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BRANCH AWARD – ROOT EDMONSON
BY L. THOMAS LUNSFORD, II || RETIRED EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, NC STATE BAR
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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.
A complete recitation of his involvements and honors would be impressive and not out of place here. After all, the Branch Award winner is expected to have a great resume. And Root does, having served his church, his community and his profession at the highest levels. He has, for instance, served as president of the National Client Protection Organization and Saint Saviour’s Center here in Raleigh, and as chief of the local YMCA’s Guides and Princesses program. He has served on the vestry of St. Michael’s Episcopal Church and on the boards of several other nonprofit organizations. And he has received the President’s Award twice from the Wake County Bar, and the President’s Award for Lifetime Achievement from the National Organization of Bar Counsel. But these services and recognitions, as significant as they are, only hint at this fine man’s surpassing dedication to the high ideals of our profession.
For most of his tenure on the State Bar’s staff, Root was a prosecutor of disciplinary cases. In that role he was a zealous advocate who never forgot that his primary obligation was to do justice. For Root Edmonson, the only victory in a disciplinary case was an outcome that fairly served the public interest, while taking fully into account the possibility of reformation. He unfailingly honored the humanity and dignity of accused attorneys, and consistently attempted to make professional discipline meaningful rather than mean. More than once he was thanked by the lawyers he tried for the caring manner in which he prosecuted them.
Not surprisingly, Root was an outstanding mentor to the young 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.
ROOT EDMONSON MEETS WITH FORMER VIET CONG RESISTANCE FIGHTERS IN VIETNAM. Root Edmonson was and is all about peace and reconciliation. On many occasions during his practice with the State Bar, Root was summoned to appear in cases around the state in which courtroom civility had deteriorated to the point where judges and lawyers were seemingly incapable of proceeding with any sort of professional decorum. Time after time, he was able to restore order in explosive situations as a sort of mediator, often, it would seem, simply by bringing his incomparable personality to bear. The plain fact of the matter is that lawyers found it hard to be unprofessional in his presence. A few years ago, Root decided to take a trip to Vietnam. He wanted to revisit some of the scenes of his military service there as a combat soldier during 1968 and 1969—before he became a lawyer. His moving account of his return to Vietnam was published in the State Bar Journal and was widely praised. Although the account was not intended to serve as a tutorial in professionalism, it bespoke the magnanimous character of its author. The thing I appreciated most about the piece was Root’s account of a social encounter he had with a couple of former Viet Cong resistance fighters. With the assistance of an interpreter, he and his erstwhile enemies managed to take the measure of each other as human beings. They quickly and finally got beyond whatever differences might have existed or persisted, and then parted for the 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, a most professional lawyer. WBF
NOTICE OF ELECTION
TO ALL MEMBERS OF THE TENTH JUDICIAL DISTRICT BAR THE NOMINATIONS COMMITTEE reviewed all submitted applications and member recommendation forms and selected candidates for available positions. There will be an electronic vote to affirm the slate and contested elections at the December Annual Meeting and Luncheon. The officers of the Tenth Judicial District Bar and Wake County Bar Association hereby give notice pursuant to Article XII of the By-Laws of the North Carolina State Bar. WBF
1. The annual election of Officers will be held on Tuesday, December 7, 2021, via Zoom. A to-go lunch option will be provided, and the cost of lunch will be borne by the Tenth Judicial District Bar at no additional cost to members.
2. The election is for the purpose of choosing Officers for both the Tenth Judicial District Bar and the Wake County Bar Association, State Bar Councilors and Badger-Iredell Foundation Board Members. 3. The following officers will be elected: President-elect, Treasurer, Secretary:
4. The following State Bar Councilor positions will be elected by the Tenth Judicial District Bar. Those who are running for a second or third term are running unopposed as a continuation of their current position:
5. The following Directors have been selected by the Nominations Committee and will be affirmed by electronic vote (three-year term):
6. The following Badger-Iredell Foundation members will be elected by the Wake County Bar Association: Two Foundation Members.
PRESIDENT-ELECT (ELECT ONE)
Judge Ashleigh Parker Dunston James M. Hash
TREASURER (ELECT ONE)
Elysia Prendergast-Jones
SECRETARY (ELECT ONE)
Meredith Pace Brewer
STATE BAR COUNCILOR | BROCK
Walter E. Brock, Jr.
STATE BAR COUNCILOR | EDWARDS SEAT
Kimberly A. Moore J. Patrick Williams
STATE BAR COUNCILOR | FRYE
Katherine Frye
STATE BAR COUNCILOR | MORELOCK SEAT
Ashley H. Campbell Elizabeth “Biz” Harrison
STATE BAR COUNCILOR | SAVAGE SEAT
Warren Savage
DIRECTORS (PRESENTED AS A SINGLE VOTE SLATE)
Phillip H. Cowan Leanor Bailey Hodge John Hoomani Stephanie N. Robinson Judge Christine Walczyk
BADGER-IREDELL FOUNDATION | WCBA MEMBERS VOTING (ELECT TWO)
Leonard T. Jernigan, Jr. Deborrah L. Newton
Please see biographical information on candidates inside this issue of the Bar Flyer. We look forward to seeing you online for the annual meeting and luncheon on December 7. More details on to-go lunch options and Zoom information will be provided by email in November.
