Litigation Section Presents Advocate’s Award to Bob King

The Litigation Section of the North Carolina Bar Association recently honored Robert (Bob) King III of Brooks Pierce as the 17th recipient of The Advocate’s Award. The award was presented on May 13 during a special ceremony at the firm by Will Quick, section chair.

“I’m tickled and surprised, but I’ll take it,” King said, adding that he was especially honored to be included on an honor roll of recipients that includes his former law partner, the late James T. (Jim) Williams Jr.

King is a 1984 graduate of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and a 1988 graduate of Wake Forest University School of Law, where he served on the Wake Forest Law Review. It was also during law school that King met and married his wife, Julie Davis, a 1986 Wake Law graduate.

Will, a white man with brown hair and a beard, wears a grey suit, white shirt, and yellow tie. Bob, a white man with curly light brown and grey hair, wears a blue shirt, grey suit and purple tie.

Section Chair Will Quick, left, presents award to Bob King.

King has spent his entire career at Brooks Pierce, where he also serves as general counsel and previously chaired the firm’s Associates Committee.

“I graduated from Wake Forest in 1988 in May and started here in September,” King said. “I’ve been here since Reagan was in office, which is kind of hard to believe. Like most good things in my life, I sort of fell backwards into it. I didn’t know much of anything about law firms, and my now good friend (and fellow law partner) Jill Wilson was doing on-campus interviews.

“I knew I wanted to spend that first summer somewhere close to Winston-Salem, and Brooks Pierce sort of fit the bill. Then when I got over here and discovered what a great group of lawyers they are and the sort of different approach they take to the practice of law, that’s all it took for me. We really have a different way of doing things – a different way of interacting with each other – so I can’t imagine being in the private practice anywhere else.”

Nor can he imagine doing anything other than litigation.

“I started off doing a mixture of litigation and environmental work, but over the years, it has been more and more toward litigation,” King said. “Our firm tends to be very unstructured, and people will find the things they want to work on. I’ve just been fortunate enough to work with great people and have had great opportunities, including doing work for various school systems, which is particularly rewarding.

“I’m a big believer that we’re all born with certain talents, and I didn’t get very many of them, but one of them is the talent it takes to be a trial attorney. I had the good fortune to work with and continue to work with an amazing bunch of trial lawyers, so it just seemed to fit my personality and what I was interested in doing. I don’t think I could do corporate work or tax or real estate because it’s just too much sitting still and reading, and I’d rather be walking around and talking.”

King is originally from Charlotte. His father was in sales and his mother was a nursing professor at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, and their son claims that he wasn’t a serious student in high school. He studied poetry and writing at Saint Andrews Presbyterian College before completing his undergraduate degree at UNC Charlotte.

Once King got to law school, he knew that he had found his niche.

“Law school had always been in the back of my mind,” King said. “We didn’t have any lawyers in the history of my family, but it was something that I always had in my head. And then, when I got to law school, I just fell in love with legal reasoning and the law in general, both as a practical matter and perhaps more so as a matter of philosophy.

“Then, once I found something that I really liked, that was it for me. I was hooked at that point.”

The Advocate’s Award has been presented, as merited, since 2006 in recognition of Litigation Section members who are the “superstars” of the profession.

The recipient of the award, as stated in the nomination guidelines, should:

  • Have the highest ethical standards
  • Have shown great skill and ability as a litigator/trial lawyer and commitment to the very best work product
  • Demonstrate a true commitment of service to clients
  • Demonstrate respect for and love of the law
  • Be held in the highest regard by both bench and bar
  • Be dedicated to the community and the bar with a track record of pro bono or volunteer service
  • Serve as an example of how to effectively balance both outstanding professional performance and other life endeavors

Previous recipients of The Advocate’s Award are:

Gray Wilson (2024)

Mark Merritt (2023)

Walter Brock (2022)

John R. Wester (2021)

Catharine Biggs Arrowood (2020)

Ted Fillette (2018)

Janet Ward Black (2017)

Bill Womble Jr. (2016)

James E. Ferguson II (2015)

Ward McKeithen (2013)

Charles F. Blanchard (2012)

Alan W. Duncan (2011)

James T. Williams Jr. (2010)

Grady Barnhill Jr. (2009)

Donald Cowan Jr. (2007)

Charles L. Becton (2006)

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