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Public: Recent News

Parks Helms

Charlotte attorney H. Parks Helms has been selected as the fourth recipient of the North Carolina Bar Association Foundation’s Dr. I. Beverly Lake Sr. Public Service Award.

The award will be presented on Saturday morning, June 21, during the General Session of the 2008 NCBA Annual Meeting in Atlantic Beach.

It is certainly fitting that Helms receive this award, given that his distinguished legal career is a virtual portrait of public service. In addition to more than a quarter-century of service as a member of either the General Assembly or the Mecklenburg County Board of Commissioners, he was also instrumental in the construction of the county’s magnificent new courthouse which opened last year.

A Charlotte native and graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (B.A. 1959) and the UNC School of Law (1961), Helms served on the Commission for the Future of Justice and the Courts in North Carolina from 1994-96 and chaired the N.C. Courts Commission from 1980-86.

Helms is serving his eighth term as a county commissioner, elected at-large. He served as chair for five terms and currently holds the position of vice chair. He served in the N.C. House of Representatives from 1974-84 and chaired the county Democratic Party in 1986-87

Helms served as a vice president on the NCBA Board of Governors from 1991-93.

Creation of the Lake Service Award, which annually recognizes an outstanding lawyer in North Carolina who has performed exemplary public service in his or her community, accompanied the establishment of the I. Beverly Lake Sr. Justice Fund in 2004.

Murray Greason of Winston-Salem received the initial award in 2005, followed by Jim Morgan of High Point in 2006 and NCBA Past-President Jim Maxwell in 2007.

The voluntary service rendered by the recipient of the Lake Public Service Award may have occurred with a single non-profit organization or with a number of groups in the community as well as through public service in elective or appointive office.

Nominations are sought from all judicial districts and voluntary bars statewide and reviewed by the NCBA Past Presidents’ Council. Recipients will have their names inscribed on the Lake Public Service Award plaque that will remain on permanent display at the N.C. Bar Center. They also receive an honorarium that will be designated to the non-profit organization of their choosing, subject to the concurrence of the NCBA.