An account of a life framed by family, faith, and service, In Service to Justice is a part spiritual and part adventure story. Following Bill from the hills of eastern Kentucky, one man goes on a quest to improve justice in Kentucky, California, Latin America, and the Middle East. With each page, we are forced to look inward and reflect on our own virtues and how we stack up compared to others.

I believe that Bill Davis has done more than any other single individual—be they Minister of Justice, Prime Minister, or Chief Justice of a Supreme Court—to bring about significant court reform to improve the quality of justice for hundreds of thousands of ordinary people around the world. He accomplished this not with a utopian dream, the pocketbook of the Gates Foundation, or even power and might.

Rather, he succeeded by dint of personality and perseverance, first as a Peace Corps volunteer, then as a civil servant at the state and federal level, and finally as the head of a small consulting firm, which obtained modest-sized contracts to confront mountainous problems. He then moved mountains. How? By his innate modesty, by listening, by drawing in like-minded people, by insisting on consensus, and by empowering those who would live with the consequences of innovations long after he left the region or the country.

The Japanese occasionally single out a quiet but distinguished person and honor them as “a National Living Treasure.” If the United States had such an award, surely Bill Davis would be a recipient. ‒ Professor Malcolm Feeley, Claire Sanders Clements Dean’s Chair (Emeritus), Director of the Center for the Study of Law and Society (Emeritus), at U.C. Berkeley, College of Law

About the Author

William E. Davis has been deeply involved in the Bahai faith for the last fifty years. Serving at the local, national, and international level, his faith has been a source of spiritual guidance as he has navigated his life. His wife of fifty-five years, Connie, and two daughters are and have been a constant joy.

Davis is an avid golfer, having played for seventy years. He finds gold to embrace the themes of literature, man against himself, man against man, and man against nature, a proving ground for self-discovery.