Woody Connette Selected for McKnight Award

Article Date: Wednesday, June 02, 2010

Written By: Russell Rawlings

Woody Connette

Edward G. (Woody) Connette of Charlotte has been selected by the North Carolina Bar Association as the 2010 recipient of the H. Brent McKnight Renaissance Lawyer Award. Presentation of the award will take place during the President’s Luncheon at the NCBA Annual Meeting on Friday, June 25, at the Hilton Wilmington Riverside.

The NCBA Board of Governors confirmed the selection of Connette on Saturday, April 17, during its spring meeting at the Charlotte School of Law.

A graduate of Davidson College and the University of North Carolina School of Law, Connette served with Legal Services of Southern Piedmont prior to the formation of Lesesne and Connette in 1986.

 

The firm, which merged into Essex Richards in 2005, was honored three times for its pro bono efforts, twice by the North Carolina Bar Association and once by the Mecklenburg County Bar.

 

Connette becomes the fifth recipient of the H. Brent McKnight Renaissance Lawyer Award, preceded by Peter Gilchrist (2006), E. Osborne Ayscue Jr. (2007), Wade Smith (2008) and Mark Bernstein (2009).

 

He was nominated by his longtime law partner, Louis L. Lesesne Jr., and Robin L. Ames of Legal Aid of North Carolina.

 

The award was proposed by the NCBA Professionalism Committee in 2006 and adopted by the NCBA Board of Governors to recognize attorneys who demonstrate the “Renaissance Lawyer” qualities embodied by Judge McKnight, who died in 2004 while serving on the U.S. District Court for the Western District of N.C.

 

Erna A.P. Womble and Bill Womble Jr., who currently serve as co-chairs of the McKnight Award Subcommittee, spearheaded the establishment of the award in memory of the former committee chair in an effort to recognize those North Carolina attorneys whose trustworthiness, respectful and courteous treatment of all people, enthusiasm for intellectual achievement and commitment to excellence in work, and service to the profession and community, inspire others.