Gilchrist and Smith Awards Presented to Dierauf and Davis
The NCBA Criminal Justice Section hosted the 15th Annual Gilchrist & Smith Awards Dinner on January 18 in Raleigh. The event featured presentation of the 2023 Peter S. Gilchrist III and Wade M. Smith Awards, which are named for their initial recipients and presented annually to a prosecutor (Gilchrist Award) and defense attorney (Smith Award).
The Peter S. Gilchrist III Award was presented posthumously to Elizabeth (Beth) Dierauf of Pisgah Forest. The Wade M. Smith Award was presented to Kearns Davis of Greensboro.
In addition to the awards presentations, program participants included Scott Harkey, section chair, Tom Murry, section vice chair, and Kayla Britt, awards committee chair.
Honorees Martha Montgomery, who accepted Gilchrist Award on behalf of her sister, and Kearns Davis, who received Smith Award.
Peter S. Gilchrist III Award
Beth Dierauf was a graduate of James Madison University (1989) and Wake Forest University School of Law (1994). After one year in private practice, she became an assistant district attorney and prosecuted thousands of cases in the District and Superior Courts of Henderson, Transylvania, Polk, Rutherford and McDowell counties.
Dierauf was serving as senior assistant district attorney at the time of her death and was named a 2023 Courthouse Employee of the Year by the Chief Justice’s Commission on Professionalism. She died last November following a courageous yearlong battle with cancer.
District Attorney Andrew Murray introduced the Gilchrist Award recipient.
“This is a tough place to be tonight,” Murray said. “How do you introduce the giant that’s no longer walking amongst us?”
She had a smile, Murray continued, that opened up a room.
“In early 2021,” Murray said, “I was appointed to be the Henderson, Transylvania and Polk County DA, which provided me the blessing of becoming Beth’s boss, and what a blessing that was. As Beth’s new boss, I did what every new boss does – I gathered intelligence on my employees, and Beth. I asked, ‘How are they? Who are they? What are their capabilities?’
“I asked judges. I asked law enforcement. I asked defense attorneys, probation, victim advocate’s groups, coworkers. Through these inquiries, I quickly heard all high praise for Beth and, to my amazement, not one thing negative. I heard things like ‘wicked smart,’ ‘skilled trial attorney,’ ‘supreme human being,’ ‘fierce competitor,’ ‘amazing team member,’ ‘great friend,’ ‘the best.’
“Well, I have to tell you, I have been a leader of lawyers for a long time, and I’m a skeptic. I said, ‘Oh my gosh, she’s going to have an ego this big (arms stretched wide) and she’s going to be hard to manage.’ And over the next couple of months. I got the know Beth, and I quickly learned, they undersold her.”
Dierauf’s only shortcoming was her handwriting, Murray added in jest as he provided excerpts from her 2022 performance evaluation.
“Beth is without question a top-tier prosecutor and the most valuable member of my team. Beth possesses a keen intellect, superior analytical skills, and well-honed trial abilities. She is quick on her feet and possesses unsurpassed common sense. Beth is a radiant ball of positive energy. Beth possesses extraordinary communication skills and has effectively built and cultivated trusting relationships with law enforcement and the defense bar. She is known by all as a straight shooter. Beth is a passionate minister of justice who draws amazing energy from simply doing her job.”
Murray concluded the evaluation by stating, “I’ve worked and led a large number of prosecutors over my 14 years, probably over 200 as a DA and U.S. Attorney, and Beth ranks at the pinnacle of all of them. She was a blessing.”
Greater still, Murray concluded, was the courage and commitment Dierauf demonstrated after receiving her cancer diagnosis and undergoing extensive treatment.
“When she came to me and told me her diagnosis, she said, ‘I am only going to tell a few people. I do not want to see people pitying me. I do not want to see people with the cancer face.’ She was determined to face her future head-on by leaning into her faith and with her family. She would not think about working from home.
“I said, ‘Beth, stay home. Beth, don’t work. Beth, become my consultant.’ And she would have nothing to do with it. She said, ‘Remember, Andrew, I’m a prosecutor. This is what I do. I take care of victims, and I protect the community.’ And she did.
“Despite chemo treatments and later radiation treatments, she stayed the course. She tried two humongous cases last year – a murder case and a child sex case, and she kicked butt. She was amazing, and no one knew her personal battle.”
Dierauf’s sister, Martha Montgomery, accepted the award on behalf of Beth Dierauf and her family.
“Beth would be so honored to be here,” Montgomery said, “and obviously we all wish that she could be here to feel the recognition and the love for her for the work that she’s done as a prosecutor. I am honored to accept the award with her family on behalf of her.
“Thanks to the North Carolina Bar Association for recognizing not only her success as a prosecutor, but also her commitment to being an ethical practitioner of law and upholding the standards in the criminal justice system. Beth would be so honored and be so humbled to be recognized, and she certainly always wanted to share even her personal successes with everyone around her whenever possible.”
Her sister, Montgomery explained, did things the right way for the right reason.
“She was not a competitive person when playing games or when doing things in her personal life,” Montgomery said, “but she was so devoted to the victims that she felt that she was working for. It drove her to be competitive in the courtroom and she was able to be successful because she wasn’t necessarily feeling it as her own win, but a win for the rights of the people that she believed in.
“She also was valued by all the people around her; she believed in the fair treatment of people. I know there were at least a couple of occasions where people that she prosecuted approached her in the community and thanked her for how she treated them in the courtroom. She was never out to get people. She was out to do the right thing, and that was always about Beth, and always with a smile.”
Dierauf, her sister concluded, loved her family and the legal community as well.
“I know she would thank Roland, her husband, for his love, support and encouragement as she cultivated her career in law, which she loved, but also as she spent countless hours preparing for and working through trials. She was so very proud of her children, Madeline and Townsend, and although the life of an ADA is extremely time intensive, she was committed to her family, and she was able to be there to witness many of the accomplishments of her children.
“She also loved the law community – I mean, she just loved her friends! I was able to meet several through different conferences and just being out in Asheville, and she was so devoted to those relationships that she built in the law community, and I know most definitely in the 28 years that she spent in the District Attorney’s Office. She appreciated all the mentors that she had there, the people who supported her and who worked with her day in and day out to help her be successful.
“And finally, certainly thank you to Andrew Murray, for your leadership, which she so valued, but also your support and your confidence in her, which really allowed her to thrive in her career.”
Wade M. Smith Award
Kearns Davis is a graduate of Davidson College (B.A., with honors in history, 1991), Duke University (M.A., 1994) and the University of North Carolina School of Law (J.D., 1995, with honors). He served as managing editor of the North Carolina Law Review in 1994-95 and began his legal career as a law clerk to Chief Judge Sam J. Ervin III of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit (1995-96).
Davis has spent the majority of his career with Brooks, Pierce, McLendon, Humphrey & Leonard, LLP, where his trial practice has focused on white-collar criminal defense, federal litigation, corporate investigations, and business litigation. He was an associate and partner with the firm from 1996-2003 and has been a partner with the firm since 2007. He served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of North Carolina from 2003-07, and has also served as an Adjunct Professor/Lecturer in Trial Advocacy at UNC School of Law since 2009.
Davis is a past president of the North Carolina Bar Association and past chair of the Young Lawyers Division and Criminal Justice Section. It was under his leadership that the Gilchrist and Smith Awards were established.
Longtime Brooks Pierce colleague Ed West introduced the Smith Award recipient.
“I have been told that being the president of the Bar Association is something like having a marathon planned for you but having it treated as a dash,” West noted. “And those of us who worked with Kearns during that time marveled at the fact that he had an entirely full caseload, was involved with firm activities and all the other things he does, and he was the president of Bar Association. It was something to watch.”
West was especially impressed with one particular initiative Davis undertook.
“I’m not going to go over every committee and every subcommittee that Kearns has served on, most especially with the bar. They’re endless! But one that really sticks out to me and that I think really speaks to Kearns is the initiative that the Bar Association has with Haiti. As I understand it, Kearns was in Haiti and engaged in conversation with leaders of the Haitian bar, which led to further conversations, which then led to a relationship that the North Carolina Bar Association to this day still has with that country.
“Kearns was instrumental in bringing lawyers from North Carolina to that country to help it build up its criminal justice system. And in what must have been a capstone moment, he addressed the Haitian Supreme Court to talk about the criminal justice initiatives in that country and its future.”
Joining in the celebration, from left, were Past Presidents Mark Holt, Shelby Benton, Kearns Davis, Catharine Arrowood and Allyson Duncan, and current NCBA President Patti Ramseur.
Amidst the myriad activities and accomplishments, West reminded, his colleague is also an outstanding attorney.
“He’s a heck of a lawyer,” West said. “Those of us who have been lucky enough to work with him know that he is a skillful, skillful advocate. Principled, yes, of the highest courtesy and civility, but a tremendous advocate.”
“It’s interesting about being a criminal defense lawyer,” West added, “that you are on stage with the tragedy and the comedy that is the human condition in a way that few other professions provide. And I can say that some of the most satisfying times I have ever had practicing law are with colleagues in tough fights against long odds, representing very imperfect people and sometimes worse in their most difficult moment.
“Not everybody can do that. Kearns Davis does it exceptionally well. He knows how to have really tough conversations while having compassion for the people that he’s working with. But he also values and understands that we’re all in it together. A former prosecutor, he understands that it takes both sides to make the system work, and when it’s at its best, both sides are well-represented.”
Davis began his acceptance remarks by acknowledging Beth Dierauf and her family.
“I wish so much that I could share this evening with Beth,” Davis said. “I never had the opportunity to work Beth, but in the last few weeks since learning of this, I’ve had the opportunity to learn a lot about her. She and I have worked with a number of the same people; our kids are about the same age and have a lot of lot in common, and it was a delight to meet both of you earlier this evening. I feel almost like I knew her, and I wish that I did.
“If Beth were here, I imagine that she would feel what I feel tonight – a deep sense of gratitude for the opportunity to work with an amazing group of people in our criminal justice system – lawyers and judges. Thankful that her life’s work has made a difference in her community and in her state. Honored to spend this evening with people that she respects so much and admires so much.”
Looking about the room, Davis saw a lot of familiar faces.
“I’ve worked with almost all of you in one way or another,” Davis said. “I have shared a council table with a lot of you, have been at the opposite table from a number of you, and have argued in front of some of you. I’ve argued with some of you, too. In the criminal system, we operate at the margins. We are in that paradoxical place where a government that was founded on the principles of protecting life and liberty and property turns and tries to take them away.
“A free and functioning society depends on what we do. Victims depend on prosecutors to seek justice, and citizens depend on prosecutors to deter crimes that never happen, and that we never know we were protected from. Defendants depend on their lawyer – the one person committed to standing by them, literally and figuratively, when the might and power of the government is arrayed against them, making sure each person is treated as a human being and has an advocate. There’s gravity to what we do in dignity, but it’s also messy. And it’s contentious. The stakes are high and very personal for the people in the system and the families on both sides.”
In closing, Davis expressed his appreciation for the award and, moreover, the backdrop against which it is presented.
“To have this award with Wade Smith’s name on it is something I’ll treasure for the rest of my life. But as Ed noted, the purpose of this dinner is not just to recognize one person each year from each side. It’s to bring the sides together to celebrate all prosecutors, all defense lawyers, to honor each other and to honor what we share. And for each of us to recognize what all of us, including our colleagues and including our courtroom opponents, mean to our society and to our communities.
“As Ed alluded to, the world around us has a harder and harder time communicating about issues when people disagree, and I wonder if that makes what we’re doing here tonight even more important. In the criminal bar, we know how to disagree. We know how to argue forcefully. But we also know how to listen, carefully, and we know how to respect and appreciate each other despite our differences. I wish I knew how to share those ideals with the rest of our society.
“Unfortunately, I don’t. But I do believe that contentiousness in the public square makes it all the more important for those of us who work in the courts, criminal and civil, to remain committed to upholding those ideals. I sometimes wonder if people are sincere when they say they are humbled by a recognition or award they get, but humility is exactly what I feel right now. It is a privilege every day to be one of you, to be part of this bar, and to work with you on issues that matter so much.
“Thank you.”
Russell Rawlings is director of external affairs and communications for the North Carolina Bar Association.