Mike McIntyre Receives H. Brent McKnight Renaissance Lawyer Award
Congressman Mike McIntyre of Hillsborough received the 2024 H. Brent McKnight Renaissance Lawyer Award on Friday, June 21, at the NCBA Annual Meeting in Charlotte. The award was presented during the Awards Dinner and Presidential Installation.
Honoring the H. Brent McKnight Renaissance Lawyer Award winner, from left, Executive Director Jason Hensley, presenter Gill Beck, recipient Mike McIntyre and President Patti Ramseur.
The award was established to honor 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 committee annually recommends the recipient of the award for affirmation by the NCBA Board of Governors.
The award is given to the lawyer who best exemplifies “professionalism, civility, personal integrity, the pursuit of excellence, enthusiasm for intellectual achievement and service to the community and the profession,” as described by Gill Beck, chair of the Professionalism Committee, who presented the award.
McIntyre serves as Senior Adviser for Government Relations and Economic Development at Ward and Smith, P.A. He is originally from Lumberton and previously represented the Seventh Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1997 to 2015.
Beck provided insight into McIntyre’s years in Congress, during which time he received numerous awards for his work on beach and waterway issues and his support of our nation’s armed forces. McIntyre served on the House Armed Services Committee throughout his tenure and helped secure funds for several Veterans Affairs medical facilities in his district, which was initially home to four major military bases.
McIntyre is a 1978 graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he was a Morehead Scholar, and UNC School of Law (1981), from which he received the Distinguished Alumni Award in 2019. Within the NCBA, where he has been an active member throughout his career, McIntyre previously received the Chief Justice I. Beverly Lake Jr. Public Service Award in 2018 and the Liberty Bell Award in 2020. He is also the founder of the McIntyre Youth Leadership Challenge, which was created in 2017 through the establishment of the Douglas Carmichael McIntyre II Justice Fund of the North Carolina Bar Foundation Endowment.
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The Professionalism Committee conducted its own recognition ceremony in April. Robin Pipkin of Poyner Spruill, who nominated McIntyre for the award, provided introductory remarks, after which McIntyre expressed his appreciation to the committee.
“This award is especially meaningful,” McIntyre stated, “because of the fact that it is in honor of Brent McKnight, whom I knew in law school and with whom Robin Pipkin and I were in a study group for the bar exam. I know his strong moral character and his high sense of ethics – and his profound Christian faith. This award is also especially meaningful because it is bestowed by the Professionalism Committee of our Bar Association, who represent the highest qualities of leadership in the legal community.
“I remember the opportunities that the North Carolina Bar Association gave me as a young lawyer. And it was during those early years that my career was shaped by my involvement in working with students and teachers in the classroom and other lawyers in the community to inspire citizenship education and foster a better understanding of our legal system and a greater appreciation of responsible citizenship and civic engagement.”
From establishing the Citizenship Education Committee of the Robeson County Bar to hosting the Youth Leadership Summit for every public and private high school in his Congressional district to teaching his “Classroom from Congress on Citizenship” at schools throughout his region, civic education has always been a core component of McIntyre’s career in public service.
“I am thrilled that this Youth Leadership Challenge is now part of our statewide Law Day activities through the Bar Foundation,” McIntyre said. “I am also grateful that the Political Science Department at UNC has used this as a template for a freshman class on public service titled ‘Political Entrepreneurship: Public Service Beyond Partisanship.’ It is my hope that it will light a fire in young people to demonstrate how they can carry the torch forward and challenge themselves and others to discover new solutions to the problems our communities face.
“Many of these activities in which I have been blessed to be involved have become ways to inspire, excite and ignite the next generation of leaders – not only in our legal community, but also in our state and nation. The North Carolina Bar Association has been part of my legal heritage from the very beginning of my law career right up through this very moment. My hope is that we all will pursue the principles of good citizenship, civic engagement and dynamic leadership for generations to come! And that we will, in fact, have a renaissance of professionalism that exudes confidence in our demeanor and in the distinction of our being officers of the court and standard bearers for our profession.”
Previous recipients of the H. Brent McKnight Renaissance Lawyer Award are:
2023 – David Gantt, Asheville
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.