || ABA JOURNAL JANUARY 2018

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE CHILDREN’S DEFENSE FUND

your Aba

EDITED BY LEE RAWLES

LEE.RAWLES@AMERICANBAR.ORG

Richard (right) and

Aaron Hooks Wayman

with their children

Advocating for at-risk

children is this member’s

mission

By Jill Werner

Richard Hooks Wayman has

always had a lot of faith in the legal

profession. Although there were no

lawyers in his family, he was certain

from the time he was a boy that he

wanted to become an attorney.

“I knew it was a profession that

could help people resolve confl ict

and mitigate harm,” he says.

After graduating from the

University of Iowa College of Law

in 1992, Hooks Wayman began his

career by tackling child poverty and

youth homelessness for the Legal Aid

Society of Minneapolis. In his early

days on the job, a seasoned colleague

invited him out for a walk.

“We walked for three hours, and

I saw homeless youth sleeping on

the streets,” he recalls. “They had

been jettisoned from abusive and

neglectful families.”

Seeing teens exposed to sexual

exploitation, gang activity and drugs

shocked Hooks Wayman. It was a

far cry from his upbringing in rural

Iowa.

His agency’s resources to assist

homeless teens were equally shock-

ing. “The best we could do for them

was buy mosquito netting or a sleep-

ing bag and point them to the safest

park to sleep in,” he says.

MEETING THE NEED

Resources may have been inade-

quate, but passion in the youth

services community was strong, as

was Hooks Wayman’s commitment

to the cause. After eight years as

a litigator, he moved to nonprofi t

management, where he felt he could

Fostering Change

Members

Who Inspire

is an ABA

Journal series

profi ling

exceptional

ABA members.

If you know members who

do unique and important

work, nominate them for this

series by sending an email to

inspire@abajournal.com.

Members

Inspire

Who

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