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2012 News Articles › Charles Blanchard Receives The Advocate's Award
Charles Blanchard Receives The Advocate's Award
Article Date: Thursday, June 21, 2012
Charles Blanchard, left, accepts award from Philip Miller. |
Charles F. Blanchard of Raleigh was honored recently as the sixth recipient of The Advocate’s Award. Presented by the Litigation Section of the North Carolina Bar Association, the award recognizes “superstars” of the section and the legal profession.
Philip R. Miller III, immediate past section chair, presented the award in Wilmington on Thursday, June 21, at the section’s annual meeting, which was held in conjunction with the NCBA Annual Meeting.
“Few lawyers in North Carolina’s history have had more of an impact on civil litigation than Charlie Blanchard,” Miller stated. “He was instrumental in forming and leading numerous litigation-related organizations and has tried innumerable civil cases in many different venues – all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.”
Blanchard grew up in Raleigh where he attended Broughton High School. He entered Duke University, only to have his college career interrupted by service in the Navy during World War II. Blanchard earned the rank of lieutenant before being honorably discharged in 1946.
He then returned to college, graduating from Duke in 1947 and the Duke University School of Law in 1949. Blanchard opened his first law office in Raleigh in 1950, and from 1953-55 served as the founding chair of the NCBA’s Young Lawyers Division.
“For decades Charlie has demonstrated his exceptional skill as a lawyer while at the same time maintaining the highest ethical standards,” Miller stated in nominating Blanchard, his law partner at Blanchard, Miller, Lewis & Isley. “He is held in highest regard by both bench and bar. In the midst of a busy professional life, he has kept his eye on what is most important: his family.
“Charlie exemplifies everything that The Advocate’s Award is about.”
Blanchard, the nomination stated, has tried dozens of cases to verdict in all levels and divisions of the North Carolina court system and in the United States District Court for the Western, Middle and Eastern districts of North Carolina, as well as the District of Columbia. He has argued cases before the North Carolina Court of Appeals, the North Carolina Supreme Court, the Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and the United States Supreme Court.
“It is not a stretch,” Miller added, “to say that Charlie had represented clients in a more diverse range of cases and in more different courts than just about any other lawyer in the state.”
Blanchard has held numerous leadership positions throughout his career. He was one of the four founders of the North Carolina Academy of Trial Lawyers, now known as N.C. Advocates for Justice, and served as its president.
He has also served as president of the Wake County Bar Association, the Braxton Craven Inn of Court and the International Society of Barristers. He is a past chair of the NCBA Litigation Section and former member of the NCBA Board of Governors, and also served as an N.C. State Bar councilor.
Previous recipients of The Advocate’s Award are Charles Becton, Don Cowan, Grady Barnhill, Jim Williams and Alan Duncan.