Asheville Attorney David Gantt Receives McKnight Award
David Gantt of Asheville is the 2023 recipient of the North Carolina Bar Association’s H. Brent McKnight Renaissance Lawyer Award. The award recognizes attorneys who demonstrate the “Renaissance Lawyer” qualities embodied by Judge McKnight, former chair of the NCBA Professionalism Committee who died in 2004 while serving on the U.S. District Court for the Western District of N.C.
Leanor Hodge, chair of the Professionalism Committee, presented the award on Friday, June 23, at the NCBA Annual Meeting in Wilmington. Bill Pollock served as chair of the Judge McKnight Renaissance Lawyer Award Subcommittee and Professionalism Committee Vice Chair Gill Beck presented the committee’s recommendation to the NCBA Board of Governors in January.
David Gantt displays H. Brent McKnight Renaissance Lawyer Award, joined by Executive Director Jason Hensley, left, and President Clayton Morgan.
The recommendation was approved unanimously.
“I did not know Judge McKnight, but I have certainly heard a lot about him, and I probably had no less than five or six people come up to me and tell me how much they thought of Judge McKnight,” Gantt said. “I am honored to even be mentioned in the same breath with Judge McKnight; he was quite a man.
“It is such an honor to be mentioned with Judge McKnight, and then when I look at the recipients of the past years – I don’t even feel like I hold a candle to these folks. They are truly giants, and this is the biggest honor I’ve ever had. I appreciate the recognition so much.”
Gantt operates David Gantt Law Office, where he focuses his practice on Social Security disability and workers’ compensation law. He is a 1978 graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a 1981 graduate of Campbell Law School.
“I have had a wonderful career and people have been awfully kind to me,” Gantt said. “I started off pretty humbly, and I think I appreciate it more than most people because we didn’t have much starting out. I actually practiced out of the back of my car for about six months to a year when I got here because I didn’t have anywhere else to go and I didn’t have any money.”
“I carried my typewriter in the backseat and I’d get some people who worked at the courthouse to moonlight and type up some of my papers. I was very fortunate, and it has been a wonderful experience; I have met a lot of great people through the years. I came up here the day I took the bar exam. It was 100 degrees in Raleigh, and we drove up to Asheville. It was 1981, and my wife and I drove up here with a little U-Haul and everything we owned, and never looked back.”
Gantt spent his early childhood in Spruce Pine before losing his father at the age of four. The family then relocated to Sanford, where Gantt recalls enjoying a wonderful childhood that culminated with participation on two state championship football teams at Sanford Central High School.
Lessons learned under legendary coach Paul Gay, a member of the N.C. Sports Hall of Fame who died last year, have no doubt served Gantt well throughout his career.
“I think when you’re given a lot, a lot is expected of you,” Gantt said. “I feel that all lawyers have to give back to the community, and there are a lot of ways to give back. You don’t have to do it politically, which is what most people think about. With the knowledge and skills we’ve acquired through the years, and with what we have been trained to do, it can be very helpful to make the community a better place.”
To that end, Gantt served from 1996-2016 on the Buncombe County Commission and from 2008-16 as chair. He is also a past chair of the Land of Sky Regional Council and Mountain Resources Commission, and has served on numerous boards and commissions throughout his career. When the NCBA created the Citizen Lawyer Award in 2007, he was selected as one of the initial recipients.
“Whether it is coaching Little League, PTA, county commission, city council, or just advising people pro bono through Pisgah Legal Services, or Legal Aid of North Carolina, whatever you do, you owe it to people,” Gantt said. “Every lawyer in this state has had a lot of people who have backed them up and pushed them along the way, so when you achieve some degree of whatever success means to you, you can’t forget about the people who helped you. You need to give back so that someone else has that benefit and someone else has the opportunities that we’ve been given.”
The H. Brent McKnight Renaissance Lawyer 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.
David Gantt undoubtedly meets and exceeds those criteria, and proudly accepted the award on behalf of his family, firm and friends who supported his nomination, including attorney Steve Sizemore and Judge Gary Cash.
“Since 1992 I have worked on numerous cases with David,” Sizemore stated. “I have worked as opposing counsel on matters with David as well as serving as mediator for him. Without reservation I can state that David is as honest, hard-working and professional as any person I have encountered within and beyond the legal profession. His dedication to his clients and to fairness and justice is unquestionable. My respect for his legal skills and his moral compass has led me to his doorstep for advice on many occasions.”
Added Judge Cash, who served as a District Court judge from 1986-2010 and as chief judge from 2002-10, “I was elected as an N.C. District Court judge in 1986. Thereafter, I had the ability to observe David from the bench for several years as he practiced in our civil, criminal and juvenile courts. He appeared in my court while representing his clients a number of times and was always knowledgeable about the law as it related to his cases and, again, courteous and respectful to the bench and his fellow lawyers. He was the epitome of a professional attorney.”
Gantt is the 18th recipient of the McKnight Award, but the first from western North Carolina.
“There have been so many good lawyers who are probably more deserving,” Gantt concluded, “but I am certainly happy to accept this award for what it means to our community and what it means to my family.”
Previous recipients of the H. Brent McKnight Renaissance Lawyer Award are:
2022 – Robert C. (Bob) Sink, Charlotte
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.