Honor and Privilege: Rob Harrington of Charlotte Elected NCBA President-Elect at Annual Meeting
Rob Harrington of Robinson Bradshaw in Charlotte has been elected to serve as president-elect of the North Carolina Bar Association. The election took place on Friday, June 21, during the NCBA Annual Meeting at the Charlotte Convention Center.
Harrington will serve in 2024-25 as president-elect of the NCBA and the North Carolina Bar Foundation and will chair the Audit & Finance Committees of both organizations. He will be installed next June at the 2025 Annual Meeting as the 131st president of the NCBA.
Rob Harrington acknowledges his election as president-elect.
Harrington joined Robinson Bradshaw in 1999 and is a shareholder in the firm, where he litigates complex business disputes and co-chairs the Litigation Department. He graduated magna cum laude in 1984 from Duke University, where he was an Angier B. Duke Memorial Scholar, and graduated with high honors in 1987 from Duke Law School, where he served as Notes Editor of the Alaska Law Review.
He began his legal career as a law clerk for Judge Martin L.C. Feldman of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana and is licensed to practice in North Carolina, Louisiana, and the District of Columbia. He served on the NCBA Board of Governors and NCBF Board of Directors in 2017-20 and chairs the NCBA Task Force on Integration, Equity and Equal Justice. He also served on the NCBA Nominating Committee and the NCBF Endowment Committee.
Harrington is a past president of the Mecklenburg County Bar and founding co-chair of its Diversity and Inclusion Committee. He has served on the Civil Justice Committee of the North Carolina Commission on the Administration of Law and Justice, the Duke Law School Board of Visitors and the Legal Aid of North Carolina Board of Directors, and is a Life Member of the American Law Institute, a Life Fellow of the American Bar Foundation, and a Senior Fellow of the Litigation Counsel of America.
A 2009 recipient of the NCBA Citizen Lawyer Award, Harrington’s extensive record of civic involvement includes service as chair of the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library Board of Trustees, the Arts & Science Council of Charlotte/Mecklenburg, and the Levine Museum of the New South Board of Directors. He has also served on the board of directors of Opera Carolina, TreesCharlotte, the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library Foundation, the Young Black Leadership Alliance, and The Greater Charlotte Cultural Trust.
Harrington has been honored as the recipient of the Mecklenburg County Bar’s Julius L. Chambers Diversity Champion Award, the Thurgood Marshall College Fund Award of Excellence, the Duke Law Alumni Association Charles S. Murphy Award for Achievement in Public Service, and the NAACP-National Office Pro Bono Legal Services Award.
Harrington and his wife, Sharon, have a son, Jourdan Harrington of Augusta, Ga., and two granddaughters.
Harrington’s name was placed in nomination by Immediate Past President Clayton Morgan, who served as chair of the NCBA Past Presidents’ Council, which annually nominates the president-elect. Seconding speeches were provided by Allen Robertson, managing partner of Robinson Bradshaw, and Lucy Inman, former N.C. Court of Appeals and Superior Court judge.
Following his election, Harrington was ushered to the stage by the NCBA past presidents and delivered the following acceptance remarks, which have been edited for publication.
Acceptance
It’s a real honor and privilege to accept the role of president-elect of the North Carolina Bar Association. I look forward to becoming the 131st president of this Association and being included in the list of presidents, including my friend Clayton Morgan, incoming President Kim Stogner, and other leaders of the bar – a list that includes my partner John Wester, Gene Pridgen, Norfleet Pruden, and Jim Talley of our Mecklenburg County Bar.
Thanks
There are so many people for me to thank. I could go back to grade school and forward through law school at Duke – but I know I don’t have all day. First of all, I want to thank Clayton Morgan and the rest of the Past Presidents’ Council for trusting me with this nomination. And I’m grateful to Judge Inman and Allen Robertson for their seconds to the nomination.
Most important: I want to thank my wife, Sharon Carr Harrington. We met in law school and we’ve been in this experience through the practice of law and involvement in community together for 35 years as of this August. Along the way, we raised our son, and he and his wife are now raising two young daughters of their own.
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I also want to thank the rest of my family. I hit the lottery with parents and older siblings – and whatever I have been able to accomplish along the way was well within their expectation.
I want to give special thanks to my law partners at Robinson Bradshaw. Assuming I pass muster for the next year, we will have had two North Carolina Bar Association presidents, two presidents of the North Carolina State Bar, and six presidents of the Mecklenburg County Bar.
I can’t mention them all, but I will mention past NCBA President John Wester, past State Bar Presidents Bob Sink and Mark Merritt, and our founding partner Russell Robinson. Each of them has been a friend and a mentor – in law and in life. I’m grateful for my Managing Partner Allen Robertson, not only for his second to the nomination, but for his support, tolerance – and occasional forbearance.
And, finally, those who have worked with me in the Bar Association over the past five years or so know that telling the history of Black lawyers in the Bar Association and those who sought membership in the association, but were denied, is a personal passion.
We would not have begun to tell that story without the inspiration and leadership of Eric Michaux of the Durham County Bar, who along with his brother, former Representative H.M. “Mickey” Michaux, led the effort to open the doors of the association in the late 1960s. But, of course, that list includes more lawyers than we can name this afternoon – from past NCBA Presidents Judge Allyson Duncan and Charles Becton to Justice Henry Frye and Julius Chambers.
It’s great fortune to be able to point to specific people without whom I know I wouldn’t be in this position. We stand on the shoulders of these lawyers, and we bear the responsibility to press forward.
Priorities
I’ve been down the road of president-elect or chair-elect a few times. I know that a president-elect’s workload is full, but their priorities are – in legal terms – not yet “ripe.” The coming year is about working with our incoming president, Kim Stogner, to execute on her priorities – and helping our executive director, Jason Hensley, wherever needed, continue the great operational success of the Association.
Interests
First, I hope to contribute to the ongoing success of the Bar Association. Success for voluntary bar associations is largely, if not entirely, dependent on providing a persuasive value proposition. Thanks to Jason and his staff and countless volunteers, the North Carolina Bar Association provides unmatched CLE programs, professional development opportunities, opportunities for support and interaction, support for our judges and judicial officers, and legal improvement efforts (through our indispensable working relationship with the North Carolina legislature). We must (and will) continue these core operations.
Along the way, I hope to focus on lawyer and legal professional mental health. What we do is unavoidably hard and stressful work. And we are the primary guardrails for each other as we face the challenges and opportunities – successes and setbacks – of the practice. I’ve had the pleasure of working with Judge Inman on CLE projects in this mental health area, and I hope we will continue that work as an association, and continue to give one another a little GRACE along the way.
A significant part of my career has been devoted to seeing that all of us as legal professionals are included in the opportunities that the profession presents. I hope to continue to work for the inclusion and mutual respect of all legal professionals – from small local bars to large ones, from all sections of the state, from all philosophical views, all races and ethnicities, from all genders, and from all gender orientations.
And, last – but not least – I want us to have a little fun along the way. We all have this huge thing in common – a fundamental dedication to the rule of law and the protection of our clients’ interests. That’s a heavy burden and a lot of work. Let’s continue to strive to take advantage of the opportunities that the bar presents us – to get to know each other, to support one another, and to make sure that our responsibilities are leavened a bit by our mutual enjoyment.
Here’s to a great next few years!
Russell Rawlings is director of external affairs and communications for the North Carolina Bar Association.