Before founding Wilkerson & Associates in 1991, Ernest L. Wilkerson Jr. served as an attorney with Porter, Wright, Morris & Arthur and Baker & Hostetler. He graduated with honors in economics from Northwestern University (B.A., 1983) and went on to study law at the University of Pennsylvania (J.D., 1986), where he was editor of the Law Review. An alumnus of Leadership Cleveland, an organization that works for the betterment of the City of Cleveland, Wilkerson is active in the community, having served on the boards of Olivet Institutional Baptist Church, Cleveland State University, Ideastream and Cleveland Convention Center Facilities Authority.