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President-Elect John R. Wester

John R. Wester has been selected president-elect of the North Carolina Bar Association. The Charlotte attorney and longtime Robinson, Bradshaw & Hinson partner will serve as president of the NCBA in 2009-10.

Formal election of Wester took place Saturday morning at the NCBA Annual Meeting in Atlantic Beach. Immediate past president D. Clark Smith Jr. placed Wester’s name in nomination.

Smith chairs the Past Presidents’ Council which selected Wester. In keeping with NCBA tradition, past presidents in attendance ushered Wester to the stage following unanimous approval of his nomination.

Wester’s term as president-elect begins Sunday during the 2008-09 organizational meeting of the NCBA Board of Governors under newly installed President Charles Becton.

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Seconding speeches were provided by Special Superior Court Judge Jane V. Harper and former Chief Deputy Attorney General Edwin M. Speas Jr.

A Whiteville native who grew up in Rockingham, Wester attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill on a Morehead Scholarship. He received his law degree, with high honors, from the Duke University School of Law, where he was an editor of the law review.

Wester has since called Charlotte home, devoting his entire career to Robinson, Bradshaw & Hinson, where he has concentrated in the trials and appeals of business disputes, securities regulation, ERISA, and employment cases. Throughout this time, he has also maintained extensive involvement within the NCBA, serving on its Board of Governors and as chair of the Appellate Rules, Membership Service, and Nominations committees. Named in 2002 to the Chief Justice’s Commission on the N.C. Business Court, he chaired the Appellate Process Committee for that Commission.

In legal circles, Wester’s name is permanently affixed to Hyatt v. Shalala, the landmark class action suit against the Social Security Administration on behalf of thousands of disabled citizens whose benefits had been denied or terminated. Wester and his firm, in partnership with Legal Services of Southern Piedmont, took the case through the federal courts for 20 years, including two reviews by the U.S. Supreme Court and five opinions by the Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Approximately 150,000 North Carolinians won new disability hearings under new standards as a result of this litigation.

Wester’s service as lead counsel was provided pro bono, earning his firm recognition from the NCBA and the American Bar Association as recipient of their first Pro Bono Publico Service awards.

Wester was also tapped as lead counsel when Gov. James Martin and his cabinet were sued in a federal court class action challenging the constitutionality of employment practices in state government. The opinions in that case articulated the right of the Governor and his cabinet to utilize policymaking positions to change the direction of state government.

Wester is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers and the American Bar Foundation.

His community involvement includes board service for Legal Services of Southern Piedmont, the Mecklenburg County Bar, and the Blumenthal Performing Arts Center. He has also served as chairman of the Arts & Science Council of Charlotte-Mecklenburg and ArtsTeach, Inc. Wester now serves on the Boards of Visitors of UNC and the Duke Law School.

Wester deflects the individual recognition of his nomination toward his firm, which has long supported NCBA membership and involvement.

“Embedded in the culture of our firm is the vital element of service to our profession,” Wester said. “I will serve as president on behalf of Robinson, Bradshaw & Hinson, for which I have boundless pride and gratitude.”

“I join with his many admirers in saying that John Wester is the ideal choice as president of the North Carolina Bar Association, especially at this time when we as lawyers face so many challenges in sustaining our professionalism and service to justice,” said the firm’s founding partner, Russell M. Robinson II. “He brings to us an inspiring model of excellence and happy good humor from his distinguished career as trial advocate, advisor, and contributor to our association and our community as a whole.”

Wester is married to the former Cam Lucas. They have a daughter, Jane, a student at Charlotte Latin, and three sons: Lucas, a senior at the University of Georgia; Forest, a graduate of Dartmouth College and the Harvard Business School, now a private equity banker in Miami; and McNeill, a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and UNC Law School, now an investment banker in Charlotte.

Wester will be installed as the 115th president on Saturday, June 27, 2009, at the 111th Annual Meeting of the NCBA in Asheville.