Citizen Lawyer Robert Harrington
Article Date: Friday, June 26, 2009
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| Robert Harrington, right, accepts award from President Charles Becton. |
Promoting civil rights, diversity and education has been as important to
Charlotte lawyer Robert E. Harrington as anything else he has pursued in his
professional career.
“I’ve always had a real strong sense that I’ve had opportunities to do the
things I’ve done because of the work that others have done for generations in
those areas, and I’ve always felt the need to participate and continue the
process,” said Harrington, who has been honored by the N.C. Bar Association as a
Citizen-Lawyer Award winner.
In addition to holding down his busy commercial litigation practice at
Robinson, Bradshaw & Hinson, Harrington currently chairs the board of
directors of the Levine Museum of the New South, an interactive museum that
interprets post-Civil War Southern history.
For someone who double-majored in history and religion at Duke University,
where he went on to law school, working with the museum has been particularly
fascinating.
In the past, the museum celebrated the impact of Brown v. Board of
Education. More recently, it staged an exhibit on immigration patterns to
the Charlotte area.
“If I didn’t practice law, I probably would have pursued a doctorate in
history,” Harrington said. “I’ve always loved the study of history, and the
particular period that this museum covers really fits in with my civil rights
and diversity interests.”
Harrington also is a member of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools’ Equity
Committee, which addresses potential disparities in school programs and, in
particular, the impact of those disparities on minority and impoverished
children and their families.
Previously, he served on the board of directors for the National Lawyers’
Committee for Civil Rights under the Law, including a role as its co-chair from
2005-2007. The non-profit organization, started in 1963 at the behest of
President John F. Kennedy, is dedicated to securing equal justice under the law.
Harrington also has worked with Charlotte’s Seigle Avenue Partners, which
provides after-school care for children in the city’s inner-city
neighborhoods.
His work with all of these groups “comes from a desire to bring people
together and create a more inclusive and understanding community,” Harrington
said.
“If I went back to my first year of law school, and someone said to me that I
would get to work at a firm that I really like, with people I really like, and
that I’d get to be involved with a civil rights organization and a history
museum, I would have said, ‘I’ll take that,’” he said.
“I can’t imagine not doing it.”
Provided by the Young Lawyers Division of the North Carolina Bar
Association in conjunction with the Citizen Lawyer Task Force in recognition of
recipients of the 2009 Citizen Lawyer Awards. The awards were presented on
Friday, June 26, at the NCBA Annual Meeting in Asheville.