John Sarratt Receives Peace Award
When “Alternative Dispute Resolution in North Carolina: A New Civil Procedure,”[1] was published in 2003, no mention was made of collaborative law. Alternative dispute resolution, or ADR, was the new kid on the block, and collaborative law wasn’t even on the radar in North Carolina as a means of resolving most civil disputes.
A decade later, however, collaborative law as then practiced in divorce proceedings came to the attention of Raleigh attorney John Sarratt, and it has been on his radar ever since. Although he has scarcely been alone in his support of the movement to spread collaborative law to application in all civil disputes, Sarratt has definitely been at the forefront of that evolution in this state, including being instrumental in obtaining passage of the Uniform Collaborative Law Act (N.C.G.S. 1-641 et seq.) in 2020.
It is for this reason, Sarratt believes, and rightfully so, that he recently received the Peace Award from the Dispute Resolution Section.
“It is a great sort of recognition and culmination of the work a lot of people have put into collaborative,” Sarratt said. “When I received the award, one of the things I said, and I very much believe, is the award is in large part recognition by the Dispute Resolution Section and its Council that collaborative practice is a legitimate, full-fledged partner on the dispute resolution spectrum, along with mediation and arbitration, and of course litigation.
“The Dispute Resolution Section has historically fostered arbitration and mediation as alternatives to litigation, and they have been very supportive from the get-go in expanding their interest to include collaborative.”
Sarratt received the award during a meeting of the section council from Sarah Kromer, section chair. Frank Laney, a former section chair and past recipient of this award, chaired the selection subcommittee and was scheduled to present the award but was unable to attend. His presentation remarks, which provide additional context to Sarratt’s involvement in collaborative law, are available here on the NCBarBlog.
“It is gratifying that we have come far enough that collaborative has been recognized,” Sarratt added. “This is a very prestigious honor, and I am grateful to have received it. And as much as anything else, though, I am grateful that the development of collaborative has been recognized to the point that it would essentially be the subject of the Peace Award.
“It is satisfying to me personally, but it is also satisfying to me professionally that we have come far enough, we being the collaborative lawyers, that we are getting that kind of recognition.”
Sarratt graduated in 1969 with highest honors from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he was a Morehead Scholar and Phi Beta Kappa. He earned his J.D., with honors, in 1972 from Harvard Law School. Prior to joining Don Harris and Clay Hodges in Harris Sarratt & Hodges in 2008, he was a partner at Brooks Pierce, Petree Stockton, and Kennedy Covington.
Sarratt was the founding chair of the Dispute Resolution Section’s Collaborative Law Committee, which he presently co-chairs with Aida Doss Havel, and the founding president of the N.C. Civil Collaborative Law Association. He is also a past president of the Global Collaborative Law Council, a former member of the NCBA Board of Governors (1989-92), and past chair of the Young Lawyers Division (1982-83).
His work on the collaborative law front is far from done, as anyone who knows Sarratt will readily attest, but he has “passed the baton” when it comes to leading both the statewide and international collaborative law organizations.
“I will continue to do everything I can to be supportive,” Sarratt said, “but I turn 75 on my next birthday, and I am retired from the regular practice of law. I will be their biggest supporter and do anything anybody asks me to do, but one sign of the success of the movement is that it has been passed on to a group of lawyers who are equally enthusiastic about it and who have about 20 or 30 years on me.”
The Peace Award honors a person who has made a special contribution or commitment to the peaceful resolution of disputes, including but not limited to the following:
- Development of new or innovative programs;
- Demonstrated improvements in service;
- Demonstrated improvements in efficiency;
- Research and writings in the area of dispute resolution;
- Development of continuing education programs; and
- Leadership with local, state and national boards and legislative bodies.
Past recipients of the award are Carmon Stuart (2002); Scott Bradley (2003); Frank Laney (2004); Jacqueline Clare (2005); J. Anderson Little (2006); Ralph Walker (2007); Charlotte Adams, Beth Okum and Tan Schwab (2008); Chief Justice James G. Exum (2009); Judge James Long (2010); John Schafer (2011); Judge Jim Gates (2012); George Walker (2013); M. Ann Anderson (2014); Mark Morris (2015); Leslie C. Ratliff (2016); Rene Stemple Trehy (2017); Barbara Ann Davis (2018); LeAnn Nease Brown (2019); Bob Beason (2020), and Roy Baroff (2021).
Russell Rawlings is director of external affairs and communications for the North Carolina Bar Association.
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[1] “Alternative Dispute Resolution in North Carolina: A New Civil Procedure” was published in 2003 by the North Carolina Bar Foundation and the North Carolina Dispute Resolution Commission. A joint committee of the North Carolina Bar Association Dispute Resolution Section and the North Carolina Dispute Resolution Commission comprised the Review Group of the ADR Book Committee.