ROOT EDMONSON RECEIVES THE JOSEPH P. BRANCH PROFESSIONALISM AWARD BY L. THOMAS LUNSFORD, II | RETIRED EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, NC STATE BAR
A. ROOT EDMONSON has been selected to receive the Joseph P. Branch Professionalism Award for 2021. It is an altogether fitting tribute to a man who dedicated virtually his entire career to the organized Bar and the legal profession. For more than 41 years leading to his retirement last year, he represented us with great distinction as a lawyer with the State Bar’s highly respected Office of Counsel, serving as attorney for the Grievance Committee, the Unauthorized Practice of Law Committee and the Client Security Fund. In so doing, he personified the agency, practicing the law of professional responsibility with great effectiveness and skill tempered by extraordinary empathy and decency. ROOT EDMONSON MEETS WITH FORMER VIET CONG RESISTANCE FIGHTERS IN VIETNAM. A complete recitation of his involvements and honors would be impressive and not out of place Root Edmonson was and is all about peace and reconciliation. here. After all, the Branch Award winner is expected to have a great On many occasions during his practice with the State Bar, Root was resume. And Root does, having served his church, his community summoned to appear in cases around the state in which courtroom and his profession at the highest levels. He has, for instance, served civility had deteriorated to the point where judges and lawyers were as president of the National Client Protection Organization and Saint seemingly incapable of proceeding with any sort of professional Saviour’s Center here in Raleigh, and as chief of the local YMCA’s decorum. Time after time, he was able to restore order in explosive Guides and Princesses program. He has served on the vestry of St. situations as a sort of mediator, often, it would seem, simply by bringing Michael’s Episcopal Church and on the boards of several other nonhis incomparable personality to bear. The plain fact of the matter is that profit organizations. And he has received the President’s Award twice lawyers found it hard to be unprofessional in his presence. from the Wake County Bar, and the President’s Award for Lifetime Achievement from the National Organization of Bar Counsel. But these A few years ago, Root decided to take a trip to Vietnam. He wanted services and recognitions, as significant as they are, only hint at this fine to revisit some of the scenes of his military service there as a combat man’s surpassing dedication to the high ideals of our profession. soldier during 1968 and 1969—before he became a lawyer. His moving account of his return to Vietnam was published in the State Bar For most of his tenure on the State Bar’s staff, Root was a prosecutor Journal and was widely praised. Although the account was not intended of disciplinary cases. In that role he was a zealous advocate who never to serve as a tutorial in professionalism, it bespoke the magnanimous forgot that his primary obligation was to do justice. For Root Edmonson, character of its author. The thing I appreciated most about the piece the only victory in a disciplinary case was an outcome that fairly served was Root’s account of a social encounter he had with a couple of former the public interest, while taking fully into account the possibility of Viet Cong resistance fighters. With the assistance of an interpreter, reformation. He unfailingly honored the humanity and dignity of accused he and his erstwhile enemies managed to take the measure of each attorneys, and consistently attempted to make professional discipline other as human beings. They quickly and finally got beyond whatever meaningful rather than mean. More than once he was thanked by the differences might have existed or persisted, and then parted for the lawyers he tried for the caring manner in which he prosecuted them. first and, presumably, last time as friends. A photograph of the former combatants is published with this article. The guy on the left is a lawyer, Not surprisingly, Root was an outstanding mentor to the young a most professional lawyer. WBF lawyers he supervised and those he opposed. His tools were example and exposition. He modeled compassion, not condemnation, and invariably insisted on doing the right thing, even when there was a significant cost associated with that course of action. And any novice attorney smart enough to be paying attention would certainly have noticed that Root was always willing to do his client the great service of telling her what she might not have wanted to hear.
WAKE BAR FLYER
3
FOURTH QUARTER 2021
