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2006 News Articles › Gilchrist Will Receive New NCBA Award
Article Date: Monday, May 01, 2006
Written By: Russell Rawlings
Peter S. Gilchrist III, district attorney for Mecklenburg County since 1975, will be the initial recipient of the North Carolina Bar Association’s H. Brent McKnight Renaissance Lawyer Award.
Proposed by the NCBA Professionalism Committee and adopted by the Board of Governors in January, the award recognizes attorneys who demonstrate the “Renaissance Lawyer” qualities embodied by Judge McKnight, who died in 2004 while serving on the U.S. District Court for the Western District of N.C.
The committee, chaired by Winston-Salem attorney Erna A.P. Womble, pursued establishment of the award in honor of its former chair in conjunction with NCBA President Mike Colombo’s theme for 2005-06, “A Renaissance of Professionalism.”
The theme has its roots in ABA President Mike Greco’s call for a “renaissance of idealism in the legal profession.” The award seeks to recognize those North Carolina attorneys whose trustworthiness, respectful and courteous treatment of all people, enthusiasm for intellectual achievement and commitment to excellence in work, and service to the profession and community, inspire others.
Judge McKnight certainly embodied those ideals, as does his longtime friend and colleague who was selected from a field of five outstanding candidates to receive the first award.
Nominations were solicited by the Professionalism Committee and reviewed in March. The formal recommendation of Gilchrist as the first recipient was forwarded to the NCBA Board of Governors and approved unanimously at its spring meeting.
In addition to his landmark service to Mecklenburg County, Gilchrist is an American College of Trial Lawyers Fellow and former president of the N.C. Conference of District Attorneys. He has devoted countless hours enhancing and strengthening the court systems in his home county, throughout North Carolina and nationally.
“He has proven over and over again that no one is more dedicated to improving our system of justice and our court system,” said former AOC Director Tom Ross in his letter of support.
Ross, who now serves as executive director of the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation, cited Gilchrist’s “efforts to improve technology in the court system, to develop court system performance standards, to examine the exercise of prosecutorial distraction in charging practices, to seek increased funding for the courts and improve criminal sentencing both in North Carolina and nationally.”
Attorney Martin Brackett Jr. addressed Gilchrist’s professionalism in another letter.
“As a defense attorney opposing Peter in the courtroom, I can state from personal experience that he has always conducted himself with the highest degree of professionalism,” Brackett said. “His skills as an attorney are coupled with his integrity and devotion to civility, fairness and justice.”
Barton M. Menser, assistant district attorney to Gilchrist, noted that Gilchrist “always tells young prosecutors to remember that our charge as prosecutors is to ‘do the right thing’ and to do justice, not merely to convict.”
Insight into the mentoring Gilchrist has given young lawyers is provided by the quality of those who have started their careers in his office in Charlotte, including, among others deserving high esteem, a federal judge, a federal magistrate judge, five Superior Court judges, one District Court judge, a U.S. attorney and more than 40 attorneys practicing in Charlotte, including the current president of the N.C. State Bar.
Menser’s letter reflects the earned admiration and affection of a colleague, and may be read by clicking here.
A native of Charlotte, Gilchrist earned his bachelor’s degree in English in 1962 from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He received his law degree from the Duke University School of Law in 1965, and has subsequently pursued additional accounting expertise from Duke, UNC and Queens University. He is a member of the Board of Visitors of Duke Law School.
Formal announcement of the initial H. Brent McKnight Renaissance Lawyer Award will take place during the President’s Luncheon at the NCBA Annual Meeting in Atlantic Beach on Friday, June 16.
Gilchrist and his wife, Anne, are committed to a long-planned trip for their extended family that will preclude their attendance at the Annual Meeting. Instead, they will participate in a private ceremony at the N.C. Bar Center that will be videotaped for presentation at the Annual Meeting.