2020 Citizen Lawyer Award Winners Announced
The article below has been updated as of August 2020.
The Local Bar Outreach Subcommittee of the North Carolina Bar Association has selected 11 recipients of the NCBA Citizen Lawyer Award for 2020. The awards, traditionally presented at the NCBA Annual Meeting, will be presented at a later date.
This marks the 13th class of Citizen Lawyer honorees.
The Citizen Lawyer Award recognizes lawyers who provide exemplary public service to their communities. Honorees include elected and appointed government officials, coaches, mentors and voluntary leaders of non-profit, civic and community organizations.
This year’s recipients are:
- Tawanda Foster Artis, Raleigh, N.C. General Assembly
- James E. Cross Jr., Oxford, Cross & Currin LLP
- James E. Ferguson II, Charlotte, Ferguson Chambers & Sumter PA
- Jennifer N. Fountain, Greensboro, Isaacson Sheridan
- Kimberly Gatling, Greensboro, Fox Rothschild LLP
- Judge Patrice Hinnant, Greensboro, Superior Court Judge (ret.)
- Evan Lewis, Washington, Evan Lewis, Attorney
- Anabel Franceschini Rosa, Durham, Law Offices of James Scott Farrin
- Judge William Erwin Spainhour, Concord, Superior Court Judge (ret.)
- Richard Y. Stevens, Raleigh, Smith Anderson
- Gabe Talton, Durham, Law Offices of James Scott Farrin
Tawanda Foster Artis serves as Senior Staff Attorney for the N.C. General Assembly in Raleigh, with the primary responsibility of drafting or redrafting, and advising members of the legislature on current law and proposed legislation involving labor and employment law, juvenile law, state government, state retirement and state courts. She authored the “Raise the Age” legislation to change the age of juvenile jurisdiction in North Carolina in 2017, and serves as Counsel to the Courts Commission, tasked with making recommendations to improve North Carolina’s Court System.
Artis previously served with the N.C. Administrative Office of the Courts as Appellate Counsel and Pro Bono Program Manager, with the N.C. Department of Justice as an Assistant Attorney General, Labor Section, and as an Assistant District Attorney in Prosecutorial District 11.
Artis is a past co-chair of the NCBA Minorities in the Profession Committee. She serves on the board of Food Runners Collaborative, Inc., a food and hunger relief charity, and the Arts Council of Wilson. She previously served as an associate board member of the Interfaith Food Shuttle. Recent volunteer activities include Wake Ed Partnership, Partners Read, 1st Grade Reading Buddy (2015-present); Lawyer on the Line, Legal Aid of NC (2012-present); McIntyre-Whichard Legal Fellows Mentor, UNC School of Law (2016-present); Campbell Law School Mentor (2017-present); NCBF 4ALL Statewide Service Day; Boys Mentor Network, Mentor and Tutor (2011-15); and the Capital City Lawyers Association, President (2012-14).
Artis is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (1999) and UNC School of Law (2004).
James E. Cross Jr. is a partner in Cross & Currin, LLP in Oxford. He represented the Granville County School Board for 19 years and the Town of Stem for 30 years. He is certified by the North Carolina State Board of Legal Specialization as a specialist in Real Estate Law-Residential Transactions, and served on the Board of Legal Specialization from 1991-97, including service as chairman from 1994-97. Cross served on the NCBA Board of Governors and NCBF Board of Directors from 2006-09, and is a former Treasurer and Commissioner for the N.C. Agency for Public Telecommunication.
Cross has served on the Granville County Community Foundation, Area Congregations in Ministry and the Granville County United Way. He was chosen Citizen of the Year by the Oxford Jaycees and is a past president of the Kiwanis Club and the Granville County Education Foundation. Cross was a founding member of Leadership Granville and the Granville County Committee of 100. He has served on the Board of Deacons of Oxford Baptist Church for 21 years, including two terms as chairman. In college he served as Student Body President and as a member of the Board of Trustees at Wake Forest University, and has served on the Alumni Council of the university and its law school.
Cross is a graduate of Wake Forest University (1970) and Wake Forest University School of Law (1973).
James E. Ferguson II is a founding partner of Ferguson, Stein, Chambers, Gresham and Sumter, P.A. and has served as President of the firm since 1984. Formed in 1968 by Ferguson, Julius Chambers and Adam Stein, the firm was the first integrated law firm in North Carolina. A renowned civil rights attorney throughout his career and civil rights activist throughout his life, Ferguson is also known worldwide for his work in trial advocacy. He co-founded South Africa’s first Trial Advocacy Program, and taught in the first advanced trial advocacy program offered in the United States through the National Institute of Trial Advocacy, of which he is a past chair.
Ferguson is also a past president of the the North Carolina Advocates for Justice (formerly the Academy of Trial Lawyers) and the North Carolina Association of Black Lawyers. He has served as the Chair of the Charlotte Community Building Initiative and as a member of the North Carolina Commission on Alternatives to Incarceration. He served for more than 15 years as General Counsel and member of the National Executive Committee of the American Civil Liberties Union, and is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers.
The NCBA Criminal Justice Section honored Ferguson in 2012 as the recipient of the Wade Smith Award, presented annually to an exemplary defense attorney. In 2015 he received The Advocate’s Award from the NCBA Litigation Section, and in 2016, he was a member of the first class to receive the Legal Legends of Color Award from the NCBA Minorities in the Profession Committee. Numerous additional awards include the Mecklenburg Bar Foundation’s Ayscue Professionalism Award, the Mecklenburg County Bar’s Julius L. Chambers Diversity Champion, the N.C. State Bar’s John B. McMillan Distinguished Service Award, and the Charlotte Post Foundation’s Luminary – Lifetime Achievement Award.
Ferguson is a graduate of North Carolina Central University (1964) and Columbia Law School (1967).
Jennifer N. Fountain is a partner with Isaacson Sheridan in Greensboro. Her practice focuses on commercial litigation, commercial real estate, employment law and acquisitions and mergers.
Along with her husband, Rob, Fountain has traveled to Central America on multiple occasions to perform missionary work for the underprivileged. On one such trip, they joined forces with their local church and Stoveteam International to help build stoves for those in need and have made several additional trips for similar purposes.
Fountain’s extensive record of community involvement also includes service as chair of the Greensboro Transit Authority of Board of Directors and the Board of Directors for Reading Connections. She has served on the board of the Carolina Theatre and as a member of the West Market Street United Methodist Church Board of Trustees. Fountain is also a member of Guilford Education Alliance, Leadership Greensboro Alumna, and the local chapter of Rock and Wrap It Up, which collects leftovers from school cafeterias for distribution to families in need.
Fountain is a graduate of the University of Georgia (1994) and the University of Richmond School of Law (1999).
Kimberly Bullock Gatling is a partner with Fox Rothschild, LLP in Greensboro. She serves as the firm’s Chief Diversity & Inclusion Officer, and concentrates her practice in intellectual property prosecution, licensing and litigation. Gatling is a member of the firm’s Privacy & Data Security group and a North Carolina State Bar Board Certified Specialist in Trademarks.
Gatling serves as chair of the Board of the United Way of Greater Greensboro and Vice Chair of the Cone Health Foundation. She is a member of the North Carolina A&T State University Board of Trustees and part of the inaugural class of the Board of Visitors, serving as chair in 2016-17. She also co-chaired the successful Greensboro Bond Campaign in 2016, and has been involved in and held leadership positions with the Gateway Research Park, Habitat for Humanity, Triad Stage, American Cancer Society, Jack and Jill of America, Inc., The Links, Incorporated-Greensboro Chapter, Leadership Greensboro and Future Fund of the Community Foundation of Greater Greensboro. Gatling is also committed to Made in Greensboro, an initiative of Action Greensboro and the City of Greensboro.
Gatling is a former member of the NCBA Board of Governors and NCBF Board of Directors, and a past chair of the Intellectual Property Law Section. Additional honors inlcude the Distinguished Advocate Award from the Guilford County Association of Black Lawyers, the Outstanding Woman of the Profession Award by the Women’s Law Association at Elon Law School, and selection as a Fellow of the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity.
Gatling is a graduate of North Carolina A&T State University (1996) and George Washington University Law School (1999).
Judge Patrice A. Hinnant is an attorney and retired judge following 22 years of judicial service. She served as a resident Superior Court judge for nine years, retiring in 2018, and for 13 years as a Guilford County District Court judge. She was the state’s first African American female Superior Court judge and Guilford County’s first female elected Democrat District Court judge, and prior to that was the county’s first African American Assistant Public Defender. Hinnant served as a board member and secretary of the North Carolina Conference of Superior Court Judges, as a vice president of the North Carolina Bar Association and boad member of the North Carolina Bar Foundation, and as a board member and vice president of the North Carolina Association of Black Lawyers. She presently serves as an N.C. State Bar councilor.
Hinnant is also affiliated with the American Bar Association Judicial Division, where she served as a state delegate; the National Bar Association Judicial Council, where she is a past chair; and the Greensboro Bar Association, where she is a past president and the first sitting judge to hold that position. Hinnant is a Fellow of the N.C. Institute of Political Leadership and a member of the N.C. A&T State University Board of Visitors. She has served as Greensboro chapter vice president and as National Executive Council chair of the Ethics and Standards Committee of The Links, Inc., and as Greensboro Alumnae Chapter President and on the National Executive Board as Co-chair of the Social Action Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.
Hinnant is a past president of Junior League of Greensboro and the Association of Junior Leagues International Resolutions Committee, and past chair of the United A11s Council of Greensboro, Youth Services Bureau of Greensboro (now Youth Focus) and United Arts Council of Greensboro. She has provided board service to Moses Cone Memorial Hospital, Moses Cone/Wesley Long Community Health Foundation, Community Foundation of Greensboro, Community Advisory Board for Bankers Trust (now Truist).
Hinnant is a graduate of Spelman College (1974) and North Carolina Central University School of Law (1978).
Evan Lewis of Chocowinity operates a solo law practice in Washington. He previously served as chief executive officer of Martin Community Action, Inc., an anti-poverty organization that provided Head Start, Family Self-Sufficiency, and Weatherization assistance in Martin, Pitt, Beaufort and surrounding counties.Lewis was the managing attorney of Legal Aid of North Carolina’s New Bern and Greenville offices for 14 years and also LANC’s Community Economic Development Practice Group Manager.
Lewis currently serves on the North Carolina Bar Foundation Board of Directors and is a previous recipient of the NCBA’s Deborah Greenblatt Outstanding Legal Services Attorney Award. He is the immediate past board president of the Beaufort-Hyde Partnership for Children and is board chair of the Inner Banks STEM Center and vice president of the Beaufort County United Way board. He is also a member of the executive committee of Churches Outreach Network, a board member of Beaufort County 360, a member of the board of Disability Rights North Carolina, and co-convener of the Beaufort County Homelessness and Housing Task Force.
His community involvement has also included membership in the LANC Greenville Office Local Advisory Board, Self Help Credit Union’s Eastern Regional Advisory Committee and the Region Q Workforce Development Board. He is also a former chair of the City of Greenville’s Affordable Housing Loan Committee and former member of the city’s Redevelopment Commission and Horizons 2020 Comprehensive Planning Committee.
Lewis is a graduate of the College of William & Mary (1977) and the University of Virginia School of Law (1981).
Anabel Franceschini Rosa is a shareholder with the Law Offices of James Scott Farrin in Durham. She has been in the legal profession for 20 years, including three years as a paralegal. As an advocate for Latino rights, Rosa serves on the Governor’s Advisory Council on Hispanic Latino Affairs and chairs its Leadership Subcommittee. She is also a member and past chair of the Durham Mayor’s Hispanic-Latino Committee, which she chaired for five years.
Rosa is a member of her children’s PTA Diversity Committee, a volunteer ESL teacher, and an advocate of Durham ESL and REALDurham, a poverty reduction initiative. She has helped organize numerous pro bono citizenship clinics in North Carolina and is a member of the Subcommittee on Special Populations of the Partnership for a Healthy Durham, which is dedicated to advocating for proper healthcare for immigrants and refugees and their families.
Rosa is a member of the North Carolina Advocates for Justice and its Hispanic/Latino Affairs Division, and in 2017 and 2018 received the organization’s Order of Service Award. In 2018 she received the Triangle Business Journal’s Women in Business Award and in 2019 was awarded the inaugural Diversity & Inclusion Award by North Carolina Lawyers Weekly.
Rosa is a graduate of Syracuse University (B.A., 1985; M.S., 1988) and Brooklyn Law School (1996).
Judge William Erwin Spainhour is a retired Superior Court judge from District 19A (Cabarrus County), where he served for nearly 17 years before retiring in 2014. He served for nearly 18 years as chair of the N.C. Sentencing and Policy Advisory Commission, having been appointed by five successive chief justices of the North Carolina Supreme Court. (Photo courtesy of The Independent Tribune)
Prior to judicial service, Spainhour was a criminal and civil attorney for nearly three decades, and has also been an emergency judge and mediator. Spainhour served as president of the N.C. State Bar in 1996-97. He is a Fellow in the American College of Trial Lawyers and a past president of the North Carolina Conference of Superior Court Judges, the Davidson College Alumni Association, and the UNC Law Alumni Association. Spainhour also served as president of the Cabarrus County Bar Association and the District 19A Bar.
Spainhour has received numerous honors, including the Order of the Long Leaf Pine and the Friend of the Court Award. In 2004 he was honored by Davidson College as a recipient of the Alumni Service Award.
Spainhour is a graduate of Davidson College (1964) and the University of North Carolina School of Law (1970). He served in the U.S. Army from 1965-68, receiving the
Army Commendation Medal and the National Defense Service Medal.
Richard Y. Stevens is an attorney with Smith Anderson in Raleigh. He joined the firm in 2012 following five terms in the N.C. Senate, where he co-chaired the Senate Appropriations Committee. Stevens served as county manager of Wake County from 1984-2000, and prior to that served as the county’s Assistant County Manager and as Director of Finanace and Assistant City Manager for the City of Durham.
Stevens has served as chairman of the Board of Trustees of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill since 2019. He has also served on the Board of Directors of the North Carolina Center for Public Policy Research; as chair of the UNC Lineberger Board of Visitors; as General Counsel and member of the Board of Directors and Executive Committee of the Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce; as a member of the Board of Directors for the Institute for Defense and Business; and as President of the North Carolina City and County Management Association.
Previous honors include the North Carolina Chamber of Commerce Distinguished Public Service Award, the UNC-Chapel Hill Distinguished Alumnus Award, the North Carolina Technology Association Public Leader in Technology Award, and the Order of the Long Leaf Pine Award.
Stevens is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (B.A., 1970; M.P.A., 1978) and the UNC School of Law (1974).
Gabe Talton is a shareholder with the Law Offices of James Scott Farrin in Durham. He is the incoming president of the East Cary Middle School PTA and captain of a USTA men’s 40+ tennis team in Raleigh. Talton serves as the Secretary of the GoTriangle Transit Citizen Advisory Committee, and since 2013 has served on the North Carolina Commission on Racial and Ethnic Disparities in the Criminal Justice System. He previoulsy served as a Miami-Dade Public Defender and had a solo practice focusing on Latino issues in Workers’ Compensation and Immigration.
Talton has served multiple terms on the North Carolina Advocates for Justice Board of Governors member and as chair of of its Hispanic Latino Affairs Division. He is a past chair of the Ya Es Hora Naturalization Clinic and served four years as Wake County Democratic Party precinct chairperson. Talton was a delegate to the 2016 Democratic National Convention.
Talton is a graduate of North Carolina State University (2001) and Rutgers University School of Law-Camden (2004), where he was a Marshal Brennan Fellow.
This article is part of the August 2020 issue of North Carolina Lawyer. Access a curated view of NC Lawyer or view the table of contents.