President Clayton Morgan’s Installation Address

August 16, 2022

Clayton D. Morgan of Raleigh was installed as the 128th president of the North Carolina Bar Association on Friday evening, June 24, at the NCBA Annual Meeting in Winston-Salem during the awards and installation dinner. He will also serve in 2022-23 as president of the North Carolina Bar Foundation. Chief Justice Paul Newby of the Supreme Court of North Carolina administered the oath of office while Morgan’s wife, Kimberly, held the Bible.

Morgan serves as Associate General Counsel at Duke Energy. He has been with Duke Energy and its predecessors since 1996 and has served as Associate General Counsel since 2004. A native of Greensboro, Morgan graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1987 with a degree in radiologic science. He completed the joint JD/MBA program at Wake Forest University in 1991, earning the Master of Business Administration (MBA) from the Babcock Graduate School of Management and the Juris Doctor from Wake Forest University School of Law.

Morgan served from 2011-14 on the NCBA Board of Governors and the North Carolina Bar Foundation Board of Directors, and is also a former co-chair of the Awards and Recognitions Committee and Minorities in the Profession Committee, and past chair of the Nominations Committee. Morgan has been a member of the NCBA Corporate Counsel Section for more than 30 years and served as chair of the section in 2018-19. He received the section’s Corporate Counselor’s Award in 2021. Morgan is also a past chair of the Legal Aid of North Carolina Board of Directors.

Following his installation and recognition of his family and special guests, Clayton Morgan delivered the following address, which serves as his initial President’s Perspective:

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In my remarks tonight, I do want to first provide a high-level snapshot of the state of our Association to be followed by brief comments in the following areas:

1. To apprise you of two new Association Committees that were approved by members today during our business meeting;
2. To briefly comment on all the work that has been done this past year stemming from The Report on Relationships Between the NCBA and Systemic Racism in North Carolina, and how I see that process continuing during my tenure and beyond;
3. To highlight the benefits of having a sound civics-based education in our school system and the role our profession plays in that equation;
4. To acknowledge this state’s access to justice needs; and
5. To highlight the pressing need for self-care and wellness in our profession.
   

   President Clayton Morgan delivers installation address.

The State of Our Association

• The majority of the approximately 25,000 actively licensed attorneys in our state continue to call the NCBA their home;
• Our membership is therefore quite strong;
• The support of our members of the Annual Fund is very generous; and
• The Continuing Legal Education hours offered remains quite robust.

Continuing Legal Education (CLE)

• Approximately 14,500 registrations took place last year;
• 61 original CLE programs were planned and delivered;
• 32 of those 61 programs were in person (starting in January 2022);
• There are approximately 1,400 On-Demand CLEs in our catalog;
• The average monthly registrations for our Expert Series is 867; and
• In calendar year 2021, approximately 65,000 hours of NCBA CLE were consumed by attorneys.

Center For Practice Management

• The Center for Practice Management made approximately 200 member consultations last year;
• Put on 24 presentations to other groups:
  • Various County Bar Associations
  • ABA
  • Bar Leadership Institute
  • Various Law Schools
• Put on 12 Learning Objectives Webinars
• Published 12 Articles:
  • NC Lawyer magazine
  • Law Practice magazine
  • GP SOLO magazine

So, despite a global pandemic and despite inflation, our members:

• Continue to vote with their feet;
• Continue to attend/support CLEs offered by the NCBA; and
• Have determined in mass that the NCBA is meritorious of their financial investment.

We will therefore continue to do all we can to deliver the value that our members deserve of this organization.

New Association Committees

The two new Association Committees that were approved by our members today will both be staffed at the Board level. They are:

Membership Committee

The purpose of the Membership Committee is to:

• Understand and assess the Association’s membership, the diversity thereof, and the benefits structure;
• Make recommendations regarding such; and
• Coordinate with other Association committees focused on membership.

Strategic Planning Committee

The purpose of the Strategic Planning Committee is to:

• Assess, develop and recommend strategic plans for the Association to the Board;
• Monitor execution of approved strategic plans and of progress towards organizational goals; and
• Reassess strategic plans and recommend any changes to adopted strategic plans to the Board.

As you see, both of these committees will provide:

• The needed Board insight into the very heart of the Association (i.e., its Membership); as well as
• The necessary strategic foresight (i.e., forward thinking) to keep the Association agile and positioned for future growth, change, adaptability and perpetual relevance.

Report on Relationships Between the NCBA and Systemic Racism

As you know, there were two task forces and one committee (Awards & Recognition) that were charged by the Association and Foundation Boards to help address the issues stemming from the Report.

With regard to the Association’s Task Force on Integration, Equity, and Equal Justice chaired by Rob Harrington, the three subcommittees did a thorough job; and I look forward to working with the Board on further discussing the recommendations which have flowed from the Additional Steps Subcommittee.

Concerning the work of the Telling the Story and the Contributions Subcommittees, that work will continue into and (most likely) beyond this upcoming bar year, as those subcommittees will ensure the framework is firmly put into place so that future generations of attorneys and citizens in this state will always have a place to educate themselves about the trail blazers and impactful people who stood up for change.

As these two committees commit to telling the story of Black lawyers in general in the climate of practicing law during that time (as well as telling the story of individual champions), we will not only see names that we all may readily recognize, but also names of those who went unnoticed yet who had a profound impact on our profession.

Those videos and testimonials will take time to come to fruition.

However, through the commitment of these subcommittees and the overall Association Task Force in general, we are well-positioned to make this a model for others across the country. So, thank you to everyone who gave of your time and talent to get us to this point.

With regard to the Foundation’s Task Force on Recognition and Grant Initiatives chaired by Tammy Stringer, many wonderful recommendations came from the hard work of that Task Force which were approved by the Foundation Board:

• A more technologically modern way to display our Justice Funds (along with any proper historical context as warranted);
• The need for more member educational outreach to educate membership on our named endowment funds;
• The need for holistic member engagement to identify new Justice Fund candidates; and
• The development of a Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DE&I) restricted fund to support future DE&I programming.

With these already approved Foundation recommendations (plus any future approved recommendations from the Association’s Task Force), this will go a long way in showing this state that our organization has chosen to take both ownership of its past and decisive leadership in addressing that past – all to ensure that current attorneys continue to feel welcome and good about this organization and future attorneys have no reason to ever question the inclusivity of this organization and their ability to be heard and respected. We want to be the place where every attorney in North Carolina wants to call home.

With regard to the work done by the Awards & Recognition Committee – chaired by Monica Webb-Shackleford and Jasmine McGhee – I am also eager to work with the Board in implementing the approved recommendations flowing from that committee in the areas of:

• Named Spaces at the Bar Center;
• Naming of Awards; and
• How to best display and honor Past Presidents (with the proper context), etc.

The work of the Task Forces and the Awards & Recognition Committee has not been easy. For anyone who has read the Report, you cannot come away unchanged. It punctures your heart, it bothers your conscience, and it disturbs your soul . . . to know that some of the very people who formed our Association to stand for justice and equality worked tirelessly for decades to thereafter systematically deny an entire group of people entry solely because of their race.

Whenever issues such as racial inequality, systemic racism and discrimination (which were the subject of the Report) are discussed, people naturally tense up – because it is a touchy subject. However, having been in those meetings and watching your members at work, I am ever so proud of how everyone handled themselves.

To be clear, our members never approached their work from a vindictive or bitter standpoint. Rather, the candid dialogue (which ran broad and deep) was at all times respectful; and all outstanding recommendations will be reviewed by the Association Board with the same level of thoughtful consideration as the Task Force put into it.

We cannot change our past; but now that we know, it is how we respond which defines us as an organization. We can therefore surely control our response in a thoughtful and contemplative manner.

So, stay tuned for any approved recommendations flowing from the Association Task Force; and I look forward to working on the implementation and continuous improvement in all of these areas.

Promoting Civics-Based Education and The Role Our Profession Plays in That Equation 

If you had an opportunity to sit in on the three CLE panel discussions (2022 Judicial Independence Symposium) today, then you readily understand the need for our profession to advocate that civics education be stressed in our schools so that the public is properly educated about our role as attorneys in helping to shepherd and shape the civics process.

Last month, I attended the YLD’s Law Day celebration – a day which in 1958 was first  proclaimed by President Eisenhower and is celebrated annually by the NCBA. It absolutely warmed my heart to see all of the elementary, junior high and high school students actively engaged in the civics realm by:

• The elementary school participants’ posters depicting their understanding of the Constitution;
• The junior high school students’ essays; and
• The high school students’ essays and moot court competitions.

Through YLD programs such as this (along with the continued work of committees such as our own Civic Education and Community Engagement Committee and the work of the Judicial Independence and Integrity Committee), educating the public about who we are, what we do and how our Constitution’s system of checks and balances work, is a good thing; and will go a long way in helping to alleviate some of the other issues prevalent in our society today.

Within those three groups are some of our most ambitious and eager attorneys as well as storied ambassadors of our profession who can bring much to the education forefront so that we have a more well-informed general public in the area of how sound civic education can positively reverberate across an informed society.

Access to Justice 

Yesterday, I had the honor of providing remarks and introducing George Hausen at Legal Aid of North Carolina’s 20th anniversary celebration and recognition of George’s retirement. For those of you who had the opportunity to attend that event or who have dealt with LANC in general, you know about the work of LANC and its everyday positive effect on society.

You also know about the continued need for our profession to keep lending both a financial and a boots-on-the ground hand so that LANC can continue performing its mission at the highest of levels.

Having served on the LANC Board for seven years and chairing it for two, I had the benefit of seeing all of the wonderful and essential work that LANC attorneys and staff perform every day across North Carolina.

To me, the beauty of the LANC Board lies in its composition: It is not just all attorneys, but rather it is also made up of a group of high-performing, passionate and enthusiastic individuals from areas across the state who all have a deep commitment for making legal services accessible for all North Carolinians.

When you’re seated beside an LANC Client Council Representative or an LANC Director who may also serve as a community leader, and you listen to their concerns or relish in their successes, you cannot help but realize what a precious gift we’ve been given as attorneys to be able to help them achieve even more success; or to help empower them with the necessary tools so their respective communities can thrive.

Access to justice concerns are real in North Carolina, and supporting groups like LANC continues to be vital.

Every legal need in our state presents an opportunity to help protect people by using our legal skillsets. I therefore applaud the Association’s members for repeatedly answering the call to lend your time, talent and treasure toward addressing this need.

Pressing Need for Self-Care & Wellness in Our Profession 

Like you in attendance tonight, I thoroughly enjoy being an attorney. It just feels right for me, and I derive so much intrinsic satisfaction from carrying out the duties of my profession. However, as with all professions, the “stress” word rears its head and tries to rob attorneys of their career satisfaction.

It is widely known that stress levels continue to run high across the legal profession – and for those attorneys left without sponsorship, mentorship or access to internal and external resources offered by their firms/corporations, stress can hit even harder.

Although attorneys are by nature wired to assume other people’s problems and wired to parse through the data, zealously represent their clients, and work out or litigate solutions, no one is wired to place their mind and body under chronic stressful conditions 24/7.

With the pandemic raging over the past two-plus years, we’ve all seen an uptick in the number of CLEs/webinars around Self-Care/Wellness in our profession. With any issue, if a person hears it enough, they may tend to relegate it to background noise. Let’s not become numb to self-care and wellness issues for our profession.

Yes, our profession needs to provide the space for attorneys to practice at the highest of levels, dealing with the thorniest of issues and engaging in the highest courts in the land. However, in doing so, let’s not forget that while there are stressors in every profession – it may sound trite, but people are still every organization’s most important strength, benefit and advantage by far.

So please, if you have not done so already, I implore you to put measures in place in your respective organizations to help your attorneys, paralegals and support staff engage in self-care and wellness and therefore set them up to flourish and succeed in this most noble of all professions; as the benefits of doing so far outweigh the personal and organizational cost should the worst occur.

Closing Comment

On a lighter, yet serious note – I’d like to close with a quote from, of all people, Mr. Fred McFeely Rogers, commonly known as Mr. Rogers. Although Mr. Rogers was not an attorney, one of his quotes struck me as applying directly to attorneys. It reads as follows:

“The thing I remember best about successful people I’ve met all through the years is their obvious delight in what they’re doing, and it seems to have very little to do with worldly success. They just love what they’re doing, and they love it in front of others.”

Let’s redefine what success means in our legal industry by going out and demonstrating to this state that we attorneys love what we’re doing!

Thank you so much for coming out tonight. I do look forward to working alongside each of you as colleagues and champions for our profession.

Please continue to stay safe.

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Russell Rawlings is director of external affairs and communications for the North Carolina Bar Association.

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