NCBA Citizen Lawyer Awards Presented

Article Date: Friday, June 25, 2010

Written By: Russell Rawlings

Citizen Lawyer Award winners, front from left: Henry Isaacson, Alan Hicks, Frank Emory Jr., Louis Bissette Jr. and Marci Armstrong. Back: Lew Starling, Harriett Smalls, Kim Sieredzki, Mark Owens and Jimmie Hicks Jr. (Not pictured, Judge Brenda Branch)

The North Carolina Bar Association, in conjunction with the Citizen Lawyer Task Force, recognized the 2010 recipients of the Citizen Lawyer Award on Friday, June 25, at the NCBA Annual Meeting in Wilmington.

Presentation of the awards took place during the Friday morning General Session at the Hilton Wilmington Riverside.

The NCBA Citizen Lawyer Award was established in 2007 to recognize lawyers who provide exemplary public service to their communities. Honorees include elected and appointed government officials, coaches, mentors and voluntary leaders of non-profit, civic and community organizations.

The 2010 recipients are Marcia High Armstrong, Smithfield; W. Louis Bissette, Jr., Asheville; Judge Brenda Branch, Roanoke Rapids; Frank E. Emory Jr., Charlotte; Alan S. Hicks, Roxboro; Jimmie B. Hicks Jr., New Bern; Henry H. Isaacson, Greensboro; Mark W. Owens Jr., Greenville; Thomas W. Ross, Davidson; Kimberly Woodell Sieredzki, Clayton; Harriett Twiggs Smalls, Greensboro; and Lew Starling, Clinton.

Bill Gammon of Raleigh who chairs the Citizen Lawyer Task Force for 2009-10 presented the awards.

W. Louis Bissette Jr. (Click here for an extended profile on the recipient)
Louis Bissette of Asheville has practiced law with McGuire Wood & Bissette since 1976. He has provided exemplary service and leadership to his community by serving as mayor of the City of Asheville and as president of the Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce. He served on the Wake Forest University Board of Trustees and helped the YMCA, Red Cross, Helpmate, Pisgah Legal Services, the United Way, Habitat for Humanity, Industries for the Blind and others raise funds for much needed services.

He has introduced the President of the United States at the Grove Park Inn, participated in the christening and commissioning of the nuclear submarine USS Asheville at the Norfolk Naval Base, and served on boards of directors for community hospitals and other foundations including the North Carolina Arboretum, the Blue Ridge Parkway and Asheville Buncombe Community Technical College.
Bissette is a 1965 graduate of Wake Forest University who received a law degree from the University of North Carolina School of Law in 1968 and an MBA from the University of Virginia in 1970.

Mark W. Owens, Jr. (Click here for an extended profile on the recipient)
Mark Owens practices law with Owens, Nelson, Owens & Dupree of Greenville, a firm which traces its roots to the solo practice Owens established in Farmville in 1966. The founding date is important because it was at that time that Owens was first elected to the Pitt County Board of Education, which he served for 25 years including 17 years as chairman. He has served since 1992 as a member of the Pitt County Board of Commissioners, including several terms as chair.
His incredible record of public service coincides with the unprecedented growth that East Carolina University and Pitt Memorial Hospital have experienced thanks in part to Owens’ volunteer service and leadership over the past 44 years.

Owens is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the Wake Forest University School of Law. In 2002 he was installed as a member of the NCBA General Practice Hall of Fame.

Kimberly Woodell Sieredzki (Click here for an extended profile on the recipient)
Kimberly Woodell Sieredzki of Clayton serves with the N.C. Appellate Division Reporters in Raleigh. She provides community service and volunteer leadership in Johnston County, in Wake County and throughout the state of North Carolina. She is a Girl Scout Leader for her daughter’s Brownie Troop #796 and PTA volunteer at East Clayton Elementary School and Riverwood Elementary School. She serves on the Project Guide Committee for the Junior League of Raleigh where she works with the Brentwood Boys & Girls Club, whose membership is approximately three-fourths Hispanic.

Statewide, she has been chair of the NCBA Young Lawyers Division and co-chair of the 4ALL Campaign, providing leadership to Wills for Heroes and the Statewide Service Day, respectively.

Sieredzki is a 1993 graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and 1997 graduate of the Norman Adrian Wiggins School of Law at Campbell University.

Jimmie B. Hicks, Jr. (Click here for an extended profile on the recipient)
Jimmie B. Hicks, Jr. of Sumrell, Sugg, Carmichael, Hicks & Hart in New Bern is committed to the economic and social development of New Bern and the surrounding area. He serves as chairman of the New Bern Chamber of Commerce and has worked tirelessly on New Bern’s 300-year anniversary. In particular, he has been involved with the ancestors of Swiss families who settled in the area, and with the non-profit Swiss Bear organization that was established in the 1970s to create a special tax district in downtown New Bern to foster increased development.

His commitment to community service extends into his practice, where he serves as general counsel for the towns of River Bend, Trent Woods, Minnesott Beach, Pollocksville, Bridgeton, Cove City and Dover, as county attorney for Craven, Pamlico and Jones counties, and as president of the N.C. Association of County Attorneys.

Jim Hicks is a 1988 graduate of North Carolina State University who received his law degree from the University of North Carolina School of Law in 1991.

Alan S. Hicks (Click here for an extended profile on the recipient)
Alan S. Hicks of Roxboro is a private practitioner who has served his community unselfishly throughout his career. He is perhaps best known for his service on the Person County Economic Development Commission, which has helped the county attract new industry to replace some of the jobs lost in the waning textile and tobacco industries. He has served with distinction on the Person County Board of Education and chaired Project ACCESS, a campaign that raised $800,000 to equip elementary school computer labs.

During his tenure, Person County set graduation standards that exceeded state requirements. Notably, the board implemented a community service requirement for graduating seniors. He has also gained much satisfaction from his service on the Board of Trustees of the N. C. School of Science and Mathematics, where he chairs the Distance Education and Extended Programs committee, and has also provided leadership and board service to the Jaycees, the Kiwanis Club, the local hospital foundation, the YMCA and the Roxboro Development Group.

Alan Hicks is a 1969 graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill who received his law degree from the UNC School of Law in 1973.

Frank E. Emory, Jr. (Click here for an extended profile on the recipient)
Frank E. Emory, Jr. practices law in the Charlotte and Washington offices of Hunton & Williams. He has been a community leader through some of Charlotte’s most challenging and exciting transitions. He served on the Citizens Task Force on Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools that proposed a decentralized area organization for Mecklenburg County's countywide school district in response to community complaints about its responsiveness and to address the neighborhood-specific needs of a rapidly growing community.

In the high-growth era of the 1980s and 1990s, he served on the Charlotte Mecklenburg Planning Commission. He has also provided exemplary volunteer leadership to United Way of Central Carolinas, Sigma Pi Phi, the N.C. Department of Transportation, the Charlotte Mecklenburg Urban League, the Afro-American Cultural Center, the N.C. Blumenthal Performing Arts Center and the Friendship Missionary Baptist Church Board of Trustees.

Emory is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the Duke University School of Law.

Brenda Branch (Click here for an extended profile on the recipient)
Judge Brenda Branch of Roanoke Rapids serves as Chief District Court Judge in District 6A (Halifax County). She is committed to her community and the young people who represent its future, as well as ours. She serves as an advisor to young girls who participate and dance in the Children of Grace program at her church. She conducts Motivational Court wherein she visits middle schools and talks to children who are high risk for dropping out of school for non-attendance.

She is also involved in the Children Outreach program and is a mentor and a fellow with the Robert H. Wood Foundation, where she serves as a mentor to many young children in underserved communities and helps identify needs in communities and educating community members on resources that may be available to them. Her volunteer service to the NCBA as a member of the Lawyer Effectiveness and Quality of Life Committee helps her relate to attorneys in the private sector of the legal profession and the issues they face.

Branch is 1994 graduate of North Carolina Wesleyan College who received her law degree in 2001 from the North Carolina Central University School of Law.

Thomas W. Ross (Click here for an extended profile on the recipient)
Thomas W. Ross serves as president of Davidson College. His remarkable career has taken him to many positions of leadership and public service. Throughout this time, he has also participated in numerous civic endeavors and statewide initiatives which have served to better his community and his state. His involvement with the Conference of Superior Court Judges included service as a primary instructor at the New Judges School.

Ross chaired the state’s Sentencing and Policy Advisory Committee, which resulted in national recognition by Governing as a Public Official of the Year, one of numerous honors he has received. He has provided board service and leadership to dozens of organizations, including the N.C. Actual Innocence Commission, the Vera Institute of New York, the U.S. Bureau of Justice Assistance Structured Sentencing Project Advisory Group, the Center for Creative Leadership and the Blue Cross Blue Shield NC Board.

Ross is a 1972 graduate of Davidson College who received his law degree from the University of North Carolina School of Law in 1975.

Henry H. Isaacson (Click here for an extended profile on the recipient)
Henry H. Isaacson of Isaacson Isaacson Sheridan & Fountain in Greensboro has undertaken many worthwhile civic endeavors throughout his career. He has been intimately involved with the National Conference of Christians and Jews – now the National Conference for Community and Justice – where he is committed to teaching young children about bigotry and injustice, and to respect people of all backgrounds and ethnicities.

Isaacson played a key role in the purchase of the historic Woolworth’s building – scene of the famous 1960 lunch counter sit-in – and its recent establishment as the International Civil Rights Museum. He has also been involved with the Piedmont Triad Airport Authority, serving as its chair since 2003. He’s served on the board of trustees of North Carolina A&T State University, as chair of the Greensboro ABC Board and as president of the N.C. Association of ABC Boards.

Isaacson is a 1955 graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a 1958 graduate of the UNC School of Law.

Lew Starling (Click here for an extended profile on the recipient)
Lew Starling practices law with Daughtry, Woodard, Lawrence & Starling in Clinton, where he is currently serving his fifth term as mayor. He is most passionate about and proud of the All-America City Award, which is awarded annually by the National Civic League to only 10 cities. Clinton has been a finalist three times and won the award in 2007. Some programs that were created to meet the needs and challenges of his city and community are an early learning center, the expansion of after school programs and the renovation of downtown.

He is also very active in the community and is a member of the Masonic Lodge, Hiram Lodge #98, the Shrine Club and the First Baptist Church. Board service includes the Sampson Regional Medical Center, the Campbell University Board of Presidential Advisors and the Campbell University Board of Trustees, the Clinton branch of First Citizens Bank and the Sampson Community College Foundation where he has served as president.

Starling is a 1987 graduate of Campbell University and a 1990 graduate of the Wake Forest University School of Law.

Marcia High Armstrong (Click here for an extended profile on the recipient)
Marcia High Armstrong of Smithfield and her husband, Lamar, have practiced law together at Armstrong & Armstrong in Johnston County and Eastern North Carolina for 27 years. Her commitment to community service spans the globe: 12 times she has embarked on mission trips in an effort to reduce the impact of poverty in cities all over the world.

Most recently, she went to Swaziland in Africa to visit a small village that her daughter’s youth group “adopted” through World Vision and has been helping for several years. Closer to home, she is a charter member of the Board of Directors of Harbor, Inc. (Rape and Domestic Violence Network), currently serves as president of the Johnston County Bar Association, is president-elect of the North Carolina Chapter of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers and immediate past president of the Eleventh Judicial District Bar. At home or abroad, she believes that service is a way of life, and encourages young lawyers to remain open to the many opportunities for service that lawyers encounter each day.

Armstrong is a 1980 graduate of Salem College who received her law degree from the Wake Forest University School of Law in 1983.

Harriett Twiggs Smalls (Click here for an extended profile on the recipient)
Harriett Twiggs Smalls practices law in Greensboro with Smith Moore Leatherwood. Her passion for public service stems from her background as a certified neonatal nurse; she is also a licensed registered nurse. In that regard, she has provided volunteer service and leadership to the Moses Cone Wesley Long Community Health Foundation Board of Directors where she is working on a mental health/substance abuse program and a teen pregnancy program. At Bell House, Inc., a home for physically challenged adults, she serves as president of the board of directors.

She also serves on the board of directors for the Triad March of Dimes, the North Carolina Public Health Foundation and the UNC Law Foundation. She is vice chair of the Genesis Baptist Church Board of Trustees and chairs the Nominations Committee, and is president-elect of the 18th Judicial District Bar. When her services are needed, she can be found at Forsyth Memorial Hospital on Saturday nights working as a neonatal nurse.

Smalls received her nursing degrees from Augusta College (1983) and the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (1995). She is a 1999 graduate of the University of North Carolina School of Law.

Bill Gammon, right, chair of the Citizen Lawyer Task Force for 2010-11, leads the ovation for this year's Citizen Lawyer Award winners.