Parks Helms Receives Lake Award
Article Date: Friday, June 20, 2008
Written By: Russell Rawlings
Parks Helms |
Charlotte attorney H. Parks Helms was honored Saturday during
the General Session of the 2008 NCBA Annual Meeting in Atlantic
Beach as the fourth recipient of the North Carolina Bar Association
Foundation's Dr. I. Beverly Lake Sr. Public Service Award.
It was fitting that Helms receive this award, given his longtime
commitment to public service as an elected official and tireless
community volunteer in Charlotte and Mecklenburg County.
In addition to more than a quarter-century of service as a
member of either the General Assembly or the Mecklenburg County
Board of Commissioners, he was also instrumental in the
construction of the county's magnificent new courthouse which
opened last year.
A Charlotte native and graduate of the University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill (B.A. 1959) and the UNC School of Law
(1961), Helms served on the Commission for the Future of Justice
and the Courts in North Carolina from 1994-96 and chaired the N.C.
Courts Commission from 1980-86.
Helms is serving his eighth term as a county commissioner,
elected at-large. He served as chair for five terms and currently
holds the position of vice chair. He served in the N.C. House of
Representatives from 1974-84 and chaired the county Democratic
Party in 1986-87.
Helms served as a vice president on the NCBA Board of Governors
from 1991-93.
Creation of the Lake Service Award, which annually recognizes an
outstanding lawyer in North Carolina who has performed exemplary
public service in his or her community, accompanied the
establishment of the I. Beverly Lake Sr. Justice Fund in 2004.
Dr. Lake's son, retired N.C. Supreme Court Chief Justice I.
Beverly Lake Jr., joined NCBA Immediate Past-President Clark Smith
and NCBA President Janet Ward Black in presenting the award to
Helms.
Murray Greason of Winston-Salem received the initial award in
2005, followed by Jim Morgan of High Point in 2006 and NCBA
Past-President Jim Maxwell in 2007.
The voluntary service rendered by the recipient of the Lake
Public Service Award may have occurred with a single non-profit
organization or with a number of groups in the community as well as
through public service in elective or appointive office.
Nominations are sought from all judicial districts and voluntary
bars statewide and reviewed by the NCBA Past Presidents' Council.
Recipients will have their names inscribed on the Lake Public
Service Award plaque that will remain on permanent display at the
N.C. Bar Center. They also receive an honorarium that will be
designated to the non-profit organization of their choosing,
subject to the concurrence of the NCBA.
The Crisis Assistance Ministry of Mecklenburg County has been
selected to receive this year's honorarium. Formal presentation of
a check in the amount of $4,000 will take place at a later
date.