Jon Heyl Installed as 127th NCBA President
Jon Heyl of Charlotte was installed on Friday, June 18, as the 127th president of the North Carolina Bar Association, succeeding Mark Holt of Raleigh. Heyl will also serve as president of the North Carolina Bar Foundation in 2021-22. Senior Associate Justice Robin Hudson of the Supreme Court of North Carolina administered the oath of office to Heyl during the 123rd NCBA Annual Meeting at the N.C. Bar Center.
Senior Associate Justice Robin Hudson administers the oath of office to Jon Heyl.
Heyl is a partner with Fox Rothschild, which he joined in 1998 when the firm was known as Smith, Helms, Mullis & Moore. The firm later became Smith Moore Leatherwood and combined with Fox Rothschild in 2018. He serves on the firm’s litigation team and focuses his practice on commercial litigation.
Heyl served as president-elect of the NCBA and NCBF in 2020-21 and chaired the Audit & Finance Committee of both the Association and Foundation. He is a past chair of the Antitrust and Complex Business Disputes Section and recipient of its Distinguished Service Award, and has also served as chair of the Membership Committee and Judicial Independence Committee and as co-chair of the 4ALL Task Force. Heyl served on the NCBA Board of Governors and NCBF Board of Directors from 2010-13.
A native of Athens, Ga., Heyl graduated with honors from East Carolina University in 1995. He attended the University of North Carolina School of Law, where he served as Editor-in-Chief of the North Carolina Law Review and was an inductee of the Order of the Coif. Heyl graduated from UNC School of Law with high honors in 1998.
Jon Heyl, right, accepts the gavel from outgoing President Mark Holt.
Following his installation, Heyl delivered the following address, which serves as his initial President’s Perspective:
Jon Heyl Installation Address
I believe most would agree that we are emerging into a new and changed world. I think the challenges and opportunities that brings to us, the Bar Association, as we look forward, are exciting.
The changes to our lives of the last 15 months hardly need recounting. Before the pandemic, speaking in broad-brush terms, most of us went to the office every day. We went to the courthouse for our hearings and trials, we went to clients’ offices for business meetings, we went to conference rooms for depositions, we went to lunches and meetings and Bar events, and we all shook hands and sat side-by-side and laughed and spoke loudly to each other at a distance of inches.
When the pandemic hit, essentially overnight we were forced to retreat to our homes and for the next year – plus pretty much lived our lives on a virtual basis. We no longer wandered down the hall to the office of a co-worker and chatted. Our communication was reduced to email, the occasional phone call, the inevitable video meeting. Our depositions went to video. Soon, our court hearings went to video. Our Bar meetings and CLE, even our social events, all went to video as we each tried to do our part to keep the pandemic in check.
And amidst all of this disruptive change in the way we run our lives there were two more fundamental forces marking our year. First, there was a social justice movement, which was carried out on a scale perhaps not seen in decades, and was perhaps unprecedented in its ability to capture the attention of a nation under the unique circumstances of the times, the pandemic, and social media. The presidential-year election and the accompanying political environment and events only added to the year that was.
But we persevered and survived and our collective efforts to battle the pandemic paid off. We are now finally beginning to emerge. Health officials caution that we are not completely out of the woods yet, but I believe we share a strong sense of optimism as the statistics steadily improve and the restrictions under which we all lived are steadily lifted.
What we don’t know is how all the changes to our lives that were wrought by the pandemic will play out in the new and changed world that we are only now beginning to enter on the other side of the pandemic. Is the conversion of our lives from in-person to virtual permanent and total? Or, at the other extreme, will people be eager to revert as quickly as possible to an all in-person lifestyle?
Perhaps the consensus hypothesis is that it is likely we will end up somewhere in the middle – a hybrid, as it were. There is no doubt that massive inefficiencies in some of the “old ways of doing things” were exposed once we were simply forced to do them virtually. Some of the newfound efficiencies will be hard to abandon, and, indeed, probably should not be abandoned.
But, in my perception, with the gains came losses also – subtle but real losses in engagement, camaraderie, collegiality, human relationships. And yes, in some senses, also in effectiveness and productivity. When a group of people must come together to accomplish something, in my experience there is a decided contrast in the dynamic of that group sitting around a table in a room together versus sitting in multiple remote locations viewing each other’s faces on a screen, images of muted microphones in the corners of everyone’s pictures.
As we emerge and look forward, we must keep in mind the different views that people will bring to the re-emergence. Some will be glad to rush headlong back into the ways of the “before times,” with relief, joy, and fulfillment. Some may have discovered that the changes to virtual communication forced by the pandemic actually fit their lives much better. Some may have health concerns, for themselves or others in their households. Some may be perfectly willing to engage in person but feel unable to give up the efficiencies made evident by the practices of the pandemic.
Thus, as we look ahead, we as a Bar Association must be creative, adaptable, and flexible. I think we all feel a strong urge to re-engage with each other on a level we have not been able to enjoy during the pandemic. What is exciting is seeking out and finding the creative ways to foster that re-engagement in the new world, respecting the various viewpoints that our members will bring throughout the long emerging process and accepting that we will likely be living in a hybrid environment. Our leaders will be called upon to offer laboratories of experimentation in this regard. I am confident that we – the North Carolina Bar Association – can and will accomplish that, and continue to offer leadership and vision in both thought and action as to how organizations like ours can excel. We must look ahead.
And in thinking about what we need to accomplish in the coming year, we must keep in mind that part of looking ahead entails looking back in certain respects. As the adage goes, you cannot tell where you’re going if you cannot see where you have been. As you are all aware, the Bar Association this past year published a report that exposed troubling racial aspects of our past. Out of that report came two task forces, both of which are already in the process of carrying out their charges.
The Association task force is, among other things, going deeper into fleshing out some of the important history, including consideration of what I view as an exciting project of capturing the oral histories of some of our colleagues who lived the events of certain time periods documented in the report.
The Foundation task force is working to improve our funding, grants, and programs to emphasize our focus on the inclusion of all of our members and citizens. In addition, the Diversity and Inclusion Task Force established by Mark Holt at the beginning of last year continues its work on guiding us in our efforts, philosophies, and understandings as we look to the future.
Finally, from a “people” position, I think we have never been in a better position to look and move forward. On the staff side, the leadership of our Association and Foundation is as strong as it has ever been, from the top down, and it runs deep. The adaptability and efficacy of our staff was on full exhibit and display during the pandemic.
Our Communities team, though critically challenged by an all-virtual environment, worked tirelessly to continually come up with new and innovative ways to keep our members engaged with each other.
Our Foundation team adapted, with impressive speed and under much pressure, programs that had traditionally been done in person to virtual, which was crucial to meeting pressing pro bono needs of our citizens during the pandemic.
The CLE team had to revamp its entire model and essentially build a new one, on the fly, while keeping this crucial function of the Association running to meet the CLE needs of our members and attorneys more broadly in the state. Numerous others “kept the lights on” and the trains running. The list goes on, but everyone on the staff deserves your thanks and appreciation for a truly extraordinary year.
And on the volunteer side, we shone there as well. One upside of the pandemic and the forced virtual landscape was that it enabled me and Mark Holt to attend many meetings this year of the sections, divisions, and committees. We were continuously impressed by the turnout, attendance, and engagement of the members during this difficult period. And our volunteers kept turning out and producing for our many pro bono and service events. Our committees continued to function, our boards continued to govern, our sections continued to produce CLEs and offer value to their members. I have not been prouder of, or more impressed by, the commitment of our members as I have been this year.
I look forward to working with all of you as we emerge. We will find new ways to serve, new ways to engage with each other, and new ways to fulfill our mission as the North Carolina Bar Association in our new world.
Russell Rawlings is director of external affairs and communications for the North Carolina Bar Association.