Beth Langley Elected President-Elect of NCBA
Beth Langley of Brooks Pierce in Greensboro has been elected to serve as president-elect of the North Carolina Bar Association (NCBA). The election took place on Friday, June 27, during the NCBA Annual Meeting in Asheville.
Langley will serve in 2025-26 as president-elect of the NCBA and the North Carolina Bar Foundation (NCBF) and will chair the Audit & Finance Committees of both organizations. She will be installed in June at the 2026 Annual Meeting as the 132nd president of the NCBA, succeeding Rob Harrington of Charlotte.
Beth Langley accepts her election as president-elect of the NCBA.
Langley is the daughter of the late Dr. John Wesley Langley and Hilda Maske Langley of Rockingham.
Her father dropped out of school in the seventh grade following the death of his father to help support his mother and nine siblings. Dr. Langley resumed his education following military service, ultimately earning his doctoral degree from Duke University. A career educator, he served as principal of Rockingham High School and Rockingham Junior High School.
Her mother, who attended what was then High Point College, and her mother’s brothers worked in their father’s store, Economy Auto Supply. The siblings ultimately took ownership of the store and Hilda Langley served as office manager for many years. It was a rite of passage, Beth Langley recalls, to reach the age of 13 and work in the variety store, especially during the Christmas season when the shelves and aisles were stocked with all the latest toys.
With a background so deeply steeped in education, going to college was also a rite of passage for Beth Langley, who followed her heart to Wake Forest University. She just knew when she stepped on the campus in Winston-Salem that Wake Forest was the place for her.
Langley graduated with honors – cum laude – from Wake Forest in 1986. She envisioned a career in high finance, perhaps making her fortune as a stockbroker. After taking a job in Atlanta, however, she found herself highly intrigued with the legal department.
Shortly thereafter, Langley returned to Winston-Salem and graduated in 1992 from Wake Forest University School of Law. She served as editor-in-chief of the Wake Forest Law Review and received the E. McGruder Faris Award as the law student “who exhibited the highest standards of character, leadership, and scholarship.”
Certified as a North Carolina Superior Court Mediator by the N.C. Dispute Resolution Commission, Langley joined Brooks Pierce in 2018 and focuses her legal and mediation practice on complex employment and business litigation. She previously practiced with Adams Kleemeier Hagan Hannah & Fouts, PLLC, Nexsen Pruet (now Maynard Nexsen), and Hagan Barrett & Langley PLLC.
Langley served on the NCBA Board of Governors and NCBF Board of Directors in 2018-21. She is a past chair of the NCBA Labor & Employment Law Section, NCBA Nominations Committee, and NCBF Development Committee, and has served on the Dispute Resolution Section council and numerous other committees.
She is a member of the Federal Bar Association, American Bar Association, and Guilford County Bar Association, a Fellow of the Litigation Counsel of America and the American Bar Foundation, a former member of the Magistrate Judge Selection Panel for the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina, and serves on the Wake Forest University School of Law Board of Visitors (2007-12, 2024-present).
Within her community and church, Langley has served on the United Way of Greater Greensboro Human Resources Committee, Degrees Matter!, the Bethany Community Middle School Board of Directors, and as a member of the Staff Parish Relations Committee and Board of Trustees of Christ United Methodist Church.
Langley’s name was placed in nomination by Immediate Past President Patti Ramseur, who served as chair of the NCBA Past Presidents’ Council, which annually nominates the president-elect. Seconding speeches were provided by law partner Kearns Davis of Brooks Pierce and longtime colleague Clara Cottrell of BASF.
Following her election by acclamation, Langley was ushered to the stage by the NCBA past presidents to deliver the following acceptance remarks:
I am honored, and absolutely thrilled, to be the president-elect of the NCBA. Thank you Patti, Kearns and Clara, for your kind words and generosity. I appreciate each of you more than you know. To say I was shocked when Patti reached out to me is a huge understatement.
I look forward to working through Rob’s leadership this year, and with each of you, to continue the good works of our Bar Association and Foundation. The North Carolina Bar Association and the North Carolina Bar Foundation have been such important pillars in my career. I hold these two organizations near and dear to my heart.
As attorneys, we have an obligation to continually improve our profession and our communities and to respond positively to the internal and external forces of change. The Association and the Foundation provide the perfect mechanism for focusing on these priorities, with our emphasis on access to justice for all, promoting the administration of justice, continuing our commitment to inclusivity and serving all regardless of background. I commit to you that I will focus on upholding these principles.
Finally, thanks, in advance, to my husband Allen, our sons, Steven and Wes, and to my colleagues within Brooks Pierce. I know I’ll be leaning heavily on you all in the weeks and months to come.
Thank you so much.
Russell Rawlings is director of external affairs and communications for the North Carolina Bar Association.