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2007 News Articles › Presentation of 2007 H. Brent McKnight Renaissance Lawyer Award
Presentation of 2007 H. Brent McKnight Renaissance Lawyer Award
Article Date: Friday, June 22, 2007
Written By: Russell Rawlings
This presentation of the H. Brent McKnight Renaissance Lawyer Award was made by direction of the Board of Governors of the North Carolina Bar Association at the N. C. Bar Association Annual Meeting, President’s Luncheon, Friday, June 22, 2007, at the Grove Park Inn, Asheville, N. C.
Good afternoon. I am Bill Womble, Jr. of Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice in Winston-Salem. On behalf of the North Carolina Bar Association, its Professionalism Committee, and as Co-chairs of its Award Subcommittee, my law partner, Erna Womble and I are honored to make this presentation.
Judge Brent McKnight’s wife, Beth has joined all of us here for this occasion. [Beth, would you please stand and be recognized?]
The H. Brent McKnight Renaissance Lawyer Award uniquely, and in perpetuity, recognizes lawyers of integrity, with enthusiasm for intellectual achievement, committed to civility, who pursue excellence and service, and who are exemplary and inspiring. It marks a celebration of all that is good and noble about the legal profession, and is a shining moment for all lawyers in North Carolina.
North Carolina is blessed to have many citizen lawyers who are extraordinary, Renaissance people. In this instance, both the judge in whose name the Award is given, and its recipient for 2007, are people of such stature that we cannot do justice to their extraordinary leadership and contributions to the Bar of our state, and to our nation, in the short time here.
Judge Brent McKnight was a Renaissance Lawyer, of whom it was once said by Dr. Leighton Ford, “There were depths, in this man, and heights in him, lengths and breadths of truth and beauty and justice and mercy and love in him; far beyond the ordinary.”
As Erna Womble noted at the Memorial in Mecklenburg County for Judge McKnight, “To say this was a multi-faceted jurist would be an understatement of epic proportions. By some unusual alchemy, Brent McKnight simultaneously celebrated pure science and pure aesthetics. In life, his intellect and faith turned the mundane into beauty.”
A Morehead and Rhodes Scholar, educated at Chapel Hill and Oxford, he was an athlete with a black belt in Karate, knowledgeable of the science of astronomy, a self-described student of theoretical chemistry and intellectual history, and a disciplined legal writer. This extraordinary man was also poetic and philosophical, and played the Celtic harp.
Brent McKnight’s service to the Bar, community, state, and nation are only slightly reflected in his service as:
- an Assistant District Attorney
- Mecklenburg County District Court Judge
- United States Magistrate Judge a member of the Advisory Committee on Civil Rules to the Judicial Conference of the United States, appointed by then Chief Justice Rehnquist
- a member of the American Law Institute; and Judge, United States District Court for the Western District of North Carolina.
The North Carolina Bar Association’s H. Brent McKnight Renaissance Lawyer Award for 2007 is presented to a lawyer who has been the exemplary counselor, trial lawyer and thoughtful leading citizen whom others throughout North Carolina – including Erna and me -- sincerely aspire to emulate. E. Osborne Ayscue, Jr.
When the name of H. Brent McKnight was given for consideration by the President of the United States as a potential nominee to the United States Senate as a district court judge under Article III of the United States Constitution, the person selected by the American Bar Association to study a report on his credentials, integrity and ability to adjudicate all matters before him in the federal courts was Ozzie Ayscue.
At the investiture of Judge McKnight, Ozzie was one of the speakers. He had read almost everything Brent McKnight had written, whether or not as a sitting judge. He fully understood and appreciated the integrity, enthusiasm for intellectual achievement, commitment to civility, the pursuit of excellence, and the high degree of service exhibited by Judge McKnight. There is indeed – a kindred spirit.
Ozzie attended Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts where he graduated cum laude in 1951. He attended the University of North Carolina, where he was Phi Beta Kappa and earned his undergraduate Bachelor of Arts degree in 1954. He was an officer on active duty in the United States Naval Reserve between 1955 and 1957. He returned to the University of North Carolina for law school, where he was inducted into the Order of Coif; and he was Editor-in-Chief of the North Carolina Law Revue. He graduated in 1960.
Ozzie’s representation of clients involved in hotly contested litigation and his successes in trial, as well as resolution of adversarial situations by other civil means, were outstanding. In 1986, he was inducted into the American College of Trial Lawyers. In 1998, he was elected to, and served a one year term as President of that prestigious College.
Many belong to organizations, the names of which adorn their biographies and resumes, and in which they may provide varying, and occasional, degrees of participation and leadership. The organizations in which Ozzie has participated have, by all accounts, received the full benefit of his interest, his enthusiasm, and his leadership. Examples of a few of those positions are:
- Mecklenburg County Bar Association President, 1980 – 1981
- North Carolina Bar Association President, 1984 – 1985
- American Bar Association Member of its House of Delegates, 1991 – 1995 and currently serving on the Standing Committee on Federal Judiciary to which he was appointed in 2001.
- Permanent Member of the 4th Circuit Judicial Conference.
- His reading, enthusiasm, and participation in the U.S. Supreme Court Historical Society brought him to serve on its Board of Trustees.
Ozzie has written and publicly spoken to attorneys in North Carolina and across the country on the theme: “Excellent lawyers grow out of being excellent human beings. And to be excellent human beings, we cannot be one-dimensional.”
As if to emphasize that point, he is one of the founding members, and currently serves as Chair of the Board of Directors, of the Center for Law and the Humanities, whose focus is to use historical, literary, philosophical, and religious writings in programs reaching lawyers from every segment of the profession, to gather, discuss and explore what those writings of true sages have to say to 21st Century lawyers, about their place in life, their role in society, and how they deal with competing pressures in their professional and personal lives.
Ozzie and his wife, Emily Urquhart Ayscue, have served on the Board of Trustees of Emily’s school, St. Mary’s, in Raleigh. They attend Christ Episcopal Church in Charlotte, where he currently serves on the Liturgical Commission, and has served as a Senior Warden. Together, they have raised four children, who, by all accounts, underscore the fact that Ozzie is as committed a family man as he is a consummate professional. His parenting, with his wonderful wife, Emily, has been extraordinary.
On behalf of the North Carolina Bar Association, Erna and I are indeed humbled, and simultaneously honored, and delighted, to present the 2007 H. Brent McKnight Renaissance Lawyer Award to E. Osborne Ayscue, Jr.