Charlotte attorney Rob Harrington of Robinson Bradshaw in Charlotte has been elected to serve as president-elect of the North Carolina Bar Association. Harrington will serve in 2024-2025 as president-elect of the NCBA and the North Carolina Bar Foundation and will chair the Audit & Finance committees of both organizations. He will be installed in June 2025 as the 131st president of the North Carolina Bar Association.
“This is a big honor, and I know it will be a big responsibility,” Harrington said. “Being a part of the organized bar means a lot to me. We function best as lawyers when we acknowledge that all of us, collectively, are parts of a profession. I am really excited about the opportunity to serve in this capacity.”
Harrington was nominated by Immediate Past President Clayton Morgan, who served as chair of the NCBA Past Presidents’ Council, which annually nominates the president-elect. Seconding speeches were provided by Allen Robertson, managing partner of Robinson Bradshaw, and Lucy Inman, former N.C. Court of Appeals and Superior Court judge. The election took place on Friday, June 21, during the NCBA annual meeting at the Charlotte Convention Center.
Harrington joined Robinson Bradshaw in 1999 and is a shareholder in the firm, which has about 200 attorneys. He litigates complex business disputes and co-chairs the Litigation Department. He graduated magna cum laude in 1984 from Duke University, where he was an Angier B. Duke Memorial Scholar, and graduated with high honors in 1987 from Duke Law School, where he served as notes editor of the Alaska Law Review.
“I’ve been in North Carolina now for 25 years after practicing elsewhere,” Harrington said, “and from the very beginning the North Carolina Bar Association was a great way to get to know lawyers from across the state and become a member of this bar. Being a lawyer can be stressful, and whether it has been within the bar association or within our firm, I have been fortunate to have a group of lawyers standing with me and behin me.”
Harrington began his legal career as a law clerk for Judge Martin L.C. Feldman of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana and is licensed to practice in North Carolina, Louisiana, and the District of Columbia. He served on the NCBA Board of Governors and NCBF Board of Directors in 2017-20 and chairs the NCBA Task Force on Integration, Equity and Equal Justice. He also served on the NCBA Nominating Committee and the NCBF Endowment Committee.
Harrington is a past president of the Mecklenburg County Bar and founding co-chair of its Diversity and Inclusion Committee. He has served on the Civil Justice Committee of the North Carolina Commission on the Administration of Law and Justice, the Duke Law School Board of Visitors and the Legal Aid of North Carolina Board of Directors, and is a Life Member of the American Law Institute, a Life Fellow of the American Bar Foundation and a Senior Fellow of the Litigation Counsel of America.
A 2009 recipient of the NCBA Citizen Lawyer Award, Harrington’s extensive record of civic involvement includes service as chair of the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library board of trustees, the Arts & Science Council of Charlotte/Mecklenburg, and the Levine Museum of the New South board of directors.
He has also served on the board of directors of Opera Carolina, TreesCharlotte, the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library Foundation, the Young Black Leadership Alliance, and The Greater Charlotte Cultural Trust.
Harrington has been honored as the recipient of the Mecklenburg County Bar’s Julius L. Chambers Diversity Champion Award, the Thurgood Marshall College Fund Award of Excellence, the Duke Law Alumni Association Charles S. Murphy Award for Achievement in Public Service, and the NAACP-National Office Pro Bono Legal Services Award.
Harrington and his wife, Sharon, have a son, Jourdan Harrington of Augusta, Georgia, and two granddaughters.
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