RALEIGH, N.C.—As Chief Justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court, Burley Mitchell established the Chief Justice’s Commission on Professionalism, a committee of judges, attorneys, legal scholars and citizens that strives to enhance professionalism among North Carolina lawyers and ensure that the practice of law is dedicated to the public good.
One of the Commission’s duties is to award the North Carolina Chief Justice’s Commission on Professionalism Award. Sixteen years after returning to private practice at Womble Carlyle, Justice Mitchell is the newest Commission on Professionalism Award honoree.
The award honors a North Carolina attorney, law firm or organization for contributions to the betterment of the legal profession. A committee comprised of judges, attorneys and law school students, decides on the annual winner.
Justice Mitchell will be honored at the Annual Joint Dinner of the North Carolina State Bar and the North Carolina Bar Association, to be held Jan. 20th in Raleigh.
The award is the latest in a series of major honors for Justice Mitchell, including the Watauga Medal, N.C. State University’s highest nonacademic award; the N.C. Education Legend Award; the Jay Robinson Exemplary Leader in Public Service Award; and the North Carolina Bar Association’s Liberty Bell Award.
Womble Carlyle attorney Betty Quick was the 2007 recipient of the North Carolina Chief Justice’s Commission on Professionalism Award.
Justice Burley Mitchell retired as the Chief Justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court to head Womble Carlyle’s appellate advocacy and government relations groups. As a judge, he authored 484 appellate decisions for the Supreme Court of North Carolina and the North Carolina Court of Appeals. For more than 40 years, Justice Mitchell has served both as an advocate and judge in handling landmark cases in North Carolina and elsewhere in the United States. He has been involved in a wide range of cases as diverse as appearing as amicus for the State of North Carolina in establishing that the United States Constitution does not include a right to public education to successfully establishing the constitutionality of a statutory cap on punitive damages in 2004.