Justice Funds Honors Britts, Schell, Warren

Article Date: Tuesday, September 09, 2008

Written By: 35

Earl and Judy Britt in front of new Justice Fund plaque.

The North Carolina Bar Association Foundation formally announced the establishment of four new Justice Funds during a special ceremony today at the N.C. Bar Center in Cary.

The honorees are Justice David M. Britt of Raleigh; his brother, Judge W. Earl Britt, also of Raleigh; NCBA Past-President and former Sen. Lindsay C. Warren Jr. of Goldsboro; and the late Braxton Schell of Greensboro, founding partner of Schell Bray Aycock Abel & Livingston.

NCBA President Charles Becton presided over the ceremony, which included remarks from Robin Stinson, chair of the NCBAF Endowment Committee, and unveiling of the Justice Fund plaques led by Executive Director Allan Head.

Cliff and Joanna Britt unveiled the Justice Fund plaque on behalf of his uncle, Justice David Britt who was unable to attend.

Attorney Cliff Britt of Winston-Salem, who initiated Justice Funds honoring his father, Earl Britt, and uncle, David Britt, provided introductory comments. The David Maxwell Britt and W. Earl Britt Justice Funds are restricted funds, the proceeds from which may only be used to assist Legal Aid of North Carolina staff attorneys in repayment of student loans to the Wake Forest University School of Law.

Cliff Britt is making the contribution in conjunction with the recently established LANC Fund. Like his father, his uncle and "all 20 members of the Britt family from Robeson County who have practiced law," he too is a graduate of the Wake Forest University School of Law.

"Uncle David set the example for the rest of the family," stated Cliff Britt. "He and my father laid the groundwork for me."

Mary and Rich Schell unveil the Braxton Schell Justice Fund plaque.

Catharine B. Arrowood, who serves on the NCBA Board of Governors, provided introductory remarks on behalf of the W. Earl Britt Justice Fund. She described the longtime U.S. District Court judge, who has maintained senior status since 1997, and his brother David as "citizen judges."

"We are fortunate to still have Earl Britt on the bench."

Former Chief Judge Sid Eagles of the N.C. Court of Appeals presented the David M.  Britt Justice Fund.

"So many of us have benefited from the inspiration and mentoring guidance that Justice Britt has provided," Eagles said. He added that while David Britt had two great loves, "the Baptist Church and Wake Forest University," the bar in general and the courts in particular were not far behind.

Toddy and Lindsay Warren stand in front of the new Justice Fund plaque.

The Braxton Schell Justice Fund was presented by his son, Rich Schell, and philanthropist Thomas S. Kenan III.

"I miss him deeply and daily," said Schell in commenting as to how the Justice Fund provided a lasting tribute to his father.

"I would like to thank Russell Robinson for initiating this," Kenan said in regard to the Charlotte attorney and longtime friend of Braxton Schell.

Kenan added that "long ago, when my father was seeking an attorney to handle his personal, corporate and charitable needs," friends and associates wholeheartedly recommended Braxton Schell, who ultimately became a close family friend and "valued counselor."

Judge J. Dickson Phillips Jr., a 2007 Justice Fund honoree, presented the Lindsay C. Warren Jr. Justice Fund.

"He is an adornment to his profession," Phillips said, "and a great North Carolinian."

A Justice Fund is a named endowment that honors those North Carolina lawyers, past and present, whose careers have demonstrated dedication to the pursuit of justice and outstanding service to the profession and the public. One or more contributors may establish a Justice Fund to honor a colleague, family member or friend.

Lawyers designated and honored by the creators of a Justice Fund receive special recognition in the form of a permanent plaque and biographical sketch maintained at the N.C. Bar Center.

One or more contributors may establish a Justice Fund to honor a colleague, family member or friend through a combined gift of $35,000. Restricted funds such as the Britt gift are fulfilled upon attainment of a $100,000 threshold.

The NCBA Foundation Endowment was established in 1987 to enable the foundation to fund programs and activities to better serve the public and the legal profession. As of June 2008, the endowment had awarded grants totaling $3,035,635 for 407 projects.

Biographical information that remains on display at the N.C. Bar Center now includes the following information on the four newest Justice Fund honorees:

Justice David Britt at 40th anniversary of N.C. Court of Appeals.

David M. Britt
David Maxwell Britt was born in the McDonald community of Robeson County on Jan. 3, 1917. He was the second child of Dudley H. Britt and Mae Hall Britt. Their first child, Clifford Bowman Britt, died in infancy about two years before David Britt was born. David's birth was followed in 1918 by the birth of a brother who was given the name of Neil Lasane, in honor of his maternal uncle who was serving in the U. S. Army in World War I.

In 1920 a baby girl was born into the Britt family and given the name of Miriam Hall. Thereafter, in 1924, 1926, 1930 and 1932 four more sons, Arthur Victor, Dudley, Jr., Carl Truett and William Earl were born into the Britt family. Four of the brothers, David, N. L., Dudley, Jr. and William Earl, became lawyers. N. L. died in 1973 and Dudley, Jr. in 2007.

David Britt entered Wake Forest College in the fall of 1933 at the age of 16. Under the rules of the college and the State Bar at that time, one could enter law school after two years of college, and David began law school in the fall of 1936. By attending two summer sessions and monitoring additional courses, he completed law study in two years and took the bar examination in the summer of 1937.

Although he passed it, he was still only 20 years old and not eligible for admission to the bar, so he worked that fall in a grocery store in Fairmont and prepared to open a law office there in January. In 1969 he received an honorary Doctor of Laws from Wake Forest University.

In July 1941 Britt married Grace Louise Teague of Fairmont. They continued to live in Fairmont and during the next 13 years four children, three daughters and a son, were born to this marriage.

During the late 1940s Britt became a member of the North Carolina Bar Association and began attending its annual meetings. He served as a member of the NCBA Board of Governors from 1961-64 and as a vice president in 1974-75.

Following the adjournment of the 1957 General Assembly, Rep. Wayland Floyd of Fairmont, who had served five times as one of two representatives from Robeson County, announced that he would not be a candidate for another term in the House. Britt decided to run and was duly elected.

Brother Earl Britt was a senior in the Wake Forest Law School and expected to take the bar examination following his graduation in late summer. He and David planned to practice together, especially during David's service in the 1959 session of the legislature. Not long before the session convened, Earl Britt received an invitation to serve as a 1959 research assistant for Justice Denny of the N.C. Supreme Court. At David Britt's urging, Earl Britt accepted the invitation.

Addison Hewlett, who was David Britt's Wake Forest friend, served as speaker of the 1959 session. He appointed Britt to important committees and near the close of the session appointed him to a two-year term on the General Statutes Commission. Suffice to say, the "legislative bug" had stung Britt and he proceed to serve four more sessions.

Around 1961, Sen. Spencer Bell of Charlotte began a movement to update the state courts. He proposed that all courts below the Superior Court be made a part of a district court system with uniform jurisdiction; that the clerks of Superior Courts and their subordinates be made state employees.

The proposal also provided that the state constitution be amended to provide for a Court of Appeals. Certain members of the N.C. Supreme Court opined that a Court of Appeals was not needed, hence that part of the proposal was eliminated. The constitution was duly amended to permit the district courts and the clerk of court proposals.

Since the proposals would require considerable study, very little was done by the 1961 legislature, except to provide for a courts commission. Sen. Lindsay C. Warren Jr. was named chair of the commission. Several representatives, including David Britt, were appointed to the commission. The commission proved to be a working group, meeting on Friday afternoons and Saturday mornings until 1964.

The commission finished its work on the district courts and reported to the 1965 session of legislature, which followed its recommendation regarding the district courts. Elections were held for several districts in 1966. Also in 1966, the NCBA presented its Judge John J. Parker award to Lindsay C. Warren, Jr. and David M. Britt for "conspicuous service to the cause of jurisprudence in North Carolina."

During 1961-65 the workload of the N.C. Supreme Court grew considerably, resulting in members of that court calling for an intermediate Court of Appeals. With the full support of newly elected Gov. Dan Moore, in an election held in the fall of 1965, the people of North Carolina approved an amendment to the constitution approving a Court of Appeals. The Courts Commission proceeded to study the question from then until the convening of the legislature in 1967.

The Court of Appeals, as recommended by the commission, was created in July 1967 with six judges to be appointed by Gov. Moore. David Britt resigned as Speaker of the House in 1967 and was appointed to the new court. 

The court began its work in the fall of 1967. With a present complement of 15 judges, the court recently celebrated its 40th anniversary.

In 1978, Justice I. Beverly Lake announced his retirement from the Supreme Court. David Britt was elected to succeed him and served until his retirement in 1985.

W. Earl Britt
William Earl Britt was born in McDonald community of Robeson County on Dec. 7, 1932, the youngest of seven children of Dudley H. Britt and Mae Hall Britt. He attended the public schools of Robeson County, graduating from Rowland High School in 1950. During his youth he worked on the farm and in the general merchandise store of his father. 

In the fall of 1950 he entered Campbell College which, at the time, was a junior college, from which he graduated in May 1952. He transferred to Wake Forest College which he attended in the 1952-53 and the summer of 1953. In November 1954 he entered the U.S. Army and served until September 1955 when he returned to Wake Forest, entering the School of Law on the combined degree program.

He received his B.S. degree in the last graduating class from the old campus in the town of Wake Forest in June 1956. While in law school he served as president of the Phi Alpha Delta Law Fraternity. He received his LLB degree from Wake Forest in June 1958 and successfully completed the State Bar exam in August 1958. From September 1958 until August 1959 he served as research assistant to N.C. Supreme Court Justice Emery B. Denny.

In August 1958 he married June Carolyn Pugh of Graham. To this marriage were born three children: Clifford Paul Britt, Mark Earl Britt and Elizabeth Carol Britt. Clifford Britt is an attorney in Winston-Salem and a member of the North Carolina Bar Association. This marriage ended in divorce and, in 1976, Earl Britt married Judith Moore Thompson, who brought to the family two children, Melissa Thompson and Marvin W. Thompson, Jr. Earl and Judy adopted a daughter, Betty Suzuki.

Britt began the practice of law in Robeson County in 1959 with his brothers, David and N.L., and John W. Campbell, in the firm of Britt, Campbell & Britt, with offices in Fairmont and Lumberton. He continued practicing with his brother, David, until August 1967 when the latter became a judge on the N.C. Court of Appeals.

Thereafter, Earl Britt practiced in Fairmont and Lumberton in solo practice and as a member of the firms of Page, Floyd & Britt and later Page & Britt. He served as a trustee of Southeastern Community College and Pembroke State University. He was a member of the original Board of Governors of the University of North Carolina from 1972-75.

President Carter appointed Earl Britt as U.S. District Court Judge for the Eastern District of North Carolina in May 1980 and he was sworn in on May 30 of that year. During his tenure on the federal bench, Britt served as the Fourth Circuit Representative of the Judicial Conference of the U.S. for six years and as president of the Federal Judges Association for two years (1995-97).

Britt took senior status in 1997 and continues to carry a partial case load. He has been a member of the North Carolina Bar Association since 1958, which is as long as he has been licensed as a lawyer, and served on the NCBA Board of Governors in 1993-94.

Braxton Schell

Braxton Schell
Braxton Schell was born on Feb. 24, 1924 in Raleigh, the son of Marshall H. Schell and Margaret Starke Newsome Schell. He attended the Raleigh public schools and graduated from Needham Broughton High School, where he was co-president of the senior class and captain of the basketball team. He entered North Carolina State College in May 1941, where he was a starter on the freshman football and basketball teams. 

In 1943, he entered the Army Air Corps, where he was commissioned as a second lieutenant and received his pilot wings. During the remainder of the war, he was an instructor at Southeastern Training Command in Montgomery, Ala., and Sumter, S.C. He received an honorable discharge from the Army in October 1945 and served as a captain in the Army Reserve.

In 1945, Schell entered the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he graduated in 1948 with a degree in accounting. At Chapel Hill he was Phi Beta Kappa and president of Zeta Psi.

Schell entered the UNC School of Law, where he served as associate editor of the North Carolina Law Review, was Order of the Coif and graduated with honors in 1951.

In 1951, Schell became as associate attorney in the Greensboro law firm of Smith, Sapp, Moore & Smith. He was a partner for many years in that firm's successors Smith, Moore, Smith, Schell & Hunter and Smith Helms Mulliss & Moore.

In 1987, Schell became a founding partner in the Greensboro law firm of Schell Bray Aycock Abel & Livingston PLLC, where he was actively involved in the practice of law until his death in 2008.

During his long legal career, Schell focused on securities law, business law, mergers and acquisitions, taxation, executive compensation and nonprofit entities. He was one of the first lawyers in North Carolina to become a securities lawyer at a time when most North Carolina businesses went to New York City and other metropolitan areas for securities regulation advice.

Throughout his 57 years in the practice of law, Braxton Schell was admired by clients, colleagues, opposing attorneys and other professionals such as accountants and investment bankers for his superior intellect, his outstanding lawyering skills, his wonderful business acumen and his impeccable integrity. He was consistently listed in Best Lawyers in America and Business North Carolina Legal Elite. He was a life member of the American Bar Foundation and recipient of the Distinguished Service Award of the Greensboro Bar Association. His law firm established the Braxton Schell scholarship Fund in his honor at the UNC School of Law.

During his professional years, Schell served as a valued director of a number of business corporations. At the time of his death, he was serving as a director of Flagler System, Inc. and its subsidiary, The Breakers Palm Beach, Inc. He was also serving as director of a number of charitable funds established by the Kenan family.

An athlete himself, Schell was an avid sports fan. He loved sports at Carolina, especially his beloved women's soccer team. The team's legendary coach, Anson Dorrance, has frequently said that Braxton Schell knew more about the team's recruiting prospects than the coaches did. In 2007, the Kenan Fund donated $1 million to the women's soccer program in Braxton Schell's honor.

Schell served for a number of years on the board of directors of North Carolina Outward Bound, including a three-year term as chair, and continued to serve on the advisory board until his death.

Braxton Schell was a sage and insightful leader. He was revered by his law firm for his wisdom and his guidance and for the example he set as a truly great lawyer. Braxton Schell was a "lawyer's lawyer" in the finest sense of those words.

Schell is survived by his wife, Mary Rehill Schell and by two sons, W. Braxton Schell, Jr. and Richard Knight Schell and their families.

Lindsay C. Warren, Jr.
North Carolina native Lindsay Warren was born on October 8, 1924 in Washington as the first son of Lindsay Carter Warren and Emily Harris Warren. He was educated in the public schools of Washington thru the 11thgrade when the family moved to our nation's capital. He graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School in 1942, and in the fall of that year enrolled as a freshman in the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he became a member of Zeta Psi Fraternity.

After completing his freshman year in June 1943 he enlisted in the U. S. Coast Guard. Later commissioned as an Ensign he served for 18 months during World War II on the U.S.S. Wakefield (AP-21) in the Atlantic, Mediterranean and Pacific theaters of operation.

Upon completion of this service he re-enrolled at UNC, graduating in 1948 with a B.S. degree in Commerce. Thereafter, he enrolled in the UNC School of Law receiving in 1951 a J.D. degree, with honors. While in law school he served as associate editor of the UNC Law Review and was elected to the Order of the Coif and Phi Delta Phi. Also, in 1948 he was initiated as a member of The Order of Gimghoul in Chapel Hill.

Upon being licensed to practice law in North Carolina, Warren joined the law firm of Langston, Allen and Taylor in Goldsboro. In 1954 he became a partner, and thereafter practiced law as a general civil practitioner for over 50 years with that firm, now known as Warren Kerr Walston Taylor and Smith LLP.

Though now retired he remains a member of the N.C. State Bar, the North Carolina Bar Association and the American Bar Association.

Warren served as president of the NCBA in 1969-70 following service on the Board of Governors and as a member of numerous committees. In 1976 he was elected as a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers.

In addition, Warren became a charter member of the NCBA General Practice Hall of Fame in 1989.

Warren has also led an active public and civic life as follows: member, Board of Directors of Wayne County Memorial Hospital 1957-69; Member Goldsboro City Board of Education 1957-62; State Senator, N. C. General Assembly 1963, 1965, 1967 and 1969 sessions; Chairman, Senate Courts and Judicial Districts Committee 1965-68; Chairman, Senate Appropriations Committee 1969-70; Member and Chairman of N. C. Courts Commission 1963-69; Vice Chairman N.C. Board of Higher Education 1965-69; Member, N. C. Advisory Budget Commission 1968-70; Chairman, Governor's Study Commission on Structure and Organization of Higher Education 1970-71; Member and Chairman of America's Four Hundredth Anniversary Committee 1981-87; Trustee, St. Andrews Presbyterian College 1971-82, 1985-93, Chairman 1981-82; Member, UNC Board of Visitors 1974-77; President, UNC General Alumni Association 1974-75; President, UNC Law Alumni Association 1981-82.

Warren is the recipient of the following honors and awards:  The John J. Parker Award for Conspicuous Service to the Cause of Jurisprudence - 1966 from the NCBA; UNC Distinguished Alumnus Award - 1985; Christopher Crittenden Memorial Award for Significant Contributions to the Preservation of North Carolina History - 1987; Distinguished Citizen Award - Tuscarora Council of Boy Scouts of America - 1995; UNC School of Law Award - For Distinction Beyond Professional Excellence - 1996.

Warren was first married in 1948 to Grace J. Bowen of Washington. Three children were born to that marriage: Adrienne W. Northington of Goldsboro, Emily W. McNair of Raleigh and Grace W. Johnston of Greensboro. Warren's first wife, Grace, died in 1988. Thereafter, in 1991, he married Mary Todd Smith MacKenzie, also of Washington and the mother of Robert P. MacKenzie, III, an attorney practicing in Birmingham, Ala., and Mary Todd MacKenzie and Julian J. MacKenzie of Washington.

The Warrens are now proud grandparents of 13 grandchildren. Warren's younger brother, Charles F. Warren, also an attorney, resides in Chevy Chase, Md. His older sister, Emily Carter Warren Jones, died in February 2008.

Warren is a Presbyterian serving his church, First Presbyterian of Goldsboro, as Elder Emeritus. Politically, he is a lifelong Democrat.