[1] He is best known for his work in the abolition of restrictive covenants and for overseeing 4,000 criminal cases that stemmed from the 1965 Watts riots.
[2] Williams was a founding member of the John M. Langston Bar Association, a black lawyers' group which was organized in response to the Los Angeles County Bar Association's refusal to admit blacks members.
[3] As a lawyer in the 1940s, he was one of several black attorneys who worked with Thurgood Marshall, then head of the legal defense arm of the NAACP, to fight the restrictive covenants that barred African-Americans and other minorities from residence in many parts of Los Angeles and many other American cities.
Taking on these difficult cases in an emotionally charged environment won him the admiration of many colleagues.
[4] Late in his judicial career, Williams took issue with the mandatory sentencing required by California's 1994 "Three Strikes Law."