E Christopher Johnson Jr

E. Christopher Johnson, Jr., CEO and Co-Founder, Center for Justice, Rights & Dignity and retired GM North America Vice President and General Counsel, attributes his accomplishments to his Christian faith. At the top of this list are his late parents and two beautiful wives, Sheryl, whose life was claimed by breast cancer in 2000, and his current wife Rhonda, who now graces his heart. In addition, his daughter Erin, an attorney, and son, Chip, an advertising media buyer, continue to make him a very proud father and grandfather. Johnson was recently elected to the Board of Trustees of Tuskegee University, where his mother, the late Gladys Campanella Johnson, was Miss Tuskegee and a member of Tuskegee’s class of 1940. Following his graduation from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1973, Johnson served as an Army officer in Alaska and New Jersey and was awarded the Army Commendation Medal for his leadership and accomplishments in arctic logistics in the northernmost infantry battalion in the United States Army. After his military service, he graduated from New York Law School with Honors in 1981, serving as president of the Student Bar Association. Johnson started his legal career in 1981 with a prominent New York law firm. In 1985, he left the practice of law to become a headhunter. It was with his last client, General Motors, that he made his last placement—himself—as an attorney in 1988. Accepting the role as GM’s sole attorney handling computer law matters, as well as one of GM’s purchasing lawyers, he rose through the ranks to Practice Area Manager of General Commercial and Government Contracts, Assistant General Counsel and ultimately, GM North America Vice President and General Counsel. In this position, which he held for the last seven years in a twenty-year GM Career, Johnson was responsible for all GM legal matters in the US, Canada and Mexico, supervising a staff of 250 and over 400 outside law firms. After his 2008 retirement from GM, Johnson joined the faculty at Western Michigan University Thomas M. Cooley Law School where he served as a law professor and director/founder of the LL.M. program in Corporate Law and Finance until 2013 when he moved to adjunct status to focus his efforts on human trafficking issues. Johnson and his wife Rhonda were exposed to injustice, enormity and brutality of human trafficking or modern day slavery during a 2011 mission trip with NorthRidge Church to Mumbai, India, and felt called by God to join the anti-human trafficking movement. To that end, Johnson and his wife Rhonda recently co-founded the Center for Justice, Rights & Dignity commited to advancing the cause of justice and securing human and civil rights for all who are denied human dignity, especially those victimized by modern day slavery.