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Public: Recent News

The late Marcus T. Hickman, whose name is forever etched in the legal history of North Carolina as a founding partner of Kennedy Covington Lobdell & Hickman, L.L.P., was honored Monday evening by the North Carolina Bar Association through the establishment of a Justice Fund.

From left, members of the Hickman family: Jonathan Hickman, Julie Hickman Thompson, Debra Hickman and Trent Hickman.

More than 100 members of the firm joined family members and friends for the formal announcement of the NCBA Foundation Endowment’s new Marcus T. Hickman Justice Fund at the N.C. Bar Center in Cary.

NCBA President Janet Ward Black presided over the festivities and was joined on the program by Robin Stinson, chair of the NCBA Foundation Endowment Committee, and NCBA Executive Director Allan Head.

Introductory remarks regarding the Hickman Justice Fund were provided by longtime law partners Norfleet Pruden, Bill Drew and Gene Pridgen.

Marcus Hickman's wife, Debra, center, is flanked by presenters, from left, Bill Drew, Janet Ward Black, Gene Pridgen and Norfleet Pruden.

The family delegation, which unveiled the permanent plaque bearing Hickman’s likeness to conclude the ceremony, was led by his wife of 36 years, Debra Harner Hickman. Also participating were their daughter, Julie Hickman Thompson of Alexandria, Va.; and their sons, Jonathan Clark Hickman and his wife, Allison, of Charlotte, and Randolph Trent Hickman and his wife, Tabitha, of New York City.

A Justice Fund is a named endowment that honors those North Carolina lawyers, past and present, whose careers have demonstrated dedication to the pursuit of justice and outstanding service to the profession and the public. One or more contributors may establish a Justice Fund to honor a colleague, family member or friend through a combined gift of $35,000.

Lawyers designated and honored by the creators of a Justice Fund receive special recognition in the form of a permanent plaque and biographical sketch maintained at the N.C. Bar Center.

The NCBA Foundation Endowment was established in 1987 to enable the foundation to fund programs and activities to better serve the public and the legal profession. As of June 2007, the endowment had awarded grants totaling $2,764,111 for 383 projects.

Marcus T. Hickman

Marcus T. Hickman was born in the Caldwell County town of Hudson in 1922. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Duke University in three years, having been elected to Phi Beta Kappa, and completed one year at the Duke University School of Law before entering the U.S. Navy to serve in World War II.

He returned to Duke upon completion of active service in the Navy but remained in the Naval Reserve, ultimately attaining the rank of lieutenant commander. He graduated from law school in 1948 and moved to Charlotte, where he joined the law practice of Frank Kennedy.

He became a partner in Kennedy, Kennedy & Hickman in 1953. Then, in 1957, Hickman and Frank Kennedy joined with William Covington and Hugh Lobdell in merging their practices to form Kennedy Covington Lobdell & Hickman.

More than 200 attorneys currently work for the firm, which has grown over the past 50 years to include additional North Carolina offices in Raleigh and the Research Triangle Park as well as South Carolina offices in Columbia and Rock Hill.

Although they had not entered the legal profession when the firm was founded, all three introductory speakers spent many years with Hickman and remembered him fondly Monday evening.

“Marcus gave 40 years of dedicated service to our firm and 50 years of dedicated service to the bar,” Pridgen said. “We at Kennedy Covington Lobdell & Hickman cannot adequately express what he has meant, and continues to mean, to us as a firm and individually to those of us who knew him and loved him.”

Pridgen recalled the chill that went down his spine early in his career when he submitted documents that he had labored over for some time to Hickman for further review. Before glancing at the documents, Hickman simply stared at Pridgen and asked, rather bluntly, if he was willing to stake his professional reputation on them?

“First and foremost among those things that Marcus valued in law practice was, of course, excellence,” Pruden said. “While for some lawyers ‘getting it done’ might be enough, Marcus insisted in getting it done right.

“Those of us who worked for Marcus knew that we were graded by him on a pass/fail basis, but if you wanted to pass, you needed to get an A+; anything short of that was failing him. While he could be forgiving when we fell short, his own example was what motivated us to get it right, and it still does.”

Drew remembered Hickman as a “demanding mentor” who “expected the best from you all the time.”

“There were not a lot of positive strokes,” added Drew who practiced with Hickman for more than 25 years.

“Not many of us survived Marcus’ tough school of high standards and expectations – note that I used the word ‘survived’ because I don’t think anyone ever graduated. But those of us who did survive appreciate what he was trying to achieve, and throughout our careers in difficult situations, we’ll stop and ask ourselves, ‘What would Marcus do here,’ or tell a colleague, ‘this is the way Marcus would have done it.’ ”

When Hickman retired in 1997, he was the last of the firm’s four founding partners to do so. Accordingly, Hickman, who died last year, is also the fourth and final founding partner to be honored with a Justice Fund.

Funding was provided by Kennedy Covington Lobdell & Hickman, L.L.P. To access the complete bio on Hickman as it will appear in the permanent Justice Fund record book at the Bar Center, click here.