Sink Accepts McKnight Award With Humble Grace That Has Defined His Career Of Nearly Six Decades
Echoing the sentiments of Robert C. (Bob) Sink, recipient of the 2022 H. Brent McKnight Renaissance Lawyer Award, thank you Ward McKeithan for your thoughtful nomination, and thanks to everyone who provided letters of support.
Thank you all, for it would have been a shame to miss this opportunity to recognize Sink and illuminate the good works and great deeds that have defined his career of nearly six decades, all of which have been spent with Robinson, Bradshaw & Hinson.
“I am very grateful to have received the award,” Sink said. “I didn’t know that I had been nominated and was surprised and extremely grateful for the good friend and colleague who nominated me and for others who provided generous letters of support.”
The H. Brent McKnight Renaissance Lawyer Award recognizes attorneys who demonstrate the “Renaissance Lawyer” qualities embodied by Judge McKnight, former chair of the Professionalism Committee who died in 2004 while serving on the U.S. District Court for the Western District of N.C.
The award seeks to recognize those North Carolina attorneys whose trustworthiness, respectful and courteous treatment of all people, enthusiasm for intellectual achievement, commitment to excellence in work, and service to the profession and community, inspire others.
Sink joined Robinson Bradshaw in 1965, when the firm was only five years old and the tallest building in Charlotte stood 12 stories high. He has focused his practice on construction and commercial real estate law, representing contractors and developers, as well as the Charlotte Housing Authority.
“The firm allowed me for 30 years to represent the housing authority,” Sink said. “During those years the authority went through a lot of changes, and I was proud to be a part of that effort. And my good friend, Dennis Rash, led the Bank of America Community Development Corporation on center-city revitalization projects in North Carolina and elsewhere, and I really enjoyed the opportunity of working alongside him.”
Like so many previous recipients of this award, which was first presented in 2006, Sink held Judge McKnight in highest regard.
“He was matchless in his qualities and capabilities,” Sink said. “He was a tremendous person. I was not a litigator; so, I didn’t appear in his courts, but I knew him informally and admired him.”
A past president of the North Carolina State Bar and the Mecklenburg County Bar, Sink is also a supportive member of the North Carolina Bar Association.
“I applaud the work that the Association does,” Sink said. “Because the N.C. State Bar is where I have focused my time, I didn’t get to take full advantage of the opportunities that were available in the North Carolina Bar Association. But I am proud of that organization and the work that they do.”
Sink is a graduate of Duke University and Duke University School of Law, and a veteran officer of the U.S. Navy. He has provided leadership to numerous community organizations, including the Levine Museum of the New South, Charlotte Mecklenburg Library, Discovery Place, Legal Services of North Carolina, and First Presbyterian Church of Charlotte.
His value to the community, as McKeithan demonstrated in his nomination narrative, was underscored when Sink stepped up to assist community organizations in times of turmoil.
“In the midst of the public crisis faced by United Way of Central Carolinas over the leadership and departure of a former CEO,” McKeithan wrote, “Bob chaired a task force of distinguished citizens to determine the facts of this unfortunate situation and to make recommendations as to appropriate changes in the governance structure of United Way.
“He and his fellow task force members, all on a pro bono basis, expended hundreds of hours, numerous meetings, interviews and review of pertinent materials, resulting in a comprehensive report and recommendations, of which Bob was the principal drafter, that have well served both to give clarity and instruction as to the facts and circumstances of the crisis, as well as clear direction on constructive changes in the management and structure of United Way.
“These changes were implemented to the significant benefit of United Way and the community.”
Shortly thereafter, McKeithen continued, when the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library experienced a funding crisis during the 2008 recession, Sink led the effort to secure monies from other government authorities to bridge the gap.
Then Sink, as a long-serving trustee and officer of the library, assisted a task force whose members, according to McKeithan, “spent numerous hours, meetings, hearings and interviews seeking a solution to this crisis in the midst of widely divergent views by the public as to how to deal with the reality of significantly reduced funding.
“The task force also successfully brought clarity and a sense of fairness and balance to a very challenging situation, with recommendations that were implemented with wide acceptance and assured the continuance of the vital services of the library system – with Bob again making a crucial contribution.”
Lee Keesler, Tom Lunsford, Mark Merritt, Sally and Russell Robinson, and David Wright supported Sink’s nomination for H. Brent McKnight Renaissance Lawyer Award. He is the 17th recipient of the award.
Previous recipients are:
2021 – LeAnn Nease Brown, Chapel Hill
2020 – The Hon. Linda Stephens, Raleigh
2019 – The Hon. Robert F. Orr, Raleigh
2018 – J. Rich Leonard, Raleigh
2017 – Martin Brinkley, Raleigh
2016 – The Hon. Willis P. Whichard, Chapel Hill
2015 – Suzanne Reynolds, Winston-Salem
2014 – Harrison L. Marshall Jr., Charlotte
2013 – Jonathan R. Harkavy, Greensboro
2012 – Mark Merritt, Charlotte
2011 – Catharine Arrowood, Raleigh
2010 – Woody Connette, Charlotte
2009 – Mark Bernstein, Charlotte
2008 – Wade Smith, Raleigh
2007 – E. Osborne Ayscue Jr., Charlotte
2006 – Peter Gilchrist, Charlotte
Russell Rawlings is director of external affairs and communications for the North Carolina Bar Association.