Hall of Fame Gets New Name
The General Practice Hall of Fame will now be known as the Legal Practice Hall of Fame following formal approval of the name change by the North Carolina Bar Association Board of Governors at the winter meeting on Jan. 17.
Two key factors led to this important decision.
First, the General Practice Section, which established the General Practice Hall of Fame in 1989, recently merged with the Law Practice Management Section to form the Small Firm & Technology Section. In conjunction with the establishment of this combined section, the Senior Lawyers Division has assumed responsibility for administering the hall of fame.
Second, by changing the name to the Legal Practice Hall of Fame, the pool of eligible inductees expands significantly, as stated in the proposal, to now include “North Carolina attorneys who have engaged in any aspect of law practice principally in North Carolina for 30 years or more and whose actions evidence a lifetime of exemplary legal practice and high ethical and professional standards as a practitioner of the law and for serving as a role model for all lawyers in North Carolina.”
Erwin Fuller and Ed Gaskins, current and immediate past chairs of the Senior Lawyers Division, respectively, expressed their excitement over the Division’s new responsibility and the hall of fame’s new name.
“The Senior Lawyers Division is delighted to become the North Carolina Bar Association’s sponsor group for the newly renamed hall of fame award,” Fuller and Gaskins stated. “Having this award become the NCBA Legal Practice Hall of Fame instead of the General Practice Hall of Fame dramatically increases the number of potential award recipients.
“But, going forward, the same long-established high standards for award recognition will remain basically unchanged. We look forward to recognizing a maximum of six exemplary North Carolina attorneys from all across the state in 2019, and we welcome award recipient nominations.”
The Senior Lawyers Division, they added, is grateful for the legacy of the General Practice Section for creating the award and entrusting it now into the hands of the Senior Lawyers Division.
Gaskins and former NCBA Director of Sections and Divisions Jane Weathers are coordinating selection of new inductees, working in concert with Emily Poindexter, NCBA Communities Manager and staff liaison to the Senior Lawyers Division.
Nominations are now open for the 2019 Legal Practice Hall of Fame induction class, which will be honored at the NCBA Annual Meeting in Asheville, scheduled June 20-23 at Biltmore. Honorees will be recognized at the Awards Dinner on Thursday, June 20. The new inductees and all past recipients of the award will also be invited to and be recognized at the fall meeting of the Senior Lawyers Division (date and location to be determined).
The deadline for nominations is March 22.
Click here to access the nomination form. Questions should be directed to Emily Poindexter via email ([email protected]) or phone (919-659-1449).
Future listings of Legal Practice Hall of Fame recipients will include all 160 attorneys listed below who were recognized as General Practice Hall of Fame recipients.
Previous Hall of Fame Inductees
1989
Harold K. Bennett, Asheville
Joseph W. Grier Jr., Charlotte
Kenneth R. Hoyle, Sanford
Harvey A. Jonas Jr., Lincolnton
Lindsay C. Warren Jr., Goldsboro
Claud R. Wheatly Jr., Beaufort
1990
I. Murchison Biggs, Lumberton
Weston P. Hatfield, Winston-Salem
Martin Kellogg Jr., Manteo
Herbert H. Taylor Jr., Tarboro
Richard A. Williams Sr., Newton
1991
R. Lewis Alexander, Elkin
Heman R. Clark, Raleigh
E.P. “Sandy” Dameron, Marion
Fred B. Helms, Charlotte
Frank H. Watson, Spruce Pine
1992
Wade Edward Brown, Boone
William A. Dees Jr., Goldsboro
Louis W. Gaylord Jr., Greenville
Robert Leroy McMillan, Raleigh
William E. Poe, Charlotte
Oscar Edwin Starnes Jr., Asheville
1993
Edwin Osborne Ayscue Jr., Charlotte
William Lamont Brown, Pinehurst
Robert B. Byrd, Morganton
John R. Haworth, High Point
James W. Mason, Laurinburg
Ralph M. Stockton Jr., Winston-Salem
1994
B. Irvin Boyle, Charlotte
Landon B. Roberts, Asheville
William A. Johnson, Lillington
Grady B. Stott, Gastonia
1995
Louis A. Bledsoe Jr., Charlotte
Walter F. Brinkley, Lexington
James B. Garland, Gastonia
John R. Jordan Jr., Raleigh
Edward L. Williamson, Whiteville
1996
Stacy C. Eggers Jr., Boone
Annie Brown Kennedy, Winston-Salem
E. K. Powe, Durham
1997
Robert H. Burns Jr., Whiteville
Max O. Cogburn, Asheville
W. Lunsford Crew, Roanoke Rapids
Wright T. Dixon Jr., Raleigh
Thomas Shull Johnston, Jefferson
J. Brian Scott, Rocky Mount
Gerald F. White Sr., Elizabeth City
1998
Garret Dixon Bailey, Burnsville
Julius L. Chambers, Charlotte
Herbert S. Falk Jr., Greensboro
Worth H. Hester, Elizabethtown
Dewey W. Wells, Elizabeth City
1999
John J. Burney Jr., Wilmington
Herbert L. Hyde, Asheville
Richard S. Jones Jr., Franklin
William A. Marsh Jr., Durham
Charles W. Ogletree, Columbia
David L. Ward Jr., New Bern
2000
James D. Blount Jr., Raleigh
Everette C. Carnes, Marion
William A. Johnson, Newland
J. William Russell, Asheville
2001
James M. Baley Jr., Asheville
George S. Daly Jr., Charlotte
Robert Epting, Chapel Hill
Tommy W. Jarrett, Goldsboro
Michael D. Levine, Chapel Hill
William A. Powell, Shallotte
2002
William Owen Cooke, Greensboro
Roy W. Davis Jr., Asheville
Walter Lewis Hannah, Greensboro
Wilber Morton Jolly, Louisburg
Mark West Owens Jr., Farmville
Horace E. Stacy Jr., Lumberton
2003
John W. Campbell, Lumberton
Charles D. Dixon, Hickory
Daniel W. Fouts, Greensboro
J. Troy Smith Jr., New Bern
Sydnor Thompson, Charlotte
Henry M. Whitesides, Gastonia
2004
John E. Davenport, Nashville
Samuel H. Johnson, Raleigh
William R. Rand, Wilson
George Rountree III, Wilmington
Russell E. Twiford, Elizabeth City
Marshall V. Yount, Hickory
2005
Henson P. Barnes, White Lake
Stephen E. Culbreth, Wilmington
Thomas G. Dill, Rocky Mount
M.H. Hood Ellis, Elizabeth City
John C.W. Gardner Sr., Mount Airy
Richard M. Hutson, II, Durham
William R. Sigmon, Hickory
Lonnie B. Williams Sr., Wilmington
2006
Robinson O. Everett, Durham
Clifton L. Moore, Burgaw
William G. Pfefferkorn, Winston-Salem
Rudolph G. Singleton Jr., Fayetteville
Robert Charles Soles Jr., Tabor City
E. Murray Tate Jr., Hickory
2007
Charles M. Davis, Louisburg
William Joslin, Raleigh
Malvern F. King Jr., Durham
George B. Mast, Smithfield
Cressie H. Thigpen Jr., Raleigh
Sharon A. Thompson, Durham
2008
Charles E. Burgin, Marion
Roy A. Cooper Jr., Nashville
Walter H. Jones Jr., Mooresville
James M. Kimzey, Brevard
H. Edward Knox, Charlotte
Sally Scherer, Raleigh
2009
J. Mac Boxley, Raleigh
Charles E. Clement, Boone
William Henry Holdford, Wilson
William P. Mayo, Washington
Bobby Burns McNeill, Raeford
Meyressa H. Schoonmaker, Winston Salem
Henry P. Van Hoy II, Mocksville
2010
P.C. Barwick Jr., Kinston
David Reece Cockman, Raleigh
Orville D. Coward Sr., Sylva
James F. Morgan, High Point
Harold Lee Pollock, Burgaw
Eugene C. Thompson III, Warsaw
2011
John L Holshouser Jr., Salisbury
Richard M. Lewis Jr., Fayetteville
Ray C. Vallery, Fayetteville
Frederic E. Toms, Cary
Benjamin R Warrick, Clinton
2012
Eura D. “Ed” Gaskins, Raleigh
Thomas M. Grady, Concord
H. Houston Groome, Lenoir
John G. Ludlum, Warsaw
Charles H. McGirt, Lexington
J. Harold Seagle, Asheville
2013
Thomas H. Morris, Kinston
John S. “Jack” Stevens, Asheville
Allen G. Thomas, Wilson
Diane A. “Dee” Wallis, Raleigh
Thomas H. “Tom” Wellman, Roanoke Rapids
Charles R. Young Sr., Hickory
2014
Edmund I. Adams, Sparta
John Robert Hooten, Oriental
Boyd B. Massagee Jr., Hendersonville
Thomas C. Worth Jr., Raleigh
2015
Sheila M. Lambert, Asheville
John H. Vernon III, Burlington
Richard M. Wiggins, Fayetteville
2016
Lloyd Franklin Baucom, Charlotte
Charles Palmer Brown Sr., Albemarle
Robert J. Deutsch, Asheville
Ralph “Bo” McDonald, Raleigh
2017
Leto Copeley, Durham
Charles David Gantt, Asheville
Bobby Harold Griffin, Monroe
Thomas J. White III, Kinston
2018
Wesley Bailey, Winston-Salem
Nancy Black Norelli, Charlotte
Gary Vannoy, North Wilkesboro