NCBA Installs Kearns Davis

Kearns Davis was sworn in Saturday evening, June 25, as president of the North Carolina Bar Association. The installation ceremony took place at the NCBA Annual Meeting in Charlotte.

Davis is a partner with Brooks, Pierce, McLendon, Humphrey & Leonard LLP in Greensboro. He succeeds Shelby Benton of Goldsboro as the 122nd president of the NCBA.

The oath of office was administered by North Carolina Supreme Court Justice Robert Edmunds.

“The North Carolina Bar Association’s mission is to pursue liberty and justice for the people of North Carolina,” Davis said. “I’m humbled by the privilege of working with lawyers and judges across the state to strengthen and support our legal system.”

Davis previously served as chair of the NCBA’s Young Lawyers Division from 2004-05 and in 2010 became the first recipient of its Robinson O. Everett Professionalism Award.

He chaired the NCBA’s Criminal Justice Section from 2007-08 and served on the NCBA Board of Governors from 2011-14. Over the past year he has served as president-elect and chaired the Audit & Finance Committee of the NCBA and the NCBA Foundation.

A 1991 graduate of Davidson College, Davis holds a master’s degree from Duke University (1994) and received his law degree in 1995 from the University of North Carolina School of Law. He served as managing editor of the law review and began his legal career as a law clerk to the late Sam J. Ervin III, Chief Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.

Davis joined Brooks Pierce in 1996, became a partner in 2002, and left the firm in 2003 to serve as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of North Carolina. He rejoined the firm in 2007 to launch its white-collar criminal defense practice group.

In his installation address, Davis emphasized lawyers’ “special duty” to the public. “As individuals, as a profession, and as an Association,” he said, ”we serve all North Carolinians.”