NCBA Conducts Annual Law Day Events

Article Date: Friday, May 01, 2009

 

Janice McKenzie Cole, left, accepts Liberty Bell Award from Natalia Isenberg.

Students from across the state gathered in Raleigh on Friday as the North Carolina Bar Association observed Law Day. Joining the students who were being honored for their efforts in the annual Law Week competitions was Janice McKenzie Cole of Hertford who received the Liberty Bell Award.

The Liberty Bell award is presented annually by the NCBA’s Young Lawyers Division in recognition of an individual who has “who has strengthened the American System of freedom under law.”

The students were recognized for their efforts in essay writing, photography, poster art and moot court. The finals of the moot court competition were conducted Friday morning between before a panel of N.C. Supreme Court and Court of Appeals justices and judges, respectively, in the Supreme Court courtroom.

From left, Will Burgo and Anupam Dalvi accept Moot Court trophies from Justice Robert Edmunds.

Gastonia’s Highland School of Technology, three-time defending champion, was dethroned by N.C. School of Science and Math of Durham in the moot court finals. Will Burgo and Anupam Dalvi returned to argue on behalf of Science and Math and claim the championship in a rematch of last year’s final.

Laura Page returned for Highland Tech where she was joined by Monique Kreisman.

The moot court panel was comprised of Chief Justice Sarah Parker, Justices Robert H. Edmunds Jr., Robin E. Hudson and Paul Newby, and Judges Ann Marie Calabria and Linda Stephens.

The moot court teams joined the other honorees and dignitaries, including the 2008 recipients of the NCBA’s Citizen Lawyer Awards, for an awards luncheon at the Cardinal Club. NCBA President Charles Becton will presented the Law Day Proclamation issued by Gov. Beverly Perdue.

Gracie Blackley, left, and Lauren Burton accept plaques from Justice Mark Martin.

Student winners in the essay, poster art and photo/essay contests are as follows:

Junior High (grades 6-8) Essay Contest: 1st – Daniel Robinson, Millennium Charter Academy, Mount Airy; 2nd – Anthony Merino, C.C. Griffin Middle School, Concord; and 3rd – Brandon Navon, Rugby Middle School, Hendersonville.

Senior High (grades 9-12) Essay Contest: 1st – Lauren Burton, Shelby High School, Shelby; 2nd – Gracie Blackley, Shelby High School, Shelby; and 3rd – Cassandra Etter-Wenzel, North Henderson High School, Hendersonville.

Poster Art Contest (grade 4-6): 1st – Alyssa “Jessalyn” Smith, Sparta School, Sparta; 2nd – Christina Diane Hughes, Silver Valley Elementary, Lexington; 3rd – Amelia Farrell, Clyde Elementary School, Waynesville; and honorable mention – Austin Thomas Hicks, Zebulon Elementary School, Zebulon.

Michelle McKenzie accepts award from Justice Paul Newby.

Photo/Essay Contest (grade 8): 1st – Michelle McKenzie, Perry Harrison School, Pittsboro; 2nd –Thomas Haire, Perry Harrison School, Pittsboro; 3rd – Paxton Denayl Hodges, Sparta School, Sparta; and honorable mention – Kendall Atwater, Perry Harrison School, Pittsboro, and Lexis Saunders, Perquimans Middle School, Winfall.

A native New York City, Janice McKenzie Cole served as a police officer prior to earning her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the City University of New York’s John Jay College of Criminal Justice. She graduated from the Fordham University School of Law in 1979 and served until 1983 as an assistant U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of N.Y.

She moved to North Carolina and entered private practice in 1983 following her marriage to James C. Cole, a Perquimans County native and District Court judge who had been serving as a postal inspector in New York City.

Cole is the first African-American female to receive the Liberty Bell Award. In 1990, she became the first woman and the first African American to serve on the District Court bench in North Carolina’s First Judicial District. In 1994, upon confirmation by the U.S. Senate as U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of N.C., she became the first black woman to hold that position in North Carolina.

Jessalyn Smith accepts plaque from Justice Robin Hudson.

Upon accepting the award, Janice McKenzie Cole will join a distinguished list of Liberty Bell honorees that also includes Stacy C. Eggers Jr., E. Maurice Braswell, Herbert L. Richardson, William Joslin, Henry Frye, Robert R. Browning, Lacy Thornburg, James B. Hunt Jr., William C. Friday, Sam J. Ervin III, Terry Sanford, Herbert H. Taylor Jr., James Dickson Phillips Jr., Wade E. Brown, Hiram H. Ward, Kathrine Everett, L. Richardson Preyer, J. Frank Huskins, McNeill Smith, Franklin T. Dupree Jr., Thad Eure, Joseph Branch, Dr. Robert E. Lee, William B. Aycock, Susie Sharp and Sam Ervin Jr.

The national observance of Law Day was first proclaimed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower on February 3, 1958, and is celebrated annually by the NCBA on the first Friday in May. Funding for Law Day and Law Week events is provided by the Beverly C. Moore Justice Fund of the NCBA Foundation.

 

 

 

 

Finalists, front from left, Anupam Dalvi, Will Burgo, Laura Page and Monique Kreisman, and the Moot Court panel, back from left, Linda Stephens, Robin Hudson, Robert Edmunds, Sarah Parker, Paul Newby and Ann Marie Calabria.