President’s Perspective: Rob Harrington Installed as 131st NCBA President
Rob Harrington of Robinson Bradshaw in Charlotte was installed as the 131st president of the North Carolina Bar Association on Friday, June 27, at the NCBA Annual Meeting in Asheville. Harrington will also serve in 2025-26 as president of the North Carolina Bar Foundation.
The oath of office was administered by Chief Justice Paul Newby as Rob’s wife, Sharon Harrington, held the Bible.
Sharon Harrington looks on as her husband, Rob Harrington, accepts congratulations from Chief Justice Paul Newby.
Harrington joined Robinson Bradshaw in 1999 and is a shareholder in the firm, where he litigates complex business disputes and co-chairs the Litigation Department. He graduated magna cum laude in 1984 from Duke University, where he was an Angier B. Duke Memorial Scholar, and graduated with high honors in 1987 from Duke Law School, where he served as Notes Editor of the Alaska Law Review.
Harrington began his legal career as a law clerk for Judge Martin L.C. Feldman of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana and is licensed to practice in North Carolina, Louisiana, and the District of Columbia. He served on the NCBA Board of Governors and NCBF Board of Directors in 2017-20 and chaired the NCBA Task Force on Integration, Equity and Equal Justice. He also served on the NCBA Nominating Committee and the NCBF Endowment Committee.
Harrington is a past president of the Mecklenburg County Bar and founding co-chair of its Diversity and Inclusion Committee. He has served on the Civil Justice Committee of the North Carolina Commission on the Administration of Law and Justice, the Duke Law School Board of Visitors and the Legal Aid of North Carolina Board of Directors, and is a Life Member of the American Law Institute, a Life Fellow of the American Bar Foundation, and a Senior Fellow of the Litigation Counsel of America.
A 2009 recipient of the NCBA Citizen Lawyer Award, Harrington’s extensive record of civic involvement includes service as chair of the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library Board of Trustees, the Arts & Science Council of Charlotte/Mecklenburg, and the Levine Museum of the New South Board of Directors. He has also served on the board of directors of Opera Carolina, TreesCharlotte, the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library Foundation, the Young Black Leadership Alliance, and The Greater Charlotte Cultural Trust.
Harrington has been honored as the recipient of the Mecklenburg County Bar’s Julius L. Chambers Diversity Champion Award, the Thurgood Marshall College Fund Award of Excellence, the Duke Law Alumni Association Charles S. Murphy Award for Achievement in Public Service, and the NAACP-National Office Pro Bono Legal Services Award.
Harrington began his installation address by expressing his gratitude to Chief Justice Newby and Immediate Past President Kim Stogner.
“I know we take for granted that the Chief Justice will make time for so many occasions like tonight,” Harrington said, “but I’m not quite sure how he fits all of this into his schedule, and I’m grateful for his presence.”
“Any time you follow a leader as president of an association or chair of a board,” Harrington continued, “that person becomes a role model. Kim has been an exceptional role model. Aside from being one of North Carolina’s leading trust and estates lawyers, Kim is a brilliant leader. She has been a strong and steadying force for the Association as we have navigated the inevitable ebbs and flows and triumphs and challenges of leading an association of 15,000 members. Kim has brought both discipline and compassion to the job, and above all a determination always to act in the best interest of the association.”
In keeping with tradition, Harrington presented a gift to the outgoing president before proceeding with the following remarks:
I’m incredibly honored to accept this appointment as president of the North Carolina Bar Association. I’m looking at my friend, mentor, and partner John (Buddy) Wester as I say that. One of the many things Buddy has impressed upon me over these many years is that “adjectives and adverbs are the enemy of persuasion.” But I think Buddy will give me some dispensation tonight. “Incredibly” somehow seems to fit the occasion.
Rob Harrington leads applause for Kim Stogner upon completion of her term as president.
I hope the next person I thank will excuse me for placing her third in this list of thank-yous, when her customary place is first. Sharon Carr Harrington and I met at Duke Law School, when she was a first-year student, and I was a third-year student. She often says when I tell that story that I somehow took advantage of a first-year law student. Lord knows, I’m glad if I did. We have been teammates, partners, and best friends ever since – sharing family and careers – her now as the head of the Novant Health Foundation and me toiling away as a litigator.
Of all the wonderful things – there go the adjectives and adverbs again – to come from our partnership, the best is our son, Jourdan Harrington. With Jourdan tonight is our daughter-in-law, Brianna Young Harrington. I’ll give a shoutout to Spelhouse couples. I’d bet there are a few people here tonight other than Jourdan and Brianna who know what that means. Jourdan graduated from Morehouse College in Atlanta and Brianna from Spelman College – just across the way from Morehouse. Brianna went on to earn an engineering degree at Georgia Tech, and Jourdan went on to earn a master’s in public administration at North Carolina Central University (Go Eagles!).
Jourdan and Brianna brought with them their two wonderful daughters, Riley Elin and Reagan Elizabeth, aged six and two (and nearing bedtime). When I think about the things we want to achieve in this new bar year – and any of the things I hope we accomplish in the remaining years of our careers, I think about them. Children and grandchildren have a way of making us concentrate on ways to leave our communities in a better place than we found them.
I’m also grateful to have my brother JW Harrington and his husband John Burkhardt with us tonight. JW and John traveled here from Tacoma, Washington, where JW is a retired Professor of Geography at the University of Washington and John is a retired administrator at the University.
Finally, my sister Eleanor Harrington-Austin, is here tonight. Eleanor is a retired Professor of English at North Carolina Central.
My sister Violet Harrington Bryan was unable to join us tonight. She lives in New Orleans and is a Professor of English Emerita at Xavier University of Louisiana. Her husband Trevor Bryan is a lawyer who was the biggest role model for me in deciding to become a lawyer.
And my late sister Alma Harrington Young was a Professor of Urban Studies at Wayne State University in Detroit.
Any occasion like tonight makes me think about our parents, James and Miriam Harrington, who had the drive and audacity to raise us in a small city in South Carolina (Florence) and convince – no, compel – us to approach any professional environment with the knowledge and belief that we belonged.
I can’t let this moment pass without saying a special word (or a few words) of thanks to my colleagues at Robinson Bradshaw. By my count, about 25 members of the firm made the trip from Charlotte for tonight’s dinner. I appreciate the support from each one of you. I especially appreciate the support I’ve received from our Managing Partner Allen Robertson. I told Allen when he seconded my nomination last year that I would need his support – and no small amount of forbearance – when I took on this role. And he has been there for me throughout the year.
I feel fortunate to follow in the path of my partners Buddy Wester, a past president of the Association and Foundation, and Bob Sink (who is also here tonight) and Mark Merritt, who served as presidents of the North Carolina State Bar. And more generally to benefit from the legacy of pillars of the North Carolina Bar, including Russell Robinson, Bob Bradshaw, Robin Hinson, Ward McKeithen, and Richard Vinroot. I’m forever grateful to all of them.
Now, let me say a few words about the Association.
I think we take for granted what we have with the North Carolina Bar Association because, for all of us, it has simply always been here. The Association has endured for 127 years – through all kinds of changes in the bar and its surroundings. Today, the Association stands 15,000 members strong, including lawyers, law students, and paralegals. As Kim said in her acceptance speech last year, interactions with bar associations from around the country show that our association is the gold standard – in terms of its ability and track record of supporting the careers of legal professionals. We are not only the premier organization for legal professionals in our state, but one of the premier organizations for legal professionals in the country.
Rob Harrington, left, poses with legendary UNC basketball coach Roy Williams prior to their interview.
That has not happened by accident. It’s a result of sustained effort by our members and our staff.
The staff starts with Jason Hensley.
Jason – where should I begin. Jason wakes up in the morning and goes to bed at night thinking about the Bar Association and the Bar Foundation, the staff, and the membership. Somehow, he manages to keep his finger on the pulse not only of all that is going on inside of our organizations, but also on the pulses of the many organizations with which we interact – other legal membership organizations, including Advocates for Justice and the Association of Defense Lawyers; the North Carolina legislature; legal aid organizations; the North Carolina State Bar; and other state bar associations.
Jason – I appreciate you, and I’m proud of all you do for the Association, the Foundation, and legal professionals across the state.
To me, the primary place where Jason’s influence shows is with the staff of the Association and the Foundation. Would Association and Foundation staff members who are here tonight please stand and be recognized . . . This group makes it all work – and they do it with talent, energy, and dedication. We’re fortunate to have each and every staff member.
Because of Jason and the other members of the Association and Foundation staff, we are able to deliver first-in-class support for our divisions, sections, and committees; some of the best CLE programs in the country; practice management support for members and firms; legal improvement efforts with the Legislature; and philanthropic and pro bono opportunities through the Foundation. Perhaps most important, we provide a space for legal professionals to support each other.
I want to call out two things about this past year.
This year, Mother Nature provided her own challenges – especially to residents here in Western North Carolina. The Foundation, with the help of member volunteers and in partnership with our friends from Legal Aid of North Carolina and Pisgah Legal Services held nine legal clinics providing advice on insurance, property rights, construction issues, and small business continuation. And providing a willing ear and a shoulder for residents to lean on. Jason, by the way, attended every one of them.
Also this year, the Foundation celebrated an important milestone. A few years ago, the Foundation established the Open Door Fund and Fellowship to demonstrate our ongoing commitment to address inequities in access to legal services and participation in the legal profession experienced by historically excluded or disadvantaged individuals and communities in North Carolina. A key goal was to raise $1,000,000 to endow the fellowship. Through the generosity of our members and supporters and the hard work of staff and volunteers, the Foundation achieved that $1,000,000 goal this year. I’d like to recognize, in particular, Past Presidents Caryn McNeill and Mark Holt for leading this effort.
Finally, I should say a few words about the coming year. It’s at once exciting and challenging.
The new bar year promises great challenges and opportunities. The Association is 127 years old. We’ve been here before – and we will be here again.
This is a time of rapid change – professionally, economically, technologically, societally, demographically. In my view, the test for our Association is determining how to address these changes in the context of a membership of 15,000 members of broadly differing viewpoints – some held stridently, all held genuinely.
For me, a few guiding principles are sustaining.
Professionalism – We are and remain a profession, not just a business. We have the good fortune to be guided by rules of conduct that counsel us on how we should interact with each other, with our clients, and with the courts: with candor, with respect, and with a devotion to the law. Over the course of the new bar year, we will continue to promote and recognize the professionalism of our members.
Civility – We are all advocates. We fight for clients, and sometimes we fight for viewpoints. And, at our best, we do that with a healthy and heartening respect for and even curiosity about the perspectives of others.
Acknowledgment of the Importance of Individual Well-Being. Most of us (hopefully all of us) in this room love what we do – at least on most days. But some of our days are more challenging than other days. We have times of stress, professionally and personally. As an organization, we must continue to support our members through these ups and downs.
And Grace – I mentioned grace last year when I was nominated as president-elect. It’s one of my favorite words. In addition to continuing all of the work of the Association and Foundation, we will look for opportunities to show each other grace, to acknowledge our successes, to forgive our failings, to celebrate our differences and diversity, and to be inclusive of our members and those we serve.
Being asked to serve as president of the Association and Foundation is the biggest professional honor of my career, and I look forward to serving the organizations this year.
Russell Rawlings is director of external affairs and communications for the North Carolina Bar Association.