State Bar Honors Allan Head
Allan Head receives standing ovation prior to accepting award.
NCBA Executive Director Allan Head received the N.C. State Bar’s John B. McMillan Distinguished Service Award on Wednesday, Jan. 22. The award was presented at the annual NCBA-State Bar Dinner held in conjunction with winter meetings of their governing bodies.
State Bar President Ron Gibson, flanked by officers Margaret McDermott Hunt (president-elect), Mark Merritt (vice president) and Ron Baker (immediate past president), presented the award.
The award, as noted on the State Bar website, “honors current and retired members of the North Carolina State Bar throughout the state who have demonstrated exemplary service to the legal profession.”
Head as been employed by the North Carolina Bar Association since 1973, serving first as executive secretary and since 1981 as executive director. He is a graduate of Wake Forest University and the Wake Forest University School of Law.
Criteria for the John B. McMillan Distinguished Service Award, named in honor of former State Bar President John McMillan of Raleigh, read as follows:
The Distinguished Service Award committee evaluates nominees based on, but not limited to, the following criteria:
• Cultivating knowledge of the law beyond its use for clients, employing that knowledge in reform of the law, and working to strengthen legal education.
• Furthering the public’s understanding of and confidence in the rule of law and the justice system.
• Devoting professional time and resources and providing civic leadership to ensure equal access to our system of justice for all those who, because of economic or social barriers, cannot afford or secure adequate legal counsel.
• Aiding the legal profession by helping the bar regulate itself in the public interest and by seeking to improve the administration of justice and the quality of services rendered by the legal profession.
• Providing professional services at no fee or a reduced fee to persons of limited means or to public service or charitable groups or organizations, by service in activities for improving the law, society, the legal system or the legal profession, and providing financial support for organizations that provide legal services to persons of limited means.
• Treating opposing counsel with courtesy and respect; encouraging and counseling peers by providing advice and mentoring; and fostering civility among members of the bar.
• Promoting diversity and diverse participation within the legal profession.